Serious Safety Concern with 3 inch Shell

[Peter Laidler]

Wise words there from Warpig. Same as here........... You'll be all over the news, 1mile radius cleared, and it'll be blown up. Take it to a deep river and let nature take its course

[30Three]

Last year our local radio reported that a collector of WW1&11 artillery shells had one blow up when dropped while cleaning; (I think it was a small round as he wasn't killed) but the neighbour's weren't happy being evacuated for about 24 hours. While his large collection all went into a bomb disposal pit and got destroyed.
Probably not worth the risk!

Edit: It was actually 2015 in Mainvilliers, France.

[Aragorn243]

Further clarification from the seller and the family member of the guy that recovered it has convinced me that it is inert. So that's taken care of. Thank you everyone for the advice. These sorts of things you can't be too cautious with and that plug really made me nervous.

[CINDERS]

This is why this site is so beneficial and helpful to all of us with input from those with the technical and hands on experience and I am always grateful for these people offering their knowledge to us so thanks to all.
CINDERS

[bombdoc]

You've got yourself in a catch 22 situation here. Do nothing and worry or call your local police dept.
When you do call the cops they will call your County bomb squad. When they see what you have they're going to evacuate your neighborhood, you know it as well as I do. They're not going to take any risks, that shell is going into the bomb proof mixing vat and taken away to be detonated and you ain't getting any piece of shrapnel either.
There is a third option, take it into the deep woods and bury it nice and deep. Think long and hard my friend.........

I'm sorry, but this is not good advice.. I can't predict what the EOD practice in your part of the world is, but frankly the aim of the exercise is to reduce the risk to all concerned.. they will do what they think best! You should support this..!
Also "losing" the shell in the woods or over the side of a bridge is also questionable logic... If the shell is a risk, then it will remain a risk.. you don't know who is going to find it! Remember this projectile was recovered by a diver, who frankly should have known better...!

Don't be an idiot.. let the proper agency deal with it and if it is considered hazardous, get rid of it safely! This is nothing unusual, we pick up loads of stuff like this every month in UK.. show yourself to be responsible handler of firearms and weapons...!

[WarPig1976]

You should support this..!

Support a scenario in which a man will subject himself to embarrassment at the least and possible criminal and/or civil penalties. No thanks......

Sometimes it's better to let things sleep with fishes.

[Flying10uk]

Years ago I heard a story about a property being redeveloped and the builders doing the work finding a number of grenades buried in the land/garden behind and so the Army bomb disposal squad had to be called out. Guess who the previous occupants of the building were???...........the police, yes the building had been a police station/police houses. Presumably the grenades had been buried as a temporary measure but then been forgotten about.

To be fair to the Police, assuming the story is true and it was the Police who buried the grenades they were probably not too sure what to do with them. They probably thought that burying them in the ground as a temporary measure was the safest course of action to take until they could be dealt with properly. They could have been there from as far back as the end of WW1, who knows. I just remember the story which I heard years ago as being a funny story because a former Police Station seems an unlikely place for grenades to be found buried.

In the U.K. when you here of munitions being discovered on the News it often seems to be builders who find them while doing works.

[Aragorn243]

This isn't the UK where they find stuff like this due to WWII all the time. Other than a few civil war munitions, this just isn't found here. There is not an easy answer for a live round, this one is inert so I'd rather not stir up a needless can of worms.

[muffett.2008]

When I held my ticket, we had a saying "If in doubt, burn it out"
As most explosive substances burn, light a fire over it, it can only explode or burn the charge out, if nothing happens then at least you have killed the rust.

[henry r]

better safe than sorry I say. it is not like you are loosing a perfect original paint projectile.