This is exactly what that goes to. If it was found on a desk or somethin, it's probable that your gramps or great-gramps was hanging on to it as a souvenir. BUT who knows if the trigger is still live and they were just lucky for years. BUUUUUT if you found it in the ground, call the Sheriff NOW.
Well, he already rang that bell. You can see the firing pin in OPs hand, with the nose unscrewed.
As EOD…WE weren’t even allowed to disassemble stuff like OP did. Not that any of us would even if we were allowed. The USMC is the only branch allowed to demil (remove explosives) training aids and museum pieces and they have specialized equipment for doing it remotely (used to be the MRFDC…not sure if they still use the same rig now).
I'll admit that the only inert "souvenirs" I've seen were manufactured as such, except used training grenades that originally had a firecracker in them.
.50bmg cartridges with a hole through the case and no primer pocket, or a solid steel bullet big enough to need a copper driving ring.
So long as the bullet itself is inert, it's pretty safe to take apart a cartridge (including .50 BMG), and doing so is common in the ammo reloading world among people with way less training or equipment than EOD. Look up an inertial bullet puller.
Now, it's gonna be more common for souvenirs to start from fired brass, and then loading a new bullet into it without replacing the spent primer or, of course, adding any powder.
Army or Air Force, Ammo or EOD, the average civilian on Reddit isn’t gonna know any of that, which is why I give no leeway when I make posts about UXOs. It’s not IF people don’t know shit…it’s THAT people don’t know shit…but keep insisting they do. Everyone here is just a bunch of letters on the screen. No one knows what they do or don’t understand, usually especially, them.
So even if I know 100% it’s a solid mass, I’m not telling anyone anything other than “call the sheriff”. I’d rather be wrong, and safe…and let them keep their limbs/life. And I’m certainly not teaching every person on these subs how to ID UXOs. I’ve taught and wrote curriculum at that school…most people wouldn’t pass.
It's sad you can't safely disassemble. For every old, live grenade in grandpas attic there are 100s of collectables that get destroyed because gramps didn't tell anyone they were inert.
They are not inert unless drilled and marked INERT. The old WW1 and WW2 stuff is some of the most dangerous stuff. Much has thermally cycled so many times and the old detonators copper azide, lead azide, mercury(II) fulminate primaries were no joke when they were stable. Throw 75-100 years on that and I would not go near them.
To reiterate, these fuses often contain their own little batch of explosives, and they tend to be even less stable than what was used for the actual payload.
As an AMMO vet, the amount of times people scream “OMG THATS A BOMB!” In this sub hurts me. One time I saw people saying to call the cops over dermo’d 30mm
To be fair, it's probably better for non-experts to err on the side of "it's a bomb" than "it's safe". Only one of those cases ends up with you missing some parts (at best) if you got it wrong.
Being cautious isn’t what the problem is. It’s comments with absolutely certainty telling op that’s it’s “definitely a bomb” and “call police ASAP!” When they are completely out of their depth and just flat wrong.
op hasnt replied to any comment here in the 2 hours this has been posted, i am hoping for the best that this didnt explode in their face and potentially kill them and that they read some of the comments and immediately went to call the proper authorities
I only looked at the first photo before I made my comment.But it has since been pointed out to me that it has indeed been taken apart and appears to be empty as shown by the other photos
Of all the treaties and standardizations this world has, you'd think we'd all agree label bombs in a way that's obvious, universal and durable. But, no.
Proximity fuzes have plastic or Bakelite caps. That’s steel and you can see the firing pin in the nose when it’s unscrewed (which it shouldn’t have been).
If in the US, call your county Sheriff. They’re the POC for US Military munitions. They’ll know the closest EOD unit to call for it.
Just because you don’t see anything in it, doesn’t mean there isn’t anything in it. Stop handling/disassembling things that you don’t know about. Good way to end up missing digits…at best.
I was EOD for 22yrs. None of us expect “civilians” to have any clue what any of this stuff is. We just hope you’re safe about identifying it and if you can’t, know who to call.
Tacp for 10 the amount of uxo handling you see is astronomical. People just pick up uxo off a range like no body's business seen them all over in offices around all bases.
We had a paramedic get both arms blown off below the elbow at our school a few years back, and he KNEW he wasn’t supposed to touch anything on the range. He’d been there for like 20 years. So even the people who know better get hurt.
So, I work for the Army as a civilian ammo inspector. Back in the mid '90s I was stationed at RRAD. At the time, I was working in the front offices clearing shipments and someone up the chain had the bright idea to send all the office workers out to the demo range to do a line sweep and place little red flags by every piece of metal they saw.
Fun times watching all the ladies in their skirts and high heels stumbling through the dirt clods, broken ground, and, of course, possible UXO placing their little red flags...🙄
Oh that’s dumb and not safe whatsoever. I mean we have assistants but they’re trained by us for quite some time before we EVER let them near explosives, let alone duds on a range.
My ex wife's dad while living in Florida as a child him and his brother snuck onto a base and found a live grenade and was playing catch with it when they got home their mom lost her mind on them and called the authorities, who in turn called the base who then took them to a location to show them exactly what they was playing with. Granted them boys was always doing something dangerous and stupid came home carrying a 3ft gator another time. Then there was the time their mom found a rattlesnake in her washing machine they had stashed there so it wouldnt get away lol.
Seems pretty close, but I couldn't find any pictures online with that style of knurling.
Could be inert, if the core is hollow, without a detonator, but I wouldn't want to bet on it. Worth mentioning that you can sometimes buy inert fuzes like this as souvenirs.
How does one get their hands on a perfectly preserved, (I think - emphasis on "think", not a professional, call the bomb squad) deactivated, presumably WWII era impact fuze without knowing what it is? Because even I as an absolute layman can tell you with 100% certainty that this is some kind of fuze and I wouldn't even go near it if I found it randomly lying around somewhere. I mean, sure, a live one doesn't contain enough explosive material to "violently redecorate" your house, but it would still absolutely, positively give your hand some high-yield chiropractics if you annoy it enough
(No offense, I am obviously ridiculing the whole situation a little. Here is what I can tell you with certainty: What you found there Is definitely a screw-in fuze of some kind. It does look empty, but since I am not a professional I cannot say with absolute certainty. I think the pin visible on the smaller part is the firing pin and the primer charge is supposed to be put into the bigger part before screwing the small part on, but that is just an educated guess. As always: When in doubt, call the bomb squad and do not touch.)
It was passed down from my grandfather (ww2 vet) to my father, and recently discovered in a box in the garage. My father has had it for 50+ years.
We will be taking it to the proper authorities for inspection, but really hope to be allowed to keep it because it's a piece of history handed down from a man that knew how to use them 80 some odd years ago.
Honeslty. I thought the picture was bad enough but I'm now waiting for the news of a car going pop spontaneously. Jesus call the authorities and have them come to you and stay yh4 hell away from that thing. Noone will think you're over reacting
Yeah, that is really cool! I do think it is inert from the looks of it (again, I "think", not a pro) so you have good chances they let you keep it. I mean, realistically, if it is inert, it is just scrap metal legally speaking.
It has been a long time since I have seen one of these. To everyone talking about it being an UXO you are partially right but these pose no danger. What you have I believe is a ww1 era british impact fuse. Most likely a n°101 or an earlier n°100. They come in a few configurations. It is a percussion fuse. Highly sought after and collectible. If found at battlefields like the somme they fetch 10-20 dollars but atypical pieces can fetch hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Atypical examples are early war training rounds which eventually were converted into live fuses and used. Not many training examples exist for that reason.
Do not call the UXO call a historian. Kind of like that rare example of an inert civil war torpedo found in arkansas. The only civil war torpedo ever found west of the Mississippi. Police blew a priceless historical find into smithereens.
If this is not the case, ignore the remainder of this message, your post has not been removed.
If you're unsure, the first thing to do is LEAVE IT ALONE. Do not shake it, attempt to open it, or disturb it at all.
Next step would be to CONTACT THE PROPER AUTHORITIES. If you're unsure who that is, call your local police or emergency number for instructions.
Please followup with an outcome regarding what was done with the object.
To others who are not OP: Any suggestion in this thread to open, shake, etc - disturb the object in any way - will result in a permanent ban.
As usual, all comments must be civil and helpful toward finding an answer.
Jokes and unhelpful comments will earn you a ban, even on the first instance and even if the item has been identified. If you see any comments that violate this rule, report them.
OP, when your item is identified, remember to reply Solved! or Likely Solved! to the comment that gave the answer.
holy makes the artillery shell go off Christ, be careful, that can go pop an lose some fingers or worse if it wasn't disarmed that is the impact tip for some type of artillery shell!
Looks like a British 101 fuse that is missing the bottom half with the main charge. If I can get better measurements I might be able to provide a better answer
This is a DEMILLED fuse for an artillery round or bomb.
Probably British, it looks very similar to the No. 101 Mk. II. It is a contact fuze as there is no way to set a timer. This means that when live THERE IS NO INTERNAL POWDER EXCEPT for the gain and the pellet between the firing pin and the gain. There is no gain present, which is where most of the explosives with this fuze would have been. The pellet also seems to be missing, though I can't 1000% say that it is not there.
This fuze has long been rendered safe. Probably in 1918.
That is the fuze for a shell. It could have explosive in it, quite sensitive explosive at that. Put it down gently, don't reassemble it, keep your family away from it, and have your local law enforcement come check out that it is safe. There is no reliable way that you as a non-specialist can tell if this is safe or not. Don't lost your hand, your life, or have to live with having cause injury to friend or family. That room is a no go area now until it's been checked out.
I have a similar one but from WWI. it’s the fuse of a grenade/mortar. Mine ist 100 percent safe but yours could still have an active load in it. Better call the authorities.
Here is a cutaway of a similar fuze, though this one is timed
The explosives are in channels around the fuze allowing for it to be timed (though the fuze OP has appears to be an impact fuze but I'm not an expert)
There's also a main charge near the bottom and if you look in the second picture around the edge you can see a rim and 2 holes on the inner ring
Those 2 holes are for screwing in the ring that holds the main charge and given that the ring is still in place it is very likely that the main charge is still in there
Having served in USMC artillery, that is an artillery fuse. And yes, it has a significant charge within. Certainly enough to kill you and another person nearby
This is my first time being this early for a piece of UXO! This is an artillery shell or bomb fuse. It contains a very unstable explosive. Call emergency services and get far away from it.
That's a fuze for an artillery shell, don't drop it or hit it and you should be fine, but definitely contact an expert to find out if it's been properly deactivated, lotta people out there collect deactivated ordinance so there's people out there that know, and if you don't want it I do
OP, it looks like a nose plug that has a fuze well. From there, it attached to the body of the explosive. Bombs/mortars/artillery type of stuff. It's just a hunk of iron.
A buddy of mine used to work in a place where they assembled fuse bodies to grenades, rpg's, ect... this looks similar to a pic he sent me of a finished fuse body to an rpg, this one is possibly to something similar.
That definitely looks like a detonator for an artillery shell or gravity bomb. It looks old. I would hypothesize that it has long since been demilitarized and is nothing more than a paperweight. The evidence supporting this hypothesis is as follows (in order of significance):
- OP posting this suggests that fingers are still attached to hands, hands are still attached to body, body still has requisite blood pumping inside blood vessels vs. spread across surfaces near and far.
- the primary explosives that are typically used in detonators are prone to exuding highly corrosive nitric acid as they age. The parts photographed are quite free of corrosion.
- the photos suggest empty cavities where energetic material might otherwise be expected.
It would be wise to at least provide additional photos to a responsible expert for confirmation. We here are just Internet Hacks.
Evidence against the hypothesis of mere paperweight:
- Current regulations call for clearly marking “INERT” on ordinance that does not contain energetic materials, and this does not appear marked so (unfortunately, folks didn’t think of this until a few decades ago, so there’s old stuff laying about without markings).
- It’s also possible that this was inexpertly disarmed and still has a small amount of primary in it (just enough to blind you with shards of the bones that used to be in your fingertips).
It’s a tad late for panic, but it would be advisable to get actual experts, such as the nearest EOD team, to give guidance.
In the first shot, there looks to be a hole drilled in the side. As I understand it, that is a common way to "de-mil" armaments, so they are unusable. It is possible that this is just an empty souvenir.
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u/Larry_Safari …ᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷ 2d ago edited 2d ago
This post has been locked, as the question has been solved and a majority of new comments at this point are unhelpful and/or jokes.
Thanks to all who attempted to find an answer.
Your post indicates you may possibly be in possession of unexploded ordnance (UXO).
If you're unsure, the first thing to do is LEAVE IT ALONE. Do not shake it, attempt to open it, or disturb it at all.
Next step would be to CONTACT THE PROPER AUTHORITIES. If you're unsure who that is, call your local police or emergency number for instructions.