Russian ammo; Inert Grenades - Training Aids?
What we have here is... well, I'm not sure. That's why I'm here!
The Russian round is not as heavy as you might expect, and if you tilt it close to your ear you'll hear a small amount of coarse powder or grain. The label on it makes me think it's a training aid - but how can I be sure that it's not a live round?
The grenades - I don't know anything about them. (My Dad collected lots of stuff while he was in the Army.) The 3 pineapple grenades are painted gold (one looks darker, but there's gold paint on the bottom). Makes me think again of training aids. And the smooth one - is it older or younger than the pineapple??
If anyone can give me any info on these things, I'd really appreciate it!
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The Russian round is not as heavy as you might expect, and if you tilt it close to your ear you'll hear a small amount of coarse powder or grain. The label on it makes me think it's a training aid - but how can I be sure that it's not a live round?
The grenades - I don't know anything about them. (My Dad collected lots of stuff while he was in the Army.) The 3 pineapple grenades are painted gold (one looks darker, but there's gold paint on the bottom). Makes me think again of training aids. And the smooth one - is it older or younger than the pineapple??
If anyone can give me any info on these things, I'd really appreciate it!
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The serrated pineapple type grenades are WW II/Korean war vintage. The other one was the successor to them it had a internal hardened steel wire that fragmented when the grenade exploded. Long as they have a open hole in the bottom nothing to worry about.
The Russian round on the other hand looks like it has a live primer, it might not be inert. Also since it's larger then 50 caliber, if it is a live round the feds consider it to be a destructive device. If you don't know in fact that it's inert, I would get rid of it.0 -
Thanks, rufe-snow.
What's the proper way to get rid of something like this? And how can I find out if it's inert or not (without blowing myself up!)?[:)]0 -
Umm That Russian 14.7 round is as legal (and safe) as a Nun in church.
Sorry Rufe, but the only rounds that need to be "registered as a DD" are those that carry more than 1/4oz of explosive material.
This one is nothing but a AP round. It's no more dangerous than any other live round, and somewhat safer than a rimfire round.
If you had a RIFLE that fired it, the RIFLE would need to be registered.
BTW, there is a very good chance that round was made here in the good old USA (and I probably know the guy that made the bullet)0 -
The "impact" type grenade is Viet Nam War era. It had a mechanism inside that would arm a detonator after the grenade made a certain number of revolutions - it was designed to explode on impact rather than on fuse burn time - although it would explode after a certain time period (3 -5 seconds IIRC) if it was not thrown far enough/with enough spins to activate the contact detonator. These grenades made our life a lot easier than trying to guess how long the fuse would take after popping the spoon. If you didn't guess right: too short - the little people could throw it back; too long - you could get a face full of fragments or lose a couple fingers or three.
With a sensibility towards full disclosure and correctness, I am attaching the following info, which I received from a friend, and which fills in and corrects some of the info I posted above about the contact grenade:
"Jim not often I can provide info to you- normally the other way around. The impact detonating grenades used a thermo- electric fuze- when the lever was released, a pyro mixture started burning, heating a thrmocouple to make an electrical current- take about 1 second to arm (so if you drop it, pick it up QUICK). After that, on hitting anything, an impact sensor would make it go bang. If it hit nothing in 5 seconds, the pyro mixture would burn thru to the cap, making it go bang. Those were the M-59 grenades"0 -
Thanks for the info, everybody!
As usual, you have my gratitude.
[:D]0 -
Nice if they were available earlier. 0 -
The grenade that you showed with the smooth body was used as a training grenade. The fractured metal that you see when you look from the bottom inside is an expended blasting cap. The other grenades, if they have a hole in the bottom and are empty of have the fractured metal that you see in the first are safe. If you look inside and see what looks like a short aluminum pencil, that is a live blasting cap. On all of the grenades you can unscrew (or should be able to) the part with the spoon from the grenade body. If you do this, and you see the part you just unscrewed has a silver pencil looking thing, again that's a low strength blasting cap. Blasting caps can be set off via static electricity or by simply dropping them. They are pretty much the most sensitive part of modern comercial or military explosives. In short, handle with care. I'm not too sure about the pineapple grenade that is green with the yellow band. The yellow band GENERALLY indicates that it is live and not for training (baby blue is usually the color for training or inert items). But if it is hollowed out, you should be good to go. When in doubt, it's best to stay on the safe side. Don't pull the pins and don't run with scissors.
quote:Originally posted by tommydog
What we have here is... well, I'm not sure. That's why I'm here!
The Russian round is not as heavy as you might expect, and if you tilt it close to your ear you'll hear a small amount of coarse powder or grain. The label on it makes me think it's a training aid - but how can I be sure that it's not a live round?
The grenades - I don't know anything about them. (My Dad collected lots of stuff while he was in the Army.) The 3 pineapple grenades are painted gold (one looks darker, but there's gold paint on the bottom). Makes me think again of training aids. And the smooth one - is it older or younger than the pineapple??
If anyone can give me any info on these things, I'd really appreciate it!
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