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  • andrewsw16
    I've got one of those. The difference is that mine has been demilled and makes a good paperweight. [:D]
    I bought it from a Negrito pygmy in the Philippines about 40 years ago. They were always selling war souvenirs they had found in the jungle to the American military. You just had to ensure whatever they were selling was already empty of any explosives and fuses. [;)]
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  • rong
    Is that a fuse hanging out or a "pull spring"
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  • lew07
    I wondered if it was going to be one of those weird ceramic grenades the Japanese used.
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  • lew07
    quote:Originally posted by rong
    Is that a fuse hanging out or a "pull spring"

    Pull chord I think.Thinks could have gone very wrong with this I?m thinking[:0]
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  • ChrisStreett
    There were apparently a few "specialty" grenades manufactured by the Japanese as well (Other than this example my knowledge on the subject is zero.) For years there was a WWII vintage Japanese grenade containing Picric Acid in the containment building our departmental EOD folks used for storage, pending disposal, of ordnance that was recovered throughout the city on a regular basis. As older vets passed on, it was not uncommon to get a call for hand grenades and occasionally mortar rounds stored away as "bring backs". Most would ultimately be rendered safe out in a demo area they maintained for training, etc. This one item however, and it had been there so long there were no records of where it came from, sat for many, many years. Even the EOD folks at the Edgewood Arsenal wouldn't take it.
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  • 11b6r
    Several years ago, dealer that is a friend had a little old lady come into shop- she was moving, packing up stuff from her late husband, found THIS- and laid a live Japanese 50mm mortar round on the counter.


    Chris- that picric acid round- assuming the picric had dried out over the years- was touchy as hell. "Darth Vader" suit to get it in the bomb basket, take it to the range, shoot it. You do not do a "render safe" on those. We found a 500 gram jar of picric in a school lab that had been left with the top off- nice and dry. Sweated bullets getting that out of there.


    Thank you, St. Barbara- I got it now. [:0]
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  • ChrisStreett
    11b6r, it sure was obvious that NOBODY wanted to touch that damn thing. The folks up at Edgewood were always helpful to our guys, but, when they "declined" to handle it that was definite signal for sure.
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  • grumpygy
    Caught a ride from a Friend In High School. When We get to we are going he Opens the trunk inside was.

    DGu2EB6UwAABV4h.jpg

    Was something that looked about like this.


    The other guy there that we were picking up would not get in the car with that in the trunk. So we had him by Himself drive down the road to a pump house. He put it in there.


    Problem was the next day the farmer checked his pump. Called out the explosives guys. They refused to move it and blew it in place.
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  • ltcdoty
    About fifteen years ago at the New York State Military Museum a guy walked in with a box of Japanese mortar rounds that he wanted to donate.....he had more in his car...grenades, land mines...etc.

    Most of it was live...I called the NY State Police EOD guys....my idiot boss asked the Troopers to disarm all of it so we could put it on display.....the Troopers stared at him....

    They took it out to the National Guard range and blew it all up....[:)]


    You'd be surprised at the stuff that came through the door that people wanted to donate...

    German MP44s.....MP40s.....a Japanese T98 light machine gun....knee mortars....Lugers...Nambus...

    All stuff that folks had in their closets....

    All operational....never turned any of it down[:)]
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  • Ditch-Runner
    about 5 miles from me ( been some time ago ) a old farm house sold the new owners found ,If remember at least one box maybe more old dynamite in one of the buildings .. the bomb squad from wright Patterson ( about 40 miles away ) came up If I remember they blew it up on the property

    a kid I grew up with , his dad was a WWII vet had a grenade in the basement in his "special room" ( pre man cave type area ) kid pointed it out thru the locked cage his dad had build to keep his "space "separate story was it was live . maybe ? maybe not but to a 10 year old kid it was a neat to see and think it was live


    quote:Originally posted by grumpygy
    Caught a ride from a Friend In High School. When We get to we are going he Opens the trunk inside was.

    DGu2EB6UwAABV4h.jpg

    Was something that looked about like this.


    The other guy there that we were picking up would not get in the car with that in the trunk. So we had him by Himself drive down the road to a pump house. He put it in there.


    Problem was the next day the farmer checked his pump. Called out the explosives guys. They refused to move it and blew it in place.
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  • ChrisStreett
    Holy crap Batman!! Sweaty dynamite, ya don?t find much more fun than that now do ya? Ah, for a great adventure, just rub those sticks together briskly and knock some of the crystallized stuff loose. Get back to us with the results.
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  • kannoneer
    Back in the early '80s I got some old ammo from a WW1 vet. French 37 m/m cannon rounds with explosive bullets. Six of them.
    The bullets had all been pulled, the propellant dumped and the bullets reinserted. The primers were all fired,too. I pulled the bullets and they each had a plug in the base with a file groove cut in it. I unscrewed the plugs and the hollow bullets were empty...except for one. It had no file groove in the plug, so I took a file and carefully cut a groove. When I unscrewed the plug, it was full of black powder. It was not caked or anything.
    The next time we burned some brush, I tossed the live bullet in the coals and we retreated about 100 yards. It went off with a boom about like a muzzle-loader would make. We found very little of the bullet afterwards.
    The others I still have and will sell someday; I have seen them on GB and they go for about $25 or so. On one of the cases, someone has inscribed 'VERDUN' and '10-16.' Trench art.
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