Help ID'ing artillery projectile

S

Samz

Greenie
Jul 14, 2019
10
18
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I bought this artillery ? at a yard sale. It weighs 15 pounds, it is 12 inches tall, 3 1/2" diameter at the bottom , threaded inside. It's made of solid cast iron, I think.

I've attached pics.

Questions:
What is it?
Is it safe and not live?
Many thanks

***Used calliper for precise measurement requested. See pics for height just shy of 12" & diameter at widest point. No markings found, pic shows compared to soda can.

Ammo, Ammunition, Bullet,
 

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Last edited:
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NOLA_Ken said:
I don't know what gun it's for, but being a solid shot it's only dangerous if you drop it on your foot. Is there anything stamped into it anywhere?
Click to expand...

------
I see nothing on it, then i think i see a large "E" with a small '...ick" above it. I see this in the posted tall pic when I enlarge it, but no one else sees it. So I'm not sure if there are any marks or not. I found a couple online videos and could this be a 75mm or 76 mm? Is it a shell, a head, German, WWII or later, I don't know what to refer to it as.
Thanks to everyone for your help.
 

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"Base to ogive" measured in feet? !
I don't think that's going to fit into my reloading press. :laughing7:
 

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Samz said:
------
I see nothing on it, then i think i see a large "E" with a small '...ick" above it. I see this in the posted tall pic when I enlarge it, but no one else sees it. So I'm not sure if there are any marks or not. I found a couple online videos and could this be a 75mm or 76 mm? Is it a shell, a head, German, WWII or later, I don't know what to refer to it as.
Thanks to everyone for your help.
Click to expand...

3.5 inches is closer to 88 or 90 mm, I can't find a match to it though. if you an get a precise measurement at the widest part that could help
 

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Wouldn't a round that size have a copper band towards the bottom?
 

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Welcome Samz, interesting find!

In the absence of a caliper, here's the best way to measure the diameter of a round object. Cut a medium stiff strip
of cardboard from something like a beverage box! Put a mark on it and wrap it around the projectile's widest point.
Where the strip laps over the mark, you've made, mark the other band on the point where it overlaps. Flatten it
out and measure between the two points with an accurate ruler to the nearest 1/16". That's the circumference. Divide
by 3.14 and you'll have an accurate measurement of the diameter. Go on line and find an inches to metric conversion
tool and enter the inches in the column. What shows up in the other column is the correct diameter in MMs. This IMO
is a tip that would have been threaded on to some kind of propellant base. It may be a practice round of some kind. or
may have been fired with a sabot. One of my best fantasies would be the tip from a bunker buster, which is basically
an indestructible tip threaded on to a piece of long pipe, with fins, filled with high explosive and a timer.
I'm not well schooled in protiles but perhaps the measure info will help!

Best wishes!
 

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When you say be careful, of course that's worrisome. I am cautious and thought this was solid cast iron, and thus safe with no chance of danger. Will you please elaborate precisely on what you think i need to be careful of and explain how I'm thinking wrong? Thx
 

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As NOLA_Ken already indicated... it appears to be solid, not a hollow explosive object. An explosive artillery shell would have a fuzeplug (or empty fuzehole) in its base, or its nose, or (very rarely) on its side. A fuzeplug can sometimes be difficult to see on a rust-encrusted excavated shell... but yours looks pretty clean and shows no sign at all of having a fuzeplug anywhere on it. That indicates it is indeed a solid object, not hollow.

I've been closely examining civil war (and earlier) artillery projectiles for over 40 years. In that time, I've also examined many late-1800s and 20th century ones. I've never seen one like this object. I'm sure it isn't from the civil war. I'm NOT sure it is an artillery projectile... because it lacks any version of expanding "sabot" to engage the cannon barrel's rifling-grooves. I suppose it's possible that a sabot screwed into the threads in the bottom of the object... but any kind of "screw-on" sabot is extraordinarily rare, because that type was found not to work well at all. The object's tapered tail also points away from being an artillery projectile. Lastly, as NOLA_Ken also indicated, there's no match=up in cannon calibers for this object's diameter.

All of that being said, I suppose it's possibly some weird experimental projectile design, which never got beyond the experimental stage... meaning, never accepted for military service and mass-produced.
 

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The "tapered tail" doesn't rule out being an artillery shell, there are shells with this "boat tail" design at least as far back as WW1 and modern US 105mm and 155mm use that design. BUT.... I've just been searching through HUNDREDS of shell photos online and I can't find a single match to yours, there are many that are close, but nothing in a solid shot, threaded base, boat tail with no driving band.

CannonballGuy said he's not sure it's a shell, and I'm kind of wondering myself, but I can't think of anything else it could be other than some oddball prototype as he suggested, or some strange kind of mortar round, aerial practice bomb?

I would suggest joining an artillery collectors forum online and see if the people there can make any sense of it, if you get an answer I'd be really interested to know what it is as well because it's got me stumped
 

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An aerial practice bomb with the screw on fins which are now gone makes a lot of sense.
 

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Many thanks! This info has given me clarity. If i find out anything else I'll post it here.
 

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