WW1 Artillery Bolt?

[jrsherman]

Hey T-Netter's, I have a mystery shell I need some help with.

Before the EOD jumps in, this is a bolt/solid-shot/non explosive device!!! I am not handing it over to the police/EOD/bomb-squad, because they couldn't even dent it, let alone make it any safer!

I found this under a work bench in my Great-Grandfathers old blacksmith shed. My Grandpa definitely remembers it being his Grandpa's, so I believe this to possibly be a WW1 era shell. I don't know that for sure though.

Dimensions are roughly 9 inches tall, and 2.95 inches in diameter on the iron, 3 inches on the copper sabot.

I tried looking up images of WW1 artillery shells, but couldn't come up with any pictures of bolts, just timed explosive shells. Would this have been a dummy/training round? Or were bolts actually still used for battering defensive positions?

Any help I can get would be great! Thanks very much!

 

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[OutBack Duo]

now thats a bullett!

 

[NHBandit]

I'm curious why you keep calling it a bolt. That's very likely the reaon you're not finding anything on Google. It looks to me like a very large solid projectile from a practise round. Pretty cool. Go here.. Look at fig 28 the 106mm projectile from the 60s. Also fig 31, the WWI round. I realize it's not exactly the same. http://cartridgecollectors.org/introtoartyammo/introtoarty.htm These are "bolts"

 

[timekiller]

I'm not so sure what it is myself But just to look at it looks like some kind of sherman tank round,or howitzer.It's cool but I would not be so sure it could not still explode by looking at these high explosive rounds here.
http://www.mnhm.lu/pageshtml/archeology.php
Take Care,
Pete

 

[Libralabsoldier]

I spent my first four years as Artillery: It looks like it is a round, and from the grooves on the ogive ring, it looks as if it may have been fired.

Not a training round, just a solid steel armor piercing round, IMHO.

 

[Red James Cash]

Interesting, I never read of solid shot still be used in WW1 or WW2 for that matter, unless it could be a WW2 antitank round. Your projectile is much to small to have been used to batter the fortifications of WW1.The germans used heavy guns for that which were nicknamed big berthas, which fired 350mm and 420mm shells.You can forget about picking one of those rounds up, they weighed 850 to 2000 pounds.

 

[Libralabsoldier]

I have some personal experience with how heavy a 155 round is. But it could be something along the lines of a PAC 75 or something small in an artillery piece.

 

[Red James Cash]

Yeah soldier the french 75s were a pretty popular gun during WW1, whether they fired solid projectiles is an other matter. As far as i know all there was H.E. and anti personal.Unless the solid shot came later in the war when tanks first started rolling.

 

[timekiller]

I'm starting to think this is it from sherman tank.
http://www.bocn.co.uk/vbforum/ap-shot-identification-t4313.html

 

[jrsherman]

I'm curious why you keep calling it a bolt. That's very likely the reaon you're not finding anything on Google. It looks to me like a very large solid projectile from a practise round. Pretty cool. Go here.. Look at fig 28 the 106mm projectile from the 60s. Also fig 31, the WWI round. I realize it's not exactly the same. http://cartridgecollectors.org/introtoartyammo/introtoarty.htm These are "bolts"

Well, as a Civil War relic hunter, we often refer to solid shot as bolts, and the term became interchangeable for us I guess. Like these Hotchkiss bolts:
http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,355903.0.html
http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,351092.0.html
http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,309645.0.html

I'm starting to think this is it from sherman tank.
http://www.bocn.co.uk/vbforum/ap-shot-identification-t4313.html

Hey Pete, good to see you're up and at it again! It would be pretty hard for this guy to go off, as they'd have had to load it and weld it shut for there to be anything inside. The only exterior "hole" of any sort is the little dimple in the base where the tracer went, following your second link above. I think that looks pretty darn close to mine, now if I can find a clearer image to make sure we may have this solved! It would be pretty awesome if this is a round for a Sherman tank, very fitting for me hehe.


Thanks for all the ideas and help guys, think we're just about to green check this one!

 

[jrsherman]

Guys I think I'm going to go ahead and call this one. Pete got me searching on the Sherman tank armor piercing round, and this is one of the first sites I found.

http://w.mawebcenters.com/Ordnance/...m-sherman-tank-armor-piercing-round-m-72.html

M-72 75mm Sherman Tank Armor Piercing Round

Thanks for all the help and added info, I really appreciate it!

Sincerely,
J.R. Sherman

 

[timekiller]

Guys I think I'm going to go ahead and call this one. Pete got me searching on the Sherman tank armor piercing round, and this is one of the first sites I found.

http://w.mawebcenters.com/Ordnance/...m-sherman-tank-armor-piercing-round-m-72.html

M-72 75mm Sherman Tank Armor Piercing Round

Thanks for all the help and added info, I really appreciate it!

Sincerely,
J.R. Sherman

It's a J.R. Sherman tank round now!
Take Care buddy,
Pete

 

[Ramitt]

I'm curious why you keep calling it a bolt. That's very likely the reaon you're not finding anything on Google. It looks to me like a very large solid projectile from a practise round. Pretty cool. Go here.. Look at fig 28 the 106mm projectile from the 60s. Also fig 31, the WWI round. I realize it's not exactly the same. http://cartridgecollectors.org/introtoartyammo/introtoarty.htm These are "bolts"

These are also called bolts. Sometimes a word describes more than one thing.

 

[NHBandit]

I'm curious why you keep calling it a bolt. That's very likely the reaon you're not finding anything on Google. It looks to me like a very large solid projectile from a practise round. Pretty cool. Go here.. Look at fig 28 the 106mm projectile from the 60s. Also fig 31, the WWI round. I realize it's not exactly the same. http://cartridgecollectors.org/introtoartyammo/introtoarty.htm These are "bolts"

These are also called bolts. Sometimes a word describes more than one thing.

Absolutely correct and I learned something new. But.. I still feel that the search was hampered originally by using a term that normally refers to Civil War projectiles. Calling it what it is, an artilery projectile, got reslults and got it solved. I was trying to help. The picture of "bolts" was an attempt at a joke. note the laughing smily face.. This place needs to lighten up a bit.

 

[jrsherman]

I didn't think anyone was being really heavy handed, we were just explaining why we used the term. I searched around a bit before I posted, and artillery projectile is very different from Sherman Tank Armor Piercing Round, even with corresponding artillery type shells.

Since I don't really want this to flame up because of my bad word usage, I'll have the thread locked since this is solved. Thank you all for your input!

J.R.