My 105 shell

[slim1836]

193368193369193370

Anyone else have any old military casings? Shame a magnet sticks to it.

Slim

[Der Gebirgsjager]

I've got the same thing, but shorter. Mine was a blank used for firing salutes.

[slim1836]

193377193378

I believe these were training rounds.

Slim

[Der Gebirgsjager]

I've never seen anything quite like those. Anything blue is usually training. The one on the far right looks like a large JHP bullet. Maybe T-Rex hunting ammo? ;)

[slim1836]

193379193380
And this one has not been identified, although I believe it to be a live round.

Slim

[slim1836]

I've never seen anything quite like those. Anything blue is usually training. The one on the far right looks like a large JHP bullet. Maybe T-Rex hunting ammo? ;)

These 2 were brought back by a contractor working on a range at Ft Hood, That's all I know about it.

Slim

[leebuilder]

193377193378

I believe these were training rounds.

Slim

Looks like 40 mike mike

[merlin101]

193377193378

I believe these were training rounds.

Slim
Specialty training, they may have been loaded with flash powder so on impact the FO would see the flash and smoke. I used something similar in 155mm and fired them at Marines driving around in tanks. It was fun ringing there bells, no wonder we call em jarheads:groner:

Sometime I'll post up pics of some of the rounds I have, they have a tendency to scare the ill informed.

[rancher1913]

got a bunch of dummy training rounds, they stand about 3 foot tall.

[CastingFool]

Looks like 40 mike mike

I believe you are correct. I was a crewchief on a Huey, H model, but also had the opportunity to work on the weapons system on gunships. I have a couple of empty casings. the blue color is a code for an inert round, which actually means that the round does not contain High Explosives.

[Hardcast416taylor]

When I was laid up after my heart attack/6 way by pass work a friend dropped by my house. My Frau told him I was feeling pretty low and depressed. He produced a `Flowering plant` for me made from an 105 case. He had put a piece of styrofoam in the case mouth and pipe cleaners attached to different cartridges push into the foam. It struck me as so funny that I was nearly fainting from laughing so hard. That made my day as a pick - me - up. He was my best friend then, I miss him alot now that he`s gone for his ideas about humor. Yes, I still have that `plant` from 30 years ago.Robert

[Kevin Rohrer]

We have an empty 105mm case that is filled with change.

And we also have this, 5"/38cal round from the BB Wisconsin.

196289

[Pressman]

193379193380
And this one has not been identified, although I believe it to be a live round.

Slim

Slim, that looks like a "shot" round. That would be a solid tungsten projectile for armor piercing.
How much does it weigh?

Ken

[slim1836]

Slim, that looks like a "shot" round. That would be a solid tungsten projectile for armor piercing.
How much does it weigh?

Ken

I'll have to dig it out and weigh it, it's packed away in a footlocker. It looks like its been shot, but it also looks like some sort of primer in the end of it. It made its way here from Germany in the 60's.

I had nothing to weigh it, however, I used the bathroom scales with the projectile and myself and then just myself and the difference was 1.6 lbs. hope it helps. also, I saw no rifling so if it has been shot, it may have been through a tube.

It is probably European but may be something else.

Slim

[Pressman]

"Shot" is the term applied to solid tungsten armor piercing projectiles. It does not mean a fired boolit.

As in, From the 1960's: "driver stop!, gunner, shot, tank in open, range 900. "up". Fire! On the way" "Short, add 100 fire" "Up", On the way. Driver move out.

Thinking about it I think you have a 105mm APDS, armor piercing, discarding sabot, projectile as fired from a M-60 series tank main gun. APDS allows for a smaller, higher velocity projectile than could normally be achieved with a bore diameter projectile. Velocity is everything when using kinetic energy armor piercing ammunition. The 90mm guns on the M-48's used a full bore projectile, the M-60, 105's did not.

Ken

[Baja_Traveler]

I found a large brass casing in the sidewalk for trash pickup when I was a kid in the late 60's, and still have it storing a bunch of old arrows. It's a British 4.5 inch Mk I - V Naval Gun casing, 25 inches in length, solid brass and stamped 1961 (the year I was born, which is why I kept it).

[rockrat]

I have which I believe is a 40 mm Bofors empty and a 25mm puteaux practice round (could have bought the cannon and 200 rounds for $2,500 back in 1988, had no place to shoot it, now I do, but no cannon!!). Just the ammo nowadays would be worth $$$$ The Bofors empty was sitting at the junk yard so paid scrap brass price for it ($3). Had a chance to buy a 37mm Hotchkiss revolving cannon about 10 years ago, for a really good price, passed it up. Kicking myself for doing so, also the 40mm german cannon that someone had lined so it would shoot 50bmg only. Might have taken a bit of work, but bet I could have re-activated it!! Hindsight is 20/20!!

[skeet1]

I was in a scrap yard in Hutchinson Kansas and saw a shell for a 5" naval gun in the scrap brass pile. Had to have it!

Ken

[slim1836]

Some more images for discussion.
197004197005197008197008197009197011

Slim

Sorry for the double pic.

[Paper Puncher]

Those grooves where probably for rotating bands that would have engraved the rifling rotating the projectile and keeping the hard steel away from the bore. That might be a base fuse. That type of AP round was designed to penetrate the armor then explode. I would guess it is a 37mm or 40mm round.

A similar looking round is the Russian 85-mm BR-365K. Should be able to google a picture of it.

I would treat it gently.

[Earlwb]

I saw this shell casing that was polished and engraved for President George W Bush at his Museum and Library in Dallas Tx.

[Larry Gibson]

Solid brass.......

198530198531

Larry Gibson

[725]

Anybody know the significance other than being neat?

[Sur-shot]

Yep, the Bush 105mm is from the USAF, it is the big gun on the AC-130 gun ship known as the "Spectre." They are permanently stationed here in NW Florida and fly all over the world "visiting" the bad actors around the world. They are very much like a flying tank, multiple 40mm Bofers cannons, multiple 20mm Vulcan cannons and one high velocity long barreled 105mm howitzer. They have a highly sophisticated aiming system locked into on board computers and various types of really big night sights. They are a bad hombre almost beyond belief. Read a news paper at 10,000 ft in pitch dark, put four rounds into a tank turret, hatch cover, from over 7,000 ft with the tank doing 50mph down a dirt road trying to evade and them flying by or a rotation. If you are stationary or in the open, you are a dead motor scooter.
Ed

[samari46]

If I remember right the 105's on the C-130's still use brass cases. Did have one that was marked Air Force use only. Not sure about the 40mm on the same plane. What with the scrap prices being what they are, finding the old brass style cases is getting hard. But nothing beats one polished up nicely. Frank

[45workhorse]

193377193378

I believe these were training rounds.

Slim

They make excellent ends/handles for muzzle loading range rods.:drinks:

[Kevin Rohrer]

I imagine the Army version of the 105 also uses brass casings.

[Pressman]

Army 105 howitzer cases are steel, have been since the early 1960's. A very, very few brass cases turned up in RVN that became prized possessions of the gun crews.
The same thing happened with tank ammunition, most cases were steel but the occasional brass main gun case brought 5 bucks from the native brass collectors. Wish we could have sent a few home.
Ken

[RGrosz]

I imagine the Army version of the 105 also uses brass casings.

When I got out in '93 they had gotten rid of the brass ones. They had transirioned to all rolled steel ones. the last brass ones were on illun shells. I suppose there was some WP brass canister shells too but the BN didn't shoot often (never). The BC wanted a bunch of illun shell shot so we could short the count of returned dunnage to have some brass canisters as presentation pieces.
Rob

[AllanD]

We have an empty 105mm case that is filled with change.

And we also have this, 5"/38cal round from the BB Wisconsin.

196289

That looks like a capped AP projectile

[Mytmousemalibu]

Cool stuff! I'll have to take some pics of some of my collection of heavy artillery. I love this kind of stuff! I wished I had some of the casings for my projectiles. All the modern stuff for the most part has a mostly consumable case. All that's left after firing is steel casehead. I can understand the 105's for the AC-130 still having a solid brass case for aviation safety.

Bring one of those big 105mm cases to Cabelas and ask if they have any primers and powder!

I don't honestly think the rounds Slim has are APDS. They have a brass brazette ring which is what the guns rifling engraves to spin the projectile. If this was intended as an discarding sabot projectile then it would serve no purpose to put the brazette band on the round.

I would love to have a APFSDS for an Abrams. Just the penetrator since it would be a real cool display piece! A buddy of mine said that when one of those hyper rods hit an enemy tank it caused an instant over pressure in the cabin along with plenty of metal spall/spray but they often made a complete pass through the old Soviet tanks Upon exiting, anything not bolted down was sucked out the 4-6in exit hole, including the occupants. Least you would have never known what happened to you.

[Texas by God]

I remember two brass items from my distant youth. A fired artillery shell that looked like a .22 Hornet scaled up and a brass wall plaque about 2'x3' with the Declaration of Independence (in cursive) engraved into it. I don't know where they went but with 4 older siblings I suspect they were sold for beer.....

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

[Tom W.]

Along time ago when I lived at Camp LeJeune I was wandering around somewhere I wasn't supposed to be on the north end of Onslow Beach and found an expended mortar flare round. I still have it.....

[samari46]

Google a website called Heavy Ordnance and you'll find all the artillery projectiles,casings from all around the world and for sale. One warning he has pics of the items he sells and you will be spending quite sometime browsing his site. I have an ash tray made up from a 5"54 fired shell casing from my ship. He hasn't seen any all brass ones in years. Think mine is dated 1945 and I got mine in 1966 or therabouts. Frank

[beagle]

The brass 105s went out during the last days of VN. The steel 105s were sold as scrap and the brassies were sold down town by the crews. In the 70s, we trained on the PTA reservation on the island of Hawaii. We'd occasionally locate a brass 105 casing on top of hills with just the base showing. The artillery survey crews used them for long lasting survey markers.
Time was when each post had a 75mm pack howitzer for firing at revile and retreat. If you knew the Officer of the Day, you could occasionally get a fired brass case after the ceremony. I understand that now, they use an adapter with a shotgun blank for the same purpose./beagle

[mtnman31]

Below is my small collection of inert and training ordnance.
Top :
- Dummy round, M830A1 120mm HEAT round. It's a resin like material and weighted to replicate a live round, used for training tank crews.
Middle L - R:
- Empty Mk153 SMAW rocket tube
- Expended US 81mm Mortar Illumination Round
- 105mm Howitzer Case
- Training Claymore Mine
- 25mm Cartridge (the projectile is an aluminum dummy that I copied from another round and turned on the lathe)
- Control fin from an Iraqi Surface to Air Missile, never found out what model the missile was.
- Penetrator that I got from an Iraqi tank in 2004. I can't really figure it out. While I got it from an Iraqi tank, it appears to be US made, looks like it's from a 105mm tank gun. It isn't heavy enough to be Tungsten, it feels like its just hardened steel. I wonder if it was something that an Iraqi crewman picked up as a souvenir after the first Gulf War. By the time OIF rolled around, the US was pretty much using only tanks that had 120mm guns. So, not sure what its deal is, other than it is pretty cool.
- BDU-48 20lb Practice bomb
- MK76 25lb practice bomb, painted OD over its usual inert blue
Bottom :
- 82mm Recoilless rifle casing and projectile. The projectile would normally be down in the case until fired. I believe it is Soviet block with its cyrillic writing.

https://i.postimg.cc/cLRqpDsw/IMG-20190114-183606659.jpg (https://postimg.cc/DSwYsP4w)

[Finster101]

233980

That's what 105mm cases from an M60A1 look like!

[lightman]

Thats some neat stuff guys! I have a few loaded 50 BMG shells, a few loaded and empty 20MM, a loaded 30MM, a few 37MM anti-tank cases and projectiles from WW1. I also have an ash tray on my loading bench made from an unknown Naval case cut down thats pretty cool. I have the rim from a 105 case that was fired from a C-130. It was made as a coaster.

The 105 rim has a cool story. My oldest Son called me to see if I had any Octoberfest. Thats a style of beer. Seems he had a neighbor return from a deployment. He said the things he missed most besides his family was missing hunting season and missing the Octoberfest releases. So, I had some and sent him a case, along with my thanks. He returned the favor by giving me that rim that he had turned from an empty 105 case. He said it was fired in action in Afghanistan.

A neighbor goes to the Knob Creek machine gun shoot and comes back with some cool stuff. He had a gradual of powder used in the large navy guns. Think of a single stick of 4350 the size of a 35mm film canister. Been trying to talk him out of it!

I'll work on some pictures.

[lightman]

233980

That's what 105mm cases from an M60A1 look like!

Does that picture have some personal significance to you? Maybe someone you know or someplace you have been?

[Finster101]

Does that picture have some personal significance to you? Maybe someone you know or someplace you have been?


I took the photo at Graf during gunnery one year, 81, 82 maybe. Those rounds come two to a case and humping them all day can wear you out as you can see. It's black and white because I did my own processing in those days.

[lightman]

Thats a cool picture! Thanks for the explanation. I'll bet humping those guys would wear a guy out!

I have a hunting buddy that was assigned to an artillery battery in Vietnam. I'm not sure if they were 105's or 155's. He has a crippled up hand and arm from the experience. He was a big husky boy and was chosen as the one to pick up the shell and slide them into the breech. In the heat of the moment someone slammed the breech closed on his hand. He has limited use of it but you can tell that it was pretty mangled up.

[beagle]

Training rounds for the 40mm grenade launcher used on the AH-1G (Cobra) M28 Armament system and also the M-5 Grenade Launcher on the UH-1C/M series helicopter. Also used by the Marine Corps in the Mark 19 Grenade Launcher. The "hollow point" round I'm not familiar with but suspect it was a round used with orange dye used to mark hits. I've fired literally thousands of these off the Cobra as I was an armament guy in VN. Came in 50 round belts. The HE version was olive drab marked with a gold cap which contained the fuse assembly which was set back initiated and armed by rotation. Do not mess with these projectile (the HEs). EOD won't even touch them. Just blew them in place when encountered./beagle


Looks like 40 mike mike

[uscra112]

Anybody remember the Bill Mauldin cartoon of Willie sticking his head out of the bunker, calling the the 105 gun crew:

"Fire two more for effect, Joe. I'm making a stovepipe".

[woodbutcher]

[smilie=s: Most interesting thread.Thanks for posting.I have an ash tray made from a 90MM AAA shell stamped 1944 mfg.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

[KCcactus]

I bought this at an indoor range / gunshop in St Louis in the mid 80's. It's 26 inches long and magnetic.
234747
234748

[Finster101]

I bought this at an indoor range / gunshop in St Louis in the mid 80's. It's 26 inches long and magnetic.
234747
234748


Look's like a 105 cannon round like the ones I posted. I never handled any of the 120mm for the Abrams so I do not know if there is much difference in appearance or not. You might try measuring the mouth of the case to see what the inside dimension is.

[beagle]

Maybe a 5"/38 from the Navy. Was aboard the Nassau on a trip to Honduras and the Navy had gunnery practice one morning. One of the turrets was a 5/38 and as I recall, it fired automatically and very fast. I know 4 or 5 casings were out on the deck very quickly. Meant to look at that feed system but never did. Some of our Army guys wanted them and the Navy said, sure. Disposal was over the side. They threw them in a connex container on back of one of our vehicles. When we unloaded that container and opened it in Honduras a week later, it smelled like three guys had been in a beer joint all night drinking beer and eating boiled eggs and had gotten locked in there for about three days. What a stink. The casings were already rusting from salt air exposure. Needless to say, they stayed in Honduras when we came home./beagle



Look's like a 105 cannon round like the ones I posted. I never handled any of the 120mm for the Abrams so I do not know if there is much difference in appearance or not. You might try measuring the mouth of the case to see what the inside dimension is.

[KCcactus]

The inside of the mouth measures about 3.25".

[Pressman]

The marking on the case is odd, I don't recognize it. The case looks like a 90mm M-48 main gun round.

[Winger Ed.]

I wish I had a picture of it, but years ago, I was out in the old training areas hunting Civil War & WWI relics while stationed at MCB Quantico.
I found a pile of cases for the old 75mm cannon. They were all Brass, on one-
the primer hadn't been fired and it was swollen out like a football.

I kept it for several years and asked people how they thought it got blown out like that. Nobody ever figured it out.
The closest anyone came was a old Artillery guy from the Korean War.
He said, "I don't know, but I'm glad I wasn't close by when it happened".


I figured if it had happened in a gun, it would have been shredded when the breach blew apart.
The best I ever came up with was it was a live round that got burned and cooked off in a grass fire.
All the shell cases in the pile looked burned where they didn't touch the ground. It got hot enough to start the powder burning,
the projectile was in tight enough to pop out as it swelled and the powder just burned on the ground.

As I got older and began thinning out some of the accumulated 'stuff', I passed it on to a Army vet to put in his man cave.

[AllanD]

193377193378

I believe these were training rounds.

Slim

Those are inert training projectiles from a 40mm Grenade launcher

Same rounds are used in the M79, M203 and the auto-loading gun used in helicopters

I have a couple inert 5" projectiles that some previous owner started converting into table lamps, but I guess they stopped because they are HEAVY.

[daengmei]

As a tanker on both 105mm and 120mm systems, I never saw an American Sabot round like that....ours looked like the first set in this link. They all (sabots) had a pointed dart shaped projectile, unlike the more rounded one posted.https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=apds+tank+round&id=63F6CE43BEDB6788BB510AD2FA05D4AA7B96693A&FORM=IQFRBA Some of the other pics in that link may show what you have.

One video of what happens during firing of the APFSDS round. Armor piercing fin stabilized discarding sabot https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&id=1605BB16527521F4701F4D51C97756D9B33AA707&thid=OIP.DloHQxx6lGJk5ulX_62BxAAAAA&mediaurl=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.rbl.ms%2F17296998%2F 980x.gif&exph=233&expw=460&q=Sabot+Round&selectedindex=47&ajaxhist=0&vt=0&eim=1,2,6

[RGrosz]

A long time ago, in a place far far away. My Dad was in the ADA protecting Boston from the North Korean Migs. To make the story short he had a couple of empties from the Arty piece that he was assigned to. It was a 90mm flak cannon that had a crew of about 5 or 6. They were bottle necked and about 2 on 2 1/2 feet tall. They looked about like the picture posted by #46. Don't know what happened to them. He also had some empties from a 40mm AA gun that I've lost track of too. They were old enough that they were brass.

Rob

[Pressman]

I bought this at an indoor range / gunshop in St Louis in the mid 80's. It's 26 inches long and magnetic.
234747
234748

That is a 90mm main gun case from the M-48 series tank. The 105mm on the M-60 looks nearly the same only less shoulder taper.

Ken

[popper]

Had a couple 155 cases uncle brought back from WWII. Was going to make lamps but tossed them. Now I know the price of brass - darn.

[Hossfly]

Mine says do not reform, I guess they don’t want you to reload it.

[woodbutcher]

[smilie=1: Uhhhhhhhhhhh,what would you use for a powder scoop?A 2 gallon bucket?Hehehe.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

[beagle]

You guys joke about reloading these things but back on the old "Shooters" site there was a guy that was loading rounds for a 106mm Recoiless Rifle. Had to be a labor of love as it was labor intensive. Used BP loaded inside a paper bag inside the perforated case. Don't recall his repriming method. The projectile with the machined bands would have been fun to make too. He'd take that to big shoots and get off maybe 5-6 rounds a weekend. Lots of smoke and attention./beagle