Last week my wife and I were at the beach. An offshore storm lingered for several days and literally tore into the beach. During one of the lulls in the storm, my wife went out walking and found several items that we attempting to identify. This picture shows all three items: - Left-most is what appears to be a metal, small-caliber bullet. - Center is what I think is a .50 caliber shell. - Right-most is what may be a fuse of some sort. View attachment 19616 This picture shows the length of the bullet: View attachment 19617 I will have to include the other photos in subsequent posts due to upload size restrictions. Any input at all would be greatly appreciated. Bill (aka bgh).
Theses photos are of the second item (the fuse). This is a top view of the fuse: View attachment 19618 The following writing was found on the fuse: "Fuse PD M57" View attachment 19619 I cannot upload the pictures, but the other side says "Lot 8521-40PA3-42". Any input at all would be appreciated. Bill (aka bgh)
The shell is 10 mm (maybe 4 inches) in length. View attachment 19622 The bottom of the shell has the characters "W T 4 5" stamped in a perfect circle. View attachment 19623 Again, any input at all would be appreciated. Thanks for your time and patience in allowing me to span this request over multiple posts. Bill (still aka bgh)
If you Google M57 fuze, you should find out all you want to know. It was a point-detonating fuze - the fuze triggered immediately upon impact. Looks like what you have is the base...a complete fuze in good condition would look like this As to the .50 caliber shell casing, it should be TW 45 - which was produced by the Twin Cities Ordnance Plant http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin_Cities_Army_Ammunition_Plant Other Twin Cities .50 cal headstamps http://www.nebraskaaircrash.com/50caliber.html
Takao, Thanks for the response. You know, I am a programmer by trade. And, to my chagrin, I never even thought about "Google". Thanks for reminding me. I did a search and you are correct. There is a lot to see there. Concerning the .50, I suspected the Twin Cities, but was hoping for independent corroboration (which you nicely provided). My wife will be excited to hear of such quick results. Thanks again. Bill
The rifle bullet appears to be a .30 caliber tracer round, possibly a post-ww2 M62, but the round seems to be a hair too long. The M62 tracer was 1 1/3 inches long.
Standard M2 military ball ammo has a cannelure and weighs 151 grains. That slug has no cannelure, so you may have a civilian target slug of some kind. It would be helpful to know the weight.
That's why I went with the tracer, it does not have the noticable cannelure(boat tail) of a regular round. M62(left) & M25(center) Also, you can look at the base Further, the armor piercing .30-06 also lacks the cannelure
These were found on Kure Beach in North Carolina, south of Wilmington. The item has the word 'fuse' stamped in it. Could it be a cap made for a fuse? bgh