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WW2 relic hunting - Old Gunnery range - England

RRPG

Full Member
Joined
Aug 8, 2011
Messages
123
Location
Midlands, England
HI all

Thought I would start off my membership of this great forum with a recent trip I made to a old gunnery range in the UK. It was only used between 1942 and 1945 but even so, the volume of relics there is quite amazing. This is mainly due to the fact that it is not a well known range and hence hasn't been blitzed by relic hunters like myself.

It was mainly used by the British Army but one section of it was used by the RAF and USAAF to practice ground attack.

I only use my MD to find WW2 relics, having a great interest in them. I am also the chairman of the WW2 Relic Retrieval and Preservation Group, hence my forum name, RRPG. Over the years I have become something of an expert on WW2 relics and, in particular, cartridge cases. I would be more than happy to help ID any military objects you may have unearthed.

Here is a link to a video I made of the finds I made on the day. Hope you enjoy it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adikL5XjIkc

There are a number of other videos in my channel and all pertain to digging up WW2 relics, the majority, (although not all !!), with the aid of a metal detector.

It may not be as glamorous as finding a gold coin of Roman artifact, but I still get a buzz out of unearthing a little piece of WW2 history even now, after 10 years of digging !

Cheers

RRPG
 

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:welcome2: Welcome to the forum! I'm a huge WWII buff as well so I'm excited to see what you find/post. Very cool relics you've got there
 
Thanks snailracer.

I have been digging WW2 relics for quite some time now. I've attached a picture of one or two of my cabinets that house my collection. This is only a small proportion of my total collection, but it is all ground dug and all related to WW2 :)

Cheers

Steve T
 

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Welcome to the forum. Another World War II buff here and I think there are a few more here on the forum.
 
Thanks guys.

I mainly search old bases, POW camps and ranges in the UK but do get to go to Europe once or twice a year. Getting harder to find stuff there nowadays though and harder to get the right permissions to dig.

RRPG
 
Big hello from Germany! Im a big WWII nut myself and have been collecting for a about 13 years now. Its good to see someone on here that is as crazy about this stuff as I am.
 
That's certainly a big collection you have. Obviously without giving away
your secret location, what part of England are we talking about ?

I don't go out specifically looking for military finds, but still find a fair
amount, especially close to old WWII airfields. Normally .303, 20mm
and 25mm shell cases. In fact I found a 20mm case the other week at a
detecting rally.
It must have had a dud percussion cap, as it still contains some of the
propellant. I dug some out and burnt it, it still burnt well after 70 yrs.

(Yes I was careful) ;)
 
Thanks all.

I am from Leicestershire but dig all over the country so knowing that won't help anyone find the sites I am at !

The nature of the cordite or pelleted charge is that it survives very well from being buried in the ground. It tends to repel water so will still go off quite nicely.

I am interested in what you say are 25mm cartridges. I do not know what this could be from as the 25mm gun was rarely used in service, (there was a Bofors 25mm gun but it was hardly even used), so I would be most interested in seeing a picture of them.

Thanks

RRPG
 
I'll do a couple of pictures soon.

Voila .... My mistake though, what I thought were 25mm cases, as that's what they measure. Are marked as
20mm. One is marked 1942 and the other just 43, So what size does that make the smaller one which measures 20mm ?

IMG_1017.jpg
 
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~Alan~ - The headstamp will tell you all you need to know :) Whilst most headstamps don't give you a calibre, their nomenclature and other things give away the calibre. Saying that, I can tell what your other cartridge is anyway, having found more than 500 of them myself :) It's an American .50 calibre, used in virtually every USAAF plane that flew during WW2.

The headstamp on the smaller one will, most likely, comprise of two letters which denote the manufacturer and then either one or two numbers, which denotes the year of manufacture.

Hope that helps :)

RRPG

PS Measuring the diameter of a cartridge will give a very rough guide on the projectile size. Don't forget most cartridges have a shoulder at the business end where the projectile sits. If you want to judge a calibre and don't have a headstamp to help, (some corrode away completely), then measure the INSIDE of the shoulder. This is much closer to the true calibre than anywhere else on the cartridge.

PPS The rectangular 'dent' on the rim of the second cartridge is the extraction mark, made by the extraction mechanism of the weapon when it 'grabs' the cartridge to eject it and hence make room for the next one to be loaded up. They are normally very visible on 20mm cases.

PPPS If you ever find a 20mm with the projectile still attached, do NOT TOUCH IT ! They are notoriously touchy about being messed with and will quite happily remove a couple of fingers if you fiddle with them.
 
PPPS If you ever find a 20mm with the projectile still attached, do NOT TOUCH IT ! They are notoriously touchy about being messed with and will quite happily remove a couple of fingers if you fiddle with them.

I remember at a rally a few years back, someone found a live 20mm Shell.
I was talking to our FLO at the time, and wondered why all of a sudden she
was staring with her mouth open. A chap was pulling the head out of the
shell. He then poured out the contents and set fire to it :shock:

He lived to tell the tale, while everyone else ducked :wow:

Thanks for the other info
 
WOW! That is an amazing collection! Welcome from West Tennessee. Hope you enjoy this forum as much as I have. I had an uncle that served in that war. He met his wife there and had their first child there. Finally got everyone back here and they had more children and a long loving life together. I was always so amazed by my Aunt from England. Please share more of your finds as they come your way.
 
Thanks all :)

~Alan~ - Yeah......I know someone that took a live 20mm home to attempt their own de-act. Got the head in a vice, pulled out a pair of pliers and twisted the fuse head off. BANG !!!!! He remembers his ears ringing really badly and something dripping on his head. The something dripping on his head was the blood from his mangled finger that was now stuck to the ceiling of the hut, with another finger on the workbench.

Some people have no common sense. As I have often said on a war relic forum I frequent, no relic is worth a finger, arm, leg or LIFE.

RRPG
 
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