A freakin' hand grenade

14kgold · Jul 10, 2020

Out at low tide this morning just doing my thing and this metal baseball comes out of the wet? Not sure what it was at first so I threw it up on the dry sand and kept going. About 20 minutes later I came across the fuze and realized then what I'd found. I'm guessing it's some kind of trainer grenade.
The local police were on the scene so I asked them to take a look at it. We all had a good laugh :lol:

Be Careful Out There.....

Compass · Jul 10, 2020

That is both cool and scary at the same time! Pretty nice piece for the collection for sure-congrats! :wow:

maxxkatt · Jul 10, 2020

You never know that could have been dangerous. We had to throw those suckers in basic training. As I recall they are not like the old WWII pineapple grenade. Inside that smooth round outer casing there is a slinky like coil of wire that is notched like every 1/8" or 1/4" inch and that disburses in fragments to kill the intended victim.

like the other poster said, cool and scary.

KOB · Jul 10, 2020

Can't say I've ever found 1 of those. Cool find

FelixtheCat · Jul 10, 2020

That's an amazing find! Don't think you'll come across another.

Skippy SH13 · Jul 10, 2020

14kgold said:
Out at low tide this morning just doing my thing and this metal baseball comes out of the wet? Not sure what it was at first so I threw it up on the dry sand and kept going. About 20 minutes later I came across the fuze and realized then what I'd found. I'm guessing it's some kind of trainer grenade.
The local police were on the scene so I asked them to take a look at it. We all had a good laugh
Be Careful Out There.....

WICKED COOL!!!

Having found it dismantled, with the top off, it would absolutely be inert in the water. WELL DONE!

I hope you kept it... Such an awesome find!

SKippy

Foragist · Jul 10, 2020

Congrats on scoring a great conversation piece! Just don't try to trick anyone into thinking it's live. Bad things could happen.

GTS225 · Jul 11, 2020

Dummy, or training grenades, have a hole in the bottom, opposite of the threaded fitting. Hole is about 5/8" diameter. The real thing doesn't have that hole.
Yes, I remember it well. Like MaxxKatt, I've had to toss more than a few of those.

Roger

KinTN · Jul 11, 2020

Agree with training grenade, tho i cant see the base. Looks like the fuse has been fired from what i can tell. But know that if the fuse had been intact, it may have still been live as they are 'factory sealed'.

Iggyks · Jul 11, 2020

Wow, what a heart-stopper! I was digging a signal once and exposed a piece of metal that looked a whole lot like the handle on one of these and had to stop and think a minute before I proceeded. Turned out to be a hunk of junk metal.

Bajanick · Jul 11, 2020

Thats awesome, If I found it and it went off I would figure I died doing something I love doing......... :thumbsup:

Nice find........... :lol3:

Chipk · Jul 11, 2020

You did the right thing!

A year ago I was allowed to hunt a 100 year old house. I dug out a Mason jar. Hoping for coins or jewels, I was disappointed that it was filled with big bullets. Then I put my pinpointer into the hole and it went crazy. Ended up digging 50 stripper clips each loaded with 5 live rounds of 30 caliber Ammo. Over 300 bullets. Because they had kids I spent an extra 2 days checking and rechecking to make sure there were no explosives buried as well.
The ammo was dated 1931 and 1937.

TNTGross · Jul 12, 2020

Cool find. Is there a hole in the base? If so, it is a training grenade. Not sure if the fuse is inert or spent. As the pin and spoon are still on it. Fuse could still be "good". I used a lot of those for training in the Army. That fuse puts out a good little POP all by itself. We used to toss just the fuse at each other for fun. I would not be holding it if you pull that pin. Also, the three-second rule doesn't always hold true. If the fuse is live, it could POP the moment the spoon is released or it can go the 3 seconds or longer, if at all. Just because it was in the water, doesn't make it inert.

KinTN · Jul 12, 2020

The fuse consists of a shotgun primer (or similar) at the top which is what gives the initial POP + a thin metal tube with cannon type fuse in it to burn in a time delay while containing the sparks away from the main grenade explosive or boosting charge. The metal appears to me to be spent which is typical in a fired training grenade.
But yeah. always treat with Respect.

jbkelly3 · Jul 12, 2020

Baseball style were developed for WW2 because most American males already knew how to throw a baseball .... Markings on that fuse are a lot older than WW2. Still an excellent and unusual find. The fuse seems to be intact, but years in the water should have made it inert.

T-Man · Jul 12, 2020

Had I dug that up I would of probably dropped a few of my own grenades behind me before realizing it was a dummy.

Scubacat · Jul 12, 2020

14kgold said:
Out at low tide this morning just doing my thing and this metal baseball comes out of the wet? Not sure what it was at first so I threw it up on the dry sand and kept going. About 20 minutes later I came across the fuze and realized then what I'd found. I'm guessing it's some kind of trainer grenade.
The local police were on the scene so I asked them to take a look at it. We all had a good laugh
Be Careful Out There.....

Oh, no! One more item on my laundry list! And it is already quite long.

EmuDetector · Jul 13, 2020

I have found so many of these while diving with my old PD dive team. Even with the hole drilled in the bottom on the display ones, people get nervous when they find them in a relatives home and just chuck them into the waterways. We just add them to the training aid bucket :lol:

Bill_Ace_350 · Jul 13, 2020

jbkelly3 said:
Baseball style were developed for WW2 because most American males already knew how to throw a baseball .... Markings on that fuse are a lot older than WW2. Still an excellent and unusual find. The fuse seems to be intact, but years in the water should have made it inert.

WW2 saw use of the "pineapple" style grenade.

The round ones came later.

We were never trained to throw a grenade like a baseball.

Not good for the shoulders or the elbows!

NC7011 · Jul 29, 2020

Thats a really cool find

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A freakin' hand grenade

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