RAF airbase dump & MD finds - PIC HEAVY !

[brummbar]

Yep

[DAVYBFAST]

great job nice finds

[RRPG]

Thank you

[egon999]

Great haul and well presented as usual. Like the mosquito light and exhaust stubs

[RRPG]

Thanks Egon. They are nice, but the 860 nose fuze is, because of how unusual it is, the find of the visit for me anyway

[Christoph1945]

Hi RRPG,

some interesting finds there. I was mooching through YouTube last night and came across a guy who callas himself " Deep Digger Dan " I was surprised to see that he still had all his fingers!
What's your opinion of the guy?

[RRPG]

He seems to be a very enthusiastic and interesting individual. However, his approach to live ordnance will eventually result in his serious injury, or worse. The fact that he takes live ordnance home with him would also suggest he is endangering other people.

DDD is making the same mistake that others make, resulting in numerous deaths and injuries each and every year. This is that he assumes that because something has been in the ground for 70 odd years it is now safe. This is actually the opposite of the truth as many explosives degrade over time and become unstable. Ordnance is designed to kill, and will do so if you mess with it. He has been lucky so far so is becoming complacent. This complacency will not end well....

I haven't watched many of his videos because his lack of knowledge and method of dealing with stuff he can't identify gives me the shivers. I've seen him pull the pin on a grenade and throw it.......(lack of knowledge meant he didn't realise two things. Firstly the time fuze of the grenade could have deteriorated resulting in an instant detonation. Secondly, the grenade he had has a lethal range of 100yards, far further than he could have thrown it.)..............hold up a strange cylindrical object that he had founds lots of.........(these were the heads from M24 German stick grenades, with the detonator in place).......pretend to shoot a PPS Russian SMG........(if the mechanism was intact, the cartridge in the breech could have been struck, which would have then exploded out through the breech of the gun and killed him)...........etc etc...

An interesting chap, but also a soon-to-be proud holder of a Darwin award.

[Christoph1945]

When I saw him last night he was handling what looked, to me, like an anti-personnel mine. He is far too cavalier for me; I'm sticking with the guys on here.

[Wansdyke44]

I can't imagine he'd be so daft as to take live ordnance home with him. In fact I've watched some of his videos and he's said he's told the Police when he's found bombs and left other stuff. If he is daft enough to do that though then he's dicing with the reaper...

[RRPG]

Indeed Wan, he has. However, a great deal of explosive ordnance doesn't look as obvious as a bomb or mortar. Take for instance the M24 grenade 'heads' he found. I got the distinct impression that he takes stuff home to identify it. This being the case, these are probably in his garage/shed/kitchen awaiting ID, all the while just itching to blow a hole in his world. Stock mines, rifle grenades, 20mm projectiles, fuzes, bouncing betty's, glass mines.........all look quite innocuous but are far from it. His lack of knowledge of ordnance shines through brightly, and it is this which will eventually lead to his injury, along with a foolhardy disregard for safety and common sense.

[Wansdyke44]

Indeed Wan, he has. However, a great deal of explosive ordnance doesn't look as obvious as a bomb or mortar. Take for instance the M24 grenade 'heads' he found. I got the distinct impression that he takes stuff home to identify it. This being the case, these are probably in his garage/shed/kitchen awaiting ID, all the while just itching to blow a hole in his world. Stock mines, rifle grenades, 20mm projectiles, fuzes, bouncing betty's, glass mines.........all look quite innocuous but are far from it. His lack of knowledge of ordnance shines through brightly, and it is this which will eventually lead to his injury, along with a foolhardy disregard for safety and common sense.

Hi RRPG,
Can't say I have seen the video with the M24 heads on them, but these don't hold the detonator anyway (unless they are late war type with the M39 detonator on the top). If you can pm me a link to the offending video then I'm curious to see what exactly he did find.

W.

[RRPG]

Hang on.....I'll go see if I can find it again. And yes, my mistake on coding.....M39 heads As you rightly pointed out, the M24 fuze was screwed into the cap atop the handle, not into the head.