Metal Detecting

i found these locally cleaned them up and here are some pictures

Those 2 inch smoke mortar shells look in pretty good nic

wow great finds well done

Those 2" mortars look too good!! I hope they're empty mate... one of those bad boys could really spoil your day!

The grenade is a WW1 era No5 Mills Bomb

nice grenades!i never see it before

The 2 inch mortars look in superb condition. Indeed, they look too good to have been fired. Are you sure they're inert ?

Nice no.5 mills. Looks like it blew through the fuse column instead of the main body. Nice find.

Steve T

Is there still a filler plug on the Mills?

Neil&Julie wrote:Is there still a filler plug on the Mills?

there as rare as hens teeth lol.

hi thanks for all your coments yes they are all inert and the mills filler screw was there but not in vey good nic thou thanks all

RRPG wrote:Nice no.5 mills. Looks like it blew through the fuse column instead of the main body. Nice find.

Steve T

It does look that way, but why are the lever and pin still in place??

Neil&Julie wrote:

RRPG wrote:Nice no.5 mills. Looks like it blew through the fuse column instead of the main body. Nice find.

Steve T

It does look that way, but why are the lever and pin still in place??

I have one in doors the bottom plugs rot away first thats probably why the pin and fly off lever are still in place.

scratch0060 wrote: I have one in doors the bottom plugs rot away first thats probably why the pin and fly off lever are still in place.

I am not sure of this. I find a large number of base plugs, the vast majority of which are as good as new after a quick scrub. The body of the grenade is made of iron and so far more susceptible to corrosion and subsequent degradation. It also doesn't explain why they is an apparent low order explosion through the fuse column. This could explain the lack of base plug as this may have caused the base plug to become detached. However, none of this explains why the arm and striker pin are still in the primed position and apparently unfired.

It is a very curious relic !!!!

RRPG

I cant see the striker pin, it 'should' protrude well above the shrouded lever.

Neil&Julie wrote:I cant see the striker pin, it 'should' protrude well above the shrouded lever.

I think it's because the grenade has exploded through the bottom that you can't see the striker pin, that would have dropped into the cavity left by the explosion.

Wansdyke44 wrote:I think it's because the grenade has exploded through the bottom that you can't see the striker pin, that would have dropped into the cavity left by the explosion.

True, but that still doesn't explain why the striker arm is in place !