Bofors 40mm ammo??

ARMYOf1

ARMYOf1

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So my wife brought home a bofors 40mm round from her grandfathers estate that he brought home from WW2. It is a huge round. I googled it and it is an anti aircraft round. I don't know if its live, but it feels heavy, and it doesn't appear to be drilled tapped or fired. I put it out in the shed, is it going to blow up my shed?!???



Seriously..what should I do with this thing? Is it safe to bring inside or not? If it is live, is there a way to make the powder inert?



She also brought home some maybe 50 caliber rounds of his, also from WW2, which I'm not too worried about. So what do you guys think?
 
I'm working on my sixth year in the Army as an EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) Technician.

The safest thing to do is report it to the police so they can dispose of it. If you're anywhere near a major army base, you could also report it directly to their EOD.

If you tell me where you are, I'll get you the number of the closest EOD unit.

If you're set on keeping it, post some pictures, and I'll see if what I can do by way of identification.

In the meantime, I'd recommend against moving it.
 
I see two choices if you can't determine if it's live or not. If it's live, it's 60+ years old and could be unstable.

1. Take it out in the boonies and bury it.....deep. (Not recommended)

2. Call your local law enforcement agency and ask them what to do with it. Do not take there and drop it someones desk.:eek: Be sure to explain how you got it.


A lady whose husband passed away brought some guns into the gun shop that I was working at in the PRK. She said that she forgot something and went back out to her car for a paper bag. In side was a live WWII vintage Mk1 grenade. :eek: We called the sheriff and they sent someone over to get it.
 
I agree, notify your local law enforcement. We used to get these calls now and then; the usual scenario was that the old man, a war vet, would die and the widow would be cleaning out the house for an estate sale.
In one case, the lady found a box of WWII vintage 60mm mortar rounds. Hand grenades are fairly common.

We have a "War Dead Memorial" in St. Louis which has a museum-like display of various machine guns, mortars, and so forth. All of these were turned in during the "grace period" for the 1968 Gun Control Act.
 
Thanks for the good advice. I called Ft. Carson and they said to call the local police to have them file a report. So I called the County Sheriff, meet him at my home and took him out to the shed. He took a look at it and called his sergeant. The Sergeant came out and called the “Bomb squad guy” who happened to be on motorcycle patrol in my area. He came out, and as soon as he picked it up knew it was inert. He said that it would be much heavier had it had a full charge. Then he cranked off the projectile and low and behold no powder. He did make us write inert on it so know one else would be worried about it being an explosive and then he was on his way. So now I can feel safe about bringing it into my home. I will snap some picture when I get a chance. It does make a cool conversation piece… with out grandpa being alive to advise that it was disarmed it was great that I could get a professional option for my piece of mind.!!
 
I would love to see pictures of It, I have been collecting ammo for a while.

I need to get my hands on some .50's though.
 
I snapped a few pics so you guys could see why I was concerned!
053-1.jpg


056-2.jpg


057-2.jpg


It must have been one hell of a gun that put these bad boys in orbit!!!!
I would hate to be on the receiving end!!
 
Do what everybody said - either call law enforcement, or contact cubisthamster for a nearby EOD unit. Great looking old AA round, but it could be EXTREMELY dangerous.

Either one of those agencies can determine if it's inert.

Good luck, and keep us posted.

thx - cpr
 
Those are still used on C-130 gun ships. Same guns, different mounts, and most of the ammo is WWII stuff.
Although I hear they are running out of barrels, tough to keep them this long and they do go bad, and the ammo is running short after 8 years of fighting.

Interesting history... Wikipedia has a lot of good information about that stuff.

I have a 60 year old friend who talks about his father and how he figured out how to bring back some cool stuff. (And some of his fathers friends who brought back explosives and grenades.)

BTW, it is good you called the police. Not too long ago (like 5-10 years or so?) some kid around here brought a WWII mortar round to school. The kid was showing it off and another kid said "You arm it like this" then slammed it base first into the concrete floor. He then threw it at the kid that brought it... who dropped it.

The explosives did degrade with time, and it scared the poop out of everyone in the school, but there were few injuries. A rather bright story compared to some of the unexploded ordinance stories I have heard.

I will have to look for the article.
 
whomp it with a hammer a bunch. . .


Ok, not really. :D

I would want to keep the thing, personally- after it gets deactivated. But chances are they will just blow it up.

I would like to get a hold of one of those ww2 Bofors barrels, I don't suppose you have one of those :)
 
I have an old case ,not sure what type, that was made into a lamp ! What sailors do on their free time .
Why 40mm ? Because at that size you can use many projectiles and with various fuses , time delay etc.In WWII with kamakazi attacks the navy developed quad mount 40mm guns which put out huge amonts of rounds needed for that situation ! If you can find video of a kamikazi attack the gunfire is awsome !!
 
Cougar Allen said:
It's always amusing to see the posts from people who haven't read the thread.
Click to expand...

What he said. +1 :D


It doesn't matter what the thread is about. There are always people who want to get into the conversation even though they have nothing to offer. That's why you see thinks like, "What he said" and "+1".

What was the topic again?
 
The projectile seems to be mostly soild. It is like a giant bullet. It does have a hollow area inside the bottom that appears to be stuffed with some kind of material. I will have to take a closer look at the bottom of the bullet. It fits into the shell really tightly. My wifes grandfather who brought this back from the war was in Patton's third Army he was in Normandy. I think it was an Anti aircraft shell..? Any ways it is pretty cool to have an artifact that has family history! Glad you guys like it as well.
 
Here is a picture of the bottom of the shell which originally lead me to believe that is was a dud or a misfire... The primer has been struck. Also note the date 1943.

DSC04118.jpg
 
AA rounds?!
i keep picturing that graphic scene in "Saving Private Ryan", depicting a couple of para's who were cut down from hanging on to a "Tiger" tank...
 
GIRLYmann said:
AA rounds?!
i keep picturing that graphic scene in "Saving Private Ryan", depicting a couple of para's who were cut down from hanging on to a "Tiger" tank...
Click to expand...

the scene you are thinking of was a 20mm. Even so, if they would have been trying for realism, that scene would have been far more graphic.
 
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