Dear all – I have a puzzler here – will hopefully post a pic tomorrow, but in any event, following our BP Defiant dig a wee while ago we have been looking (and making safe the ammo.

In taking the head off one of the rounds (1940 dated) the head had a screw in the rear of it.

One of our enterprising members then sectioned one of the rounds – the head is odd, FMJ then lead, then a ball bearing, with a gap to the rear presumably for explosive then a small screw in the rear of the head – presumably these things were hand made…

the bottom of the cases are pretty grotty so no MK identifiable though the year is clear – anyone seen these things before? It would seem that the heads at very least were hand made?!

Any gen -(Andy?) gratefully received – have dug many thousands of rounds of .303 up before but never seen anything like this!

All the best
Ben

PLEASE TAKE CARE BEN! These are de Wilde rounds they have picric acid and a small ball bearing in the nose which is explosive and are filled with phosphorous?! Which burns in air

Excellent advice MarkG….however, it is so much easier to do with the special tool!!!!

very apt going off at 19:40, my parents heard it and the house contents shook a little! They live up above the pier so quite surprising!

sometimes it has not gone all the way thru and can be removed/polished out with micromesh…..anyone going to cockpitfest will see what 3weeks solid polishing by a chap in a company that makes tornado/hawk canopies did to a very crazed and opaque swift canopy.

Well abit of a rubbish response to say the least, i am desperatly loking for help here, i have managed to reaserch the mustangs that were based there but my list of squadron is getting bigger

can anyone offer any help?

Thanks

‘Rubbish’ it maybe, but old chap that is what you get with volunteer based organisations in any hobbyist field…..out of a hundred people that are on the books less than 6% do anything tangible. What you need is to look at the cross section of our forum…there are doers, there are authors, restorers, interested enthusiasts, toggies, all sorts….but all of them have their own interests and demands on their time. I would suggest that waiting only 5 days and then declaring the response ‘rubbish’ is a trifle bit unkind and unwarranted! Not everyone shares your vision and those that do should be nurtured….just some friendly advice! 🙂

Funny you should say that, I was just about to edit his contact details! mind you, I didn’t think he was 51 either……

yeah and he still looks younger than you!:D

That’s because it is an American 500lb according to BBC Look East news. Due to be towed out to sea Tuesday afternoon and blown up – poor fish and porpoises!

b17 plus a lanc off the shore, tho lanc shouldve been empty