Sanded in but found a ??? 20mm round ???

[DnD]

Sanded in but found a live round

2-hour hunt was rough with the sanded in conditions but I found this amazing round. Anyone know what it is? Crazy enough, there wasn't any other targets within a 75 yard radius.

 

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[moxford]

2" diameter puts it at 50mm, so maybe a 47mm round. Honestly, if it's live, I wouldn't keep it. Time and corrosion do bad things to ammunition and they can get touchy. Call the local police and have EOD deal with it.

 

[s1u2r3f4]

What's going on?? First, my gamo gun, now this!! Natives are restless! I heard that there used to be military target practice near the SA pier.

 

[DnD]

This morning I called the EOD, and they just picked it up.

 

[Sir Gala Clad]

From the heavy corrosion, the round you found appears to be of WW ll vintage.
From it's shape it most likely was a high explosive round/tracer, not armor piercing, for a 37 mm cannon.
I would guess from an M4 cannon, which were used in the P-39 Air Cobra for air to air combat and also used on Navy PT boats, beginning with the Solomon Islands campaign, most likely by scrounging or salvage from P-39s.

Less likely, it could be 40 mm projectile (based on the blunted nose) used to defend a ship against air attack,
These anti aircraft guns were fired one after the other (not synchronized) and were nick named Pom Poms as one barrel would be forward while the other was back from the recoil.

US Fighters were typically armed with browning 50 Caliber machine guns , each machine gun being fed by a linked chain of
27 feet. Usually they were fired in short bursts to conserve ammunition. Giving them the whole 9 yards refers to firing all 27 feet at the same target
in a single burst - it was not derived from football.

Some aircraft were armed with the slightly larger 20 mm cannon which is to small to be what you found.
The advantage of the 20 mm was extra range, the disadvantages were more weight and a slower rate of fire.

 

[DnD]

Sir Gala' thanks for sharing the info! The EOD personnel also shared some great stories today that align with what you are saying. Turns out during WW2 there was a small confrontation off the coast with a german u-boat, and another area nearby was used as target practice from WWI to WWII. Ordinance still washes ashore and the EOD said I should look up this 2007 article where a 100lb bomb/torpedo washed up. Check it out....She found a World War II-era bomb by the dawn's early light | Jacksonville.com

 

[MTJosh]

Haven't found any live rounds yet (except pistol size) but do get a good number of old 50 cal (WWII vintage) from local beaches as this whole coast was armed then. When younger living in Lake Havasu in the desert outside of town, we would find live 50 cal and others found even bigger as the area was used for desert training during WWII. A place I hunt in MT was the national guard range years ago. Okay to hunt but signs warning not to dig and be on the lookout for UXO (unexploded ordnance) needless to say I won't be detecting that area. Never know what you may dig up next.