Artillery Shell?

[mistert_T]

Found in Northern NJ, near an iron mine, WWI artillery shell? what is it doing there?
thanks!

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

A Handbook of Civil War Bullets and Cartridges - Grab it through Amazon!

[faribo]

That might be a dummy for practice. Treat it like it is real.

I am a redleg and have seen what they do when they go off.

 

[mistert_T]

Thanks I shined a light in and it was just filled with dirt which I shook out it is empty and the hole is threaded not sure you can tell in the photo. Is it for sure an artillery shell? Can't think what else it might be, this is about 2 miles from Picatinny Arsenal though so maybe something to do with that? hard to imagine them shooting it in that direction though

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Appears to be unfired as I don't see rifling grooves cut into the rifling band. It's also missing the fuse. Looks to be maybe a 75mm and I'd guess WWI era.

https://www.worldwar1centennial.org/images/Pennsylvania/EDDYSTONE_MUNITIONS_CO_illustrated2.pdf

 

[Georgivs]

Pretty cool. I wonder what it's story is.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Mister T, the object's finder, asked:
> Found in Northern NJ, near an iron mine, WWI artillery shell? what is it doing there?

Yes, it is an artillery shell and it appears to be a World War One version, which had a detachable nose, for loading it full of lead antipersonnel (shrapnel) balls.

Explanation of how it came to be found in New Jersey, and unfired, and missing its fuze and antipersonnel balls:
Most people alive today seem to forget that all the way up into the 1950s, the VAST majority of the land in nearly every US state was basically unoccupied. Most land consisted of multi-acre farmfields and undeveloped forests. So, the US Army was free to conduct training and even "live fire" artillery practice almost wherever it wanted to. This is why the James River bluffs below Richmond VA and even Georgia's Kennesaw Mountain and Chickamauga battlefield parks are loaded with fired WW1 and WW2 artillery shells. I suspect your New Jersey WW1 antipersonnel shell was abandoned when "out in the farmfields" training ended at the war's close, and some soldier decided to salvage the hundreds of lead balls inside it. He then discarded its valueless steel body.

 

[frijoles]

Hi guys, I am new to this forum but I collect artillery shells for a hobby and research obscure history relating to designs of them (experimental etc.). This appears to be a 76mm, empty of course, high explosive shell from ww1 era that the u.s.a. produced under contract for the Russian Empire. I will post a pic of my example that is in factory produced condition later (with its fuze). I noted that it is a unfired example, however you said you found it in northern New Jersey. Are you anywhere near where this explosion occurred during ww1? Your find could be a bit of debris from the large explosion, however if you are far inland I doubt it is from this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Tom_explosion
If not then I'd research the area you live in, many different companies became subcontractors to larger companies in the USA during that time period to produce ammunition for these contracts.

 

[frijoles]

Sorry, for some reason my previous post was put in escrow. What i was saying was this projectile strongly resembles a 76mm Russian high explosive shell (its empty dont worry and has no fuze) that the USA produced under contract for the Russian Empire during ww1. Ill post a pic later of my relatively factory new example I have with its fuze. Id also check your proximity to the Picatinny Arsenal. Interestingly, in 1926 lightning struck the Arsenal and ignited ammunition (look up the photos its insane). Everything from 37mm, 3 pounders to 14 inch shells went up in smoke launching debris far away. This could also be from that.

The alternative could be its a copy of french 75mm artillery shells that we produced for our own copies of their guns in ww1 and prior. That would therefore be a shrapnel shell that would have had a small "beehive" fuze on top, which would explain better the separating adapter on the shell body. Frankly though, I doubt it is this as the crimping band I can still see below the rotating band indicates it is not one of these shrapnel shells but the russian contracts.