✅ SOLVED Possible projectile?

[Underwonder]

Found under the front lawn of a late 1700s property in New England. It was a rusty conglomerate and when I knocked off the rust, this object emerged....realized I should probably stop banging on it....

The internet picture search suggested a "Hotchkiss projectile" but although it looks similar, this is much smaller..It only weighs about a pound or so..not sure of the exact weight....Ideas?

Thanks!

 

[Terry Soloman]

Pretty cool. Looks like a practice round.

 

[BAW]

It looks like a projectile for use in the French Model 1916 Infantry Support Gun. This was a wheelless artillery piece which could be carried by four men, and was intended to be used to destroy pillboxes and machine gun nests. They were also used by US forces during World War I. The rifling marks on the copper driving band shows that it was fired. If it is for the M1916, it will be 37 mm. In your picture the micrometer looks like it has been placed on the tapered section. Try it between the base and the copper band and see if you get 37mm. Many of these projectiles, their brass cases and even complete inert shells were brought home as souvenirs by returning soldiers, as they were small enough to fit in a duffle bag or even a pocket.

 

[Underwonder]

Try it between the base and the copper band and see if you get 37mm.

Great info. Thanks!
The copper band measures 37.8mm
Below it which is worn measures 35.7...

 

[ArfieBoy]

Cool finds. Congratulations!

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Possibly a 1.5" Hotchkiss projectile. Notorious as the 37mm five-barrelled rotating repeating field guns used by the US Army at the Wounded Knee Massacre. Popular worldwide with Navy's in the 1880's.

 

[BAW]

Not from a Hotchkiss gun. The 1.65 Hotchkiss ( not 1.5) projectile weighed two pounds and was necessarily twice the length of Underwonders one pound projectile. The driving band on the 1.65 Hotchkiss is at least twice as wide as the band on Underwonders find.





It is true that the U.S. Navy bought and used Hotchkiss five barreled 1.65” revolving cannon, but the U.S. Army did not. The artillery at Wounded Knee consisted of Hotchkiss single barreled, single shot Model 1875 Mountain Guns using 1.65” explosive or canister shells. These single barreled pieces can be seen in period photographs taken a few days after the fight by doing an image search for “Wounded Knee”.

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

I see a 1.1 lb Hotchkiss 37mm projectile in use before WWI. Hence the designation "one pounder".

Russia / USSR 37 mm (1.5") [1-pdr] - NavWeaps

navweaps.com

 

[UnderMiner]

That looks like a projectile from a Pom-pom gun, the informal name for a hotchkiss cannon, they were relatively slow crank driven revolving cannons (1 pounders), these projectiles were used up until WWI, which saw use in early anti-aircraft roles, but they were already obsolete as the powder charge was too small. That's my surface level knowledge gleaned from a distant memory of researching one years ago.

 

[BAW]

After the St. Petersburg Declaration of 1868, which sought to ban the use of explosive small arms bullets, most European armies settled on 37mm in diameter and 400 grams or 14 ounces in weight as the smallest explosive projectile allowable. Almost every country in Europe, as well as commercial manufacturers such as Hotchkiss, used 37 mm as their standard for light guns. It is easy enough to identify a 37mm 1 pound projectile when accompanied by its brass case but hard to identify when it is not. Perhaps the best way to tell whether a projectile was made for or used in a single-barreled or five-barreled Hotchkiss 1 pounder, a Maxim-Nordenfelt 1 pounder machine gun, a British 1 pounder Pom Pom or any of the many varieties of 1 pounder used in the late 19th / early 20th century is to look at the number and size of the driving bands. I have observed, for example, that projectiles identifiable as Pom Pom rounds by the head stamps on their cases usually have three narrow copper bands, while cases identifiable as for the French M1916 are fitted with projectiles having one wide band which is still narrower than the band on Hotchkiss projectiles. As the projectile in question has the medium wide band, and assuming that a round used by US forces would be more likely to turn up in New England than one that was not, I believe that it is the French M1916 bottom-fused projectile. However, I am not so sure that I would bet my life on it.

 

[Underwonder]

After the St. Petersburg Declaration of 1868, which sought to ban the use of explosive small arms bullets, most European armies settled on 37mm in diameter and 400 grams or 14 ounces in weight as the smallest explosive projectile allowable. Almost every country in Europe, as well as commercial manufacturers such as Hotchkiss, used 37 mm as their standard for light guns. It is easy enough to identify a 37mm 1 pound projectile when accompanied by its brass case but hard to identify when it is not. Perhaps the best way to tell whether a projectile was made for or used in a single-barreled or five-barreled Hotchkiss 1 pounder, a Maxim-Nordenfelt 1 pounder machine gun, a British 1 pounder Pom Pom or any of the many varieties of 1 pounder used in the late 19th / early 20th century is to look at the number and size of the driving bands. I have observed, for example, that projectiles identifiable as Pom Pom rounds by the head stamps on their cases usually have three narrow copper bands, while cases identifiable as for the French M1916 are fitted with projectiles having one wide band which is still narrower than the band on Hotchkiss projectiles. As the projectile in question has the medium wide band, and assuming that a round used by US forces would be more likely to turn up in New England than one that was not, I believe that it is the French M1916 bottom-fused projectile. However, I am not so sure that I would bet my life on it.

Amazing info! Thank you so much for all that research. I am inclined to mark this solved and treat it gingerly. Your the best!