Could of ended badly (mills bomb)

[tailor marc]

Just a quick little story..

I came across a seller of ww1 and ww2 items and one thing he had on display that i just had to have was this little grenade. I asked him how much and he said $150.
I took it right there and then. I owned it for around 2 years. Used to be a good talking point and everyone loved to hold and play with it especially pulling the pin.
I was told by someone that owning it could get me in trouble even deactivated. I was short of cash at that time aswell and found a guy who displays ww2/ww1 and all milatary stuff legally. I rang him and he offerd me $250 so i took it. Nice little profit. As i handed it to him he asked if it were deactivated. I told him it was from a guy who knows his stuff and trusted him. Handed it over and that was the last i heard for around 6 months till i went back to look around at the guy who bought it stuff on display.
He said " You are a very lucky guy" I knew what was coming next. he then said that the grenade i had was live and was very lucky it never went off WTF! When i owned it i kept it on my bed head less than a foot away from my head. I really hope he was wrong so i will post up some images. I would love to know more about it from the markings etc if anyone of you will know and can you tell just by looking at it if its live or not by the images...

[tailor marc]

More images to come. For some reason they wont load. I have images of looking into the top hole

[Larry C]

Holy crap your so lucky man!!!

[Walkwolf]

I think the base plate alone is worth around $50-$75 and more today,
and the grenade about $250-$300 - so it was a very good deal.

The only way to tell if it were live would be to unscrew the base
plug and/or filler hole and check the contents. Besides the
explosive, there would also have been a 'fish-hook'
shaped fuse assembly inside.

It does not look like it is rusted up enough to malfunction.
The 'firing pin' is on a very strong spring, so the times
when you were playing with it, if the lever flew off,
the spring would have driven the plunger
forward, detonating the grenade.


They are simple but deadly devices.........

[davejb]

well i had written a long detailed set of scenarios as to why it may not have detonated then my internet connection went screwy as i posted it, sufficed to say, in short 4 possible reasons ,grenade was inert besides what you were told,grenade was live but no fuze,grenade was live but no striker and spring , grenade just failed to detonate , the lesson here is never buy any type of ordnance unless you have proof positive of deactivation, I would say you could rate yourself as a very lucky man if this was a live grenade esecially as the pin had been pulled and the lever was detached, Mills bombs were the most powerful grenades in both wars and rarely left much except a red mist and a few bits, start doing the lottery my friend with your luck you might just win!!!!

[tailor marc]

Thanks guys, yep learnt my lesson here and glad im here to tell the story. i know advise people on this exact subject. I dont think that there is as much live ordnance here in Australia as say Europe but we must all be really carefull.
The reason i posted these images was because i noticed similer storys and we all need to be really careful.

[tailor marc]

Anyone know details of the grenade? As far as i know its around ww1 mills bomb. Dont know what the markings are? Built jan 1918?

[tailor marc]

British maybe?

[lithgow]

A live WW1 grenade turned up at a garage sale last weekend here in Oz-apparently many of the old vets had developed a wildly relaxed attitude to having live explosives around the place as souvenirs-have heard of artillery rounds used as doorstops and meat pounders/tenderisers etc.

PS -Lottery tickets are likely a waste as you've probably used up all the good luck you're ever going to get!

[davejb]

the circular base plate was used for firing from a grenade launcher rifle , although yo dont have it anymore there may have been markings on the casing re maker