WWI live French Lebel bullet

**iron** · 09-09-2009, 09:09 AM

hi i just got this live bullet given to me and wonderd are there many still about?
i think its a lebel ww1 bullet?

**Bill Grist** · 09-09-2009, 04:20 PM

It is a 8mm French Lebel...I cannot make out most of the headstamp but it might be mfg. BY Robin Hood ctg. company that made Lebel ammo for the french in WW1...BILL

**navyman** · 10-17-2009, 10:07 PM

by Bill Grist

It is a 8mm French Lebel...I cannot make out most of the headstamp but it might be mfg. BY Robin Hood ctg. company that made Lebel ammo for the french in WW1...BILL

Hello Bill,
Here's a Lebel which was in my 'unknown' box until Tony E identified it for me. I was surprised that the projectiles were made from solid copper.
Cheers,
navyman.

**HVK** · 10-17-2009, 10:13 PM

That kind of bullet started my collection - and my interest in Bbattlefield Archeology. When I was age 16 I was with the high school visiting the Somme area. When we stood in the old trenches I did see some very old tree stubs - with holes in them. I took my pocket knife and scratched the rotten tree - and out fell a solid copper French Lebel bullet. More than 70 years after the war. This made such a feeling that I have never escaped the "poison" of battlefield archeology again....

**Panzer 3** · 10-17-2009, 10:48 PM

Hi,
Here is the only Lebel round i have, not so much a round but a Calvery, it is a prayer piece trench made. It also has Ypre scratched into it, i bought this when i was a kid for 1s. 6d, = 12,1/2p had it ever since. One of my Faverate pieces.
dave.

**navyman** · 10-18-2009, 12:02 AM

Hello HVK and Dave,
Good to hear your stories, I don't know why collecting is so addictive, we had better watch out or the government will have us all stamped with a health warning.
As for 1s & 6d Dave, that was a fortune to me in the late 50's but I'm a mere youngster as I wont be 60 until January.
What a lovely piece of trench art is your Lebel crucifix. It's a shame all my grandfathers mantlepiece ornaments were thrown away on his death whilst I was away in the Navy. Miniature coal scuttles, candlesticks in different calibres, and all sorts of odds and ends. I still look in every junk shop just in case.......
All best
Guy.