120mm shell

[redxeye]

hello!does anyone know what shell this is and what eplosives was in it?(found in finland)it was 2 different explosives,1 in the center(hard,tnt?) and the other was around it(brown soft)
https://www.warrelics.eu/forum/attac...845=1257787845
lenght 470mm

[Steve T]

You took the explosive out ?

Bloody hell ! Are you completely MAD !!!!!?????

If anyone finds an unexploded shell like this PLEASE do NOT try and remove the explosive from it. 99 times out of 100 we'd have to sieve the remains to find your teeth to identify you.

Steve T

[spotter]

[HVK]

I myself would not have dearmed it - but for the ones who want to take the risk and know what to do it is rewarding.... :-) I have a German friend who has dismantled and dearmed hundreds of grenated, mortar grenades, panzerfausts, gewehr granaten, hand grenaes etc. and removed the explosives....

If it is a grenade type I know, if there are NO detonators at all I would have no problem scraping out the TNT... But again everything can go wrong - and the safe rule is to let everything be in situ...

Normally things go well - and TNT and most explosives are often harmless... But the detonators ! I would not recommend anybody doing it - but hey! If things go wrong they would not recognise it themselves.... ;-)

[HVK]

The soft brown stuff could be Amatol? Amatol - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Dimas]

Noway, on the picture is shown WW1 period shell, I think it's a imperial Russian shell.
The main problem in the period shells is a picric acid (melinit) on the center, made yellow your hands, which unwashed from the skin and stay for about a week. Old explosives has this explosive as a ignitor for the rest of TNT. That is a very dangerous explosive substance, due of a soils of picric acid- picrits is a highly brizant, and could be exploded just from a temperature change. The brown is normally TNT.
In all that cases I would not touch it, but I know the men who are still alive and make the explosives inert...

[Steve T]

Picric acid = Cyanide

......your hands being stained yellow is the least of your worries if it is picric acid !

Steve T

[redxeye]

it was half empty when i found it and wet and NO detonator!!! other wise i would not had toch it,i flushed the stuff out with water hose!i dont think its picrite acid!?,it isnt yellow its rust brown !!!i had gloves.

[sebfrench76]

dear old boy,it was a real joy to meet you...We'll always keep in mind your courage de-acting these devilish shells.May you find peace somewhere...
I'm not very keen in explosives.But I will surely follow the very good advices of the good ol'diggers...

[redxeye]

i will tell god greetings from you all