Not so much "the bullet with your name on it" more like the one that says "to whom it may concern"!!
At least when metal detecting you can dig around signals and make an ID and decide when its safe to uncover or not. When the magnet chooses for you its not always fun times.
Last edited by BlackCat1982; 11-04-2020 at 01:07 PM. Reason: typo
" I guess it's an added benefit that all of our explosive relics are older than WWII." You might want to tell that to the people killed by WW1 munitions or the Americans killed by civil war shell. Remember that pre WW1 explosive fillings like Lydite were used and that does not get better with age!
by vegetius
Indeed, a few years back on the edge of a one time training are (the training area still exists but the boundaries had been moved back) the ground was being prepared for a new housing development (I won't name the place but Rod you will remember this?) and thousands of WWI arty rounds were found burried at a mere two feet depth in what was considered a safe disposal method in those days. These rounds were almost 100 years old at that time and corroded to hell but some were known/suspected to be chemical rounds. This meant that because they could not be certain which were chemical and which were HE that they all had to be treated as chemical. Major problem!!
This was about ten years ago now and a very large number are still awaiting safe destruction in a secure location.
The point is that these items are considered so dangerous/hazardous that they are queued up in a very labour intensive and high tech neutralisation programme yet some people think it a good idea to hoist things like this out of a river with a magnet on a string then do who knows what with it.
We still have signs on some of the beaches around the UK coast that carry the stark warning not to pick up any metal objects found because "It may explode and kill you"
Very sage advice I believe!
Regards
Mark
"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing he cares more about than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature with no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
Do not. The fact you haven't blown yourself up yet while digging for that sexy SS buckle and Luger does not mean it cannot happen. Some wartime explosives have become unstable enough to go off immediately after coming into contact with air or when moved even gently - that is, when you pull the rusty, leaking clump out of the water and drop it next to you.
Apparently a group of experts here in Finland did some testing with a magnet and different artillery shell fuzes some years back. The result? Just the force of the magnet attaching and pulling the item activated approx. 75% (!!!) of the fuzes. In this case even the slightest movement of the item would have caused a detonation had they been attached to a live projectile.
Food for thought I hope!!
ErrDid we mention White Phosphorous? It doesn't even need to be old to be bad for your health!
The US Army used to use the rather quaint expression "Shake and Bake" in reference to WP or "Willy Pete" grenades. Check it out. It's inspiring
Regards
Mark
"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing he cares more about than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature with no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
seems like that rivers were a catch all, in and after wars.
- - ------- - -
outta sight out of mind.
Last year in my city, less than a mile from where I live, a magnet fisher found a WW1 German Granatenwerfer 16 mortar bomb at the bottom of the river. This wouldn't be surprising if I didn't tell you that I live in Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA!
The police took it and planned to blow it up with C4, not checking whether or not it's deactivated first. Here is the news article.
The theory I've heard is a U.S. veteran brought this back with him when he returned from the war and his family found it after he passed away, freaked out, and threw it in the river most likely a very long time ago lol.
Here's my take... of course I'd love to keep it, but is it deactivated? I wouldn't want to tamper with it since I'm not an expert in explosives and would certainly not want to find out the hard way. It's just not worth the risk in my opinion.
I've magnet fished the same bridge and only found typical Midwestern stuff like railroad spikes, but one kid with his dad I saw there one day found a revolver on his FIRST THROW EVER. That's so awesome. I hope to find a Luger someday.Now I know there is a chance!
Very true. All the chemical thingies are quite nasty indeed. And many sorts of fillings are extremely carcinogenic as well so even touching them can be dangerous...Err
This was unfortunately the case even into the 1960s, at least here. Unexploded ordnance was "disposed of" by dumping it into the closest lake or burying them in large pits a meter below the ground. These dumps are still being found occasionally.
Sweersz, whether the grenade is live or not Police aren't always the best to know, why should they. Generally it all gets treated as live because that is the healthiest way for everyone.
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