Brass Firing Thingy from a 105mm Tank Shell

[pylon1357]

I thought the topic title may get someone going, only time will tell. 

As I said in an earlier post, and no doubt, will repeat myself over and over again, cause I forget stuff, I was looking for something today and came across a whole bunch of things I forgot I had.

This 105mm tank shell primer, is one of those items. During my time in Afghanistan, many of my buddies picked up things they wanted to send home. One of the highly sought after items were the 105mm shell casings used in our LEOs. Knowing the department I was in, many of my buddies would hound me mercilessly asking I knew where they could get casings. My reply was always the same.... How the Hell would I know, we are not allowed to touch that stuff. Truth be told, they knew darn well I usually had some in my compound. 

Anyway, one afternoon a military type fellow came around, he had under his arm a 105mm casing. He was wanting to remove the primer from the casing so he could clean it and ship it home. He said he was afraid if he sent it home uncleaned, it may set alarms of some sort. Really I don't know. I handed him a blunt chisel and hammer and said "have at it, but do it in the blast bay, in case something goes wrong" Well the look on his face was either one of stark terror, or as I suspect, he figured I was a moron. Whatever the case may be, he removed the primer, handed it to me along with the tools and off he went. I asked if wanted the primer, he said no, and asked me to dispose of it for him. So I did. It sat on my desk in my office for a few months, then I tossed into a box and ended up shipping it home. Uncleaned or anything. Just the way it came out of the shell. I have no idea what the M/Cpl. was talking about. It went through the same postal system as his stuff did, and no RCMP waiting for me to get off the plane. 

 

So without further delay, here is the primer in question. Still uncleaned. I was using another item I found kicking around as prop if you will, to get better photos of the primer. That 'prop' is a Section Cleaning Kit.  If some kind hearten soul could decipher the markings for me, that would be outstanding. I think the 12/66 is the date? December 1966?? Seems we used a lot of old stuff over there

. 

[Waffenamt]

Hi Cliff,

Is that CY before the date? If so,It was made at ROF Chorley. Not far from me that was.

 

waffy

[pylon1357]

19 hours ago, Waffenamt said:

Hi Cliff,

Is that CY before the date? If so,It was made at ROF Chorley. Not far from me that was.

 

waffy

Waffy, yes it is a CY before the date. You have a very good eye, I had to pull it out and angle it so light reflected on it to read it. Scary to me is the date, 12/66. Only 8 months younger than I am, and used in Afghanistan in 2010. Crap we had a lot of old shyte over there. IIRC, my 105mm shell casing is dated 1970 with the British Broad arrow. 

[Waffenamt]

Just goes to show that old ordnance can still be deadly.

[pylon1357]

13 hours ago, Waffenamt said:

Just goes to show that old ordnance can still be deadly.

Yes it sure does. I remember when I got that shell casing (it was in a Leo we were prepping for return to Canada) I looked at the date on the base and thought to myself. Damn we got some old $hit over here. Guess we  are using up some ancient old stuff. Either that or we are broke. LOL