# Anyone familiar with larger military weapons/ammo



## MIGHTY (Sep 21, 2013)

I was curious to know if anyone could enlighten me on what kind of shell casing this is. My moms brother gave it and a Japanese bayonet with sheath that my grandfather brought home after WWII. He joined the navy in December of 1943 at 20 years old according to his papers and was a gunners mate 3rd class. According to his obituary he served aboard the SS John Woolman, SS Christopher L. Sholls and YO-177 (a yard oiler). The casing has all kinds of stamps on it that I tried to get a picture of incase anyone might know a thing or two about this kind of stuff. It looks very similar in size to a 40mm Bofor shell casing which I know was a heavily used weapon during the war and one of the stampings appears to say 40r. Take a look.


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## ldrjay (Apr 2, 2009)

looks like an anti tank round or some sort of smaller artillery round to me. to small to be a tank round. I have ever no clue about those navy guns.


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## MIGHTY (Sep 21, 2013)

Whatever it is, the gun sure does have a big firing pin.


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## supercanoe (Jun 12, 2006)

It looks like an antiaircraft round. Measure the diameter at the neck. That would help narrow it down.


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## Slikster (Jul 14, 2005)

Looks like a 40mm Anti-Aircraft casing.


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## leeabu (Apr 10, 2004)

MIGHTY said:


> View attachment 218390
> View attachment 218389
> I was curious to know if anyone could enlighten me on what kind of shell casing this is. My moms brother gave it and a Japanese bayonet with sheath that my grandfather brought home after WWII. He joined the navy in December of 1943 at 20 years old according to his papers and was a gunners mate 3rd class. According to his obituary he served aboard the SS John Woolman, SS Christopher L. Sholls and YO-177 (a yard oiler). The casing has all kinds of stamps on it that I tried to get a picture of incase anyone might know a thing or two about this kind of stuff. It looks very similar in size to a 40mm Bofor shell casing which I know was a heavily used weapon during the war and one of the stampings appears to say 40r. Take a look.


3 inch 50 cal was used on navy destroyers as an anti aircraft gun in WWll. I believe that is what you have.


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## tm1669 (Apr 27, 2007)

Might be a spent case from a Bofors 40mm Anti Aircraft gun. 
I bet there were millions of them fired during WW2


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## supercanoe (Jun 12, 2006)

I was thinking Bofors as well.


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## MIGHTY (Sep 21, 2013)

Yea, I searched some images of the 3" 50's and the shell is similar in length but the neck is more pronounced. Then did more image searches of the 40mm Bofor and they look identical even down to the large firing pin strikes. Pretty awesome weapon from the videos available on YouTube. Wish my grandparents were still around since I've taken a lot of interest in WWII but all but one of my grandmothers passed away while I was teenager.


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## sherman51 (Apr 12, 2011)

yeah I was thinking more in the line of a 40mm round. much to small for a 50 cal or even a 20mm. I fired 50 cal's in the marine corps and they just wasn't that big. the planes in the squadron I was assigned to at cherry point air base in north Carolina shot the 20mm rounds and they were much smaller than your casing.
sherman


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## MIGHTY (Sep 21, 2013)

I think I read that the Bofor was a Swiss made weapon that was used by all sides during the war and might still be used today or up until recently? I believe they were primarily use as anti aircraft weapons? I wonder if there was a story behind why he kept it or not. Anyone in/retired from the navy that knows what the job of a gunners mate 3rd class is? Thanks for all the replies.


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## Drm50 (Dec 26, 2014)

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Here is pic of a 40mm Bofors. Casing is 12 1/4" long. The belt buckle in pic is made from butt end of a 40 Bofors.
I shot many hundreds of them in RVN, from Duel 40mm on M42 Duster. Now they use 40mm Bofors in the new
SPECTRE gun ships. In Vietnam we were still using WW2 ammo. Designed as AA weapon was used in ground support role,120 rd per minute, ammo in 4rd Clips.
The Navy 3"X 50 is about 76mm, about same as Sherman tank gun in WW2.


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## MIGHTY (Sep 21, 2013)

Awesome, thanks for the post Drm. A friend of mine picked up a box of military 45acp ammo dated to May of 44 that I like to display with my 2 military 1911's. I've got a little collection of items that belonged to my family members that were in the service and trying to do a little research on them. The photo albums trump everything.


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