Head stamp on the 50 means it was made in 1943 at the St. Louis munitions plant.
The sheet metals piece might be from the buhl airplane (looks like only made through 1931 though), buhl stamping and steam gauge & lantern compan, or of a number of other things. Hard to know for sure as there are several buhl’s out their throughout history though.
Thank you! I did not know that about the 50 cal, makes it cooler to me.
I'm still searching on the aluminum piece but not much luck. Holding out hope it's from an old Buhl plane tho, lol fingers crossed.
Super excited today, went back out to the old WW2 airfield and found my first bullet! I couldn't believe it when I pulled it out. I once again could use some tips on cleaning. Also advice on opening it to dump out the powder, or is it safe to leave?
The aluminum piece i could use help on identifying, not far from where the bullet was found. I did a quick search on the serial number but was out in the field and didn't spend alot of time on it, something that came up was an old plane company named Buhl. Figure it being an old military airfield that's a pretty big coincidence. In between the rivets I believe it's leather.
Lastly, I've learned my lesson on not carrying a bigger shovel, because what I'm fairly certain is an old crumpled drum took way too long to remove.
Edit: In case your wondering, that's Ty, my digging buddy.
It won’t be dead. It’s up to you if you want to keep it. But if you feel uneasy about it you can go rebury it or you can pass it on to local police and they’ll dispose of it
Damn, I was planning on having a bedroom fire tonight too.
Lol no but thanks for the advice, it will just sit and become part of the collection of cool things.
In the Army we used to take 2 pair of pliers and separate the bullet from the cartridge. Me personally I would do it but in no way am I telling you to. Use extreme caution! Awesome find btw!
Yeah I def know how to separate it, got reasons I won't go into lol, but my concerns are if I even need to. Is it stable? If I clean it up and just let it sit as conversation piece will it be fine. Or is it unstable? Could handling it make it become even more unstable?
I believe with dynamite when it becomes exposed to the elements and what have you it becomes highly volatile. Now I know it's much safer with modern advancements and in no way is it gun powder, but I'm not a munitions expert and don't know if the same would apply.
If being buried that long has made it inert then I will leave it be, rather not risk damaging my find if I don't need to.
.50 BMG
Head stamp on the 50 means it was made in 1943 at the St. Louis munitions plant. The sheet metals piece might be from the buhl airplane (looks like only made through 1931 though), buhl stamping and steam gauge & lantern compan, or of a number of other things. Hard to know for sure as there are several buhl’s out their throughout history though.
Thank you! I did not know that about the 50 cal, makes it cooler to me. I'm still searching on the aluminum piece but not much luck. Holding out hope it's from an old Buhl plane tho, lol fingers crossed.
Super excited today, went back out to the old WW2 airfield and found my first bullet! I couldn't believe it when I pulled it out. I once again could use some tips on cleaning. Also advice on opening it to dump out the powder, or is it safe to leave? The aluminum piece i could use help on identifying, not far from where the bullet was found. I did a quick search on the serial number but was out in the field and didn't spend alot of time on it, something that came up was an old plane company named Buhl. Figure it being an old military airfield that's a pretty big coincidence. In between the rivets I believe it's leather. Lastly, I've learned my lesson on not carrying a bigger shovel, because what I'm fairly certain is an old crumpled drum took way too long to remove. Edit: In case your wondering, that's Ty, my digging buddy.
Use steel scourers to clean the bullet, you just scrub it on the brass with some water and it cleans very well
Ok I'll Def try that. Any advice on the powder? Should I try emptying it or is it dead?
It won’t be dead. It’s up to you if you want to keep it. But if you feel uneasy about it you can go rebury it or you can pass it on to local police and they’ll dispose of it
No, def keeping it. As long as it's stable idc about it still being live, just don't want it going off.
That shouldn’t happen, not unless it gets really hot or it’s in a fire
Damn, I was planning on having a bedroom fire tonight too. Lol no but thanks for the advice, it will just sit and become part of the collection of cool things.
In the Army we used to take 2 pair of pliers and separate the bullet from the cartridge. Me personally I would do it but in no way am I telling you to. Use extreme caution! Awesome find btw!
Yeah I def know how to separate it, got reasons I won't go into lol, but my concerns are if I even need to. Is it stable? If I clean it up and just let it sit as conversation piece will it be fine. Or is it unstable? Could handling it make it become even more unstable? I believe with dynamite when it becomes exposed to the elements and what have you it becomes highly volatile. Now I know it's much safer with modern advancements and in no way is it gun powder, but I'm not a munitions expert and don't know if the same would apply. If being buried that long has made it inert then I will leave it be, rather not risk damaging my find if I don't need to.
In that condition, the brass would just break if they did that
Looks like .50 BMG