What are these? A friend found these at an estate sale and can't identify them. The fins are not plastic but some sort of rubberized canvas, and the tip has what looks like a rim fire...

chuckla Loc: Kennesaw, GA USA

A friend found these at an estate sale and can't identify them. The fins are not plastic but some sort of rubberized canvas, and the tip has what looks like a rim fire cartridge in it. The WWII Veterans who volunteer as docents at the 8th Army Air Corps museum in Savannah, GA, had no idea what they were. I'm guessing an unexploded bomblet from the WWII (pre plastic) era. Any first hand knowledge or thoughts?

(Download)

goldenyears Loc: Lake Osewgo

Old yard darts set?

DWU2 Loc: Phoenix Arizona area

Don't drop it.

Najataagihe

Training rounds or marking rounds.

Not a bomblet.

chuckla Loc: Kennesaw, GA USA

Najataagihe wrote:

Training rounds or marking rounds.

Rounds for what? They appear to be fin stabilized, so dropped from a plane?

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

Just a guess

If the cylinder is hollow it might hold a flammable liquid. If the rim fire cartridge fires on impact it could ignite the liquid so you have an incendiary device.

Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

chuckla wrote:

A friend found these at an estate sale and can't identify them. The fins are not plastic but some sort of rubberized canvas, and the tip has what looks like a rim fire cartridge in it. The WWII Veterans who volunteer as docents at the 8th Army Air Corps museum in Savannah, GA, had no idea what they were. I'm guessing an unexploded bomblet from the WWII (pre plastic) era. Any first hand knowledge or thoughts?

When I was very young (early 1950's) we had a toy like that you unscrewed the nose and put in a cap (which you had to tear the corners off to make it fit, then you would hold it by the fins and toss it in the air, when it hit nose down you got a bang. Well its was fun then !!!

Brian in Whitby Loc: Whitby, Ontario, Canada

Manglesphoto wrote:

When I was very young (early 1950's) we had a toy like that you unscrewed the nose and put in a cap (which you had to tear the corners off to make it fit, then you would hold it by the fins and toss it in the air, when it hit nose down you got a bang. Well its was fun then !!!

I remember those!

Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

DirtFarmer wrote:

Just a guess

If the cylinder is hollow it might hold a flammable liquid. If the rim fire cartridge fires on impact it could ignite the liquid so you have an incendiary device.

The rimfire cartridge would have to hit something hard to fire making it a hit or miss operation.

HOHIMER

Manglesphoto wrote:

When I was very young (early 1950's) we had a toy like that you unscrewed the nose and put in a cap (which you had to tear the corners off to make it fit, then you would hold it by the fins and toss it in the air, when it hit nose down you got a bang. Well its was fun then !!!

We did the same thing using two large bolts and a large nut.
Screw one bolt in part way….load nut with match heads….screw the other bolt in to just snug.
Throw up in the air….when it hit the ground it would explode. (Most of the time)

Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

HOHIMER wrote:

We did the same thing using two large bolts and a large nut.
Screw one bolt in part way….load nut with match heads….screw the other bolt in to just snug.
Throw up in the air….when it hit the ground it would explode. (Most of the time)

Lol most of the time

Dannj

Manglesphoto wrote:

When I was very young (early 1950's) we had a toy like that you unscrewed the nose and put in a cap (which you had to tear the corners off to make it fit, then you would hold it by the fins and toss it in the air, when it hit nose down you got a bang. Well its was fun then !!!

I was thinking the same thing! Fun stuff😂

jiminnee

They used to make something like that as a toy. You unscrewed the one end & placed an explosive cap in it,(like for a kid's cap gun) screwed it back together, threw it in the air & when it landed (always on the rounded end) the cap would explode harmlessly.

Pass-Go Loc: Brunswick Oh

Yeah, but do you remember those rolls of caps. We would take a whole roll put them on the cement road or driveway and hit it with a hammer . Couldn't hear for a few minutes after , but good times. Lol

fourlocks Loc: Londonderry, NH

Pass-Go wrote:

Yeah, but do you remember those rolls of caps. We would take a whole roll put them on the cement road or driveway and hit it with a hammer . Couldn't hear for a few minutes after , but good times. Lol

Hey we used to do that! As I recall, first we'd tightly wrap the roll in several layers of aluminum foil. It supposedly enhanced the effect causing you to lose your hearing even longer. When we were really desperate we'd take a pin and open each little blister of gunpowder scraping about a quarter of a pin head's worth of powder from each blister. After a whole roll, you had about a half a teaspoon of gunpowder.

I finally found a drug store that would sell one-pound jars of Saltpeter (Potassium Nitrate) which, mixed with sulfur and charcoal powder, made crude gunpowder. Sulfur was easy to purchase and we ground charcoal brickets into powder on my father's grinding wheel. I'm sure he appreciated the resulting fine patina of charcoal dust covering everything in the basement.