Anyone know anything about artillery shells?

[RicksAlfas]

I'm sticking this in here as it seems to be the unofficial military lounge, but please move it if there's somewhere more appropriate.

I picked these up from a local curios shop. They came like this, i.e. with the small ones inside the large ones:



However I think they are more likely to be four individual shells, don't you? They are all brass.
The big ones are 3" diameter, 12" long. The small ones are 2.75" diameter by 4".



The big ones have the following markings:



And the small ones these:



Does anyone know what they might be from?

[Condi]

I think one of the big ones is a naval 6 pounder, the other possibly a field gun, again 6pder. The 7/03 would suggest so. The top one is the naval one, the one lower down the field gun. CF means cordite filled, as opposed to black power, and the date across the bottom (10/8/03) is probably a manufacturing date. BSA and MCo is the Birmingham Small Arms and Manufacturing Company.


The smaller ones have 1917 printed on them, and at a guess the 6 and 7 are months of manufacture. Again, a navel weapon I think.

[Simpo Two]

Not much propellant in the short ones - starshell perhaps?

[RicksAlfas]

Thanks chaps. I've realised the bottom pic is upside down. Apologies. If you look carefully there is an anchor marked on the base so presumably they're naval issue. A starshell would make sense for something that size.

[Hooli]

The small ones don't seem to have the step where the case meets the shell, could that mean they'd been cut down?

[paintman]

The small ones could only have the primers fitted & be used for display purposes where it is required for the gun to fire a blank but not a big bang & a full length casing is unnecessary.
An example would be the naval field gun race which used to be a big feature of the Royal Tournament. The competition started in 1907 so the dates & the Navy mark on the base would be right.

Edited by paintman on Sunday 20th October 14:28

[Wedg1e]

One of my jobs is looking after the x-ray system at a well-known firing range in Wiltshire. As the range has been in use for 100+ years, often when they have a live firing exercise the explosion throws up old munitions, some of which has obviously gone bang, some of which hasn't but could be a training round. In either case it could be ours or a round from a captured weapon fired to establish its capability against our tanks etc.
So some poor sod has to retrieve said munitions, transport it very carefully to a lead-lined room in the middle of the range where they x-ray it to identify what it is. To aid in this they have a lot (a LOT) of books full of photos of shells, rubber bullets, mortar rounds, you name it. If it's ever been lobbed through a barrel, they'll know about it.
There's usually a large bucket outside the bay door full of shredded bits of shell, cartridge case etc.; I'm told they occasionally turn up a gas or chemical shell and that's when the fun really starts...

[hidetheelephants]

CF denotes cordite propellant and EOC is Elswick Ordnance Company. The tall cases are possibly Hotchkiss 6-pounder rounds; the height certainly tallies with a 57x307R round.

The short ones may be 3-pounder rounds cut down; there was a confusing plethora of similar but different 3-pounders used in the great war, most of which seem to date from the previous century.

[RicksAlfas]

Thanks everyone. Not thought about the smaller ones being cut down, but that would make sense.