Unexploded mortar round or aerial flare - ID help needed

[bdahunter]

I found this at the beach today, just down from the Bermuda Regiment base. I can't decide if it is an unexploded round or an aerial flare.
This beach area saw a lot of target practice during WWI and WWII, so it could be either or even something else. There is a hook shaped piece of metal coming out of the front (could be a detonator or a place to attach a parachute) and it looks to have guidance fins on the back. The fins can be adjusted by screwing them forward or backward on a metal pin. I would say that the fins are aluminium and the case is iron. It is hard to tell because of the amount of encrustation. The whole thing weighs around 4 pounds at a guess and 9 inches long, 2 inches in diameter.
Here's the Pics:

Side view

[attachment 55197 P4280004.JPG]

Front and Back view

[attachment 55198 P4280006.JPG][attachment 55199 P4280007.JPG]

I don't really want to have a possible unstable stick of dynamite in my backyard but I couldn't just leave it at the beach or dump it in a garbage can, could I?
Belts, harmonica, now maybe a bomb. I liked it a lot better when I just found gold, silver and platinum.

Thanks,

BDA

 

[Macaco]

Flare or artillery round...it could still go BOOM!

Don't play with it anymore. Please. I really don't want to read about a guy in Bermuda who got his hands blown off by unexploded ordinance.

Call the local police and they will come pick it up free of charge and dispose of it properly.

Cheers.

 

[diggindirt]

Hey, it looks like a WW1 round that was hand dropped from an airplane. It could have been a dud and that's how it ended up buried in the ground. I would call the Police as was suggested in the other reply (could still be active)!!! Anyway, I hope you continue to find jewelry and coins in the future. How deep was it buried and what type of signal did it give you??? By the way, I was bummed today because I never made it to the Beach (wife had me fixing things)

 

[David from Suffolk]

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[alex]

Detecting in Russia.......

http://metaldetectingworld.com/photogalary/ww2_relics/pages/72-%20Unexploded%20Bomb.htm

http://metaldetectingworld.com/photogalary/ww2_relics/pages/69-%20Bombs%20(Cucumbers).htm

http://metaldetectingworld.com/photogalary/ww2_relics/pages/70-%20Artillery%20Projectile.htm

http://metaldetectingworld.com/photogalary/ww2_relics/pages/73-%20WW2%20Military%20Relics.htm

http://metaldetectingworld.com/photogalary/ww2_relics/pages/65-%20WW2%20Military%20Relics.htm

http://metaldetectingworld.com/photogalary/ww2_relics/pages/66-%20Holding%20Russian%20Antitank%20Gun%27s%20Barrel.htm

Finally

http://metaldetectingworld.com/photogalary/ww2_relics/pages/75-%20Honorable%20Reburial%20of%20Soldiers%27%20Remains.htm

 

[AllenOK]

It's not worth you life, or a limb.

 

[NC GHOST TEAM]

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[PaPa-Joe-Fla.]

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[RobRcer]

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[PaPa-Joe-Fla.]

http://riv.co.nz/rnza/hist/mortar/mort7.htm

 

[bdahunter]

It looks like I have some kind of explosive device on my hands, at least it's no longer on the beach where somebody could get hurt. Now I just have to find out how to dispose of it.
I doubt the police here are set up to handle it and the military in Bermuda is a part time affair (who would bother to invade??).
I'll give the Bermuda Regiment a call as it probably belonged to them in the first place, albeit a long time ago. Perhaps they have a retired british soldier working there who will know how to dispose of this thing safely.
It doesn't really look like a stokes mortar round from the pictures I have seen online (no taper to it), but I don't want to take any chances.

Thanks again,

BDA

 

[CC2_IN_CA]

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[bdahunter]

My plan exactly!

Thanks CC2

 

[Gulf Hunter]

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[bdahunter]

This stuff must come out of the Bermuda Triangle. All I find lately is WIERD STUFF! It's starting to bug me. A trip to the Bermuda Regiment is on my schedule tomorrow. I get to do it with a bombriding around on top of the gas tank of my little car. GREAT!

Cheers,

BDA

 

[NC GHOST TEAM]

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[Ron Lord]

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[bdahunter]

Here's the deal. I swing by the Bermuda Regiment base on my break to get rid of this thing (still not sure if it's a mortar round or an aerial flare).
I drive onto the base (nobody at the guard post), find a couple of guys sitting on a wall and explain to them what I have in the back of my car. "Kewl Man, No Problem, go see dee quartamasta over dere". So over dere I go, get the item out of my car and take it into dee quartamasta's office. Nobody at the counter but I can see a couple of locals chatting in the back office about their weekend, so I try to make eye contact - Good Luck! I set the item up on the counter in it's bed made from a towel so as not to bang it on the hard surface, they keep yakking. Finally after what seems forever with a potential bomb sitting at face level (to interrupt their conversation would be considered rude in Bermuda and I would have to wait twice as long for being rude) one of them says "Good Morning" (very important phrase here, I can talk to them now).
I say "Good Morning, I found something on the beach on the weekend and I think it belongs to you" and motion to the item on the counter. "What is dat?" she asks, so I say "I think it's a bomb" (I'm a little PO'ed at this point). She saunters up to the counter and her friend follows her, he says "That's an old mortar shell, haven't seen one of dose in a while, where did you find it?" I told him I found it at Chaplin Bay on the beach beside some kids making a sand castle; he just smiles and picks it up like it was a paperweight or something. "Yes" he says "that's a mortar shell allright" and THEN HE STARTS PLAYING WITH THE DETONATOR!!
I said "thank you so much for taking that off of my hands" they said "thank you for bringing it in" and dat was dat.
I got the heck out of there as quick as I could before he could figure out how to make it go off, I didn't hear an explosion by the time I was out of earshot so I am assuming it was a dud, either that or he just got bored and put it back down.
I'll have to watch the news tonight and see if there was a terrorist attack on the Bermuda Regiment.
Sometime living on a tropical island isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Cheers,

BDA

PS It turns out that this mortar round is loaded with 2 lbs. of TNT.

 

[mattockman]

Rolling on the f-ing floor laughing my arse off!!!! you are a good story teller!!!OMG....I gotta print this one....LOL.

 

[Gulf Hunter]

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