Crazy find in friends back yard! 40MM's and tons of goodies!

toysareforboys · 04-04-2005, 11:04 PM

Well, it's my friends birthday today. He got quite a bit of stuff, including an INSANE metal detector (full computer screen on it, lots of features, you can set detection depth, etc.), so we decided to pull it out and give it a try.
We decided to do his back yard. We followed the directions on how to do a grid sweep of the lawn.
On our third pass the metal detector went crazy. We looked at the screen and it detected "metal rebar", and upon scanning the area, it was in a cross hatch pattern.
Looking at the ground, it was just the lawn. It was weird that there would be concrete rebar under there. It told us the depth was 24" to the rebar.
Out come the shovles and after about 10 mins we hit something hard.
It turned out to be a very rough surface of concrete with rebar sticking out in some places. We dug all the way around, which turned out to be a perfect circle about 6 feet in diameter. Once we dug all the edges we attached a boat anchor to one side, and wrapped a cable around the tow hook on his 4x4 truck. It took quite a few yanks, but we flipped the concrete slab over.
Sticking out of the concrete slab was a HUGE cartridge! Must be 150MM at least! Lots of rocks, dirt, etc covering most of the bottom of the concrete.
We looked into the hole, more dirt. We jumped down, sparked up the metal detector, and it was going crazy. It couldn't identify anything in paticular, measured a depth to 6 feet (it's maximum range) of metal.
We started digging and immediatly started pulling out different cartridges, all with bullets pulled out but sitting right beside the cartridges, nothing loaded. A little further and a few layers of what looked like 40MM M203 hulls for my sweet M203. I picked up a few, took em inside, wiped off the mud, measured them and sure enuff, 40mm. SWEET!
We picked up about 200 cartridges and 40mm hulls. Underneath the hulls were rows and rows of propellers. We pulled up on one, but it was damn damn heavy. Took both of us to pull it up. It looked like a torpedo cut in half (by a big chop saw). Looking into where it had been, we could see the front half of it. The propeller would not spin. Looking in the cut end it was basically three tubes, the outer one had like a gray clay pack inbetween the outer tube and the middle tube. The middle tube was full of a white powder like surgar but bigger granuals, in what looked like little potato sacks (but white). The very inside tube was full of weird looking things (batteries I think, longer then AA, but skinnier and looked like wrapped in cardboard and vaseline. Metal hooking tabs at each end).
When we saw the batteries we stopped digging.
I begged him for me to bring home some stuff to clean and photo graph it, but he said he wanted to sell it on EBay or go to the local army surplus store and see what they'd give him for it, and he didn't trust me to take anything home. I convinced him to let me take home some of the 40MM hulls we found so I could load em up for my M203, he agreed.

So, here are the 40MM hulls. Any information you can provide would be great. Date, type, etc. There were tons more of them, some OD green, some blue, most are black or bright green.

The headstamps are as follows:
Green Anodized: XM199 EI GIE-60-10 3-68
Green Anodized: XM199 EI GIE-60-11 4-68
Green Anodized: XM199 EI GIE-60-11 4-68
Black Anodized: XM576 EI GIE-60-7 12-67

Small/Large

Small/Large

So..... what should I do now? Keep digging? Pull out everything, clean it off, mark down the head stamps? Should I be worried about any possibly live munitions? It looks like this is a very deep "well", there's probably tons of stuff in there. It's basically about a 5ft metal colvert going all the way down.

I'm going back on Sunday (weather permitting) with my digital camera. Lots more pics then!

-Jamie M.

Ichhabe · 04-04-2005, 11:08 PM

Already after the first find you should have stopped. Isnt there an American saying that says; "Curiousity killed the cat"!?!

Unless you are trained EOD you should not stir down in that hole just cause it entertains you, just saying...

Wilco · 04-04-2005, 11:08 PM

Holy **** what a great find!

toysareforboys · 04-04-2005, 11:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ichhabe

Already after the first find you should have stopped. Isnt there an American saying that says; "Curiousity killed the cat"!?!

Unless you are trained EOD you should not stir down in that hole just cause it entertains you, just saying...

So what if I phone the police, and report it.

Do I get to keep all the unloaded goodies? I'd hate for them to take all the harmless stuff!

Sheesh.

Ichhabe · 04-04-2005, 11:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by toysareforboys

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ichhabe

Already after the first find you should have stopped. Isnt there an American saying that says; "Curiousity killed the cat"!?!

Unless you are trained EOD you should not stir down in that hole just cause it entertains you, just saying...

So what if I phone the police, and report it.

Do I get to keep all the unloaded goodies? I'd hate for them to take all the harmless stuff!

Sheesh.

I would think (am not an expert on this,but...) harmless stuff is for keeps.
It seems like that the Army have dumped the stuff there and put a concrete lid over it so no-one would dig it up. But there you proved them wrong.

Just be careful please. For all you know, that white stuff could have been White Phosphorous. You would have looked mighty stupid running in circles while on fire cause you got that stuff on you. Call for someone who is paid to take that risk to clean it up and away.

mr.chips · 04-04-2005, 11:15 PM

That's actually pretty cool. Can you post a pic of the hole?

toysareforboys · 04-04-2005, 11:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mr.chips

That's actually pretty cool. Can you post a pic of the hole?

I can't get back there till Sunday. We put a tarp and plywood over it to keep the water out. I'll take lots of pics on Sunday!

So, any ideas on what the heck an XM199 40MM shell is???

scm77 · 04-04-2005, 11:19 PM

I suggest you post this in the "weapons and ammo" section of army.ca right here.

There are many experienced people, Canadian Forces Ammo Techs etc. that can help you out with any questions you have about what it is and how it ended up there.

Ichhabe · 04-04-2005, 11:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by toysareforboys

Quote:

Originally Posted by mr.chips

That's actually pretty cool. Can you post a pic of the hole?

I can't get back there till Sunday. We put a tarp and plywood over it to keep the water out. I'll take lots of pics on Sunday!

So, any ideas on what the heck an XM199 40MM shell is???

Sounds like the test-grenades. As in XM-8, that rifle the US.Army had for testing.

04-04-2005, 11:22 PM

Its illegal not to notify the police if you find ammunition.
I suggest you notify them. If its nothing you will be allowed to keep the stuff.
But seeing as its live ammunition, you should report this.
Call the OPP.

scm77 · 04-04-2005, 11:23 PM

Edit: nm

Auzzzie · 04-04-2005, 11:33 PM

****, call me stupid (and you probably will), but if there was something like that in my backyard I wouldn't tell anybody about it until I had seen everything there was. The last thing I would want is some government agency cordonning the place off and removing everything without even knowing what it was. Sounds like you hit the jackpot, you lucky bastard.

usa320 · 04-04-2005, 11:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Auzzzie

****, call me stupid (and you probably will), but if there was something like that in my backyard I wouldn't tell anybody about it until I had seen everything there was. The last thing I would want is some government agency cordonning the place off and removing everything without even knowing what it was. Sounds like you hit the jackpot, you lucky bastard.

stupid. I rather lose some outdated relics from world war two than blow myself to hell and back.

Auzzzie · 04-04-2005, 11:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by usa320

Quote:

Originally Posted by Auzzzie

****, call me stupid (and you probably will), but if there was something like that in my backyard I wouldn't tell anybody about it until I had seen everything there was. The last thing I would want is some government agency cordonning the place off and removing everything without even knowing what it was. Sounds like you hit the jackpot, you lucky bastard.

stupid. I rather lose some outdated relics from world war two than blow myself to hell and back.

Shmeh, I have a huge sense of adventure. If there is anything unusual, I will go for it, even if it dangerous. After all, I could get hit by a bus tomorrow and then I would wish I had taken risks. :P

04-04-2005, 11:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Auzzzie

Quote:

Originally Posted by usa320

Quote:

Originally Posted by Auzzzie

****, call me stupid (and you probably will), but if there was something like that in my backyard I wouldn't tell anybody about it until I had seen everything there was. The last thing I would want is some government agency cordonning the place off and removing everything without even knowing what it was. Sounds like you hit the jackpot, you lucky bastard.

stupid. I rather lose some outdated relics from world war two than blow myself to hell and back.

Shmeh, I have a huge sense of adventure. If there is anything unusual, I will go for it, even if it dangerous. After all, I could get hit by a bus tomorrow and then I would wish I had taken risks. :P

well in Ontario its illegal not to report it.
Especially since hes living in Toronto. The 4th largest city in North America.
Isnt this the same guy that fired firecrackers out of a grenade launcher with andyman and filmed it?
I wouldnt want this guy havign access to any type of explosives.

04-04-2005, 11:04 PM	#1
toysareforboys Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Toronto Posts: 29	Crazy find in friends back yard! 40MM's and tons of goodies! Well, it's my friends birthday today. He got quite a bit of stuff, including an INSANE metal detector (full computer screen on it, lots of features, you can set detection depth, etc.), so we decided to pull it out and give it a try. We decided to do his back yard. We followed the directions on how to do a grid sweep of the lawn. On our third pass the metal detector went crazy. We looked at the screen and it detected "metal rebar", and upon scanning the area, it was in a cross hatch pattern. Looking at the ground, it was just the lawn. It was weird that there would be concrete rebar under there. It told us the depth was 24" to the rebar. Out come the shovles and after about 10 mins we hit something hard. It turned out to be a very rough surface of concrete with rebar sticking out in some places. We dug all the way around, which turned out to be a perfect circle about 6 feet in diameter. Once we dug all the edges we attached a boat anchor to one side, and wrapped a cable around the tow hook on his 4x4 truck. It took quite a few yanks, but we flipped the concrete slab over. Sticking out of the concrete slab was a HUGE cartridge! Must be 150MM at least! Lots of rocks, dirt, etc covering most of the bottom of the concrete. We looked into the hole, more dirt. We jumped down, sparked up the metal detector, and it was going crazy. It couldn't identify anything in paticular, measured a depth to 6 feet (it's maximum range) of metal. We started digging and immediatly started pulling out different cartridges, all with bullets pulled out but sitting right beside the cartridges, nothing loaded. A little further and a few layers of what looked like 40MM M203 hulls for my sweet M203. I picked up a few, took em inside, wiped off the mud, measured them and sure enuff, 40mm. SWEET! We picked up about 200 cartridges and 40mm hulls. Underneath the hulls were rows and rows of propellers. We pulled up on one, but it was damn damn heavy. Took both of us to pull it up. It looked like a torpedo cut in half (by a big chop saw). Looking into where it had been, we could see the front half of it. The propeller would not spin. Looking in the cut end it was basically three tubes, the outer one had like a gray clay pack inbetween the outer tube and the middle tube. The middle tube was full of a white powder like surgar but bigger granuals, in what looked like little potato sacks (but white). The very inside tube was full of weird looking things (batteries I think, longer then AA, but skinnier and looked like wrapped in cardboard and vaseline. Metal hooking tabs at each end). When we saw the batteries we stopped digging. I begged him for me to bring home some stuff to clean and photo graph it, but he said he wanted to sell it on EBay or go to the local army surplus store and see what they'd give him for it, and he didn't trust me to take anything home. I convinced him to let me take home some of the 40MM hulls we found so I could load em up for my M203, he agreed. So, here are the 40MM hulls. Any information you can provide would be great. Date, type, etc. There were tons more of them, some OD green, some blue, most are black or bright green. The headstamps are as follows: Green Anodized: XM199 EI GIE-60-10 3-68 Green Anodized: XM199 EI GIE-60-11 4-68 Green Anodized: XM199 EI GIE-60-11 4-68 Black Anodized: XM576 EI GIE-60-7 12-67 Small/Large Small/Large Small/Large Small/Large Small/Large So..... what should I do now? Keep digging? Pull out everything, clean it off, mark down the head stamps? Should I be worried about any possibly live munitions? It looks like this is a very deep "well", there's probably tons of stuff in there. It's basically about a 5ft metal colvert going all the way down. I'm going back on Sunday (weather permitting) with my digital camera. Lots more pics then! -Jamie M.

04-04-2005, 11:08 PM	#2
Ichhabe Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Tromsø, Norway Ich hab's gewagt Posts: 3,947	Already after the first find you should have stopped. Isnt there an American saying that says; "Curiousity killed the cat"!?! Unless you are trained EOD you should not stir down in that hole just cause it entertains you, just saying...

04-04-2005, 11:08 PM	#3
Wilco Not True Blue Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: And I was like....dang....and she was like....dang Age: 20 Posts: 4,540	Holy **** what a great find!

04-04-2005, 11:15 PM	#6
mr.chips Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 92	That's actually pretty cool. Can you post a pic of the hole?

04-04-2005, 11:19 PM	#8
scm77 Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Canada Age: 22 Posts: 7,356	I suggest you post this in the "weapons and ammo" section of army.ca right here. There are many experienced people, Canadian Forces Ammo Techs etc. that can help you out with any questions you have about what it is and how it ended up there.

04-04-2005, 11:22 PM	#10
EvanL Guest Posts: n/a	Its illegal not to notify the police if you find ammunition. I suggest you notify them. If its nothing you will be allowed to keep the stuff. But seeing as its live ammunition, you should report this. Call the OPP.

04-04-2005, 11:23 PM	#11
scm77 Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Canada Age: 22 Posts: 7,356	Edit: nm

04-04-2005, 11:33 PM	#12
Auzzzie grunt Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Australia's arsehole... Age: 21 Posts: 11,073	****, call me stupid (and you probably will), but if there was something like that in my backyard I wouldn't tell anybody about it until I had seen everything there was. The last thing I would want is some government agency cordonning the place off and removing everything without even knowing what it was. Sounds like you hit the jackpot, you lucky bastard.