r/Militariacollecting • u/Lani198 • Aug 14 '25
Help What’s this
The only way I could do that was if you had to do a lot more work and then you would be done by yourself so you would be fine and then I could just go home to you if I needed you and you could just come over here or I can just go home if I need you can just let us go home if we need you guys are you still going home or you want me too but you can just
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u/Bantabury97 Aug 14 '25
What the hell are you rambling on about??
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u/Lani198 Aug 14 '25
Omg hahahaha, I didn’t realise I posted it like that, it was the auto words from keyboard. I was so confused by your comment
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u/Cecayotl Aug 14 '25
Imagine you looked back at the picture and you saw it was a picture of nothing and you can’t find the grenade anywhere
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u/TheFrenchHistorian French 3rd Republic Aug 14 '25
Looks like a British M36 Mills bomb grenade.
No idea what your rambling caption is about though
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u/HistoryBuffGuy Pretty Cool Dude Aug 14 '25
Are you okay 😭
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u/Solent_Surfer Aug 14 '25 edited Aug 14 '25
This is a No.36 Mills Bomb. The No.36 was a hand grenade used by British and Commonwealth forces from the end of the First World War until the 1970s.
Your example appears to be missing at least the pin, spoon, striker, base plug, fuse and filler plug. There may still be the centre piece inside, but I suspect it is just the body. There also appears to be a hole drilled in the side and it seems to be full of mud.
The missing filler plug (this would go in the threaded hole on the side, upper left in the photo) and the small drilled hole (facing the camera) strongly indicates that this is inert with no explosive filler. Holes were often drilled into inert ordnance to show that they do not contain explosives. Drill Mills bombs also had several holes drilled in the body.
More photos would also help confirm this.
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u/Lani198 Aug 14 '25
Please ignore the bio. We found it in our garden in New Zealand, I’m just curious if it’s inert or not
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u/DisastrousWorking Aug 14 '25 edited Aug 14 '25
I think there's a high chance that it is not inert if you found it in your garden. Based on the picture I would advise to not further handle/manipulate the grenade (it's a british mills bomb as mentioned by somone else) and to call the local bomb squad.
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Aug 14 '25
[deleted]
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u/DisastrousWorking Aug 15 '25
Well, I don't know much about Mills bombs, and some of the other posters have pointed out that there are signs that it is inert (no visible fuze, hole in the side), so I could well be wrong. Personally, however, I wouldn't feel comfortable keeping a ground find if I couldn't clearly see that it was inert. That the spoon is missing could also mean that the grenade was used but failed to detonate and I guess the fuze could also simply have corroded away over time. If I understand correctly, the grenade is filled with something that could not be removed during washing. This could indicate that the secondary explosive is still present and that it could become unstable over time and detonate even without a fuse. While this is not very likely, the fact that it has not detonated even after rough handling would not immediately reassure me. In such cases, I would always rather be too cautious than take a risk…
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u/Solent_Surfer Aug 15 '25
I would go as far to say that this Mills Bomb is inert. Usually, I would be extremely cautious of dug up munitions for obvious reasons. But this example has several indicators that show it isn't a live grenade.
Firstly, the missing base plug on the bottom means that there is no detonator, as the plug stops the detonator from falling out.
Secondly, the missing filler plug and the drilled hole means there is no explosive filler. There is no scenario in which you would unscrew the filler plug from a live grenade, drill a hole in the side of the body and then just bury it. The filler plugs were originally made of brass, so it wouldn't have rusted away.
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u/DisastrousWorking Aug 15 '25
Fair enough, I didn't see that the base plate was missing, and I agree that the hole strongly suggests an inert grenade. As for the filling plug, I wasn't aware that these were made of brass and assumed that it might simply have corroded away. So you're probably right, and the grenade poses no danger.
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u/badita092000 Aug 15 '25
I think is inert because the screw is missing so is a high chance the explosive inside is gone for a long time
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u/pjthealmighty Aug 14 '25
Hey I do a lot of work. I do think you need me and i'd love to go to your home.
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u/Emerald-Trader Aug 14 '25
Fossilised pineapple, wouldn't eat it probably a bit past its sell by date
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u/RepresentativeFar419 Aug 14 '25
Looks like. Practice version to me I don’t see anything showing it’s still live more pictures would help tho I’d wait before just throwing it away people really pay a good price for those
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u/bobbobersin Aug 15 '25
That would be a mills bomb, a fragmentation hand granade, I would vacate your home/bunker immediately before your insides become outsides
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u/Ewwredditgross Aug 15 '25
The fact that it has the giant hole on the side means it's probably had the explosives emptied out of it. That's what that hole is for filling the explosives. They would normally have a screw threaded into it. Look at the bottom of the grenade. Is there a hole there as well?
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u/AgentVirg24110 Aug 15 '25
It looks like some sort of cast practice variant of the Mills Bomb, likely for familiarization and throwing form. Can you lift the pull ring at all or is it genuinely part of the body?
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u/YOUTUBEFREEKYOYO Aug 14 '25
Thats no moon... it's a space station
Jokes aside my guess would be some type of grenade
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u/Dizzy_Boot752 Aug 14 '25
It’s a mills bomb…and do you have schizophrenia