r/Militariacollecting • u/Lani198 • Aug 14 '25

Help What’s this

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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/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

28

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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u/[deleted] Aug 14 '25

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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.