Shot Canister
 

Hi, This an odd item, but, you guys always amaze me with your interests and knowledge. This was a recent E bay item that caught my eye, listed as coming from a collection of Civil war items. It is 1 3/4 inches in diameter and has room for black powder and several about 30 caliber shot in a ring between the halves.

I don't think it was fired, rather lost, dug up and emptied of contents the rod could have had a percussion cap primer or fulminate of mercury,for ignition. the
canister is well cast and it may well be more modern. Origin is also unknown.

Your thoughts? Steve

Hello Steve,
Very interesting item! I'm a novice in this area, but I had to at least comment on this interesting item (thanks for posting it). During the American Civil War, there were a variety of exploding shot used on the battlefields, including Dahlgren shells, Coehorn round shot, etc, even barshot used against troops, but I've never seen this type of shell before. It is possible that it is something experimental, as there were apparently many of this going on during this time. It definitely seems contemporary with mid- to last quarter- 19th century (as far as I'm aware, the last of the round shot type shells were becoming obsolete compared with the more bullet/lozenge shape shells, so CW feels right), but then again, it might not end up being a shell at all. Too often, I've seen cannon balls and such turn out to be industrial items. I'll leave this one up to the more knowledible members of the forum- :shrug:

I'll have to check my other forums and texts on thingsthat go "BOOM" but this sure looks like a somewhat resent US cluster munition rather than a Civil War item. Yep, on the British Ordnance Collectors Network it's classified as BLU26 cluster bomb bomblet. This is a Vietnam War era munition.

Greg

response
 

Hi, My suspicions are validated. It was hard to imagine canister shot being dispersed from another canister shell. Coming from the initial explosion of a bomb
seems likely. Greg, Is this safe and inert as it now appears? I could see it having had loose explosives as the propellant or that the area around the central ring might not be a part of the casting, but, rather the old charge
Probably very advisable to have it checked by a Military EOD unit in my area. So it doesn't go boom. Thank you, Steve

... Then obviously a device of an age not within this forum's discussion scope ... :shrug: