Grape Shot Shell

[Roger34]

Just seen this on the auction site and wondered is it real? I have never seen one before?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/WW1-Grape-Shot-Shell-Nose-Cone_W0QQitemZ310271938989QQcategoryZ13974QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp4340.m263QQ_trkparmsZalgo%3DDLSL%252BSIC%26its%3DI%26itu%3DUCI%252BIA%252BUA%252BFICS%252BUFI%252BDDSIC%26otn%3D8%26pmod%3D140479237691%252B140479237691%26po%3D%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D5230738743068993694

Roger

[calibre792x57.y]

Never seen a German 77 mm with such a fitting but the Tanks used case-shot with their Six-pounder Hotchkiss.. Pedantically, I believe the term 'Grapeshot' refers to a Naval store of the 18th and 19th Centuries.-SW

[pjjobson]

Grapeshot was so named because the round resembled a bunch of grapes. It was used in both Land and Sea service during the 18th and 19th Centuries.

Phil

[Hoplophile]

Case shot, which released a large number of small bullets as soon as the round left the muzzle, was relatively rare in World War I. With the advent of improved fuzes in the latter part of the nineteenth century, the same effect could be achieved by firing a standard shrapnel shell with the time fuze set at 'zero.' Thus, there was little point in complicating matters by adding yet another type of shell to the ammunition wagons.

One great exception to this general rule was the case shot rounds provided to the fixed armament of fortresses, particularly those relatively light pieces that were sited to fire at very close range. As the ammunition for these pieces did not have to be transported, the price of complexity was relatively low. Moreover, as case shot rounds were much simpler than shrapnel rounds, they were cheaper to produce.