Can Anyone Identify this, Please?

[jayp]

This is a 4 inch dia. casing that has been cut down to make an ashtray. There are no markings on it. I'm hoping that someone will recognise it and be able to tell me what it is.

[Pompey]

Hi Jayp

check out the like below as I think this is the howitzer cartridge that has been cut down to provide a souvenir ash tray. I did something similar many years ago with a 105 shell I brought back from the Falklands

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QF_4.5-inch_howitzer#/media/File:4.5inchHowitzerCartridgeDiagram.jpg

Best Regards

Pompey

[jayp]

Thanks for your reply, Pompey. Sorry but I don't see the similarity to the casing shown in your link. My casing is 4inch dia. More accurately it is 98mm internal dia., 101mm external dia. and 105mm rim dia. Of course, with it having been cut down so much I don't know if it had a taper. Although it has no head stamps I thought that the machining might be distinctive to you knowledgeable guys.

[peregrinvs]

It reminds me of the base of a 8.8cm Flak 18 cartridge case, although the additional machining is odd:

http://www.warrelics.eu/forum/attachments/ordnance-ammo/114830d1276692989-world-war-1-88mm-case-16062010196.jpg

[jayp]

Thanks for your reply, peregrinvs. Yes, I see the similarity. I note that the cartridge for this gun is slightly necked so the head dia. might correspond to that of mine. Do you know the gun's max. chamber dia.?

My own thoughts have been that it is naval. Cartridges for naval guns appear to tapered and necked. I wondered if mine might be for a 3 inch naval gun.

To my mind there are three distinctive features to my casing -

1) The absence of head stamps - what might that signify?

2) The (unusual?) machining.

3) The passage between the primer recess and the casing

[MikB]

It looks to me as if the machining was done deliberately to remove headstamps, for reasons we might speculate about, but can't provide a certain solution..

I think the internal domed pocket was to hold a black powder gaine, with a sacrificial plug to ensure there was sufficient heat and pressure built up in the gaine to fire the whole propellant charge.

[jayp]

Thanks for your input, MikB. To remove head stamps would only require a light skim, surely? These relatively deep machined recesses look more purposeful to me. Does this type of domed pocket design 'narrow the field'? Is it an old or relatively recent design? Can we rule out certain types of gun that we know would not have used cartridges of this design?