4.2 inch mortar round

Dug out this 4.2inch mortar round today at work,as you can see from the photo it is more or less complete apart from been blown and twisted,
So cos its old and blown caked in mud and clay its safe..WRONG it was full of phosphorous which self ignited very quickly This burnt or over 30mins .This shows that those safe old range finds are not always finder friendly
The photos show the round after it had burnt off,plus the searcher in the smoke photo is getting away from the smoke as its not good for you

Good example Spott about not messing with the range-found dig ups.
What did it look like post burn-out? Will the metal be reduced to molten?

cheers

waff

Good question waff ..it was distorted as in the burnt out photos and if a member of the public had dug this they would more than likely assumed it was safe and just clogged up with mud and clay,they would have soon found out different
And yes the remains are off to the smelter

It seems to be?? phosphorous is grey or white when dry, and orange in a wet condition?
these colours (before and after) were those about one i also found (see my gallery).
Thanks, in my case, it didn't ignite, thank you you've posted that it shows me what i've escaped...!?!
i didn't know at all about that, i can understand know why the bomb squad was very cautious, i shall
say i've being rash: ignorance isnot good... thanks

dom14, It crusts over a yellow, orange or red color. Sometimes the crust will go dark to a black. Break the crust and it burns. 81mm WP Mortar rounds are bad for usually having just a little bit in the bottom when you uncover it and now I see that the 4.2" mortar does the same. Gotta love the smell of garlic. Cheers Y'all, Bruce.

heres another 4.2 phos i dug out at work,,

Thanks for showing these photos Alan. I have found a few as in your first group but thankfully they seemed to have been all burned out.