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CS Anti Riot Grenade box

tigbrand

tigbrand

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
Went to view a motorbike at a friends house last nite bought the bike,and whilst chatting saw what i though was a strange colour ammo box,I mentioned about the grey colour and how someone had repainted it until he picked it up and i saw the stencils. I have a few boxes but cant recall seeing any painted in what i take is the correct one for chemical loads. Cheers tig.
 
Nice box ! All original, the correct colour for British issue Irritant loads. As it says on the box, quite an early issue for that particular grenade, made by Schemurly ie SPRA. Would have been in Dorking, Surrey at the time your box was filled. Might have had sticky seals on it originally,
"SAS" often taken to mean for the SAS ie, Special Forces, but does in fact mean "Special Ammunition Storage" !
 
A copy and paste from the current Defence Standard (DefStan) ( unrestricted document) for ammunition package markings -

D.4 Colours for Packages​
The basic overall colour for packages shall normally be one of the following:a) Service Brown No 499.b) Light Grey No 631 for chemical stores only.c) Infrared reflective (IRR) NATO Green No 285, complying with Def Stan 00-23. Only to be used when​
specified by the MOD IPTL.
 
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Nice Box Tig,
Glad it has found a new home. Chemical load boxes do seem a bit thin on the ground so you did well to spot this one. Re "Early Issue" I thought it meant the contents had a short shelf life remaining so should be used first, but feel free to correct.
Cheers
Hangarman
 
Regarding the "Early Issue" stencil marking. It is strange to see the marking in black instead of the usual golden yellow colour. It may have been a local requirement quite possibly from Northern Ireland where large numbers of these items were used in the early 1970's. Also it may not have been applied by the military as the Police (RUC) in Northern Ireland also had access to similar items. Or quite simply that there was no golden yellow paint available to the inspecting technician.
 
Great info again chaps,The chap said i could have it foc,but gave him 4 as it was all I had. Will give it a gentle clean and a coat of beeswax. Thanks again. Tig.
 
My understanding of `Early issue' markings was that it was ammo intended for use as soon as possible after it was issued to a unit, meaning that the unit should use it before other stocks of the same ammo that was not marked `Early issue'. I would imagine that it was virtually at the end of its design shelf life and that to keep it and use it beyond that period would more likely result in failures during use.
 
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