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Posted: 12/23/2016 5:43:51 PM EDT
I've been wondering recently, why did we change from the M2 pineapple grenade to the m67 baseball?
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Uneven fragmentation.
Modern production techniques gave us the stamped sheetmetal body, serrated wire frag M26 and current M67. |
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We switched from the Mk2 pineapple grenade to the M26 lemon grenade looking for more consistent fragmentation and switched from the lemon grenade to the M67 baseball grenade for the same reason. The lemon grenade used a notched wire fragmentation core, first with round wire then square notched wire core.
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Improved explosive fillers gave increased casualty radius with less volume.
And the M67 being more aerodynamic and, most Americans growing up playing baseball, gave increased range. Other nations' grenades were designed for different environments. The German "Potato Masher" stick grenade was designed for troops throwing from prone postion or from trenches. The handle gave better range when thrown in the prone. |
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Quoted:
Improved explosive fillers gave increased casualty radius with less volume. And the M67 being more aerodynamic and, most Americans growing up playing baseball, gave increased range. Other nations' grenades were designed for different environments. The German "Potato Masher" stick grenade was designed for troops throwing from prone postion or from trenches. The handle gave better range when thrown in the prone. View Quote I was told they would tie string to the stick grenade to spin it and get a longer throw. |
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So how heavy is a grenade? How far can someone with a good arm throw one?
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I suppose the same reason we stopped using 1903 Springfield's......
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I was told they would tie string to the stick grenade to spin it and get a longer throw. View Quote Sure, the longer you spin it, the sooner it goes off (next to you). The "string" on a potato masher is the fuse initiator. You unscrew the bottom cap, pull the string, which starts the fuse burning, then throw grenade. |
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Improved explosive fillers gave increased casualty radius with less volume. And the M67 being more aerodynamic and, most Americans growing up playing baseball, gave increased range. Other nations' grenades were designed for different environments. The German "Potato Masher" stick grenade was designed for troops throwing from prone postion or from trenches. The handle gave better range when thrown in the prone. View Quote This !! We were told in the army the new grenades were designed to be familiar and easy to throw . |
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As stated above its due to uneven fragmentation. Grenade development continued in the United States where in the 50's a version that became known as the M26 series was manufactured. This grenade consisted of a thin sheet metal body with a internal spiral spring or fragmentation coil. The device used a main bursting charge of Composition B that has general characteristics of TNT. This particular series was unique past its departure from the 'pineapple' body. It was felt the design of this new series would correct the circumstance where the MkII would not uniformly dispense fragmentation. The MkII had a propensity to split into large chucks giving an uneven injury pattern. The M26 was a substantial improvement but remained lacking in a perfect pattern response. An additional uniqueness was the fitting of an electronic impact fuze system. The theory attached to this innovation was to prevent the item from rolling back upon the person projecting it when employed against a target on an incline. The M26 series used through the Viet Nam era was also supplemented with what now is the standard issue for United States forces. The M59 series or 'baseball' grenade was introduced further addressing the concern of uniform fragmentation. This series particularly spoke to the situation where the grenade would land on it's side and has come closest to consistency in potential. View Quote Loads more good info here: http://www.texasmuseum.org/html/the_pineapple.aspx |
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My buddy Bruce was in Nam, he said baseball grenade was more powerful than the pineapple.
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100 yards? Have you met many golden glove center fielders in the Marines? I never met a single one. I could probably get one to go 100 yards if I dropped it off a 25 story building. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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100yds, 5m kill radius, 25m wound radius. Just going off of memory / prac app. 100 yards? Have you met many golden glove center fielders in the Marines? I never met a single one. I could probably get one to go 100 yards if I dropped it off a 25 story building. |
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The fuze was also changed to a quieter, less smokey one. The MkII essentially used a small pistol primer & black powder, so it was loud, then gave telltale smoke.
The newer fuzes use a time delay element that doesn't smoke & supposedly, the primer is quieter. I have no personal experience, I remember talking to a guy from Picatinney Arsenal when I was in high school. For whatever it's worth.... |
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Improved explosive fillers gave increased casualty radius with less volume. And the M67 being more aerodynamic and, most Americans growing up playing baseball, gave increased range. Other nations' grenades were designed for different environments. The German "Potato Masher" stick grenade was designed for troops throwing from prone postion or from trenches. The handle gave better range when thrown in the prone. View Quote The Potato Masher was an Offensive Grenade that had lots of explosive, but not a fragmentation head. The Germans had a fragmentation "sleeve" that could be placed over when used in the defense and fragmentation was desired. American grenades are primarily defensive (fragmentation) thus duck and cover when you throw one. |
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100yds, 5m kill radius, 25m wound radius. Just going off of memory / prac app. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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So how heavy is a grenade? How far can someone with a good arm throw one? 100yds, 5m kill radius, 25m wound radius. Just going off of memory / prac app. Back in '82, I used to be able to toss a pigskin a quarter of a mile. |
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This thread prompted me to pick up the inert grenade on my desk and guess how far I could throw it.
I think 50 yards would be reasonable, especially if the time rolling at the end counted towards the distance. |
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When I was stationed in Jacksonville Fl in the mid 90's I was involved with the transfer of some grenades from another local Marine unit. In the magazine we picked up the grenades from, the Navy still had several cases of the pineapple grenades. I have always wondered how old they were and why the Navy had them in the first place. I inquired about transferring them to our unit but came up empty. Maybe the Navy didn't want us Marines to have them
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32acp
The fuze was also changed to a quieter, less smokey one. The MkII essentially used a small pistol primer & black powder, so it was loud, then gave telltale smoke. The newer fuzes use a time delay element that doesn't smoke & supposedly, the primer is quieter. I have no personal experience, I remember talking to a guy from Picatinney Arsenal when I was in high school. For whatever it's worth.... View Quote This, along with more modern production standards and problems with uneven fragmentation. The shape was chosen to make the M67 more familiar to men who played baseball, and give the weapon an edge in throw radius. M67's are smokeless, don't know if I'd say the primer is a lot quieter than the Mk2's. IIRC, throwing range is between 30 and 40 meters; kill radius is 5 meters; and wounding radius is about 50 feet, give or take. Shrapnel can still reach you a ways beyond that, though. It'll depend a lot on where it detonates, and what all is in the immediate vicinity. Had a chance to mess with some V40 minis a few years back, still shocked our military hasn't developed a newer version of these. Nasty buggers, good for urban warfare and clearing rooms. Easy to carry a lot of 'em, but I'd imagine they could be a PITA if you're wearing gloves. ETA: Fuck me, quote feature still doesn't want to work half the time. And that Angry Grenade thing is still as funny today as it was when it first came about. Dunno why people flipped the fuck out over it. Hell, we've been doing similar shit with bombs, missiles and rockets for at least seventy years. And I guarantee men have been doing that sort of thing for ages, chiseling their initials on cannonballs and whatnot. Nowadays, we see men taking a sharpie and scrawling silly shit on munitions. "To Abu Hajaar. Postage paid in full." "Portable Crusade." "Jihad cure." "Goat's revenge." |
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So the baseball grenade was simply cheaper to manufacture? View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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Bob Dole lost his Presidential bid So the baseball grenade was simply cheaper to manufacture? Usually the Dole pineapple |
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Pineapples didn't always break apart properly into the small sqs and you did not get the coverage. The baseball grenades are lighter and can be thrown futher and fragment alot better and have alot better coverage area. Yes also are shaped more like a baseball that Americans grew up throwing. Main thing though is the pineapple grenades did not fragment like they were suppose to.
Cant remember who exactly, think it was the French. Had a grenade that was really small during veitnam. When you threw it. It would shoot out very small wires in every direction. Bad guys would come along and hit wire and it would explode. After a preset time they disarmed. Used it when you were running away or booby traps. That what my Sargent told me. |
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The Pineapple Grenade was basically an improved version of the Mills Bomb, which was shit by modern standards. The M67 is lightyears head of it, but that one is also getting a bit long in the tooth.
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When I was stationed in Jacksonville Fl in the mid 90's I was involved with the transfer of some grenades from another local Marine unit. In the magazine we picked up the grenades from, the Navy still had several cases of the pineapple grenades. I have always wondered how old they were and why the Navy had them in the first place. I inquired about transferring them to our unit but came up empty. Maybe the Navy didn't want us Marines to have them View Quote I had a couple of cases of baseballs in my armory, part of a standard ship ordnance load out. I thought that it was cool to have a bunch of grenades but also thought WTF? Intended for use by a landing force or boarding party but we never got to play with them. M-79 was a different story... CSO, FFG 49 2000-2001 |
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This !! We were told in the army the new grenades were designed to be familiar and easy to throw . View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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Improved explosive fillers gave increased casualty radius with less volume. And the M67 being more aerodynamic and, most Americans growing up playing baseball, gave increased range. Other nations' grenades were designed for different environments. The German "Potato Masher" stick grenade was designed for troops throwing from prone postion or from trenches. The handle gave better range when thrown in the prone. This !! We were told in the army the new grenades were designed to be familiar and easy to throw . Some documentary said that pineapple grenades are directional in that throwing a body over it will direct much of the blast downwards away from the body but M67 will not. They used the high survival rate of WWII soldiers throwing themselves on top of grenades as an example. Not sure if true. |
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I suck @ throwing grenades and most other things, and the fall on my right shoulder just before OCS didn't help anything. I would like a 40mm grenade that was compatible w/ the M203/M320 that could also be hand thrown. I'm sure that's been looked @, but w/ $F-35 becoming available, let's look @ it again.
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