I once heard a story about someone who was demonstrating a grenade to, presumably, some branch of the military, and he explained that a gyroscope armed it when you threw it with a spin, and it would explode when it landed.  He demonstrated how safe it was by throwing up in the air.  He caught it and it exploded.

Does anyone know the details?  I heard about this a long time ago.

I remeber a History Channel story on a grenade that was designed to explode on Impact (called the Beano, IIRC) that killed quite a few people before they dropped the idea. I don't think they had a gyro in them though.

Dave

Regardless of how it's "supposed" to work, common sense says you never test that.

ESPECIALLY when you have an audience.

IIRC the only difference between an M-67 (Delayed-Fuse) and an M-69 (Impact) Grenade was the fuse assembly they attached (Screwed-in) to the body.

The M-67 had a green spoon while those of the '69's were red.  It's been ALOT of years since I did the grenade assault course (Like 24) but, If memory serves me (?), one of the problems with the '69 was that just hesitating a moment with the grenade in your hand before throwing it (After the spoon had flown) could result in it exploding from the momentum OF throwing it (While STILL in you hand!).

Tankers don't get to throw grenades much and it's been along time so maybe some of the 11B guys can shed more light on it.

Thread hijack.



Speaking of grenades, this reminds me of a book I read about some 101st Airborne LRRPs in 'Nam.


They were patrolling and came across a VC body that had been booby-trapped. Thinking they'd turn the tables on the Cong, they took a smoke grenade fuse (no delay) and screwed it into a standard frag grenade. Then they pulled the pin and wedged it under the body with the spoon held down.

Well, it turns out they got recalled a few hours later because a line unit was going to sweep the area. Not wanting to leave their booby trap and the Cong booby trap to hurt American soldiers, they went back to set off the booby traps. So they figure the best way to do it is to tie a rope around the body's arm, get back, and pull the rope so the body slides off the booby traps and sets them off. So they tie it off, and one guy gets back as far as the rope will allow. So then the guy YANKS the rope as hard as he can and ends up falling on his ass......   because the body had been rotting out in the jungle for about a week and the guy ended up pulling the arm OFF!

IIRC the grenades for the MK 19 are spin armed...

Quoted: IIRC the grenades for the MK 19 are spin armed...

The standard grenades for the M203 are also supposed to be armed by a certain number of rotations, which is where you get the safety range where they will not explode on contact.

It was a British(?) Beano grenade. The idea, IIRC, was that once the pin was pulled the grenade was armed by movement, usually throwing it, and exploded on impact. It was designed with the idea that it could be thrown like a baseball.

During one demonstration, someone handling a live one did the other thing that all American boys have done with baseballs. He threw it up in the air(arming it) and caught it(detonating it).  

Quoted: I once heard a story about someone who was demonstrating a grenade to, presumably, some branch of the military, and he explained that a gyroscope armed it when you threw it with a spin, and it would explode when it landed.  He demonstrated how safe it was by throwing up in the air.  He caught it and it exploded. Does anyone know the details?  I heard about this a long time ago.

Was he thinking of an M203 round or M67?

Quoted: Quoted: IIRC the grenades for the MK 19 are spin armed... The standard grenades for the M203 are also supposed to be armed by a certain number of rotations, which is where you get the safety range where they will not explode on contact.

I think it was 7 rotations. I really dont remember though.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: IIRC the grenades for the MK 19 are spin armed... The standard grenades for the M203 are also supposed to be armed by a certain number of rotations, which is where you get the safety range where they will not explode on contact. I think it was 7 rotations. I really dont remember though.

I think 40mm grenades need more spin than that.

Regardless, you would have to be pretty stupid just to pick on up, much less throw it at something.

Quoted: halfway down M69's are practice grenades Required reading before this thread continues The M68 was a standard M67 delayed frag with an M217 impact fuze installed.

Whoops, my bad, I was off by one (Yold Ya tankers didn't throw many of these things! lol)

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: IIRC the grenades for the MK 19 are spin armed... The standard grenades for the M203 are also supposed to be armed by a certain number of rotations, which is where you get the safety range where they will not explode on contact. I think it was 7 rotations. I really dont remember though.

Yeah, it was 7 for the 203 round.

when I was a door gunner on the space shuttle in '89
we used the spin armed ones as yo/yo's just once was all it took!

When I first got to Iraq, there were a few Marines who got killed because they were fucking around with an RPG.  They also killed some guys from another country, IIRC.

Is it like the ATF guy....."I'm the only one professional enough in the room to handle this GLOCK Gernade!  KABOOOOOM!