Tell me the story of how this (M1?) clip got here?

[Holmes]

I was out for a walk in the mountains near Anchorage. About 5 miles from the trailhead, and 3 miles off an official trail, I found this. I think this is an en bloc clip for an M1 Garand?? There is an army base nearby, but I was several miles from terrain that the army trains in, these days at least. So, I'm curious:
- do you think this was dropped by a soldier, hunter, other?
- did this person put empty casings back in the clip? Or if ammo is left to rot long enough do the bullets fall out?
- What decade do you think this was dropped?

It was kind of fun to think about how that person spent the day that led them to dropping this, and how many years it might have been before I came walking along to the same spot.

 

[Dos Perros]

Is it me or do the case necks seem rolled over, like maybe these were blanks or something?

 

[robtattoo]

Yep, they're .30-06 blanks.
The cardboard plug has rotted out & the powder dissolved or got washed away. I'd bet they've got un-spent primers in them.

99.9% sure they'll have been dropped during a training exercise.

 

[Holmes]

Is it me or do the case necks seem rolled over, like maybe these were blanks or something?

Oh, I wouldn't even know how to spot that.
Does this photo help?

 

[Adam Gibbs]

Pull a case out and look at the head stamp. Likely has a year stamped on it saying when the blank was made.

 

[robtattoo]

Oh, I wouldn't even know how to spot that.
Does this photo help?

View attachment 444524

Yep. Model M1909 training blanks rounds.

 

[Holmes]

Pull a case out and look at the head stamp. Likely has a year stamped on it saying when the blank was made.

stamped " L 5 3 " on the base.
1953 makes sense for the service years of the M1, I think...
cool.

 

[TheGrayRider]

Nice find. Good souvenir.

 

[Olsolitaire1]

Nice find,Yep agree blanks, did you check the stamp?

 

[def90]

Yeah, probably dropped while out on a training patrol. Here in Colorado the 10th Mtn guys would train and ski off base all the time. They would routinely ski from their base outside of Minturn up over the mountains to Aspen and back

 

[ChuckInTn]

Very cool find!

 

[Holmes]

I was out hiking a few miles from that spot today and found this one. Anyone know what caliber this is? I think it might be a magnum! Looks like pretty good weight retention, it petal’d out like a TTSX bullet







(There are lots of these in this valley, this particular Nike Hercules was new to me though)

 

[Coveyleader]

Pretty cool find.

I'm not one of those male versions of a Karen, but be careful. The US military has really messed up some areas and finding unexploded ordnance is quite common. Some of that stuff still goes bang.

 

[Dos Perros]

One time I had an elk tag on Fort Riley. Artillery craters make great defilade / ground blinds.

 

[PsRpOiGrRiAtM]

I was out hiking a few miles from that spot today and found this one. Anyone know what caliber this is? I think it might be a magnum! Looks like pretty good weight retention, it petal’d out like a TTSX bullet

View attachment 444818

View attachment 444819



(There are lots of these in this valley, this particular Nike Hercules was new to me though)

I dunno, looks more like a Berger or ELD-X, definite jacket/core separation.

 

[EastHumboldt]

Are you pretty sure that’s a Nike Hercules? My dad was an ordinance officer who worked on the Hercules program at White Sands missile Range in the late 1950s.

 

[Holmes]

Pretty cool find.

I'm not one of those male versions of a Karen, but be careful. The US military has really messed up some areas and finding unexploded ordnance is quite common. Some of that stuff still goes bang.

Noted!
Fortunately, these are the first stage solid fuel rocket boosters from Nike missiles. So, no "bang" in there.... the bang attached to those missiles was a *nuke* designed to explode in the atmosphere and take out an entire squadron of Russian bombers. There were four of these per missile, sometimes you find clusters of them. I haven't found any this complete or above the surface before though, hence the photo. The boosters that litter this valley have been there since the 1960's and 1970's, and deemed "safe" by the military.
I have hunted on the actual JBER base, and I have run into smaller ordinance there (think it was a mortar smoke round), I didn't stick around to find out.

 

[11boo]

We did winter warfare training all around Delta jct/Black rapids training center in the late 70s. 7.62 and 5.56 blanks were our gig back then.

 

[Holmes]

Are you pretty sure that’s a Nike Hercules? My dad was an ordinance officer who worked on the Hercules program at White Sands missile Range in the late 1950s.

Yes, they were launched from Arctic Valley.
My dad worked at the White Sands missile range in the 1960's !

 

[EastHumboldt]

The three big touchstones of my dad’s Career were Fighting with the 2nd infantry division in Korea (He wore the Indian Head patch the rest of his career),the Nike program at White Sands, And evaluation of the M-16 in Vietnam. He was in Saigon for The VC Tet Offensive in ‘68. I was 10 and more concerned with sledding and ice skating.

edit: I just read some history on the Nike program, so based on the timing I think he may have worked on Hercules, but almost certain he was involved in development and evaluation of the Zeus.