TOPIC:

MAMY teeth are here

Ok stingray can you identify these bullets?



I went metal detecting in the sand dunes at Talacre beach in North Wales at the weekend and found a lot of ww2 bullets both in the sand dunes and also in the shore line buried in the sand.

I asked an elderly gentleman who lived in Talacre why so many bullets on the beach? He said the American and British air force used the sand dunes for target practice with the fighter planes after flying up the River Dee during the war.

I still cannot explain why i found these on the shore line under the sand my only theory is i spotted some old metal posts out to sea which may have been used for target mounting and these bullets must have been missed shots that hit the sea which is why they are not mangled or flattened off. The tide must have worked them back towards the beach over the years until i found them.

It would be cool to know what calibre they are and what they had been fired from? any ideas they look like a rifle round maybe?

SQomeones are real totally legals

TN, given the WW2 'plane connection, they're likely to be .30-06" (7.62mm) rounds fired from a Browning machine gun (USAF) or .303" Browning (RAF).

Is it just that size you found? Or a couple of larger sizes too?

For me they look like 30 06 if american and .303 british. But they don't come from a warbird
Some GI's and Tommies were training before the DDay and to past the time

would be nice to think they came from a fighter plane not too sure though they seem to have been a poor shot though as they have not hit anything

My friend did find larger bullets in the dunes but they where flattened off and badly mangled up he also found a lot of fired casings. I am wondering if its british .303 fired from a lee enfield maybe from practicing they had been shot out to sea though which seems a little strange as they had worked the way back with the tide. may be missed shots from an aeroplane but the caliber does not seem large enough? did they do a round this small for the browning machine guns on the fighters i would have thought they would be useless air to air.

A mystery?? i want to visit the battlefields of france hopefully one day now that would be interesting

Talacre was definitely used by allied forces (Fighter Command?), I didn't look too thoroughly but I got the impression it was more for testing than training. It seems unlikely it was also used as a training/staging area for the D-day landings

RAF Hurricanes & Spitfire definitely started WWII with .303 guns, the Spitfire later got 20mm cannon, not sure about the Hurricane.
USAF again started with "small" calibre guns & got upgraded later to .50" IIRC.

There's a argument about a large number of smaller calibre guns with a lot of ammunition vs. a smaller number of bigger guns & the ability to carry far fewer rounds due to weight ... IIRC (again) Hurricanes started with 8 .303 guns, compare that with just two 20mm cannon with just a few seconds worth of ammunition on later Spitfires.

Effectiveness of the smaller calibre depends on what was being shot at - early WW2 planes might have looked relatively modern but the construction was still mostly wood framed & canvas covered, only later did they start being made from moderately thick aluminium panels, only later still did they have armour

Thanks for the info Jon very interesting perhaps they did come from a plane it would make much more sense them bieng shot out to sea. Great to think they may have come from a Hurricane or Spitfire even if they were testing shots only

I love the lee enfield. It's baionnette is very fun.
During WW1 britisc and US army had a common gun, the US17. It existed in 30-06 and .303B
It was a copy of legendary German Mauser 98 rifle. Made under licence before the war.
My US17 Exploded when during a shoot