Identifying strange Round of Ammo

[MrK]

During grenade training there are always a few guys who lose their wits (and sometimes liquids) and drop the damn thing close by. Some quick thinking by the instructors mostly resolves the issue, but not always. Grenade training is hated by all instructors...

Some trainees freeze up and refuse to throw the grenade, somehow convinced that it will detonate the moment they let go. You know you can only hold on to something for so long before your hand strength gives out? In these cases a discussion ensues, the purpose of which is to convince the trainee to let go of the grenade. Once he/she let's go, or preferably throws the grenade, very smart maneuvering needs to take place in order to place something solid between you and the grenade.

[Peter Wells]

There have also been numerous cases of lefties holding the grenade wrong! Hand grenades are made for righties so that the lever sits in the palm of the hand. A leftie automatically positions it with the pin facing him but with the lever either under his fingers or in the gap between fingers and thumb. Pull pin, lever goes and thrower freezes. Eina!
A case in point - in '76 this happened at Oshivelo and the instructor, a Carbineer Capt who wasn't standing right next to him like he was supposed to, didn't notice and the grenade blew the troepies arm of just short of the elbow. Interesting, his main concern was that his wedding ring went AWOL. Unsuprisingly the Capt had a number of refusals after that and he didn't have the balls to push them through the exersize and I had to take over.

[Sean KZN]

Our (SA) RG791 rifle grenades had an aluminium bullet deflector built into the top end of the launcher attachment, that defects a bullet sideways.

The older versions most probably did not...

Some of the newest rifle grenades have a "bullet arrestor" built in, and they are specifically designed to be launched by a normal "ball" round. This does away with the need for a special launcher round and prevents any mistakes.

Just a note on the construction of these things, and my experience is limited to the RG791: The actual grenade is exactly the same thing as a M26 hand grenade. The only difference is in the ignition module.

Both are shipped and issued with the ignition/detonator module separately packaged. The end user screws the unit into the grenade before use. This adds some safety to these things.

On the M26, the detonator unit has the hand lever, retained by a split pin with a ring. To use, one would grab the grenade with the lever firmly in the palm of the hand, and pull the split pin out by the ring. (Use your index finger, not your teeth. It sits pretty tight and will even pull Chuck Norris' teeth out.) Once released from the hand, the lever flies off, releasing a little spring loaded hammer that strikes a primer-like thing that ignites a short +/-5 second fuse that ignites the detonator. The explosion is spectacular. It causes a bright flash of white light and a shock wave (with shrapnel) that kicks up a rapidly expanding ring of dust around the explosion site. No yellow flames and black smoke like in the Hollywood versions.

In the RG791 version, the detonator assembly is a longish tubular thing. It screws into the grenade just the same, so when mounted on a rifle barrel, the grenade sits on top of the tube thing with it's "bottom" facing forward and up. The igniter mechanism get activated (primed) by the acceleration of the launch, then the impact when it strikes something solid causes the detonator to be activated, exploding the grenade. No delay at all.

During grenade training there are always a few guys who lose their wits (and sometimes liquids) and drop the damn thing close by. Some quick thinking by the instructors mostly resolves the issue, but not always. Grenade training is hated by all instructors...

In the RG791 version, the detonator assembly is a longish tubular thing. It screws into the grenade just the same, so when mounted on a rifle barrel, the grenade sits on top of the tube thing with it's "bottom" facing forward and up. The igniter mechanism get activated (primed) by the acceleration of the launch, then the impact when it strikes something solid causes the detonator to be activated, exploding the grenade. No delay at all.

Then you had the problem of problem troops. I was one, who thought it would be tremendous fun to remove the grenade and screw on a white Phos. Fortunately, some one had foreseen this possibility arising, it was designed that try as I might, there was noway to do it.
Pretty sure it would have ended badly for me.

[A-R]

Then you had the problem of problem troops. I was one, who thought it would be tremendous fun to remove the grenade and screw on a white Phos. Fortunately, some one had foreseen this possibility arising, it was designed that try as I might, there was noway to do it.
Pretty sure it would have ended badly for me.

Could have caused a lot of fun...