I think i dug an artillery shell, West Roxbury, Massachusetts

Crossmod

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Dedham Massachusetts
Digging at a friends house and found what looks like a mortar or artillery shell. Is it safe to remove? No fuse.
 

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Sent the pic to my son who is Air Force EOD. Definitely military ordinance of some type. Without measurements he couldn't say for certain what type. Safe to handle is also anyone's guess. He suggested (strongly) erroring on the side of safety and reporting it.
 
yes looks like a projectile of some sort.... what did the top and bottom look like?
 
We called Boston Police and they had the bomb squad come out. They did a few tests and removed it for disposal. Sad face. I wish i could have kept it.
 

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Yup, call eod and they'll always destroy it. That's an 1800s shell for sure. They're generally safe to handle if you keep sparks and flames away from them, most of them used a resin and powder mixture that wasn't as unstable as black powder. There's groups who will even clean them out to render safe as well. Hope you can find another.
 
Not sure if that's a hole near the top of the shell or not, but if it is, I would imagine any powder would be gone by now. So without powder or a fuse, not sure if that would be considered live, but I'm obviously no expert. Alas, it's now in the Boston bomb squad's hands. I cant say I've ever seen one of those before, and learned quite a bit reading up on the history of them. Thank you for sharing!
 
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