What kind of grenade body is this!

[Catfishcraig]

Blue with holes?? I've never seen anything like it.

 

Please help

[ordnance]

It was an experimental practice grenade developed in the late 1960s-early 1970s on a Navy contract by a company in Newhall, California. It is generally known as the Device 3F65, although some documentation refers to variations as the X3F65 and 3F65/2A Type I or Type II. The Army tried them too but most I've seen came from USMC sources.

 

Several minor construction differences have been noted but the most common type is like the one you saw with a stepped center seam between the upper and lower halves. The central core is a tube with an expanding rubber bladder surrounded by a packet of dyed gelatin (usually red). When the pyrotechnic fuze fires, the bladder bulges and forces the dye out through the body holes and tags the unfortunate trainee as a casualty. Some who encountered these grenades said the dye was unusually permanent and would screw up a pair of BDUs very effectively, perhaps one reason they didn't catch on.

 

Factory literature refers to high sound level and low sound level version (for open field or inside training) and scoring and non-scoring types (with and without dye packs). It's a fairly scarce grenade and certainly worth picking up if that 29.99 is the price.

[Catfishcraig]

Thank you so much!!! I'll be going back next week and will get it then?