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Is this shell US?


Camaro69427
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Saw this helmet on eBay, while looking for a good candidate to make a Vietnam era marine example. The title of the listing said WW2/Korea helmet with a CAPAC liner. From the pics I could tell that the Shell had the Green metal hardware, indicative of Korean era production, although they were not crimped which I figured could've been either a production mistake or a field repair mistake. I could also tell that the shell had quite a few layers of paint, but the top coat was similar to a late 50's-early 60s repaint (Not as dark as a Korean era repaint, but not a bright as a Vietnam era repaint), but you could see the cork texture on the shell. The liner was easy to deduce was Korean era made due to the Marmac sticker in the shell and, from what was left in it, looked to be a nice early 60's set up. So I bought it.

 

Fast forward to yesterday, when it arrived. The liner is exactly what I thought it was, a 1952 Marmac liner with a CAPAC and Westinghouse double stamp in the crown, 1961 headband, remnants of leather chinstrap. Good to go!

 

The shell, I'm a bit confused on. It is a RS SB low dome shell. The chinstraps, as I saw, are uncrimped and have the green hardware. I cannot however find a heatstamp. It is possible that it is hidden under many layers of paint, but you'd think that at least a part of it would pop out. I know where a WW2 produced McCord and Schleuter (May have butchered that) should have their heatstamp, but where will a 50's produced shell have it's heatstamp. Are non crimped chinstraps common with M1 shells? Just hope I don't have a well used and repainted foreign shell that someone put Korean straps on.

 

post-151816-0-11063300-1512355137_thumb.jpg

 

You can see the liner in the background of the above pic. Didn't feel the need to photo it because I'm mainly concerned with the shell. More pics to follow.

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Also, one other thing I noticed was that the straps are very hard to stretch and hook around the back of the shell. It can be done, but the straps are extra taught and it really doesn't look right. Anyone else run into this with green hardware straps?

post-151816-0-91666100-1512355624_thumb.jpg

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I would say it looks fine to me, heat stamps can be incredibly difficult to find and I have many shells where it is impossible for me to locate it. I would recommend taking a flashlight and looking all over the shell for the stamp, they were stamped as far back as the chinstrap loops so be weary and look everywhere!

​Good luck to you finding it,

 

Hunt

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