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Lemon practice grenade


manayunkman

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Found these two at a swapmeet last weekend. Seller had a few bayonets, etc. Asking price was $10.00/ea. and he took $15.00 for the pair. As for the M30, only ever saw these once, when I was in the USMC (1972). Our unit was headed to Ft. Bragg, NC for a exercise and somewhere along the way, we stopped at a grenade range. It was set up like a baseball diamond, with heavy wooden walls behind "home plate" with a few reinforced viewing ports. We were told to line up and one at a time, stepped into the grenade pit to throw our grenade (the objective was to lob in into the center of one of the large vehicle tires downrange). However, these were fragmentation grenades. Excited at the prospect, I tossed mine reasonably close to the target. Turned out a few Marine vets (some "short timers") were not interested, so I asked to take their place in line and thus got to toss two more times! Near the end of my three year tour, our unit was in Viequas. P.R. during a six week exercise in the Caribbean, when we got to throw the M8. As a Sargent with only two months to go, our Gunney designated me a "Pit NCO" to instruct and basically act as a "safety" in case of a problem. Fortunately no one made a mistake... as the last thing I wanted to do was to try and kick a loose frag grenade into the sump without getting both me and the Marine throwing it blown up!

 

 

M8 and M30 Practice 1.JPG

M8 and M30 Practice 2.JPG

M8 and M30 Practice 3.JPG

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2 hours ago, pwcosol said:

Found these two at a swapmeet last weekend. Seller had a few bayonets, etc. Asking price was $10.00/ea. and he took $15.00 for the pair. As for the M30, only ever saw these once, when I was in the USMC (1972). Our unit was headed to Ft. Bragg, NC for a exercise and somewhere along the way, we stopped at a grenade range. It was set up like a baseball diamond, with heavy wooden walls behind "home plate" with a few reinforced viewing ports. We were told to line up and one at a time, stepped into the grenade pit to throw our grenade (the objective was to lob in into the center of one of the large vehicle tires downrange). However, these were fragmentation grenades. Excited at the prospect, I tossed mine reasonably close to the target. Turned out a few Marine vets (some "short timers") were not interested, so I asked to take their place in line and thus got to toss two more times! Near the end of my three year tour, our unit was in Viequas. P.R. during a six week exercise in the Caribbean, when we got to throw the M8. As a Sargent with only two months to go, our Gunney designated me a "Pit NCO" to instruct and basically act as a "safety" in case of a problem. Fortunately no one made a mistake... as the last thing I wanted to do was to try and kick a loose frag grenade into the sump without getting both me and the Marine throwing it blown up!

 

 

M8 and M30 Practice 1.JPG

M8 and M30 Practice 2.JPG

M8 and M30 Practice 3.JPG

I found plenty of the type you show with no paint but they aren’t the same as mine.

 

Trying to find one like mine.

 

 

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Come to think of it, the ones I handled did not have that rough texture as exhibited on yours or anything stamped on the body. Got a couple guys I know whom like ordnance so will see if they can add anything...

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Keeping in mind the white inking is applied at the time when it is loaded, yours appears to be a pristine , unused example. Stored poorly over the years.
I suspect yours is right out of the untouched crate/ can it was put in right after manufacture.The white inking is rarely seen, as after even a few throws ( they were reloaded with black powder charges) the inking would have been worn away. 
 

I have seen one or two still in their black fiber cans over many years. The problem usually found was bubba often repainted OD over the original blue. A green OD training grenade is not original.

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