I've been looking for an M29 for a bit without much luck. Technically I bought one back in the fall of 2019 when visiting relatives down in North Carolina with the intent that they would either bring it up when they drove up for the holidays or mail it up afterwards but for several reasons that hasn't happened yet. Long story short, I saw this one pop up for sale recently and ended up acquiring it with the intention of using it as a slightly beat up placeholder until I get the one I bought back in 2019. However, now that I have it in hand I'm wondering if this is potentially some sort of test version of the M29. I assumed that fins had been knocked off at one point but having it in hand I'm not sure the tail ever had more than 2 fins. I'm not seeing any evidence of the other 4 fins and based on some (admittedly limited) searching I haven't seen an early dated M29. Would be curious to know what others think on this one

 

There are actually 6 fins on the replaceable tail stabilizer section. I can see where at least one was. I have had several. I believe Bill Ricca once stated that most only have 5 fins because he thought that may have been part of the demill process. 

4 hours ago, ccyooper said:

There are actually 6 fins on the replaceable tail stabilizer section. I can see where at least one was. I have had several. I believe Bill Ricca once stated that most only have 5 fins because he thought that may have been part of the demill process. 

 

Thanks for the information. I was aware that 6 fins is what is typical for these but I found this one odd as it isn't super obvious that the 4 other fins were attached at one  point. I'm used to seeing the ones missing fins still having pieces of the fins attached to the stabilizing section. If they were attached to this one at one point someone must have sanded down any remaining bits and painted over it again which seemed odd to me.

Good Day, 

A number of different countries adopted the MERCAR ENERGA rifle grenades. The majority were 6 fins.  However,  there was a British factory three fin variant

 

Regards,

Michael 

 

The fins have a slight angle (~10 degrees) which cause the fin assembly to spin and stabilize the projectile. Two fins would not do this. I have original examples with 3 and 6 fins.

It's certain the other fins from the OPs example were broken off.  The original fin assembly is cast as a unit and the fins are not detachable.  Broken fins were an unfortunate fact with the M29/ENERGA rifle grenades