Item Number: F00294
Item Title: 3in Hotchkiss case shot shell with an unlisted fuse
Price: $200
Shipping: Not included
Provenance: US
Type: Hotchkiss case shot shell
Size: 3in
Sabot:
Fuse:
Book:
Location Recovered: Spanish Fort, Alabama
Description:This half shell shows the construction of the very advanced-for-its-time Hotchkiss case shot shell. In addition to the thinness at the nose and the pusher plate to aid the expulsion of the shot, it has one very unusual attribute:
Earlier pattern case shot shells had an iron extension tube in the end of the fuse adapter that extended the flame through a hole in the pusher plate to the powder chamber in the bottom of the nose section.
This late type is not in Chuck Jones' fuse book, but instead of an iron tube inserted in the fuse adapter, this one has a white metal sleeve around the bottom of the brass fuse adapter. This is more like a normal Hotchkiss fuse adapter except the tip of the tube bottom is rebated so facilitate it plugging into this white metal sleeve.
This set up is neither shown nor discussed in any book I am aware of, and for sure not in Chuck Jones' fuse book. Its a tough thing to see except in a cutaway. This shell is from Spanish Fort which was a battel right at the end of the war so this is the latest and final war era evolution of this fuzing system.