Lookie what I won on eBay. I've been after one of these for years and got it for a song. I've seen them for sale and de-milled for a whole lot more than I paid ($42!). It's supposedly a "prop" from Courage Under Fire and it even came with a "certificate of authenticity", but I have my doubts. For the scenes in that movie involving sabot rounds, there wouldn't be any need to "assemble" one from parts. The ones they used looked like either dummy rounds (with a solid plastic piece in the shape of the penetrator and sabots instead of separate "parts") or something else that they mocked up. But I didn't buy it because it's supposedly a movie prop (I actually have a real-life piece of set dressing from Courage Under Fire--a Russian-style tanker helmet--that my best friend got for me when he was an extra/tank crewman in that film), but because it's a cool display piece to go beside the functional CVC helmet that I bought surplus over ten years ago. I actually never got to fire one of these types of training projectiles. The sabot rounds I loaded and fired during my time were all based on the old-style short penetrator (APDS, no "Finned"). I actually used to have one of those penetrators (and sabots) that I snagged when I was on range detail once. I later gave them to my tank commander at the time as a "gift".
When I go surplus shopping my brain says things like, "We may not need those $1 clevises now, but you know we're gonna, someday...... .......so buy ten."
They torch-cut the tips. It's not DU, it's only steel (though the tip might be tungsten ). The demilled ones are still still acceptable-looking for a conversation piece, but they usually want way too much for them. Other than surface scratches, this one is pristine and unmolested. The non-fin stabilized, short penetrators in the APDS-T rounds we used to fire were pretty light. The penetrators felt like they were made from aluminum.
More eBay goodness. For $25. My wife thinks I've taken Cash's "One Piece at a Time" song too far already.
When you say gunner's control unit, you're saying it's essentially a hydraulic unit that lifts and lowers the gun?
It's the controller that allows the gunner to rotate the turret, raise and lower the gun tube, fire the laser rangefinder and fire the main gun and coax machine gun. It contains the electricals that tell the hydraulics what to do. Now I'm on the hunt for a TC override handle from an M60A3.
I'm not gonna get worried until you install one of these behind one of the break lights on your truck.
No worries there. I'd get a modern one. I also picked up either a brand new or "as new" Kevlar for $50. The wife was actually impressed with that deal because, after I told her what a crappy-condition helmet would've cost at a surplus store, she related it to getting some shoes or an outfit at a ridiculously low sale price.
A couple more eBay items. [?=Operation "One Piece at a Time" proceeds according to plan.] [/?] [?=Late Vietnam-era CVC helmet] [/?]
By the way would you like the 78 Declassification Reprint of FM 17-36 Employment of Tanks with Infantry (1944).
S&H... I thought about nabbing it the other day for you but ended up getting busy. I dug through almost a hundred fucking TMs and FMs, but not one God Damn ASIP TM!
Nice CVC. I miss mine and regret not [-]stealing[/-] liberating mine from uncle sam when I had the chance.
I've been trying to get a small collection going for a while. That one is in as good a shape as you'll see for its vintage. It's used, but not ragged out. The funny thing about it is that even though it's a very snug fit for me to put on (I've got a huge noggin) once I do get it on, it's more comfortable than the modern style CVCs. I bought one like you and I wore from a surplus dealer a few years after I got out. It looked unissued, but you never know with that stuff. In 2002, I went to Fort Hood to shoot a story on a tank range, so I took my CVC and spaghetti cord (somehow I managed to leave the military with about 5 or 6 of those but no helmet ) and plugged it in to see if it worked. It does. I don't know if the Vietnam one works or not and I doubt if I'll ever find out. They used a different style connector back then and my spaghetti cords won't fit it. Now my goal is to get a WWII era leather helmet, but the prices on those can get absolutely stupid on evilBay. This gives me two CVCs, a Russian-style cloth tanker helmet, a Kevlar and my steel pot.
More eBay goodness: I've been looking for one of these for years, but they're very hard to come by. Occasionally you'll see one in a surplus store, but they either want an arm and a leg for them or they won't sell them at all. I've offered the owner of a local surplus store more than double what I paid for this, but he wouldn't take it. [?=And it's even monogrammed for me. ][/?]
I'm not sure of how sabots are constructed, but I wonder if you could dump a few pounds of gunpowder in that bad boy and set it off with a large rifle primer.
FWIW, it's a dummy round used to practice loading (testing standard was something like 5 or 7 seconds, IIRC). It's the same size and weight as a service round (around 40lbs--much heavier than I remember) , but the "projectile" is molded plastic and the shell casing is much thicker than a "real" one. I don't know what it's filled with, but it's heavy. HEAT rounds were even heavier.
