Rare find today!

[jager]

While out coyote hunting today which was quite successful, I might add....I found a few .50 cal brass. This was in Whitman county in the middle of nowhere...rough, rocky, grass and sage covered terrain. I found one...a few minutes later my nephew found another then in a spot a hundred yards or so from the first found 2 about 10 yards apart. After that My thought was fired from an airplane...no one is hauling a .50 cal out here.
Well upon my return home it looks, according to the headstamps  these were made in 1942!

 TW 42 Twin Cites Ordnance Plant
Operated by Federal Cartridge Company 1941-1945

 DM 42 Des Moines Ordnance Plant
Operated by the U. S. Rubber Company from 1941-45.

The Browning M2 machine gun was the most widely used weapon on the American bomber and fighter planes of WWII.

There are 2 that I haven't found yet.

I wonder what they were doing out there?...coyote hunting....hmmmm

[wraithen]

Brass falls out of aircraft all the time. I know I've spread some across a few states on accident.

[jager]

Way to kill my imagination! 
Still they're 70+ years old...cool no matter what...at least I think so.

[wraithen]

They are. I landed once in luisiana and hopped out and about shattered my ankle. When I went to step with my other leg, same result. I was standing on 100's of 50 cal bullets. Not the whole cartridge, just the big honkin bullet. Most of them were not deformed at all. I have no idea how they got there. Lost the 3 bullets I grabbed. Still pretty cool find.

[carpsniperg2]

Very cool

[jayrod9528]

Growing up on the Horse Heaven we would find these fairly regular. I have some with the steel belting still on them. Some old timers said that they use to be bombing ranges out in the middle of nowhere. As far back as WW1 the pilots would fly over and drop bags of flower over the sheep ranchers just to get a rise out of them. Any way cool find.

[woodywsu]

I have a pile of them I have found over the years. I even have a few loaded ones that I have found.

[jager]

 So they really aren't that uncommon? Where would they be firing these guns, that the brass would be falling out of the plane? Random uninhabited areas. 

[Helix]

No wonder the poor gray wolves went extinct in WA.  It was the airforce.  Who knew.   

[jayrod9528]

So they really aren't that uncommon? Where would they be firing these guns, that the brass would be falling out of the plane? Random uninhabited areas. 

Yep, they would strafe targets or just run the canyons.

[palousemoose]

Most likely these were from Fairchild Airforce Base.  Neat find!

[deerbandit]

Well B-52 D and G models were at Fairchild in the 70s and the 80s right before they got the H models so its a distinct possibility.

[mebco09]

Cool find.  There was a NAS in Pasco during WW2, with a whole lot of auxiliary fields all over the Palouse (now gone and farmed over).  Odds are better that they came from aerial gunnery excercises in the 40's than B52s in the 70's.  (I don't think B52s even had .50 cals) 

[trippledigitss]

Thats cool - let your imagination run wild! Unless someone can prove otherwise there's nothing to say it didnt happen the way you think!     

[krism83]

I mentioned this to my grandpa the other day and he said they used to run some training missions through the Palouse in AT-6 Training planes, firing .50 caliber rounds. That was back in the late 30's to early 40's. You may have a small piece of post WWI/Pre WWII history there buddy.

[Jekemi]

Regardless of the rarity, they are a piece of WW2 history. Cool.

[jeepasaurusrex]

An old WW2 pilot friend of mine told me they would often dump complete belts of unfired ammo on training flights. They were supposed to go out and burn though the 27' (yes 27 feet, that is where the term "Giving them the whole 9 yards came from) of .50 ammo. Not wanting to spend time cleaning the guns, they would just dump the ammo out of the plane. Wish I could find some of them belts in good shape....

[Arteman]

Before my gramps passed on, he would tell me stories of how he watched them dump tanks, jeeps, and other equipment in the ocean off the ships.  He was part of the under water demolition, what is now formed into the navy seals.  His team had to go over to them islands and dive looking for some kind of floating bomb or something to dismantle so the boats could land.  I wish I was old enough at the time to remember the stories he would tell.