Smoke grenade question

[Alpo]

On another board, someone said that "a favorite trick", in Vietnam, was to swap out a smoke-grenade fuse for a frag fuse, and leave it lying in the trail where Charlie could find it.

 

After thinking on that for while, I have decided that, maybe, smoke grenade fuses are, for all intents and purposes, "instantaneous", so as soon as you pull the pin and release it, it starts making smoke.

 

If one of these was put in a frag, and Charlie found said frag, and decided to return it to the imperialist running dogs, as soon as he pulled the pin and let the spoon flip, it would go off in his hand, instead of giving him a 4 or 5 second window of "tossing time".

 

But Google, yet again, has let me down, and will not tell me the time of a smoke grenade fuse.

 

Could someone with some experience with these critters tell me if, maybe, I'm on the right track? Yes/no?

[Utah Bob #35998]

Smoke grenade fuses vary from .7 to 2 second delay.

However, a fuse for a smoke grenade will not set off the explosive charge for a fragmentation grenade. Regardless of the stories told by old vets. It's an old wives tale.

The fuse for a frag contains a detonater that explodes the charge when the fuse reaches it's end. The smoke fuse doesn't have that.

Frag grenade uses an M213 fuse with a C70 detonator. Smoke grenade uses an M201A1 Igniting fuse.

[Utah Bob #35998]

There may have been cases where guys put the smoke fuse in a frag and assumed it would be effective. But they didn't stick around to see the results, which would have been......disappointing. It's possible that the igniter fuse could cause the charge to burn but not explode.

There are ways to make booby traps such as replacing gunpowder in enemy cartidges with PETN from det cord. You only need to do a few in a box or magazine. It's bad for their morale when the AK blows up.

 

Army manual FM 5-31 covered booby traps. Fun reading. Probably out of print now.

 

There was a zero time delay fuse which was specifically designed for booby trap purposes but it was not a general issue item, for obvious reasons.

[Alpo]

https://archive.org/details/milmanual-fm-5-31-booby-traps

 

FM 5-31. Downloadable. I just got it.

[Shorty Jack Hammer]

https://archive.org/details/milmanual-fm-5-31-booby-traps

 

FM 5-31. Downloadable. I just got it.

Now you're on the DHS watchlist...lol

[Badger Mountain Charlie SASS #43172]

I was thinking along those lines also, Red Horse.

[Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967]

There are ways to make booby traps such as replacing gunpowder in enemy cartidges with PETN from det cord. You only need to do a few in a box or magazine. It's bad for their morale when the AK blows up.

 

 

Uh... and you get these to the enemy how...?

[Utah Bob #35998]

 

Uh... and you get these to the enemy how...?

Find their cache. Place the special bullets in there. Or replace the ammo in the mags on their dead and leave. They'll retrieve their KIAs and all the equipment.

It works.

[Utah Bob #35998]

https://archive.org/details/milmanual-fm-5-31-booby-traps

 

FM 5-31. Downloadable. I just got it.

For research purposes only of course.

[Texas Lizard]

For research purposes only of course.

But by whom??

 

TL

[Badger Mountain Charlie SASS #43172]

Sad part is, if one of our adversaries should wish to do us harm, I doubt that

they would need or rely on the Department of the Army Field manual 5-31.

 

But then again, some home grown variety might.

[Alpo]

For research purposes only of course.

 

Oh, absolutely.

 

And I posted the link because, "Army manual FM 5-31 covered booby traps. Fun reading. Probably out of print now." kinda sounded like you wanted to read it again and didn't have a copy.

[Billy Bristol]

I thought UB wanted to reread it for his packrat problem

[Utah Bob #35998]

 

Oh, absolutely.

 

And I posted the link because, "Army manual FM 5-31 covered booby traps. Fun reading. Probably out of print now." kinda sounded like you wanted to read it again and didn't have a copy.

Actually I do have an original dog-eared copy. No self respecting SF trooper would be without one.

[Chantry]

You can get a lot of these field manuals as apps for your smartphone now. The wonders of modern technology

[Utah Bob #35998]

You can get a lot of these field manuals as apps for your smartphone now. The wonders of modern technology

And the NSA is very happy about that.

[Chantry]

And the NSA is very happy about that.

UB, you and I and the others here are probably on a list somewhere anyway, simply because we own guns.