PhantomDog: I recieved an email from the website people and he says this:
"7.25 inches, roughly 185mm, isn't a standard caliber itself. Though it could be a tank cartridge that has been cut below
the shoulder and above the base.It's not an artillery casing of that I'm pretty sure. I compared the draw marks in the
casing to a couple of rounds I have, from which I conclude it's likely *not* US or Brit. But really, aside from that, that's
as far was I can go. Sorry I couldn't be of more help. I've got some buddies who are into tank ammo, I'll ask them."
So now we wait patiently for the tank guys opinions. I still think it is a real shell based on the background from which it came.
Here's your resident Treadhead...
The M-4 Sherman gun tanks of WW II were 75 mm. The M-48 Patton gun tanks that we had in Vietnam were 90 mm (which is roughly 4").
There were also some M-102 "Elephant" tanks that employed a 120 mm two-part round...one was the projectile and one was the brass round full of propellant.
That still is not a size close to the 14.5" that this so-called arty / tank shell is.
Didn't the American battle wagons sport 16" guns?
I seem to recall that a three round salvo of shells weighed 2,000 and when I stood next to one of those babies it was almost as tall as I am...5' 7".