)Hookay, here’s the Pepsi Challenge. Identify an animal by it’s tooth.
Backstory. My WW2 and Korean War Combat vet father passed away on 22 Decand we just held his Celebration of Life memorial on Valentine’s Day. I was given several of his things including the bayonet he kept in is boot throughout Korea and his (I believe Army issued) black jack. I have searched but haven’t been able to identify the tooth or bullet or blackjack.
He served in Manila and parts of the Philippines in 1946 and as part of the army of occupation in Okinawa in 1947. I believe the photo above was most likely taken in the Philippines. AFAIK, the only kind of wild animal in Okinawa would be a type of boar. But maybe it was Okinawa. I’m thinking that a bunch of teenage MP’s from bumfuck nowhere did a little hunting while on tour. The photo’s of dozens if not hundreds of fellow soldiers look exactly that, including posing around a Schlitz case of beer…little different from my adventures in Asia except they were in uniform.
I’m also guessing that the bullet (what is the proper term) is from an M1 carbine. I am pulling that out of my ass as it was a commonly used military rifle, and my father’s discharge papers listed him as “Rifle M1 Expert 182”.
So, if anyone can ID this necklace, it’s someone on the Dope. Bonus points for the bullet, bonus bonus points if the blackjack was army issued or just something that was common in the 1940’s, and triple bonus points for the “Rifle M1 Expert 182” designation.
The knife doesn’t really look like a bayonet - specifically, I don’t see how it would attach to a rifle. Possibly a fighting knife, especially if he kept it in his boot?
The bullet appears to be a .3006. Definitely not an M1 carbine bullet, but could be an M1 Garand bullet. And “Rifle, M1”, usually refers to a Garand - a carbine expert would be “Carbine, M1”.
Rifle, M1 would refer to a Garand, the M1 Carbine was a different gun altogether. The bullet is much more likely to be from a .30-06 M1 Garand than a .30 Carbine M1 Carbine, it’s way too long to be for a carbine. See this picture to get an idea of how they look: https://analienmind.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/commonammo.jpg
The M1 Carbine bullet is the far left, front row in **Pantastic’s **first link. The sell for about $1 each around here, so I’ve only fired my M1 a few times. Beautiful weapon.
The bayonet is an M4, intended for the M1 Carbine (it is much debated as to whether carbines equipped with the means to mount said bayonet actually reached the hands of troops in any significant numbers before the war ended). The bullet appears to be a flat-based type compatible with with being a 150gn M2 Ball type, or possibly the older M1906 type. The latter were originally made with a cupro-nickel jacket; the M2 type was initially given a stannic stain to make it look silver like the older type, later manufacture dropped the stain.
30 Caliber M2 cartridge specs here. The M2 in 30 caliber is what was most typically used in the Garand rifle, and to my rough eyeball test, looks like what you have there. Maybe it’s the 174 grain bullet in the earlier M1 cartridge? (Nope, that bullet has a 9 degree boattail, and the one in your picture looks like a flat base.)
I’m not anywhere near an expert, but the bullet in your photo really doesn’t look like a carbine bullet.
Thanks for the replies so far. Seems like the consensus is the M1 Garand is the “rifle” referred to in the “Rifle M1 Expert 182”.
To clarify:
discharge papers literally say “Rifle M1 Expert 182”. Search didn’t hit on that exact phrase.
Added a few more photos with different angles for the bayonet. It is a bayonet with the notch in the pommel and a loop. (He kept it really sharp on the long blade side, and dull on the shorter side so it rips instead of cuts).
Kept the bayonet in his boot “so I always knew where it was.” (MPSIMS: I got two butterfly knives that I’m pretty sure are from Manila circa 1946)
Any chance your father was a hunter? Looks for all the world like an elk’s eye tooth, a common ‘souvenir’ for hunters, along with the bullet that was used for the hunt.
He didn’t do much hunting and AFAIK only deer and grouse.
I think it’s the product of 18 year old GI’s hunting in either the Philippines or Okinawa circa 1946-47. I can’t find anything like this on line, and all the vets I knew from this era have passed on.
This was in with his other wartime stuff. He still had his full MP uniform (which I had never seen), dog tags, a gazillion photos of fellow dogfaces taken with a brownie camera, two butterfly knives I’m pretty sure were from Manila circa 1946, the combat bayonet, etc. Of course, it’s too late to ask him and I never saw any of these items growing up.
