As a sensible person, I hit it with a shovel, but there was no kaboom. Despite plenty of digging around, I still can't extract it with simple shovel leverage. What is it?


48 comments
  1. Land mine

    Seriously though, it kinda looks like the top of a gas cylinder… but doesn’t look rounded enough

    Can you dig it out? or clean the top?

  2. Step 1: poke it with a shovel. Step 2: nothing happens. Step 3: post on Reddit. Step 4: accidentally discover a 200 year old mystery

  3. Train wheel? Or something similar disc brake old fame machinery. What was on the land before the house? 

  4. Looks like a train wheel to me. It’s got the right characteristics, but I don’t know why it would be in your garden.

  5. So this could be something entirely mundane like a drain or septic tank cover, or a base for a washing line/parasol.

    However, as other people have pointed out, it bears a concerning resemblance to an anti-tank mine, specifically a German tellermine 42.

    It’s somewhat unlikely a German anti-tank mine would be sitting in an English garden, so my money is on the former mundane options, but I would still suggest not hitting it with a shovel and phoning the police instead.

    Better safe than blown into a million sorry pieces.

    Edit: Actually, just saw your statement about being unable to move it with shovel leverage, that suggests it’s almost certainly something mundane. If there’s no drainage or septic tank then it’s probably a base for a parasol or washing line. Still no harm in asking the police to check it out though.

  6. Looks like a landmine. How old is you’r house? Could you’r house or estate have been a field in the war?

  7. If that is an anti-tank mine, hitting it with a shovel won’t do anything.

    They need like 100kg minimum to set them off.

    Know any large people you’re not fond of who can jump on it?

  8. Try posting in /r/whatisit 

    Those guys are insanely good at working stuff like this out 

  9. As embarrassing as it might feel to not know and get it wrong, you should have the police inspect it to make sure it isn’t an explosive. Better to be wrong about it being potentially dangerous than to explode imo. 

  10. Like others have said this bears resemblance to unexploded ordnance (UXO). Please phone the police and ask for somebody to come take a look at it, they would rather you call and find out it’s just an old wheel than you not call and get yourself blown up.

  11. “Landmine has taken my sight

    Taken my speech, taken my hearing

    Taken my arms, taken my legs

    Taken my soul, left me with life in Hell”

    Yeaaaah call someone, don’t touch that – quit hitting it with a shovel you nobhead lol

  12. If you phone the emergency services they can send the bomb squad out to you straight away. The ordinance team is on hand and deal with bombs all the time. All. The. Time. Better safe than sorry buddy

  13. some part of a tractor or train wheel? maybe? idk i’d call 101 and get the police round to verify not a bomb

  14. Quite likely an old mine. Nevermind how it got there. Call police and they will deal with it. The blast radius and shrapnels from old corroded metal is not to mess with. Also given its age it can blow up at any time even without stepping on it. If it’s really a mine. Let us know 🙂

  15. Is there concrete around it and/or is it set into concrete? It looks like it could be a fixed emplacement for a 3inch spigot mortar. They had these on certain pillbox emplacements that formed part of the home defence chain they set up to stop the Nazis in the event of a landing.

    If I wanted to be alarmist, I’d say is sort of looks like an anti-tank mine but I cannot see the handle for the German Teller mineand the pressure pad is smaller (but it could have fallen out).

    If it were me I’d dig it up more and investigate BUT I am notoriously thick sometimes and also have a bit of a disregard for my own safety. So I am not encouraging this at all.

    If you think it’s iffy, call the police.

  16. Do not touch it anymore. It probably isn’t, but it bears a remarkable resemblance to a land mine from WW2. Call police and have the EOD squad check it out.

  17. Look man, it looks enough like a landmine that you should call somebody for even the 0.1% chance it actually is.

    It’s probably something entirely mundane and the resemblance is cosmetic, but why chance it. You can have a good laugh about it later.

    The EOD guys are probably just sat on their hands doing mundane stuff day to day, I’m sure they appreciate a change of scenery, calling them out isn’t going to upset them.

  18. Standard procedure is to jump 50 feet into the air and scatter yourself across a wide area.

  19. Looks like a TM-62 Series anti-tank mine. It’s possible it’s a TM-62P3 variant, be careful when disarming as the MVCh-62 pressure fuse is renowned for being sensitive.

  20. Googling for different types of landmines, it bares a striking resemblance to an M6 or M15 landmine.

    Found a good diagram here:

    michaelhiske.de/Allierte/USA/USNBD/USA/LandMines/LandMines/Page191.htm

  21. EOD bloke here – call the police. They should respond immediately as it’s risk to life. They’ll come and confirm it, then task your local EOD team (if you’re in Birmingham they’ll be coming from Tewkesbury way). It probably is something innocuous, but I’ve dealt with all sorts of stuff (both live and inert) dug out of peoples gardens.

  22. Looks,like the top of a churn but also a bit like an AT mine pressure plate…

    All the best….

  23. If you end up blown to bits and pieces, could you give a family member or friend your Reddit username, so that we get an update. Please and thank you.

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