Original Items: Only One Available. This is a fantastic 37mm Dummy round, as used with the M3 Anti-Tank Gun. The round is marked as being a practice round while the fuse is stamped “dummy”. This was never intended to be used as live ammunition and is totally inert, in compliance with the current BATF standards governing ordnance.

Not Available For Export

These projectiles are similar in ballistic properties to service projectiles and are used for practice firing and training in marksmanship. They may be made from service projectiles or from components similar in shape to service projectiles. This round was designed to simulate the M54 HE shell for practice firing.

The projectile is made up of three parts. The body has no filler, but is made the same size as the HE, M54. A tracer cavity is machined into the base. Since no filler is used, the tracer does not have shell-destroying qualities. The tracer consists of red tracer composition and igniting compound closed into the tracer cavity with a celluloid cup which is sealed with adhesive compound. The fuze, dummy, M50, is entirely inert and is made in one piece of cast aluminum. It is the same size, shape, and weight as the M56 fuze.

A lovely example ready for display.

The 37 mm gun M3 is the first dedicated anti-tank gun fielded by United States forces in numbers. Introduced in 1940, it became the standard anti-tank gun of the U.S. infantry with its size enabling it to be pulled by a jeep. However, the continuing improvement of German tanks quickly rendered the 37 mm ineffective and, by 1943, it was being gradually replaced in the European and Mediterranean theaters by the more powerful British-developed 57 mm gun M1. In the Pacific, where the Japanese tank threat was less significant, the M3 remained in service until the end of the war, but some 57mm guns were issued.

Like many other light anti-tank guns, the M3 was widely used in the infantry support role and as an anti-personnel weapon, firing high-explosive and canister rounds.

The M5 and M6 tank mounted variants were used in several models of armored vehicles most notably in the Stuart Light Tank M3/M5, the Lee Medium Tank M3, and Greyhound Light Armored Car M8. In addition, the M3 in its original version was mated to a number of other self-propelled carriages.

The inability of the 37mm round to penetrate the frontal armor of mid-war tanks severely restricted the anti-armor capabilities of units armed with them.