What is this thing?

David emailed me to ask what the below object is. I have no idea, although the suggestion that it's a cartridge delinker sounds plausible.

I believe it is a military accessory and I would like some help to identify what it is. Attached is a picture, there is a stamp on the side that says "8D/2538" with a crown and "M" below that, and a circle below that with "R G 31" inside the circle. It appears to be made from brass. Someone suggested it is possibly a delinker to remove shells from a machine gun belt.

tooljpg tfb tm What is this thing? photo

Anyone know?

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Steve Oct 16th 2009 military Tags: 8 Comments

8 Responses to “What is this thing?”

  1. JWon 16 Oct 2009 at 7:26 pm link comment

    I’d agree with that suggestion, I found this web page: http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/006675.html with a pretty good picture of one in action.

  2. Oswald Bastableon 16 Oct 2009 at 8:26 pm link comment

    I found a picture here:

    http://www.fototime.com/EDF33CD2BC349BE/orig.jpg

    and here:

    http://www.fototime.com/0D39026CB261477/standard.jpg

    Looks like it is used for LINKING not delinking.

  3. Oswald Bastableon 16 Oct 2009 at 8:44 pm link comment

    It is a linker/delinker!

  4. Steveon 16 Oct 2009 at 9:46 pm link comment

    Gentlemen, thanks for the quick answer!

  5. Steveon 17 Oct 2009 at 10:34 am link comment

    Komrad, NOT cool.

  6. Davidon 18 Oct 2009 at 4:37 pm link comment

    Thanks for the help!!!

  7. Flashmanon 18 Oct 2009 at 7:55 pm link comment

    The rounds in the pictures are rimmed and resemble .303 British. The “RG” stamp on the item is reminiscent of the same abbreviation appearing on UK manufactured ammunition ex the Radway Green factory. So – a linker/delinker for a .303 Browning perhaps?

  8. Komradon 19 Oct 2009 at 3:28 am link comment

    I wonder why it’s brass. Could it be to prevent sparks? What kind of links is it for? I would think cloth links wouldn’t need it.

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