Mystery 3" shell -- can someone ID?

[emike123]

Jack Melton gave me this but didn't know what it was.  When I got it the sabot was off but I squeezed it back on.

[Pete George]

  Looks like a postwar modification of a Stafford (but the sabot is shorter than a Stafford), or a Eureka (short sabot like this, but Eureka's disc-sabot did not use a bolt for sabot attachment).

  Mike, did you shoot any photos of the sabot's internal side, or the now-hidden lead base?

  Also, does the fuze unscrew?  Or is this shell still "live"?  The fuze appears to be an iron-anvil percussion.  Is that what it is? 

Regards,
Pete

[emike123]

Thanks Pete.  Good to see you active on the forum.  The shell is open to through that bottom hole all the way and empty.  I was thinking it might have had a base fuse in addition to the iron anvil cap.  I cannot easily pull the sabot back off -- just a fraction -- but perhaps you can see the small slots in the shell body the lead ring slid into.

[Pete George]

Note: I modified this post only to add some info.

  Thanks for the additional photo.  It shows a triangular slot at the brass sabot's upper rim.  The only time I've seen one shaped like that is on the Arick/Eureka exploded shell-base-&-sabot shown in the Dickey-&-George 1993 Edition book.  This would seem to confirm that the mystery shell is a relative of Arick's "Eureka" projectile.

  Also, note that the mystery sabot and the Arick/Eureka sabot appear to be exactly the same size.

  See the photo below.

Regards,
Pete