Last month my girlfriend and I were vacationing on the island of Molokai in Hawaii.

One day we were walking along the shore between a couple of beaches on the north side of the island and I found a fired 50 BMG bullet.

The rifling groves are still sharp and visible, there is some corrosion on the base, and the point is split back almost 1" exposing a badly rusted steel core.

When I was a kid, my Dad was in the Navy and stationed at Pearl Harbor. We lived on the base, and I remember finding 50 BMG brass, but that was only 10 years after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

I know that it is no big deal to find a fired bullet, but finding one that may have been shot 75 years ago on our "day of infamy" is kind of cool.

Finding a Jap bullet would be even more cool.

Grizz

I lived in Hawaii for 10 years on Oahu, I have a 30 Carbine round I found on the Hickam side of the channel that runs between Hickam and Pearl Harbor. It was in the water and starting to be encrusted. The date on the case head is 43 so it was probably there in Hawaii just a few years after the attack.

Steve.........

Interesting find.
I was born and raised in western Ks. As a kid, occasionally we would find a 50 BMG case or loaded round in fields. Neighbor Fould a long belt of 50 BMG loaded cartridges when plowing a field. This was back in the 50s and 60s.
Recently brother found an intact 50 bmg cartridge on our land.
Apparently that area was used for practice during WWII.
These certainly don't have the famous battle notoriety that your find does.

Grizz, It would be really cool if the bullet that I found had gone through a Jap Zero.

The Navy recalled my Dad to active duty in the early 50s, and stationed him in Pearl Harbor. We lived in Honolulu the first year and on base at Pearl the second year. I attended 1st and 2nd grade there. I can remember finding spend 50 BMG cases, but I was too young to know what they were.

As for the .50 BMG bullet that I found on Molokai, we were told that there is one or more small, rock islands off the coast of Molokai that the Navy fighter planes used for bombing practice during WWII. I think the bullet that I found was probably shot on one of those practice sessions.

I live on the TX coast, and one of the nearby bays at one time held bombing targets for aircraft to practice on. That bay is now full of oyster reefs, and when I was a young man I used to wade those reefs at night, gigging flounder.

I once found a 30-caliber projectile lying atop a reef. I assume it was from a machine gun. It was pretty well intact as the steel somehow had not been eaten up by the salt. I never figured out why, just took it as one of those questions I would never be able to answer.

When I was 13-14 we lived at Bergstrom AFB near Austin. It had a reinforced concrete firing range where sometime in the past they must have been firing aircraft machine guns because you could sift the sand and get the steel cores by the dozens. All were stripped of their jackets on impact. Of course when I was a kid I imagined they made practice strafing runs in fighters but I'm sure that wasn't the case. More likely armorers were test firing weapons. Don't recall anything bigger than 50 cal, though.

Got my Noreen ULR in July 12, exactly two days after major hand surgery on my left hand. Still can't shoot it and it's killing me. Probably by next weekend!

Occasionally kick up a WWII-dated .50 BMG case out in the Oregon desert. I usually figure it was some kid training in a P-38 taking a squirt at a coyote.

Shot the Noreen yesterday; did not disappoint. I was ready for the lack of primary extraction. That's just how it goes with a shell holder bolt. Will smooth up with use. Had a first ever experience with the scope. I dismounted a Nightforce 5.5-22 from another picatinny rail straight onto the Noreen. You can't bore sight that gun by eye because the butt is in the way and pulling it all the way out is a pain to reassemble. So I fired a first shot at 100 and damn if it wasn't absolutely dead on.

Recoil was negligible. My other 50 BMG experience was with an early 32 lb McMillan bolt gun. This one is 34 lbs but seems much softer shooting. I think the springs and the great muzzle break made the difference.

I don't recall where they came from.
Tack welded small rod handles on the
AP centers to make dandy center punches.
No idea where the one I had for years
went. Long time since it was seen last.

George