Valmara 69 AP Mine (Historical Prop)

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Valmara 69 or V-69 is an Italian bounding anti-personnel mine made by Valsella. The mine was developed from the V-59 mine and is no longer produced in Italy, but many copies were made in other countries like Singapore's "SPM-1." The South African version called J-69 is a copy of the Italian one. A single pronged center version was also created. It's not being made by South Africa because they follow the Mine Ban Treaty rules. Description The mine has an olive green or sand colored plastic body inside which holds a steel bounding body. On top, there's a round fuse cap with five prongs. The mine is triggered when the fuse cap tilts, either from pressure on one of the prongs or a pull on an attached tripwire. The tilt mechanism isn't affected by extra pressure. When triggered, a spring-loaded firing pin fires a percussion cap inside the fuze which ignites a propelling charge at the base of the mine. This launches the mine out of the ground into the air. When the mine reaches 50 cm high, it detonates the main explosive charge with a tether wire that tugs on a spring-loaded firing pin in the body of the mine. The main explosive charge is surrounded by a plastic fragmentation sleeve with pre-cut steel fragments which are launched at high velocity in all directions. The lethal radius is 25 meters but the fragments can still be dangerous beyond that distance. The time it takes for the mine to detonate after being triggered is about one second, so there's no time to get away from the blast. This mine has a lot of metal which makes it easy to find with a metal detector. However, like most bounding mines, most of the Valmara 69 is hidden underground and can be hard to see, especially in heavy undergrowth. The Valmara 69 might also be laid along with minimum metal mines such as the VS-50, VS MK2, TS-50, SB-33, and SB-81 which makes it harder to clear them. Valsella made a separate electronic anti-handling device called the VS-AR which is tilt-operated. It's designed to fit onto certain Valsella products like the VS-50 and Valmara 69 mines as well as the VS-1.6 and VS-1.2 anti-tank mines. The VS-AR has a series of fuse adapters that let it be screwed into the bottom of any of those mines. It has a 10-minute mechanical delay followed by a 30-minute electronic delay. The power source is two 1.5 V batteries and the operational life is longer than a year. The Valmara 69 can be found in Angola, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Kuwait, Mozambique, Sudan, and Western Sahara Type- Bounding anti-personnel mine Place of origin- Italy Specifications Weight 3.2 kg Height 205 mm Diameter 130 mm Filling Composition B Filling weight 0.42 kg Detonation mechanism- 10 kg push or 6 kg pull