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I found this bullet frozen in glacial ice in Switzerland. There is no visible stamp on it anymore and unfortunately did not have any precise measuring equipment with me. I can measure the size of my ice-axe to get some estimation of the caliber if that would help.

My thoughts are that it probably originates from an aircraft cannon or anti-air gun. Although there is a small ring on the bottom of the bullet, it looks too small to be a primer, so I assume this is just the bullet part, without the casing.

Top down Back For size estimation

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    It could be some lost bullet from an aircraft's machine gun. Those were commonplace during WW2.
    – Denis de Bernardy
    Aug 5, 2019 at 10:07
  • That is my expectation as well, I was hoping to get a bit more exact idea of which aircraft it came from. From a Google search it appears to only be the bullet part (Ie not the casing) which makes sense that if this was shot from an aircraft during WW2, it would still be intact if it hit nothing
    – Wessel du Plooy
    Aug 5, 2019 at 10:35
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    It might be helpful to know on which side of Switzerland you found it, so whoever you tempt to move forward with the wild goose chase can at least narrow down the potential aircrafts that fired it.
    – Denis de Bernardy
    Aug 5, 2019 at 10:48
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    Good point, a wild goose chase it sure is :) It was found in the Rhone Gletscher, close to the bottom of the glacier and still covered with ice. For those not familiar with Switzerland: google.ch/maps/place/…
    – Wessel du Plooy
    Aug 5, 2019 at 11:14
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    When you get a chance, actual dimensions would be helpful.
    – justCal
    Aug 5, 2019 at 11:38

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I have come to the conclusion that this bullet originated from an M61 Vulcan cannon. Developed shortly after WW2, and in common use over the last few decades in Switzerland. Even today the Swiss Airforce fly the F/A-18 with the M61 Vulcan cannon mounted. It is hard to place a timestamp on when the bullet was fired, given the many years of use. Based on the rust and location it was found, I can only guess that it was from quite a few years ago.

Right most enter image description here

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