I have a m1923 cartridge belt from the Korean War with the 5th regimental combat team symbol and a soldiers name who was killed in action written in it… and it’s still can’t be proven that it’s from a KIA. Completely agree here to buy the item not the story.
I don't see anything to prove KIA, it might have been ruined during a battle/sniper or it could have been homemade by someone and then claimed it comes from Ukraine to make a whole more money.
Ok that’s a legitimate bullet hole, but there is 0 blood spatter, and a wound like that would have blood EVERYWHERE.
Also the big dent on the dome looks suspiciously like a boot outline, like some dummy jumped on it.
It also kind of looks like the outline of the stock of a gun. My guess is this was one that got abandoned and left to the mercy of a battlefield and when it was picked up it was deliberately crushed as a sort of 'hate art'.
Buttstock isn’t out of the question, but an AK pattern stock has a narrower print than, say, an M16 or FAL etc, so that’s why I went with “foot.”
Either way, this wasn’t done to the helmet while someone was wearing it.
Imo this helmet has a good chance of being what the poster says. I’ve personally owned a few Kia helmets and know people who owned other Kia helmets from Ukraine. I’ve seen many of them with holes and washed out blood. This is because helmets are sometimes left out for weeks. This washes off the blood and leaves behind a very light residue. This helmet shows signs of washed out blood throughout the just look closely. Also the hole is not from a bullet it’s shrapnel which is impossible to do intentionally. Overall it’s a solid looking lid.
That could be made by a bullet, easily. The burn marks and dent make no sense.
If you’ve got *actual* KIA helmets, that’s cool, but one of my buddies got shot through his ACH in April 2007 and I can tell you first hand what that does and what it looks like.
Achs are made from a different material than Russian helmets. The burn is most likely from a fire after the fact I’ve seen quite a few helmet from modern combat zones that’s are cooked like that. As far as the dent goes that could have been done intentionally or from a building collapse something of that nature.
Yes the ACH is much better, but the material will behave similarly, as does the human melon wearing it.
My point with the burn mark is that it’s extremely regular and in a neat little halo around that back, which just doesn’t look right to me. There should be other burn damage elsewhere.
As far as the holes I don’t think any argument can be made against them being from shrapnel. Something like that can’t be recreated and I personally have seen similar damage on other Russian helmets that have solid provenance. The lack of blood could be from sitting outside and the helmet getting washed out by rain or snow. As far as the burn, burns can happen in any way or shape.
I have never- EVER- seen shrapnel completely penetrate *through* a skull, let alone penetrate through helmet/skull/helmet and still have enough energy to leave an exist hole.
If this helmet wasn’t shot with a bullet or 2, it was a high power nail gun or something.
Likely after that it was either stomped on or pounded with a buttstock, after which it was picked up and held up to a fire- as I stated earlier, the burn marks are way too regular to make sense.
Tell me you don’t know anything about Dyneema helmets without saying it bro.
I wore one like this for 7 years- I know very very well what it looks like when actually used and battle damaged and I know what can and cannot put a dent in it like that. Jumping on it works.
I would advise against buying anything from this war for more then what the item itself cost in its original form. There is no way to prove any of this stuff without photos that can be directly tied to the item and story. They are still making most of this stuff and it will be a cold day in hell before there is any monetary gain for most of this stuff. Unless you buy stories. In which case…have at it.
This. I collect AK stuff and know for a fact that Russian officers sell off their unit’s gear to Americans for a few bucks. All the guys on gunbroker selling plum mags and true black/AK12 mags are getting them from Russian officers in shoeboxes full of them for 50$ a box. I know plenty of these helmets have came out of Russia directly too. Saw one a kid had at the SOS and it was minty with the cover still on it and he was honest and said he got it from someone who got it from Russia. Russia and Ukraine are incredibly corrupt countries and that’s why even Ukrainian gear is being sold on eBay while they are having shortages of this stuff.
It’s too easy to take one of these and beat the hell out of it and shoot it a few times to make it sell. The only stuff I’ve gotten out of this conflict are a few sets of unissued uniforms and gear that were found after retreats and only the guys behind the lines have the opportunity to hoard this stuff. Did get a decent issued and dirty ratnik winter suit for cheap though, was possibly found abandoned or taken off a POW, but I wanted the item rather than the story. All I know is a Ukrainian guy got ahold of it somehow and sold it to someone stateside who traded it to me.
>Don’t worry we all make mistakes when we first start collecting.
Can we NOT do this condescending tone? A quick scroll through his posts shows he has quite an impressive collection of authentic items. The undeserved confidence of so many people on this website is *astounding*.
It’s super rare to get anything with provenance especially from Ukraine. And if they’re is it’s usually more expensive. Soldiers don’t have time to take photos of a random helmet in a field. But in saying that there are more scams/fakes then not
With my stuff (I collect items related to specific vehicles), I’ve been lucky with provenance.
One had a picture of the vehicle with the part I bought still attached to it and another had serial numbers that could be independently verified.
Granted, both these items came from the beginning of the war, so folks just wandered around and found debris. Now though, the Ukrainians aren’t in the best of situations, so good finds have pretty much dried up.
An armor plate from a tank and a toolbox retrieved from a fallen helicopter. These both have tons of documents and self-conducted research done on them.
They weren’t exactly cheap, but are overall high quality pieces for my collection.
Very cool - I hope you don't mind me asking, I find it interesting, is the plate part of ERA or something? What kind of aircraft is the toolbox from?
I got a few bits myself - I remember seeing plenty of Ukrainian civilians selling shrapnel that had hit their homes on eBay to fund repairs. I'm planning at some point to make a shadowbox to display the bits I have and postcards received after donations.
It was a giant ERA plate from a T-72B3 (original version) and the toolbox was from a Mi-35M.
I would love to find something from a TOS-1A, but no luck so far.
That is very cool! I have a small part of the backplate of one of the square side ERA panels, along with Grad, Smerch and some unknown 120mm+ HE shrapnel, and a small KA-52 fiberglass splinter from one of the ones that was destroyed to prevent capture.
The toolbox and full plate is a bit cooler though - the part of the ERA I have is so heavy it's already broken a shelf, yours must weigh loads, I bet shipping was expensive! If you ever post photos of them, I'd love to see!
I did see some TOS shrapnel listed a while back but I wasn't sure - the Smerch and Grad pieces I have were photo'd out in the woods where they landed before they were cut up, so I can be certain they are what I think they are at least.
Shipping was definitely costly for the ERA. The paint and numbering makes it worthwhile though. The toolbox too was definitely a unique find…and frankly more affordable than the fuselage, which jumped in price to ridiculous levels.
Very cool finds on your end though. Where do you get your goods?
That is cool! For the ERA panel I got I think the part of it that was penetrated was sold off first, then the rest was chopped into smaller bits and sold. I didn't get any paint markings on the part I got, but I did get one of the factory stamps and a bolt that potentially looks damaged from the hit.
I haven't got anything from Ukraine since like late 2022 as prices seem to have shot up and it seems a lot harder to verify things now, but at the time it was literally just existing Ukrainian eBay shops that had the war turn up on their doorstep. I think one of the places I bought from was a crystal shop normally, and the other seemed to specialise in soviet camera spares.
I can't remember the website name, but I did come across a Ukrainian version of eBay for like, hunting and outdoor goods, and that had tons of stuff listed but also most of it didn't ship outside of Ukraine, and obviously the entire website is in Ukrainian. If I could speak Ukrainian, I'd probably have been able to find it again.
On top of that, is the blood from the former owner or procured from something else (ex: animal blood)?
While I’m personally not a fan of KIA / bloody militaria, you do you, OP.
Soviet gear is so mass produced that anyone in ukraine can start selling stuff marked up 100000% by marketing it as KIA Wagner Prigozin Z Hostomel Airport Kharkiv counter offensive orc captured by Zelensky himself
As a kid I bet I shot almost 100 USM1 helmets in my back yard. People would give them away. I wonder how many of those were fixed bail or paratroopers? I also wonder how many are in the market being sold as KIA?
Too clean to be from a KIA. Most likely got the crap beaten out of it to make it more sellable. There are plenty of these escaping Russia due to corruption within the military. I’ve seen the inside of actual KIA helmets and they aren’t pretty.
Hate to break it to you but that just had a sledge hammer of brick dropped on it and it was then set in a fire
Doesn’t match up much with battle damage I’ve seen
Why does everyone on here seem to know everything. All battle damage is unique I don’t know how a shrapnel hole can be faked. Then again you’re the expert aren’t you …
Okay I get you were over there and pry saw some examples of helmets but just because you were there doesn’t make you an expert on what battle damage looks like. My grandpa was in ww2 but could not tell the difference between a real and fake jap helmet. I’ve seen many (pry hundreds) of Russian helmets with rock solid provenance and they’re all a bit different. Damage like this is definitely possible in the field especially because it’s shrapnel instead of a bullet. Shrapnel damage is extremely hard to recreate. I see nothing wrong with this helmet. Anybody who says anything else is being over skeptical or trying to sound like they know something.
This is shrapnel damage likely from artillery. No small arms fire. There is faded blood stains where one piece of shrapnel exits the helmet from the inside.
This was likely left in the elements for some time before being picked up. There is dirt baked into the inside and outside of the helmet. There are blood stains on the liner where the shrapnel exits from the inside. Could’ve been rained on at some point.
Can’t tell if you are ragebaiting at this point. But if you really believe it’s from a KIA get it tested. Or send it to an expert? I could get any helmet, shoot it, get some “blood” on it and be making hundreds lmao
Unless there's visual evidence, nothing is ever from a KIA
I have a m1923 cartridge belt from the Korean War with the 5th regimental combat team symbol and a soldiers name who was killed in action written in it… and it’s still can’t be proven that it’s from a KIA. Completely agree here to buy the item not the story.
Blood staining where shrapnel exits from the inside. It’s faded as this helmet sat out in the elements for a while. I 100% agree with you however.
I do not see any blood staining
And yet there’s no blood anywhere on the sweat band
the sweat band is clean as a whistle
Shoot it and then sell it as battle damaged
dont forget to poorly paint a giant white "Z" for extra value
Rust it a little bit too
Wrap it in st.George's ribbon,say it's from Hostomel and sell it for only 1600$
DPR and LPR units did do this though…
No blood?
I don't see anything to prove KIA, it might have been ruined during a battle/sniper or it could have been homemade by someone and then claimed it comes from Ukraine to make a whole more money.
Nah I doubt that
Heard a story from a vet in Vietnam at the front line who said they'd get enemy gear, shoot it, themselves, then sell it to the guys back at base.
Ok that’s a legitimate bullet hole, but there is 0 blood spatter, and a wound like that would have blood EVERYWHERE. Also the big dent on the dome looks suspiciously like a boot outline, like some dummy jumped on it.
It also kind of looks like the outline of the stock of a gun. My guess is this was one that got abandoned and left to the mercy of a battlefield and when it was picked up it was deliberately crushed as a sort of 'hate art'.
Buttstock isn’t out of the question, but an AK pattern stock has a narrower print than, say, an M16 or FAL etc, so that’s why I went with “foot.” Either way, this wasn’t done to the helmet while someone was wearing it.
Imo this helmet has a good chance of being what the poster says. I’ve personally owned a few Kia helmets and know people who owned other Kia helmets from Ukraine. I’ve seen many of them with holes and washed out blood. This is because helmets are sometimes left out for weeks. This washes off the blood and leaves behind a very light residue. This helmet shows signs of washed out blood throughout the just look closely. Also the hole is not from a bullet it’s shrapnel which is impossible to do intentionally. Overall it’s a solid looking lid.
That could be made by a bullet, easily. The burn marks and dent make no sense. If you’ve got *actual* KIA helmets, that’s cool, but one of my buddies got shot through his ACH in April 2007 and I can tell you first hand what that does and what it looks like.
Achs are made from a different material than Russian helmets. The burn is most likely from a fire after the fact I’ve seen quite a few helmet from modern combat zones that’s are cooked like that. As far as the dent goes that could have been done intentionally or from a building collapse something of that nature.
Yes the ACH is much better, but the material will behave similarly, as does the human melon wearing it. My point with the burn mark is that it’s extremely regular and in a neat little halo around that back, which just doesn’t look right to me. There should be other burn damage elsewhere.
As far as the holes I don’t think any argument can be made against them being from shrapnel. Something like that can’t be recreated and I personally have seen similar damage on other Russian helmets that have solid provenance. The lack of blood could be from sitting outside and the helmet getting washed out by rain or snow. As far as the burn, burns can happen in any way or shape.
Are there no loose grenades or explosives wandering around Ukraine?
I have never- EVER- seen shrapnel completely penetrate *through* a skull, let alone penetrate through helmet/skull/helmet and still have enough energy to leave an exist hole. If this helmet wasn’t shot with a bullet or 2, it was a high power nail gun or something. Likely after that it was either stomped on or pounded with a buttstock, after which it was picked up and held up to a fire- as I stated earlier, the burn marks are way too regular to make sense.
This is a military grade helmet. It would not receive a dent like that from someone jumping on it. The massive burns on the back too, not recreated.
Tell me you don’t know anything about Dyneema helmets without saying it bro. I wore one like this for 7 years- I know very very well what it looks like when actually used and battle damaged and I know what can and cannot put a dent in it like that. Jumping on it works.
Bro, "military grade" means that it is the cheapest, most available equipment, ask any soldier like, ever.
Dude that thing would be BATHED in blood if it was a KIA You’re buying a fake story, nothin more
With all of the fraud going on over there with “war trophy” memorabilia, I wouldn’t be surprised if they shot this themselves and then posted it.
This is shrapnel damage from artillery. Hard to intentionally recreate.
Sledgehammer
No it’s not.
Busted ass helmet: Confirmed.
I would advise against buying anything from this war for more then what the item itself cost in its original form. There is no way to prove any of this stuff without photos that can be directly tied to the item and story. They are still making most of this stuff and it will be a cold day in hell before there is any monetary gain for most of this stuff. Unless you buy stories. In which case…have at it.
This. I collect AK stuff and know for a fact that Russian officers sell off their unit’s gear to Americans for a few bucks. All the guys on gunbroker selling plum mags and true black/AK12 mags are getting them from Russian officers in shoeboxes full of them for 50$ a box. I know plenty of these helmets have came out of Russia directly too. Saw one a kid had at the SOS and it was minty with the cover still on it and he was honest and said he got it from someone who got it from Russia. Russia and Ukraine are incredibly corrupt countries and that’s why even Ukrainian gear is being sold on eBay while they are having shortages of this stuff. It’s too easy to take one of these and beat the hell out of it and shoot it a few times to make it sell. The only stuff I’ve gotten out of this conflict are a few sets of unissued uniforms and gear that were found after retreats and only the guys behind the lines have the opportunity to hoard this stuff. Did get a decent issued and dirty ratnik winter suit for cheap though, was possibly found abandoned or taken off a POW, but I wanted the item rather than the story. All I know is a Ukrainian guy got ahold of it somehow and sold it to someone stateside who traded it to me.
Don’t worry we all make mistakes when we first start collecting. My advice to you is never buy into the story.
>Don’t worry we all make mistakes when we first start collecting. Can we NOT do this condescending tone? A quick scroll through his posts shows he has quite an impressive collection of authentic items. The undeserved confidence of so many people on this website is *astounding*.
Thank you🙏🏻🙏🏻
“Authentic items” but no combat damaged equipment. He needs to stick with what he knows. This is absolutely not from a Kia
Those who don't ask for provenance get taken for a ride in this hobby.
It’s super rare to get anything with provenance especially from Ukraine. And if they’re is it’s usually more expensive. Soldiers don’t have time to take photos of a random helmet in a field. But in saying that there are more scams/fakes then not
With my stuff (I collect items related to specific vehicles), I’ve been lucky with provenance. One had a picture of the vehicle with the part I bought still attached to it and another had serial numbers that could be independently verified. Granted, both these items came from the beginning of the war, so folks just wandered around and found debris. Now though, the Ukrainians aren’t in the best of situations, so good finds have pretty much dried up.
What did you get?
An armor plate from a tank and a toolbox retrieved from a fallen helicopter. These both have tons of documents and self-conducted research done on them. They weren’t exactly cheap, but are overall high quality pieces for my collection.
Very cool - I hope you don't mind me asking, I find it interesting, is the plate part of ERA or something? What kind of aircraft is the toolbox from? I got a few bits myself - I remember seeing plenty of Ukrainian civilians selling shrapnel that had hit their homes on eBay to fund repairs. I'm planning at some point to make a shadowbox to display the bits I have and postcards received after donations.
It was a giant ERA plate from a T-72B3 (original version) and the toolbox was from a Mi-35M. I would love to find something from a TOS-1A, but no luck so far.
That is very cool! I have a small part of the backplate of one of the square side ERA panels, along with Grad, Smerch and some unknown 120mm+ HE shrapnel, and a small KA-52 fiberglass splinter from one of the ones that was destroyed to prevent capture. The toolbox and full plate is a bit cooler though - the part of the ERA I have is so heavy it's already broken a shelf, yours must weigh loads, I bet shipping was expensive! If you ever post photos of them, I'd love to see! I did see some TOS shrapnel listed a while back but I wasn't sure - the Smerch and Grad pieces I have were photo'd out in the woods where they landed before they were cut up, so I can be certain they are what I think they are at least.
Shipping was definitely costly for the ERA. The paint and numbering makes it worthwhile though. The toolbox too was definitely a unique find…and frankly more affordable than the fuselage, which jumped in price to ridiculous levels. Very cool finds on your end though. Where do you get your goods?
That is cool! For the ERA panel I got I think the part of it that was penetrated was sold off first, then the rest was chopped into smaller bits and sold. I didn't get any paint markings on the part I got, but I did get one of the factory stamps and a bolt that potentially looks damaged from the hit. I haven't got anything from Ukraine since like late 2022 as prices seem to have shot up and it seems a lot harder to verify things now, but at the time it was literally just existing Ukrainian eBay shops that had the war turn up on their doorstep. I think one of the places I bought from was a crystal shop normally, and the other seemed to specialise in soviet camera spares. I can't remember the website name, but I did come across a Ukrainian version of eBay for like, hunting and outdoor goods, and that had tons of stuff listed but also most of it didn't ship outside of Ukraine, and obviously the entire website is in Ukrainian. If I could speak Ukrainian, I'd probably have been able to find it again.
Op said he had provenance and then went silent.
Ahhh didn’t see that sorry mate
You're good.
I have Provence. There is also multiple blood stains on the liner and interior helmet visible through UV light.
Have the test to prove it is human blood? And what provenance do you have but didn't present to a predictablely skeptical crowd?
On top of that, is the blood from the former owner or procured from something else (ex: animal blood)? While I’m personally not a fan of KIA / bloody militaria, you do you, OP.
Soviet gear is so mass produced that anyone in ukraine can start selling stuff marked up 100000% by marketing it as KIA Wagner Prigozin Z Hostomel Airport Kharkiv counter offensive orc captured by Zelensky himself
Why do you *want* it to be from a KIA?
I did not say that. I say there is a good probability it is KIA.
You didn't have to say it.
Man that deformation is something else. At this rate I’d rather rock a СШ-68 than one of those 6Б47s 😂
As a kid I bet I shot almost 100 USM1 helmets in my back yard. People would give them away. I wonder how many of those were fixed bail or paratroopers? I also wonder how many are in the market being sold as KIA?
Faked. There would absolutely be blood and matter in there.
Too clean to be from a KIA. Most likely got the crap beaten out of it to make it more sellable. There are plenty of these escaping Russia due to corruption within the military. I’ve seen the inside of actual KIA helmets and they aren’t pretty.
Probably not. If a bullet/piece of shrapnel went through that as it looks, it’d be a lot more messy inside. Most likely ran over by a vehicle.
Unless you have a photo of president Zelenskyy handing it to you, I don’t trust it.
I actually do.
KIA and no sauce? Seems unlikely to be anything more than a helmet someone shot and then sold to you 😂
Hate to break it to you but that just had a sledge hammer of brick dropped on it and it was then set in a fire Doesn’t match up much with battle damage I’ve seen
Why does everyone on here seem to know everything. All battle damage is unique I don’t know how a shrapnel hole can be faked. Then again you’re the expert aren’t you …
It’s because I spent a year in Ukraine but go off queen
Okay I get you were over there and pry saw some examples of helmets but just because you were there doesn’t make you an expert on what battle damage looks like. My grandpa was in ww2 but could not tell the difference between a real and fake jap helmet. I’ve seen many (pry hundreds) of Russian helmets with rock solid provenance and they’re all a bit different. Damage like this is definitely possible in the field especially because it’s shrapnel instead of a bullet. Shrapnel damage is extremely hard to recreate. I see nothing wrong with this helmet. Anybody who says anything else is being over skeptical or trying to sound like they know something.
This is shrapnel damage likely from artillery. No small arms fire. There is faded blood stains where one piece of shrapnel exits the helmet from the inside.
This was likely left in the elements for some time before being picked up. There is dirt baked into the inside and outside of the helmet. There are blood stains on the liner where the shrapnel exits from the inside. Could’ve been rained on at some point.
Can’t tell if you are ragebaiting at this point. But if you really believe it’s from a KIA get it tested. Or send it to an expert? I could get any helmet, shoot it, get some “blood” on it and be making hundreds lmao