Hand grenade “Makedonia”

The “Makedonia” grenate, at first known as “system Tyufekchiev” from the name of its inventor, was the first hand grenade officially adopted by the Bulgarian Army in 1906. Originally this kind of grenade was used by Macedonian rebels during the Ilinden (3 August 1903) and the Preobraženie (19 August 1903) uprisings, later it were adopted by Bulgarian Army and intensely used during the Balkan wars. This explains the simplicity and even primitiveness of its construction.

The spherical grenade was a cast iron ball with internal segmentation. The body walls were about 7 mm thick. There was a large threaded hole at the top, which was closed by a knurled brass or cast iron plug (fuze-body). The plug had a hole in the middle for the safety fuze and two closed holes on either side of the middle hole that were used to tighten the plug. When screwed into position, the plug held a brass adapter in place. The adapter formed a clamp to hold the safety fuze in place when fitted. A small wooden plug or a sealing wax closed the hole in the centre of the fuze-body when the grenade was not fitted with an igniter. The grenade was filled with 80-100 g of Bombit.

The body was painted with a black or grey coloured lacquer. The adapter might have the initial “НТ” (Naum Tyufekchiev) engraved on the upper side. At first the ignition system was simply a length of safety fuze with a detonator on one end and a match-head lighter on the other, but in 1911 a new fuze was proposed by cpt. Tyufekchiev, but during the Balkan Wars only a little number of grenade might be fitted with. However a real use of the new fuze can not be proved yet. After 1914 the Odrin’s fuze was usually used. Since it was heavier than the eralier fuzes, it increased the weight of the grenade by about 70 g. The maximum effective range of thr “Macedonia” grenade was same as the “Odrin” grenade.

The cubic grenade “Macedonia” was also made of cast iron and had walls abouth 9 mm thick. Its body was internally segmented to improve fragmentation. The body was basically square, with the sides 72:72:75mm long. A hole at the top of the body was threaded to accept a cast iron plug. The ignition system was usually a length of safety fuze with a detonator on one end and a matched lighter on the other. The grenade was filled with 150 g of Bombit. During World War 1 in case of need the troops were allowed to make improvised hand grenades according with the “Makedonia” model.

The drill version of the Makedonia grenade used a normal body filled with sand and had no fuze assembly in the igniter.

Technical characteristics
	Spherical	Cubic
Type :	fragmentation	fragmentation
Size outside :	72 mm	72 mm
Size inside :	58 mm	58 mm
Thickness of the wall :	7 mm	9 mm
Thickness near the segment :	3 mm	4 mm
Weight of the body :	530 g	1240 g
Weight of the fuze type “Odrin” :	90 g	=
Weight of the fuze old type :	20 g	20 g
Weight of the charge :	80 – 100 g	150 g
Weight of the grenade :	630 - 760 g	1410 g
Fuze delay :	8 seconds	8 seconds

Spherical grenade		Cubic grenade