Shell casing

I saw this thing along our back wall yesterday. Horribly ugly-lookin' thing; at first I wondered what it was. I knocked it off the house with a piece of paper, thinking it would fly away. Instead, it just fell to the ground and stayed there.

Then the little boy in me took over and I had to pick it up and play with it. I showed it to my son, and he pointed at it, but didn't want to hold it (I don't blame him for that).

Being in the Army, I've seen plenty of shell casings, but none like this before.