Great Day for Montana Relics!

[Montana Jim]

The weather was cooperating... I got out for the first time this year! After a long drive I had about five hours to detect. I grabbed a spare set of batteries and started walking to a favorite area that always produced because after my winter wait I didn't want to get skunked!

I'll spare you the blow-by-blow... but my first find was an unmarked eagle button! I found two eagle buttons total today, a pile of nails and some scrap iron (not shown except ladle handle). A bunch of tin lids, a pocketfull of 45-70 bullets and a few casings. Finally, a little button hinge thingy and a "German Silver" suspender buckle.

All items from Indian War area U.S. soldiers circa mid 1860s through late 1890s. All said, I had a great day!

Enjoy the pictures, thanks for looking.

[lionhrt9]

Excellent finds, really awesome Montana finds!!!

Im going out south of Missoula in a few months and getting hunting spots lined up.

[trk5capt]

Jim, Great Finds, Congrats, Love To See Your IW Relics. trk5capt...

[brnn53]

Good for you! Great finds!
Mike

[Kas]

Excellent finds.
HH
Ken

[DANGLANGLEY]

Nice finds, very nice!!! Glad you were able to get out

[Ridley]

Nice buttons and bullets! You had a great day.

Thanks for the excellent photos as well.



Ridley

[civilman1]

Nice spread Jim!!!....that has to be an awesome place to hunt,WTG.....

[fossis]

Great Relics, Fossis.......................

[PBK]

Nice digs, Jim! I think the "button hinge thingy" may be part of an old reel-type tape measure:

[SHERMANVILLE ILLINOIS]

MJ,

outstanding group of artifacts; thanks
for posting; sounds and looks like you had
a successful hunt and a good time.

have a good un.............................

[Montana Jim]

Excellent finds, really awesome Montana finds!!! 

Im going out south of Missoula in a few months and getting hunting spots lined up.

lionhrt9... thats a great area, tons of early montana history there, hope you get some great spots to detect!  Good luck!

Nice digs, Jim!  I think the "button hinge thingy" may be part of an old reel-type tape measure:

PBK... I think you may be correct, it certainly could be exactly that!

[River Rat]

Jim,

Remarkable finds, you did great and had a great day to boot. Love those buttons and the photos.

RR

[Gribnitz]

Those are some odd looking bullets. What are they ? Was that a repeating rifle or something ?

[TreasureTales]

YIKES! That's a lotta great stuff. Congrats MJ. Those buttons are really cool. And the lead, well you gotta wonder who was hit with some of that stuff. Hope you give your wife a big hug (or whatever) for being so cooperative. LOL What a great haul.

[Montana Jim]

Those are some odd looking bullets. What are they ? Was that a repeating rifle or something ?

Quoting the below sources to help articulate a response... They were probebly from a model 1873 Springfield .45-70 carbine. The accuracy and range of this weapon made it more effective in many ways for warfare on the Plains. The .45-70 rifle cartridge was developed at the U.S. Army's Springfield Armory for use in the Springfield Model 1873 .45 caliber rifle, known to collectors (but never to the Army) as the "Trapdoor Springfield." The new cartridge was a replacement for the stop-gap .50-70 cartridge which had been adopted in 1866, one year after the end of the American Civil War.

Source: http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/redriver/weapons.html & wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.45-70

Those rounds I show are all .45-70, and sometimes I get a few .50-70 rounds. Of course I've dug all manner of musketballs too. Hope that helped.

[Bavaria Mike]

Nice finds MM, thanks for sharing them! HH, Mike

[Leon]

Nice finds, WTG!!!
Glad you were finally able to get out, and have a good time doing so....
Good luck, & Happy hunting~

P.S.> Did ya put that quote below your avatar, before?, or after reading Monty's post?

[ModernMiner]

Man, some guys know how to start their year out right! Way to go Jim.
I love those buttons you found. Congrats.
-MM-

[PBK]

I think that thing ya got is the cover to a chalk filled plumb line for layin straight lines. Fellars got it all rong with them pictures.

That's interesting, TNG— and welcome to the forum! Can you post some photos showing the item as you've identified it? Most of the older chalk-lines or snap-lines that I've seen look something like this: