Metal Detecting and Unexploded Ordnance (UXOs)

[outdoorsup]

Metal Detecting and Unexploded Ordnance (UXO's)

Just curious has anyone ever ran across any ordnance items while hunting? I did in Germany a few years ago. I hunt on military installations and you never know what you will find.

 

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[Leon]

Re: Metal Detecting and Unexploded Ordnance (UXO's)

Hi,
Not sure if you would classify this as an ordnace, or not. but I have dug two of these in in the last few week.

44 cal.​

It's kinda spooky if ya think about it... I sure would hate to set one of these things off while dig'n it up?
Happy Hunting~

 

[ARCOMANDPURPLE]

Re: Metal Detecting and Unexploded Ordnance (UXO's)

HI
Check out the post " FISHING FOR COINS....." We mention a few of the ordnance found in GERMANY.
ARCOM

 

[neu]

Re: Metal Detecting and Unexploded Ordnance (UXO's)

be carefull in places like that, if the ordnance is unstable, the field created by your loop could set it off.

 

[lab rat]

Re: Metal Detecting and Unexploded Ordnance (UXO's)

There was a newspaper story in the late '80s about some detectorists in the Philippines. One of them got a big signal on the beach and called his friends to help him dig it up. It was a land mine from WWII-- it detonated and killed all five of them.

My own find was a .38 cal snub-nose revolver, fully loaded. (Picture posted elsewhere on this forum, somewhere.) This was on a beach in wet sand, where such things corrode pretty quickly, but there wasn't much corrosion so it hadn't been there long. It took me 15 minutes to collect my senses and get it to a lifeguard station, and the cops were there in under a minute. A month later while I was on that same beach, there was a 2-year-old in diapers digging a deep hole on that exact spot!

 

[gunna_dan]

Re: Metal Detecting and Unexploded Ordnance (UXO's)

At marin Headlands there was a cave used for who nows what in World War I, since i've been there, and alot of military installations, that might be a good place to start for all you californians

 

[oravikmatt]

Re: Metal Detecting and Unexploded Ordnance (UXO's)

Even in the US civil war land mines were used. I just saw a show on the history channel about land mines the other day. I was surprised to hear that they were used even in the civil war. If you ran across one I don't know if they would still pose a threat or not.

-Matt.

 

[sprinkle]

At marin Headlands there was a cave used for who nows what in World War I, since i've been there, and alot of military installations, that might be a good place to start for all you californians

Hi gunna_dan,

Where abouts is this cave?

 

[fishy13]

Earlier this summer I was with my dad and little brother down in a creek at a local museum in northern Kentucky where we found an unexploded WWl era MK. l hand grenade, which actually fits the location because it used to be a major military base in the area dating back to at least the war of 1812 up through about the end of WWll. It has since shrunk to a relatively small reserve base.

 

[Produce Guy]

When I was a kid ,about 10 years old,there was a big oak tree that had fallen down in the woods by my house,there was a hole in the tree and I started poking the hole with a stick and I hit something solid.It turned out to be a 1911 Colt .45,fully loaded.I ran back home & told my dad,who got a DPS officer to come with us to retreive it.He took it in to the department & we never saw it again.

 

[Gunrunner61]

Early this year I found a Live .50cal Round, I pulled the Bullet and dumped the powder and put it back
togather and sat it on my book case..................HH

 

[EODsweeper]

The most sensitive explosive is the smallest quantity in the primer. .50 cal primers have a good amount in there.

 

[EODsweeper]

FYI on digging around military installations. I was EOD for 3 years and I've seen the stuff that just comes to surface after a good rain. Digging somewhere that could contain unexploded ordnance is very dangerous. One tap with a trowel could set that baby off. Murphy is lurking.

 

[Kyboy]

I dig alot of Krag ammo from 1903 where I detect. Most are blanks and corroded. I dug one that still had paper wadding in it and pulled it out. It still had gun powder in it! It was white in color. I attached a pic. Well that is the way it was dug and I was curious if the powder would light. The answer is YES! Scared the $%*+ out of me when I stuck a lighter to it! Who'd have thought....

 

[EODsweeper]

I bet. Military explosives have a long shelf life. Just be careful because some explosives get more sensitive with age, some lose their sensitivity with age.

 

[Gold Maven]

I found 6 live 357 handgun rounds at a school once. As I dug the last one a neighbor walked over, and I got a large signal right in a little depression in the same area as the ammo. I was sure it was a hand gun, but didn't want to let the neighbor see, so I let it go thinking I would come back later and dig it.....a couple weeks later I went back, but couldn't find the spot, I thought I had it marked but could not locate it.

Not exactly military, but live rounds anyway.

 

[EODsweeper]

They are out there. I wouldn't be too concerned about smaller than .50cal. Ive dug up 2 hand grenade fuses. No grenade attached.

 

[Mr.T]

Hi-

This is what the French refer to as the Iron Harvest.

Here's some pics.

https://www.google.ie/search?q=the+...Aee2oDgAg&sqi=2&ved=0CEgQsAQ&biw=1366&bih=643

Thats why the battlefield beechs are off limits for detecting in France. Seemingly more than ten people a year were being killed!

Be safe. I'm extremely careful round large targets!!!

 

[EODsweeper]

My first experience with a metal detector was in mine detector school. Now I'm retired military and was in need of a hobby. Now I'm a treasure hunting junkie.

 

[Digging Smith]

I run into a small amount around my digging spots, it was a sizable ww2 training area