The LAST hole in the trenches saved my day. Carved .69 and other relics.

[parsonwalker]

It was a S-L-O-W day in the Virginia trenches. Weather was cool and nice, but the underbrush was thick, the ground dry and hard and relics few and far between. We went back to the spot where my buddy found the full Confederate Cartridge box, but had only turned up a few bullets and percussion caps. Heading back to the truck, we had 10 minutes as the landowner wanted to do some groundhog hunting and asked us to be gone by 3:00. Both of us had "maybe" signals on top of the trench about 15 feet apart and we started digging. These were just shadows of signals. Ghosts at best. Ya'll know what I'm talking about, but we dug 'em anyway. I pulled out a large-ish iron buckle, but was surprised that my Tejon had picked it up this deep (About 14") But then I scanned the dirt pile and found a small cartridge box buckle. Another scan and the other cartridge box buckle turned up. Several more passes on the dirt pile yielded three percussion caps. Stuck the detector in the hole and was getting another signal. Pulled out a dropped three ringer. So, one hole yielded 3 iron buckles, 3 caps and a 3-ringer.

While I'm doing this, 15 feet away my buddy dug one hole and found 3 bullets, a large iron buckle and about 5 percussion caps. We had done almost as good in 8 minutes as the whole rest of the day!

I think the moral of this story is . . . the stuff is still down there, it's just DEEP.

In the pic below, the stuff in the foreground with the three buckles is my take. The stuff behind is my buddy's.



Digging buddy had the find of the day with this lightly carved .69 caliber. It looks pulled, but it's not. The hole is smooth as silk.

 

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[vpnavy]

Nice finds! Thanks for sharing...

 

[dirtlooter]

really awesome cw finds

 

[DigIron2]

good saves!The less experienced hunter would probably have walked right over most of them.I Like the carved bullet.I have always thought that soldiers art was neat.Not something to find all the time and is a treat when they pop up.It does seems like sometimes that is the only way to really hunt a place like that' is to go slow and listen for those deep sounds.I also get excited on places like that if I start finding "old" shotgun brass,or old shell's that have never been unearthed,because to me that is a good indicator that their still might be a button or anything left there.gl on your hunts

 

[diggervet]

These days the briefest little bleep or blip has to be paid attention to. I've found a few very nice things by pursuing some of the tiniest chirps. Great saves!

 

[46Wheat]

Nice digs . Thanks for the pics

 

[roaddust66]

When i was young and dumb , I would push a rotor tiller a half a mile to get down into some trenches in my home town. Yes it works !

 

[flatbutton]

Awesome stuff! CW finds are fast becoming scarce in my neck of the woods. Congrats!

 

[CSA2K]

@wesome!!!!

 

[parsonwalker]

These days the briefest little bleep or blip has to be paid attention to. I've found a few very nice things by pursuing some of the tiniest chirps. Great saves!

Thanks. Liked that Hodgkiss cup and sabot you posted recently!

 

[VOL1266-X]

Very nice hunt PW. Does the hole in the carved bullet go all the way through? HH, Q.

 

[parsonwalker]

Sorry VOL - just saw your question. No, the hole is shallow but no threads so it's not from a bullet puller. It's very smooth-walled and "too perfect" to not be carved in my opinion.

 

[tyrocksalot]

Those last ten minutes of desperation digging paid off, just goes to show sometimes you gotta dig those questionable signals. Just to get an idea of the area. Great saves. HH.