🥇 BANNER Dream find realized...and it tells a story!

Ironman!

Sr. Member
Mar 25, 2009
381
309
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I know some of you out there were like me back when I was a kid...a dreamer! In my preteens I absolutely loved watching the old western movies and even those swashbucklers having those great adventures. I always dreamed of finding buried treasure or a gun that someone lost in a gunfight!! I would literally have these dreams in my early teens of a shootout on a hill or cliff with the bad guy being shot off his horse and his gun that was in his hand ends up going over the side too. Well after getting into the hobby in 1975 and graduating from coinshooting to my passion of relic hunting in 1987, one of my dreams has been fulfilled...not buried treasure, but finding a complete revolver!! Not only finding, but eyeballing it!!!

Here is the story - I decided to break away from my norm of relic hunting and hunt a local route used by emigrants, trappers, miners, soldiers, etc. After pretty much exhausting the day with some occasional lead & Henry shell casings being found and a friendly wave to the rancher and his dog as they pass by on his ATV, I change my strategy. I noticed some high rock outcroppings away from the normal area traveled and on a whim started up a wash to go hunt them. Some more fired round balls were found along with various caliber fired bullets. Then, there...about 15 feet ahead, on the side of the wash, under a bush, I thought I saw a cylinder of a gun peaking out through the grass! Upon getting closer to it I knew I wasn't dreaming, it was a cylinder. My immediate thought went back to my childhood days and the countless dreams of finding a complete gun. As I slowly bent down to check it out and the closer I got, I could barely see the grip under the grass!! My heart really started racing then and I was so hoping that it was in a whole state. After setting down my detector and taking the "as found" pictures, I gently pull it from it's resting place and immediately see that it is not a whole gun. It was missing part of the barrel. I turned it over and then saw the big picture! In the lower part of the barrel were round balls all compressed together still fused together attached to the barrel. No wonder the barrel blew apart! I then noticed that half of the main spring was missing and there was one round ball still in the cylinder! After some pics. were taken of the revolver my main focus was now on finding the blown apart barrel, even if it took me until dark! Fortunately for me, it only took me about 20 seconds!! There about 1 foot away was the barrel, the other half of the main spring and a conical bullet!!! You can just imagine how ecstatic I was in finding the rest of the revolver!!!! It may not be a whole gun but it is a whole gun pieced together and what a story it tells!!!!! Because, in the blown off barrel piece I find another bullet wedged in it as well! I have spun so many scenarios in my mind as to just how this happened and what was going on that I think I could write the screenplay for a movie!!!!! What do you guys & gals think?

Research - Upon researching it I believe what I have is an 1851 Model Colt Navy Revolver. The serial number is 134083 and my hunting partner CC Hunter researched it to have been manufactured in 1863. Right in the middle of the Civil War!!!!!!! Also upon researching, found that it was a popular gun used by such guys as Wild Bill Hickok, Doc Holliday, Robert E. Lee, Quantrill's Raiders to name just a few.

I hope you can appreciate one of my personal dream finds becoming a reality! I would even go on to say that I am placing it right up there with one of my "top 10 finds" I have ever found!! Yes, even more so than some of my gold coins I have found! (and I have found two more since my last time posting)

Okay enough of the dialogue...here are the pics.!!

IM
 

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Upvote 95

parsonwalker

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Feb 16, 2013
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Virginia
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Admiral de Salee

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Apr 2, 2007
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Michigan
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Stupendous find!! I wonder if someone sabotaged someone else's pistol, but the owner should've felt the 'forward heavy' feel with all those bullets in the barrel.

"It's a myst'ry!"
 

OP
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Ironman!

Ironman!

Sr. Member
Mar 25, 2009
381
309
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Banner vote in and couldnt have come to a better friend and person.An epic find and story that will be told for generations

Thanks my friend! And what stories will be told...the imagination can run wild!!
 

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Ironman!

Ironman!

Sr. Member
Mar 25, 2009
381
309
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Steve in PA - You're right Steve! As you have seen in the past, I have found literally over a hundred plus gun parts. With some being close to a whole gun. This one will have its own display for sure!! Thanks Steve!!!

ANTIQUARIAN - Thanks Dave! Hope all is well with you!!

Devonrex - Thanks John! Keep up the amazing finds you have a gift for finding!!

Thanks again everyone for the kind words! I have been working lately and after being gone from the house for 15 hrs. a day it's tough to get on a computer. I will be posting a followup post of the other side of the gun to prove the theory that the barrel was most definitely blown apart!!

IM
 

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Ironman!

Ironman!

Sr. Member
Mar 25, 2009
381
309
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Dream find realized...Part II

I have been totally swamped since posting my revolver and finally have time to post some more pics. I took pics. of the other side of the gun and also the other half of the main spring and loose bullet. When piecing the parts together there is still another piece or pieces missing where the round balls are compressed together. Upon a closer look of the bullet I dug with the broken barrel piece, I am convinced that it was in the barrel as well! If you look at the bullet, you will see some iron fuzed to the lead!! When I looked at it in the field the nose had a blueish green tint to it. The bullet inside the broken barrel has the same colored tint. So I am thinking when I pulled it out of it's resting place the bullet dislodged from the other bullet in the barrel. I am definitely in no shape or form a gun expert so I'll let the speculations continue on just what was going on. I have a friend who thinks that the first shot was a light charge causing the first bullet to not travel very far?

I'll let the pictures tell their own story and maybe someone can help put the story together!!

IM
 

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parsonwalker

Bronze Member
Feb 16, 2013
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I agree with your friend. And what a stellar find!
 

coinman123

Silver Member
Feb 21, 2013
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New England, Somewhere Metal Detecting in the Wood
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I'm still amazed at that find, my grandfather gave me his Model 1858 Remington .44 army before he died he dredged out of Chesapeake bay, sadly it's in worse condition than the gun you found, probably the salt water. The one my grandfather gave me is still loaded in a few chambers.

=dfvr4gfvr5ny65t.jpg
 

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PROSPECTORMIKEL

Silver Member
Mar 31, 2011
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IRONMAN, THAT'S AWESOME, NO MATTER HOW YOU LOOK AT. I WOULD GIVE UP ALL OF THE GOLD I HAVE FOUND TO MAKE A FIND LIKE YOURS.
GREAT STORIES AND THAT CHUNK OF ROCK THAT YOU USED TO DISPLAY IT ON WOULD LOOK AWESOME TO MOUNT AND DISPLAY IT. (USING HOOKS, NOT GLUE) THE PHOTOS TELL ALL OF THE STORY THAT YOU NEED FOR IT.
KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK.

MIKEL
#/;0)~
 

OldScout

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Jun 19, 2014
43
22
Southwest Ohio, Indiana, KY area
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Bout 150 years ago, someone had a really bad day. 150 years later leads to a really really good day. Time is funny like that.

I keep seeing in my head some civil war soldier pulling the trigger on that gun and then cussing up a storm.

Super find. Congrats.
 

{Sentinel}

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Jan 11, 2007
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Fantastic Find Larry! Definitely a Banner, way to go buddy
 

Wildcat1750

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Nov 18, 2012
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Congratulations on Banner and the find of a lifetime! :thumbsup:
 

ivan salis

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Feb 5, 2007
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quite odd indeed to have so many rounds stuck in it's barrel like that --wonder if the barrel blew up on the first shot (stay dirt blocked the barrel) but the desperate gun owner kept on firing anyway with the rounds just stacking up --clearly someone or something made the gun owner desperate enough to keep firing with a blown apart barrel...great find --likely there's a set of bones nearby of the owner. if the gun blowing up didn't kill em ,whatever he was shooting at most likely did..
 

BerntOut

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Jan 12, 2010
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Just saw this post of your Navy Colt. My .02 thoughts are it Looks like the conical might have been jammed in the barrel due to a short load or wrong size bullet. The person shooting the gun was in a running gun battle and probably never knew the bullets were not heading down wind. I bet he was wondering why his targets were not dropping?:dontknow:

What a cool find. Back in the mid 70's and into the mid 80's I spent countless days looking for a cache of guns. According to a newspaper article which listed items purchased by the massacred party one day prior to departure west and items known to have been stashed by the Apaches in a crevasse in the rocks off the trail. Never found them but had a great time and found a lot of other cool things lying on the ground! I had a Rancher tell me the guns had been recovered in the sixties but I kept on looking cuz he had no proof or who had found them.

The bullet jammed .357 picture above is amazing and goes to show how good the steel is in today's modern guns and how stupid some gun owners are!
 

oldsoapy

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May 28, 2007
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Interesting and well told, thanks for shareing. Hutch.
 

ANTIQUARIAN

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Apr 24, 2010
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Just wanted to say congratulations on getting your article published in Western & Eastern Treasures Larry! :thumbsup:

The temps are steadily rising here in the east, so hopefully we'll all be back 'in-the-field' soon! :laughing7:

Best of luck to you this year Larry,
Dave
 

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Ironman!

Ironman!

Sr. Member
Mar 25, 2009
381
309
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Just wanted to say congratulations on getting your article published in Western & Eastern Treasures Larry! :thumbsup:

The temps are steadily rising here in the east, so hopefully we'll all be back 'in-the-field' soon! :laughing7:

Best of luck to you this year Larry,
Dave

Thank You Dave! I see we share opposite pages from each other!! Congrats go out to you as well my friend!!!

I hope you are able to get out soon! My latest find is a seated liberty dime made into a rowel for a spur!!

Thanks again Dave,
Larry
 

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