🥇 BANNER CIVIL WAR HUT SITE w/buttons, glass, 249 BULLET DAY and more!

parsonwalker

Bronze Member
Feb 16, 2013
1,491
2,856
Virginia
🥇 Banner finds
2
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
Modified GI Mine Detector (In the 60s)
Metrotech (In the 70s)
Tesoro Tejon (Now!)
Primary Interest:
Relic Hunting
Best day hunting in over a year! I stumbled upon a central Virginia Hut site, which is something I've ALWAYS wanted to dig. I HAVE to tell you the story of mostly dumb luck that led me to it. I had hunted this known camp for years, and this trip had yielded 10 bullets, a shell frag, bucks and some other stuff.

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I got another bullet signal, but on the way to the bullet I unearthed an obviously 19th century bottle neck. The bullet was an inch or so beneath. I thought to myself, "This deserves at least a little exploration." I got below the plow line, and immediately saw a layer of black ash from a very old campfire.

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Having found some nice stuff around campfires before, I widened and deepened the hole.

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At about two feet, the neck of a handblown milk bottle (I think) first made its appearance.

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It was broken, but as I retrieved the pieces, another 3-ringer fell out of the dirt wall.

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After some buttons, a broken projectile point (Maybe the soldier was a digger, too!), a clay pipe bowl, some leather, hog bones, ration cans, and a total of four broken bottles, I noticed "bands" of rusted metal in the soil. It took me a minute to realize that I was looking at the metal remains of the bands of a wooden nail keg (barrel)! Sitting straight up and down in the pit. All the wood was long gone of course. but it was easy to see the bands, all in the right place. I wondered what might be in the bottom of that keg. As I dug, I noticed the color of the soil began to change. It was the familiar white patina of lead, mixed with the black of black powder . . .

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I carefully pushed my shovel in below the discoloration and when I withdrew the shovel, there were EIGHT 3-ringers in it. From that point on, the bullets came out by the handful.

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I stopped counting at one hundred.

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It was a moving experience to sit in that pit, which had become sizable, and view it much like it was, when its previous occupants abandoned it.

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Final results: 239 bullets, 3 Eagle coat buttons, 2 Eagle cuffs, partial fork, pieces of 4 bottles, hog bones, broken projectile point, a line of percussion caps STILL IN THE PAPER SLEEVE, 3 china shirt buttons, Nails, melted lead, suspender buckle, leather fragments, clay pipe bowl, a piece of wood and I saved some campfire ash and the metal bands from the nail keg. Had I known my day total would have been 249 bullets, I would have hunted into the night for just ONE more! I plan to dedicate a large display area for JUST the contents of this hut site. I welcome any insight or interpretation. It's my first hut.

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Upvote 121
Jan 20, 2010
18
11
Greenwood, S.C.
Detector(s) used
White's XLT, MXT, TDI
Fisher F75
Garrett AT Pro
Minelab GPX 5000, Explorer SE
Shadow X5
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
It would have been nice if you could have sifted the spoils pile. If time permits that's what I always do on a good pit / hut as you have found. MY opinion is the bullets got wet and they just threw them away and buried them so the other side could not retrieve them and re-melt them down to their caliper of gun they had. Could it have been a trash pit instead? With all the various finds in the one hole makes a person think. I would defiantly spend more time in that area with a probe or just dig some random test holes to the depth that you started to see ash.
Great finds and certainly worth a banner title.
 

Escape

Bronze Member
Apr 4, 2009
1,643
1,880
Im curious about what else is around. Hoping there are more banner finds from the area.
 

saftgeek

Full Member
Mar 2, 2007
111
355
Jefferson City, MO
🥇 Banner finds
1
Detector(s) used
Minelab Equinox 800, CTX, GPX 4500, and another Nox 800 for my friends...
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Killer save! That is a day you'll never forget...
 

OP
OP
parsonwalker

parsonwalker

Bronze Member
Feb 16, 2013
1,491
2,856
Virginia
🥇 Banner finds
2
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
Modified GI Mine Detector (In the 60s)
Metrotech (In the 70s)
Tesoro Tejon (Now!)
Primary Interest:
Relic Hunting
It would have been nice if you could have sifted the spoils pile. If time permits that's what I always do on a good pit / hut as you have found. MY opinion is the bullets got wet and they just threw them away and buried them so the other side could not retrieve them and re-melt them down to their caliper of gun they had. Could it have been a trash pit instead? With all the various finds in the one hole makes a person think. I would defiantly spend more time in that area with a probe or just dig some random test holes to the depth that you started to see ash.
Great finds and certainly worth a banner title.

I've been out of the loop for a while, and was surprised and honored when I logged in, and saw it on the top. Thanks guys.

Clem - YES! Wish I could have sifted.More about that in a sec. Yes, I wondered about hut site or trash pit. Still don't know. Just didn't seem to ENOUGH trash for that. Seemed to be about one or two men's refuse, you know? I cleaned up the leather and figured out it was a shoe. The reason I didn't sift, and the thing that's going to make the search for more SO much more difficult, is that I have permission (almost exclusive) on this entire site, I only get one day a year on this field!! The farmer is VERY efficient and the land never lies fallow. Every fall, he cuts his beans or corn and I get ONE DAY before he follows with a cover-crop, which I'm not allowed to hunt in. In the spring, his next crop of beans or corn goes right on top of the cover crop, so it's ONE DAY every fall. (In the fields anyway). I guess the one good thing about that, is that I'll have a fall day to look forward to every year until I croak.

Escape - Thanks for the good wishes. I hope so too, but going to be tough for the reasons listed above!
 

Lanny in AB

Gold Member
Apr 2, 2003
5,651
6,341
Alberta
Detector(s) used
Various Minelabs(5000, 2100, X-Terra 705, Equinox 800, Gold Monster), Falcon MD20, Tesoro Sand Shark, Gold Bug Pro, Makro Gold Racer.
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
Absolutely incredible finds, congratulations!!

All the best,

Lanny
 

The Rebel

Bronze Member
Sep 20, 2011
1,970
3,351
Southwest, CT
🥇 Banner finds
1
Detector(s) used
Spectra V3i with wireless headphones
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
WTG on an epic hunt!

Perhaps the army was moving out of winter quarters and was burning any non-usable items. I'm sure the ammo was no good as no one in their right mind would have tossed usable ammo.Try explaining that to your 1st Sgt! I'd check the Official records to see what was going on in your area.
 

Lanny in AB

Gold Member
Apr 2, 2003
5,651
6,341
Alberta
Detector(s) used
Various Minelabs(5000, 2100, X-Terra 705, Equinox 800, Gold Monster), Falcon MD20, Tesoro Sand Shark, Gold Bug Pro, Makro Gold Racer.
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
Booyahh!

Nicely done, and all the best,

Lanny
 

washingtonian

Gold Member
Sep 26, 2005
6,507
12,899
Puget Sound
Detector(s) used
Equinox 800, Whites DFX
Killer man. I must have missed this post the first time around. Gives hope to the rest of us dreamers out here!
 

Calabash Digger

Gold Member
Apr 18, 2016
5,293
11,738
🥇 Banner finds
2
Detector(s) used
XP DEUS II ,XP DEUS, EQUINOX 800, EXCALIBUR II,
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting

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