Weekend Trip to Virginia... ANOTHER Bucket Lister!!

[FoxHound0985]

Greetings all! My metal detecting buddies and I decided to take a weekend trip to Virginia to hunt one of their old sites. One of my buddies and his brother had pulled two crates of Minie Balls (over 1000 total) out of the area, so we wanted to try hunting it with better machines than they had back then. We arrived at the site after a 7 hour drive and immediately turned on the machines. No more than 5 minutes in and one of my buddies pulls out a dropped Sharps bullet! A few minutes later and I pull out a dropped 3-ringer. After 20 minutes or so, I got a fairly strong brass signal. The owner lets people hunt out there, so I figured it was another shotgun shell. I dig down and see some green brass in the side of the hole. I could see that it had a weird shape to it, so I stuck my digging tool behind it and popped out something awesome! In my hand I saw something that I've been waiting for since I started relic hunting over 20 years ago... a Burnside Carbine casing!! After regaining my breath, I grabbed a toothpick from my box and started scraping the dirt out of it and saw some very deteriorated black powder coming out of the bottom. I knew the bullet had to be in the hole with it! Sure enough, there was another signal just a few inches away, and it was the bullet! I had just found a complete Burnside cartridge! These never come out of the ground in Indiana. Anyway, after a few hours of hunting, we had found a few more minie balls, but no other brass. We didn't find a whole lot on this trip, but the Burnside cartridge was well worth it to me. I'll make another post for the second day hunt as soon as I can get the videos edited!

 

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[GB1]

very nice!

 

[Davers]

Very Nice!

Those don't pop up everyday even in VA .

How did you reconnect the bullet to the cartridge?

 

[Rookster]

Mighty nice hunt PinFire.Congrats

 

[A2coins]

I want to go to a state like that rich in history great post grats on your finds also

 

[relic nut]

Congratulations! I would love to find one of those. Glad you were able to get the whole thing. Great post!

 

[Fullstock]

I’ve dug many Burnsides, but I’ve never dug a complete one, they usually rot/desolve in the ground. Congratulations on a nice find.

 

[Whyme]

Congrats on a fantastic find!

 

[FoxHound0985]

Thanks everyone!

 

[FoxHound0985]

Very Nice!

Those don't pop up everyday even in VA .

How did you reconnect the bullet to the cartridge?

Davers,

It's just sitting loose in the case. I'm afraid to do anything else with it since the mouth of the case is super thin and delicate.

 

[RVRoamer73]

Nice Va. Hunt. Congrats!! I was just in the area a week or so ago, N. On the Valley pike. Still hunting my bucket lister there...

 

[Davers]

Davers,It's just sitting loose in the case. I'm afraid to do anything else with it since the mouth of the case is super thin and delicate.

I was blessed to find a Calvary Spot now 5 + years ago a-lot of the Soldiers were armed with Burnside Rifles, I dug many Cases both Flat & open & if I recall I only got 1-4 complete cartridges (the best & strongest one had /has the bullet in backwards , the other complete ones are very weak at the 'Neck' . Most have the Brass ring around the Bullet , IMO these were used as 'Fire Starters' tho I did find a good few with the broken bullet & cartridge in the same hole & tho I have not laid eyes on them in a few years (knowing me & my OCD) I kept the bullets found with the cartridges together.

Tho most bullets show powder burn At the time of digging I could tell I if I had broken the cartridge & 95% had broke (at the neck ) before I dug them.
Since & before then I have dug a case or Maybe ? a Burnside bullet all across my hunting area .

They are among my favorite finds as are all finds from this site.

P.S. 14 CW Buttons in 2018 is an amazing stat. I'm good to find 2-8 a year & when I get more than 1 it's they usually come from the same site.

Again Congratz on your Bucket List find , I hope to get to hunt in VA someday.

 

[jewelerguy]

super awesome relic. congrats!

 

[Johncoho]

Nice finds. We also make a once a year trip to Virginia to visit friends and I take along the detector to check out an old farmhouse behind their home. I have done this two years and have found some nice coins and tokens but nothing Civil War related. The area they live in isn't close to any Civil War action.

 

[tnt-hunter]

Cool find. Still looking for a burnside slug, finding a complete one would be super for me. I hope it was for you.

Keep swingin.

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Nice job!

 

[OBXmetalDet]

Greetings all! My metal detecting buddies and I decided to take a weekend trip to Virginia to hunt one of their old sites./QUOTE]

Where in Virginia did you hunt?

 

[E-Trac-Ohio]

Well done !

 

[cmthunder]

Excellant trip and cool finds.

 

[erfranks]

Great Saves!!