65 pound cannonball...a first!

[mk4125]

So I ventured out after work and headed to one of my newer permissions (80 acres vacant land overlooking Sturgeon Bay of Lake Michigan). I have found a lot of fur trade items in this area along with a handful of War of 1812 finds... military buttons mostly. I decided to search the bottom of the bluff and within minutes located a loud mid-range signal under the roots of a leaning tree (pulling it up from the ground with it roots). I realized in the first few minutes that it was big and round. It took close to 2 hours to get this damn thing out from the trees grip... another 30 minutes to lug this thing to my SUV.

I posted an hour or so ago in the 'What is it' section but since then a local friend swung by and confirmed what I was hoping. This is a 65 lb, 7.88" diameter cannonball...not sure I can ever top this.

 

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[Greastart]

Looks more like a bowling ball! Be careful...and a big congratz!

 

[wagbert]

BOOM Baby !! Further research might determine if the ball is U.S.N., or British ? Did you weigh and measure it yourself ? That is one heck of a neat find.

 

[Tpmetal]

That thing is epic, awesome huge cannonball. Not sure I've seen one that big dug in a long while.

 

[UnderMiner]

Now that is a seriously impressive discovery!

 

[port ewen ace]

all hands ---------- abandon ship

we're goin' down --------- glug glug glug

 

[CASPER-2]

 

[trapperart]

Congrats on the huge old ball

 

[vpnavy]

I searched Google and found Cannons - 8 Inch Cannon Ball (Civil War)

​

 

[CRUSADER]

I searched Google and found Cannons - 8 Inch Cannon Ball (Civil War)

View attachment 1498521​

Makes sense, that ball looks like it would hurt a ship a little.

 

[Stoneman227]

Awsome find !
I feel your pain. Once went hiking and found a huge chunk of obsidian that filled my backpack. The problem was, it was in the stream at the bottom of the mountain and I had parked on top of the mountain !

 

[pepperj]

That's one crazy heavy cannon ball, congrats on the recovery it wasn't an easy one for sure.

 

[sprailroad]

I searched Google and found Cannons - 8 Inch Cannon Ball (Civil War)

View attachment 1498521​

Nice job on that VP

 

[sprailroad]

MK, you really put a LOT of work in recovering that, hats off to you, really.

 

[mk4125]

I searched Google and found Cannons - 8 Inch Cannon Ball (Civil War)

View attachment 1498521​

Hmm... Northern Michigan wasn't really known for its Civil War battles. Is it possible that someone lugged this S.O.B. back home from the South?

 

[RVRoamer73]

Man!!! One Super awesome find!! Congrats on that huge cannon ball.

 

[mk4125]

BOOM Baby !! Further research might determine if the ball is U.S.N., or British ? Did you weigh and measure it yourself ? That is one heck of a neat find.

I am going to clean it up and see if that helps. I may need to enlist the help of some experts for that. The measurements were completed by my friend..who has all these cool tools that I don't have.

 

[Cletus]

Awesome find !! Congrats !!!

 

[vpnavy]

Hmm... Northern Michigan wasn't really known for its Civil War battles. Is it possible that someone lugged this S.O.B. back home from the South?

OR - maybe the one I found was just one of "many" similar cannon balls?

 

[mk4125]

Side note... as I was sawing away at the roots for 2 hours (with my cutting edge on my handy dandy Garrett digging tool) I kept thinking: "Should I drive the 15 minutes to my house and get a hatchet and make this job MUCH quicker?" The answer was obviously "no' because there was no way I was leaving that thing. I would have chewed my way through the roots if I needed to.