Epic CW Bullet Hunt

[Carolina Tom]

I received an invite from TNet member, Bergie, to join him in the Low Country of SC, for a little metal detecting. Well, you know I was all over that!

He had obtained permission for us to hunt a historic plantation. It was just like you’d expect, Spanish moss and live oaks. The Confederates had cannon nearby. Here is a picture of some slob next to one of the giant live oaks. Slob for scale only.



The plantation was sweet looking, but neither of us found anything good.

Bergie had also secured a small Civil War skirmish site for us to hunt. He had a map overlay of the troops, on top of a Google Earth map, and knew exactly what he was doing, thank God. He told me to post the map, but I prefer to be vague.

It was really a beautiful spot.



Here are the non-bullets. Bergie found the friction primer, but did not know what it was, so I told him it was junk, and kept it for myself. You better watch me close.

Friction primer from a CW cannon
Saddle strap guide
And 3 pieces I’m not sure about, any ID help is appreciated. U shaped brass piece, with iron on it, small cast brass zipper pull and an “S” shaped hollow piece. Any of these could be tractor parts for all I know.



The piece at the bottom above, is “S” shaped, here’s a pic.



The ground coated everything with a hard black crust. Some of the lead came clean, with a lot of effort, and some would not clean up. I tried not to ruin the patina. Here is what they looked like “fresh”.



I found 7, of what I believe to be Enfields. If I am wrong let me know.



I got this 52 caliber Sharps. Flat on the bottom, and only 2 rings.



Round balls as well as 58 and 69 caliber Minie balls were also found. The variety, and lack of buttons, suggests it was the good guys.

I got 34 projectiles, of 5 different varieties, in just over three hours. This was only the second time that I have gotten to hunt Civil War relics, So I was just in awe of seeing this stuff come out of the ground.



It was an absolutely spectacular time. I can not thank my host enough, he had everything hooked up solid. A class act gentleman. Thanks Bergie.

Thanks for looking and good luck on your hunts.

 

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[Carolina Tom]

Oh yeah, I found this rounded piece of iron. Since a friction primer was found on the site, I suspect it is a cannon ball fragment. Wheatie for scale. I will soak it in vinegar, unless you guys tell me otherwise...

 

[bergie]

Awesome hunt - thanks for the great info on all the finds. Very funny about the canon item - but you could have fooled me if you wanted to didn't know what the heck it was. This Civil War bullet ID info attached could be helpful to others...

 

[relic nut]

You should change your name to the Roving Relic Hunter,
"Have detector, will travel"
Those are some great finds Tom, and sounds like a fun hunt. If you want the bullets any cleaner, then let them soak in some water for a couple days. Although they look pretty good the way they are. That's a great variety.
We may have created a monster! LOL

 

[smokeythecat]

Great hunt. I'd try "Iron Out" from one of the big box stores. Use it outside and away from animals, I've never had a problem but some animals are dumb.

 

[Dug]

When I first got into relic digging I got into a low area near a saltwater river. I started digging up these large sandy brown blobs and thought they were ground mineralization clumps. They sounded good on my detector so I ended up digging a bunch trying to find a good target. After about the tenth one I got irritated and chunked it at a tree where it popped open and out came a .69 three ringer. I had to back track and try to find all the ones I threw near trees

 

[thrifty76now]

Epic hunt to say the least of that hunt.

 

[Carolina Tom]

Great hunt. I'd try "Iron Out" from one of the big box stores. Use it outside and away from animals, I've never had a problem but some animals are dumb.

I just picked some Iron Out up at the store, and have it outside soaking. I’m pretty sure that it is a fragment, after I rinsed it off, it looked more curved, like you’d expect.

How long should I let it soak?

 

[Carolina Tom]

You should change your name to the Roving Relic Hunter,
"Have detector, will travel"
Those are some great finds Tom, and sounds like a fun hunt. If you want the bullets any cleaner, then let them soak in some water for a couple days. Although they look pretty good the way they are. That's a great variety.
We may have created a monster! LOL

2100 solo miles of driving in the last 15 days just to go metal detecting. Sounds a bit monstrous!

 

[relic nut]

Worth every mile

2100 solo miles of driving in the last 15 days just to go metal detecting. Sounds a bit monstrous!

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Fantastic hunt, congratulations!

 

[Hawks88]

That’s a good hunt. Congrats!

 

[smokeythecat]

To help the "Iron Out' along, which btw I put HOT water in it to speed it along, I also take a small tack hammer and whack the heck out of the iron item to knock off some of the crust. If you were digging anywhere near salt water, any iron you find needs to sit a month or two in fresh water, with changes in between so the salt will leach out of it. Otherwise, in a few years you will have just a lump of rust where the relic used to be. Use an aquarium hydrometer to measure the salt content of the old water. When it's at zero after a week's soaking, you should be good to go.

 

[Patriot Relics]

Nice to see you roughing it in the LC on some seriously productive dirt. Quite a spread of lead Tom, fantastic hunt

 

[sutphin]

NICE FINDS

 

[Dharmacy]

Nice finds! Your brass zipper pull looks to be a keyhole cover for a padlock.

D.

 

[Carolina Tom]

To help the "Iron Out' along, which btw I put HOT water in it to speed it along, I also take a small tack hammer and whack the heck out of the iron item to knock off some of the crust. If you were digging anywhere near salt water, any iron you find needs to sit a month or two in fresh water, with changes in between so the salt will leach out of it. Otherwise, in a few years you will have just a lump of rust where the relic used to be. Use an aquarium hydrometer to measure the salt content of the old water. When it's at zero after a week's soaking, you should be good to go.

I was afraid to admit that I beat on it with a hammer, an overnight soak in Iron Out got it looking a lot better. It's a cannon ball for sure, or an iron coconut shell...

Thanks for the pointer Smokey!

 

[Phishfarmer]

Great finds. That is an amazing number of bullets in that amount of time! Congrats and sounds like a good time was had by all.

 

[Carolina Tom]

Great finds. That is an amazing number of bullets in that amount of time! Congrats and sounds like a good time was had by all.

The site was only a couple of acres, there were a lot of signals, obviously. Less than half the signals were modern trash, the rest were CW period. I only dug one iron signal, at the end of the day, and it was the cannon ball fragment... I'm kicking myself for not digging more of those iron signals. I bet I skipped 30 iron signals at least.

 

[JBnNC]

Great hunt Tom! Sounds like you're getting the CW bug, you may never be the same again.

It looks like you did a good job cleaning those bullets, sometimes that swamp mud sticks to the lead and you will damage your bullet if you're too aggressive. I've had luck letting those encrusted bullets soak for a while in water, then rubbing the mud/crust off gradually with the side of a wood tooth pick....you can also use the point to clean between the rings.

Again Congrats--JB