Backyard detecting

Philvis · Jul 4, 2008

I went out for about 45 minutes in my backyard to see what I could find. I've found mainly modern pennies, but have pulled two CW minie balls out of the ground in the past. My backyard backs up to a Civil War battlefield park.

This time around I found that long lost key I ran over with my lawn mower a couple years back when my keyring fell out my pocket. I found yet another penny and what appears to be my third minie ball that looks like it definitely collided with something. I'm attaching a few pics as I am hoping someone can help me identify it. The inside is really odd as it appears to have a little plug of some sort in it. I tried to get some good pics of it, so I hope they are good enough. The other bullet in the side by side is just for size comparisons. That I found a couple months back. Let me know if anyone has any ideas. Thanks!

d2 · Jul 4, 2008

The one on the left is a Gardner, I think and the other one is an enfield bullet with probably a boxwood plug. Those are neat finds...d2

bearbqd · Jul 4, 2008

They told you what the plug was, but not what it was for. There were several different types of plugs used in Enfield Prichett type bullets, but the boxwood plug was found to be the most effective for accuracy and range of ballistics. The plug was used to help the sides of the bullet maintain tighter tolerances within the barrel when fired. It's fairly rare to find them with the plugs still in them. Congratulations on the neat finds.

Philvis · Jul 4, 2008

Thanks everyone for letting me know about the boxwood plug. That definitely sounds like I found something out of the ordinary, so I cannot complain about only finding my chewed up penny and key. I am definitely not up to speed on my typologies. I look forward to hitting the trenches that are located in the next yard over soon. Apparently they are not part of the national battlefied. I'm sure there will be plenty of goodies there.