parsonwalker
Bronze Member
What's better than a couple of dozen dropped gardner 2-ringers? When they're still in the cartridge box! We hit the battlefield and were doing OK. I found a piece of 12# ball, the nose and tail-piece of a Schenkl, and part of a 20# Parrot, along with a couple of .69s, a few 3-ringers and some round balls and percussion caps.
Digging buddy found similar stuff:
But then he got a really, really strong signal on his 70s era 6-button Nautilus. It was an intact, perfect Cartridge box. he chipped off a corner digging it, and Gardners fell out. HELLO!
Everything was there, covered in leather, down to the two iron buckles and the brass finial.
We worked for a long time to try and remove it intact. The plan was to lift out several inches of the hardpan clay below it, and let that act as a "shelf". It immediately broke. We wrapped it tightly in a shirt and placed it in a cooler and carried it out. When we got it home, the dirt had fallen off along with every scrap of leather which was the consistency of cotton candy.
The good news was that the tin stayed almost intact. The leather around the finial stayed together. Here's the bizarre thing - There was not ONE SINGLE BULLET missing!! This sucker was packed to the brim. It was lost 100% full. These pictures are poor, but you can see the bullets nesting inside if you know what you're looking at. Such a shame to not be able to preserve it, but it was LONG gone. Nothing could have held it together. Cleaned up, it will still look good as a display piece, I think.
Digging buddy found similar stuff:
But then he got a really, really strong signal on his 70s era 6-button Nautilus. It was an intact, perfect Cartridge box. he chipped off a corner digging it, and Gardners fell out. HELLO!
Everything was there, covered in leather, down to the two iron buckles and the brass finial.
We worked for a long time to try and remove it intact. The plan was to lift out several inches of the hardpan clay below it, and let that act as a "shelf". It immediately broke. We wrapped it tightly in a shirt and placed it in a cooler and carried it out. When we got it home, the dirt had fallen off along with every scrap of leather which was the consistency of cotton candy.
The good news was that the tin stayed almost intact. The leather around the finial stayed together. Here's the bizarre thing - There was not ONE SINGLE BULLET missing!! This sucker was packed to the brim. It was lost 100% full. These pictures are poor, but you can see the bullets nesting inside if you know what you're looking at. Such a shame to not be able to preserve it, but it was LONG gone. Nothing could have held it together. Cleaned up, it will still look good as a display piece, I think.
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