First AWESOME Find This Year!! Love Those Bell Tones!

[ScubaDetector]

Went out today on my boat after I worked on a dock. The water was muddy but mostly calm. Got in my wet suit and jumped in. Still too cold to dive but was great to wade in. My only coin find was a penny.

My second signal was a bell tone. Since I couldn't see bottom I decided to dig like always. Glad I did. I got my second Lewis Machine gun magazine from before WW1. One happy camper. I sure didn't expect to see that in my scoop. Especially where I was hunting. It gets pounded to death by waders. I can only guess they don't like overload tones on their machines. This one has 26 unfired 30 cal bullets in it. The one I found a few years ago has 6.

All I need to find now is the machine gun itself and I will be a very happy detectorist.

The water is almost warm enough for me to start diving. Just too dirty in lake St Clair. A few calm days and that will be taken care of.

This is the same place I have found 5 100lb Mark 1 practice bombs from the bi-planes that were first at Selfridge AB in 1916. I know there is more history there along with a lot more gold. This is going to be a very fun year as I have one of my boats in a marina less than 5 minutes away from the place. As soon as I can dive I should be able to find a few more goodies. The trouble with wading is most the 30 cal bullets and the 45 cal bullets fall through the scoop and chasing them is a royal pain.





This is it next to my other one. I just too a power washer to both.

 

[kcm]

Nice to hear from you again SD. Where you been keeping yourself?? Have missed those very informative posts or yours, complete with awesome stuff like this!

 

[scruggs]

Very nice and historical find you got there...Nicely Done! Good luck when you get back in the water, you just might find that machine gun!

 

[trapperart]

Very nice find congrats

 

[vpnavy]

Nice find! Thanks for sharing...

 

[diggingthe1]

Diving for treasure sounds like so much fun, I bet you have a blast. Great find!!!!!

 

[ScubaDetector]

Nice to hear from you again SD. Where you been keeping yourself?? Have missed those very informative posts or yours, complete with awesome stuff like this!

KCM, My reasons for staying away probably are not valid. I got tired of the BS posts. I come here to help and to share. I realize I need to stay away from posts that are unreal but that sometimes is hard to do. So I vanish. A lot of great people on these sites and helpful ones. I know I have a place. I can find amazing things and help others that want to dive and detect. I am trying to only stay in that place and ignore the people that feel the need to post coin collections as underground or under-road finds.

Going out again today. I know another machine gun magazine dropped from a bi-plane won't be in my scoop! I could live with finding a Thompson or Lewis Machine gun though. Lots were fired in this spot. Along with some sort of 50 cal. The 50 cal bullets we find are from 1921 - 1926. No idea what gun or plane shot them.

I used to think the magazine fell out of the plane because of a steep bank. However since it was mounted on the front of a very narrow bi-plane I am now thinking that while trying to change the magazine they accidentally dropped it over the side of the cockpit. The magazine was mounted on the top of the gun. I have not found a full one.




For any interested in history, you can google the Curtis Jenny biplane and see how small the cockpit was. The Lewis machine gun was mounted on the front and fired through the propeller. They also had cables going to the cockpit that dropped the 100lb Mark 1 bombs which I have found 5 so far. Here is a picture of 2 of them.

 

[Tuberale]

Kind of scary, ScubaDetector. Wouldn't want one of those bombs going off near me. Thanks for sharing!

 

[kcm]

My reasons for staying away probably are not valid. I got tired of the BS posts.

SURE that's valid! Haven't you heard, the world is full of bad people. Life's not fair. Only the good die young (which has me wondering about all us old farts!) Life is like a bowl of cherries - seems I'm always in the pits. All this, plus 1,000 more useless sayings just chock full of BS!

...I hear Charmin Extra Strong works well for these times.

....Seriously, can't let the idjits get to you. Being a worldwide forum, there's an entire world of us...er, of them! Sometimes we all have bad days and nothing seems to come out of our mouths right. Sounds great before passing the lips, but then something gets lost in the translation between mental-ish thought and fool-ish speech.

Just remember, any time you need a shoulder to lean on, there are some mighty BIG and strong and important shoulders you can use any time you want....up on Mt. Rushmore.




Gee, I think I've got a knack for this cheering-up stuff!!

 

[Tommy G]

Wow, what an interesting find! And thanks for coming back with a post of the actual weapon.

 

[ScubaDetector]

Kind of scary, ScubaDetector. Wouldn't want one of those bombs going off near me. Thanks for sharing!

Bombs are practice dummies. ALTHOUGH I did not know that when I found the first one. Had a fun time being tied up with three police departments. Now I just save them. I hope to find something awesome and different this year out there. As we all know, we will never know unless we dig. There are two sidewinder missiles out there somewhere in that lake. Now that would be another awesome recovery!