First Relic Hunt of the Year

Mason Jarr

Sr. Member
Nov 23, 2012
355
1,171
Southwest Idaho
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
Minelab CTX3030
Minelab E-trac
Minelab Equinox 800
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
I just returned from a 3 day trip to one of my sites from the western Indian Wars. This site has a prominent hillside that was used as a target range and I was able to find seven cannonball fragments and quite a few .69 cal round balls. The cannonball fragments are from 12 pounders fired from a mountain howitzer. You can see the fuse threads on a few pieces. Also got a variety of conical bullets, a small key, three general service coat buttons, a pewter underwear button, two UMC 10 gauge shotgun bases, two fired percussion caps and a few other relics. It was a good start for the year.
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Last edited:
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I just returned from a 3 day trip to one of my sites from the western Indian Wars. This site has a prominent hillside that was used as a target range and I was able to find seven cannonball fragments and quite a few .69 cal round balls. The cannonball fragments are from 12 pounders fired from a mountain howitzer. You can see the fuse threads on a few pieces. Also got a variety of conical bullets, a small key, three general service coat buttons, a pewter underwear button, two UMC 10 gauge shotgun bases, two fired percussion caps and a few other relics. It was a good start for the year.View attachment 2143737View attachment 2143738View attachment 2143739View attachment 2143740View attachment 2143741View attachment 2143742View attachment 2143743View attachment 2143744
Very Cool!!!! Congrats!!!!
 

Nice assortment of relics. Those shell frags are cool. I have some that look the same as yours. This was indeed a great way to start off the relic season.
 

Nice assortment of relics. Those shell frags are cool. I have some that look the same as yours. This was indeed a great way to start off the relic season.
Since I found the fragments and a lot of .69 caliber round balls on that practice hillside I assumed both the artillery and Infantry were shooting into the hill. But, I've been reading that some cannonballs, even in the small 12 pounders, were filled with shot, also. So now I'm wondering if some of the round balls were in the cannonballs. Thanks!
 

Great Start to the season.
Very nice selection of recoveries.
 

Since I found the fragments and a lot of .69 caliber round balls on that practice hillside I assumed both the artillery and Infantry were shooting into the hill. But, I've been reading that some cannonballs, even in the small 12 pounders, were filled with shot, also. So now I'm wondering if some of the round balls were in the cannonballs. Thanks!
Good chance that some of the round balls you found came from some of the case shot shells.
 

Good chance that some of the round balls you found came from some of the case shot shells.
They were definitely in the same area. Can't know for sure.
 

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