Musket Ball "Cache", 1869 IHP and Flint From the Farm

[Goldiver]

Todays post is a group of finds from today and and friday. Friday I did some more scouting around and found the usual fired musket balls here and there, a broken flint bird point and a harder to find date 1867 Indian Head cent. Then on the way back to my truck I ran into a lot of unfired musket balls in a small (50 foot x 50 foot) area. I stopped digging after pulling about 20 and did a quick scan over the area which told me there were a lot of them still in the ground.

I returned today hoping to finish digging them but only had time to dig 40 more, then again scanning around a bit there are more to be recovered. This is a strange grouping of musket balls. Most are 56 caliber with some 50 caliber and 45 caliber mixed in. I can't really narrow them to a time frame as no identifying brass or copper items like coins and buttons were found near the spot. The only brass item dug there was a little brass finial. I also found the small what appears to be gun flint in the same spot. The balls were most likely lost in a leather bag of some sort then over the years dragged around by farm equipment until I came along.

The area is on a major fur trade route and was heavily occupied by Native Americans and many military operations passed through there prior to the 1820's then saw some use by settlers. I have read about Native Americans stashing musket balls in a convenient spot for later use like they would do with their flint blades and points, but of course there is no way of knowing how they got there. It could just as easily been someone riding through on a horse and they fell out of their cargo somehow.

 

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[smallfoot]

Gotta be more around that spot!

 

[Tpmetal]

awesome find!

 

[Hawks88]

Wow! that’s a lot of lead. Congrats

 

[Hughett]

Nice haul. You guys make it seem like those ihp’s are laying around everywhere.

 

[Goldiver]

Nice haul. You guy make it seem like those ihp’s are laying around everywhere.

Thanks. I have been on a dry spell for IHP's. With a lot of hard work and some luck I have been able to snag some at this site.

Steve

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Very nice finds, thank you for sharing!

 

[Valley Ranger]

Very unusual! Great save.

 

[HIGHSTRUNG]

Awesome!

 

[Goldiver]

Very unusual! Great save.

Yes quite unusual. It is just not something anyone expects to find, then you start thinking of all the possible circumstances that caused it to be there. Its not like you could just run to the store 5 minutes down the street to buy more musket balls or the lead to mold more. Somebody at some point in time likely had a bad day or several due to the loss.

 

[ohp733]

Things like musket balls are few and far between down here in OK. Nice group of finds.

 

[Rege-PA]

Must be a great place to detect! My guess is they are for use in Indian Trade Muskets (Smooth bores) The average Long Rifle was usually 40 to 48 cal. so the bigger balls would lean more to a musket. The amount suggests a split canvas bag which alot of traders carried the balls in. Just speculation but fun to do.

 

[Joe-Dirt]

They’ve been there for a while, that’s for sure. Nice hunt!

 

[Goldiver]

Must be a great place to detect! My guess is they are for use in Indian Trade Muskets (Smooth bores) The average Long Rifle was usually 40 to 48 cal. so the bigger balls would lean more to a musket. The amount suggests a split canvas bag which alot of traders carried the balls in. Just speculation but fun to do.

Very interesting thought about the split bag and trader link! There were several traders in the area over the course of the Trade Era, also at one point the Indians rounded up all the Traders they could find and killed or captured them. Speculation is part of the fun of this hobby!