Musket balls, Hand Grenade and a shot down British Bomber

[Westfront]

Our start into the harvest season was so slow like never before. Almost 8 weeks with no soaking rain left the fields dry to the bone. Farmers tried to plow some of the stubble just to have a 10" layer of dry lumps of clay on the field you barely get any signals out of. We tried a field close to a roman site which is still in sugar beet with little to no success. After an hour or so we decided to move to the other side of the site where's a slope down to a small creek with a tiny field along the bank.
Unsurprising close to the creek the soil was not as dry and signals came in better. Unfortunately the field was filled with Prussian musket balls. I took it as an exercise to improve my beep-dig-pouch speed.

One of the signals left me with a Pineapple Grenade in the hole....a quick look on top showed the fuze missing...

And cleaned up...

Musket balls and lead

Buttons

Cup weight, scrap silver, part of an oak leaves wreath coming from a German decoration, religious pendant

Find of the day is the Lunar Brooch

OTWBTTC we stopped at the farm to chat a bit with the farmer and he showed me some boxes with whats left from a Bomber hitting the ground more the 75 years ago. The Lancaster was shot down when coming back from a raid over Germany mid war and was excavated a couple weeks ago. 5 crew member could escape, two died in the impact and were buried on a German soldiers cemetary and after war moved to the British main cemetary.

Thanks for looking!

 

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[xr7ator]

Very interesting and thanks for sharing.

 

[Mackaydon]

Great experience and display.
Don.......

 

[rebbel31]

Dang Lu, you were busy man. Cool finds love the grenade and plane parts.

 

[bologna321]

I'd be like nope to a grenade

 

[Digger RJ]

Nice!!! Congrats!!!

 

[Westfront]

Dang Lu, you were busy man. Cool finds love the grenade and plane parts.

Lots of digging for musket balls.... The plane parts are cool, i've seen better ones coming up but still very nice relics.

 

[Westfront]

Thanks for the replies all!

 

[CRUSADER]

I wondered why you were so quiet!
Complete opposite from us, all the stars are lined up. Travel a small distance to Germany & ..........

I guess your making the best of a bad deal, thats all we can do. Never give up, never die....

 

[CRUSADER]

Ps. Thats not to say you haven't got finds I need & like.

 

[Westfront]

I wondered why you were so quiet!
Complete opposite from us, all the stars are lined up. Travel a small distance to Germany & ..........

I guess your making the best of a bad deal, thats all we can do. Never give up, never die....

I try my best, it's almost impossible to squeeze out signals. Last summer was similar but still better than this year.
Next bad thing, when it will rain farmers roll the fields and drill green manure in in one pass. All i can hope for are the fields still in stubble. With the concrete like soil it will take a good amount rain to soak. The farmers have to wait with ploughing for softer soil otherwise they can double the cost of fuel in an already bad year for them.

 

[CRUSADER]

I try my best, it's almost impossible to squeeze out signals. Last summer was similar but still better than this year.
Next bad thing, when it will rain farmers roll the fields and drill green manure in in one pass. All i can hope for are the fields still in stubble. With the concrete like soil it will take a good amount rain to soak. The farmers have to wait with ploughing for softer soil otherwise they can double the cost of fuel in an already bad year for them.

At least you understand whats going on, to take advantage of what you have.
Last few outings we have just missed the rain & the wind dried the top. Got great depth, dug a tombac at over 10" & a Victorian enameled baking tray at over 3 spade depths. Plus lots of other deep signals.
We are unsure where to go after these few fields, but I'm not moving until I've squeezed out as much as I can.

 

[Westfront]

We are unsure where to go after these few fields, but I'm not moving until I've squeezed out as much as I can.

Stay where you make finds and keep posting to motivate me!

 

[Silvermonkey]

Cool bunch of finds!
Uncovering that hand grenade would have made my heart skip a beat or two.

 

[uglymailman]

Good to see you out Lu. Scrap silver is better than no silver. I found a pineapple grenade in a barn once. Not sure I could fling one far enough away to be comfortable. Good luck.

 

[ArfieBoy]

Very interesting items you found! The grenade cleaned up very nicely. Thanks for showing them to us.

 

[jewelerguy]

majority of lead looks like shotgun slugs but even the balls show rifling marks. Patina on most all of it looks to be the same. The remains of the bomber would be interesting to see in person, although sad at the same time.

 

[Westfront]

majority of lead looks like shotgun slugs but even the balls show rifling marks. Patina on most all of it looks to be the same. The remains of the bomber would be interesting to see in person, although sad at the same time.

Most common bullets with rifling marks here. The musket balls have the same diameter and show the same rifling as the bullets. Almost as were they shot from the same rifles. Never noticed before.
Yes the bomber parts are interesting. Some will be on display in a local museum after preservation.

 

[Westfront]

Good to see you out Lu. Scrap silver is better than no silver. I found a pineapple grenade in a barn once. Not sure I could fling one far enough away to be comfortable. Good luck.

Hi Tim! A grenade in a barn in the States is way more weird to me as one in the fields here. A farmer told me he had about 20 a year in his potatoe harvester....