gtoast99
Sr. Member
Three cannonball day - UPDATED - cleaned pics and video
Hey everyone!
I got out again yesterday with my friend Jim, and had one heck of a day. It started out digging a couple of bullets for each of us. Then Jim came over to show me a piece of canister shot he had just dug. On our last hunt we pulled several friction primers from this area, as well. So I started paying a bit more attention to the iron signals, just in case. The signal itself wasn't "loud" per se, clearly evident, but not blowing my ears off like I might expect. But it did cover a large surface area. When I had scooped out the blade length of my shovel with the signal still in the hole (and now it was loud!) and nothing on the pinpointer, I called over Jim to check it out. I was worrying my pinpointing was off, and it was going to be something stupid in the side of the hole. With his confirmation that I was spot on, I kept going down, and down, and down. And then it showed up - the top of my first artillery projectile! The picture with my shovel in the hole is to the top of the cannon ball, which is still in the hole in that shot.
When I could feel it break loose, I called Jim back over and we got some video which I will post soon. But while I was digging out the first one, I thought I felt the shovel knock on something in the side of the hole. So I kept on going, and sure enough, number two came out of the hole. And in taking that one out, I exposed the third one just below those two. I kept expanding the hole outward, and checked with the pinpointer and DFX to be sure, so I know I didn't leave any behind. Man, what a thrill to find one, let alone three at once!!
The other neat finds included two finials. One is obviously a brass box finial. The other is made of lead, and I assumed in the field that it was a box finial, though it's shaped almost more like a scabbard drag. I didn't know there were lead scabbard finials until I got home, so I'm not sure which this is. Thoughts??
Last but not least was the button, which I didn't even record on video since it was so caked in stuck on dirt that I didn't realize it was an NC! That's the second NC sunburst to come from this particular field. So the pieces of the puzzle are slowly coming together. Thanks to Jim ingenuity, we've been GPS logging our finds to get a more complete picture of the site. You see some really neat trends when you start plotting out the data that way, and I highly recommend it.
Anyways, thanks for reading and in advance for any comments. Without further ado, the pics....
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UPDATED:
I've included a picture of the post electrolysis cannonballs below. They still need a few more finishing touches and a wax coating, but this is pretty much how they'll look.
Also, I've finished the video for that days hunt, and included that here.
Thanks for looking, and for the comments. I hope you enjoy!!
Hey everyone!
I got out again yesterday with my friend Jim, and had one heck of a day. It started out digging a couple of bullets for each of us. Then Jim came over to show me a piece of canister shot he had just dug. On our last hunt we pulled several friction primers from this area, as well. So I started paying a bit more attention to the iron signals, just in case. The signal itself wasn't "loud" per se, clearly evident, but not blowing my ears off like I might expect. But it did cover a large surface area. When I had scooped out the blade length of my shovel with the signal still in the hole (and now it was loud!) and nothing on the pinpointer, I called over Jim to check it out. I was worrying my pinpointing was off, and it was going to be something stupid in the side of the hole. With his confirmation that I was spot on, I kept going down, and down, and down. And then it showed up - the top of my first artillery projectile! The picture with my shovel in the hole is to the top of the cannon ball, which is still in the hole in that shot.
When I could feel it break loose, I called Jim back over and we got some video which I will post soon. But while I was digging out the first one, I thought I felt the shovel knock on something in the side of the hole. So I kept on going, and sure enough, number two came out of the hole. And in taking that one out, I exposed the third one just below those two. I kept expanding the hole outward, and checked with the pinpointer and DFX to be sure, so I know I didn't leave any behind. Man, what a thrill to find one, let alone three at once!!
The other neat finds included two finials. One is obviously a brass box finial. The other is made of lead, and I assumed in the field that it was a box finial, though it's shaped almost more like a scabbard drag. I didn't know there were lead scabbard finials until I got home, so I'm not sure which this is. Thoughts??
Last but not least was the button, which I didn't even record on video since it was so caked in stuck on dirt that I didn't realize it was an NC! That's the second NC sunburst to come from this particular field. So the pieces of the puzzle are slowly coming together. Thanks to Jim ingenuity, we've been GPS logging our finds to get a more complete picture of the site. You see some really neat trends when you start plotting out the data that way, and I highly recommend it.
Anyways, thanks for reading and in advance for any comments. Without further ado, the pics....
--------------------------------------------------------------------
UPDATED:
I've included a picture of the post electrolysis cannonballs below. They still need a few more finishing touches and a wax coating, but this is pretty much how they'll look.
Also, I've finished the video for that days hunt, and included that here.
Thanks for looking, and for the comments. I hope you enjoy!!
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