THE HUNT IS OVER

[gldnbrew]

I got a chance to get into the woods on Saturday with my new F75 LTD form Bart, which I thought would be my last time this year. It turned out I was able to get one more days hunt in on Tuesday. That is it for the year now, got 6" of snow cover. Anyhow I will begin with my June hunt. While detecting the 1812 battlefield, I am researching, I found a pistol lock with the side plate attached (1/2 cock position), trigger guard and the butt cap with screw. After that find I sent about an hour combing the area, nothing. This would continue all summer long.



I have sent at least 15 - 16 hours looking for the barrel, no luck. Then in the first part of October I found the lower ramrod pipe, it was 40' S of the other parts, now I concentrated here and nothing.


Well Saturday I was in the woods for 5 hours and sent most of that time looking for the barrel, again no luck. After finding a couple of musket balls and it was getting late I started walking out, swinging on my way. About 1/2 way out I got a good signal and dug it, yep it was the barrel (loaded with a ball). Now what is puzzling, the barrel was 250' N of the lock and other parts still trying to figure that out.



Tower of London "crossed scepter" PROOFS, circa. 1770's-1810 and the Belgian mark of "LEG, ELG" for Liege, Belgium, circa. 1780-1810. Now that I know the proof marks what do they actually mean or tell me. I know that the pistol is a Ketland and not military issue.



On the trigger plate the letter "H" appears to be engraved or scratched in, could it be the owners initial? I understand that owner's marks were generally put on the top of the barrel or on the wrist escutcheon plate. Any help here would be appreciated. The only part that is still needs finding is the upper ramrod pipe to complete all the parts.

On to Tuesdays hunt with the F75. What is amazing about this machine is it's depth. I dug a grapeshot at 12 -13 inches and it is a good thing I decided to take my entrenching tool, courtesy of Uncle Sam, because I would of given up with just my little digger. I was the full depth of the Pro Pointer before it sounded off. I have never had that kind of depth with my ATPro in the woods. I have been finding things my AT missed and a whole lot deeper. The F75 is so sensitive that I could not carry the entrenching tool by my side,I had to carry on my shoulder. All in all I am very happy with the F75 and it is a nice compliment to the ATPro.

Also looking for some advise on the best way to clean the barrel, it is brass. I don't want to clean the trigger plate and take the chance on the "H" being removed.
Thanks for looking.

 

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[Higgy]

Great finds in my opinion. I would love to find some old flinter parts.

 

[Subterranean]

gldnbrew, I am impressed with your tenacity as I would have done the same thing to find all the parts. Congratulations on your success with the endeavor! Please post an "assembled" layout of all the parts as they would have looked on the pistol, I am sure others would enjoy seeing that too! Happy hunting, Sub

 

[gldnbrew]

Subterranean, meant to do that, so here it is. Later this winter I am going to make a stand so I can display, together, the all the parts I found. Will post pictures then.

 

[Pointman]

Subterranean, meant to do that, so here it is. Later this winter I am going to make a stand so I can display, together, the all the parts I found. Will post pictures then.

View attachment 1090502

Hold on, was this the parts that you DUG UP?

 

[K1DDO1979]

Great finds. I'm getting a f75 ltd hopefully early in the new year. I'm glad you put that picture of the ramrod pipe up. I've dug multiple ones and had no idea what they were. Glad I kept them!

 

[Plumbata]

Awesome discovery, great work taking the time to find it all. On the barrel, is that a crudely engraved whale I see? If so, maybe it was the property of a whaler who was impressed by the Royal navy and forced to fight in the war? Very cool.

 

[Ahab8]

That is such an impressive find and story....congrats

 

[gldnbrew]

Hold on, was this the parts that you DUG UP?

Everything is there, except the upper ramrod pipe and of course the wood. The picture of the complete pistol (shown) is identical to the one I found. The only other thing I can think that would be missing is if there was a metal cap on the end of the ramrod. The side plate is still attached to the lock and the butt cap screw was still in place.

Plumbata
Awesome discovery, great work taking the time to find it all. On the barrel, is that a crudely engraved whale I see? If so, maybe it was the property of a whaler who was impressed by the Royal navy and forced to fight in the war? Very cool.

Last summer I had Sean Rich of Pawn Stars fame, authenticate the parts I had then. He could tell by the lock that it was made to be American import to the colonies and that it most likely belonged to a militia officer as his personal weapon (not military issue). Apparently during this period of time the average person would not of owned one, probably do to the cost.

As to the whale or fish thing not sure on that one, all the pistols I looked at had almost identical markings. I was wondering if it might of been a religious type of symbol.

 

[Texas Kid]

That is beyond cool! AWESOME!!AWESOME!!AWESOME!! The Kid

 

[gldnbrew]

Here are some of the detail on the parts. Since these photos were taken I have done electrolysis on the lock. I will post some photos of the cleaned lock. Note: all parts are brass except lock. The side plate on the lock is brass. All cleaning at this point was done with soap, water & a toothbrush.

 

[screwynewy]

The fact that the flint is still in the lock is beyond cool. Make the mind wander just imagining the story behind the loss of this pistol. Thanks for sharing!

 

[gldnbrew]

The fact that the flint is still in the lock is beyond cool. Make the mind wander just imagining the story behind the loss of this pistol. Thanks for sharing!

The flint happens to be a French Amber.

 

[worldtalker]

Now that right there is pretty dang COOL man!!!

GOD Bless

Chris

 

[WHADIFIND]

Exceptional finds.

Is it possible the gun blew up? OR, maybe, he was carrying some spare parts for repairs?

 

[gldnbrew]

Exceptional finds.

Is it possible the gun blew up? OR, maybe, he was carrying some spare parts for repairs?

It didn't blow up - The lock is in the 1/2 cocked position (ready to fire) and I would bet that if one could open the pan, you would find black powder and the barrel still has the ball in it and I also bet that there is powder behind that ball. I don't believe they would be carrying that many or any spare parts on their person during the heat of battle. It is quite possible that the barrel was picked up some where down the line and they couldn't find the rest of the pistol, so they threw it back down. Hard to know what really happened.

 

[Pointman]

I was just wondering if your parts had cleaned up that well and you had put a stock in with it. If those were your dug parts, I would have voted banner. I am actually kind of on the verge of doing so anyway? What does anyone else think?

Anyway, that would be really nice in a display with a silhouette of the pistol in the background and the parts put in the appropriate places. Do you know if they all have matching serial numbers?

 

[gldnbrew]

I was just wondering if your parts had cleaned up that well and you had put a stock in with it. If those were your dug parts, I would have voted banner. I am actually kind of on the verge of doing so anyway? What does anyone else think?

Anyway, that would be really nice in a display with a silhouette of the pistol in the background and the parts put in the appropriate places. Do you know if they all have matching serial numbers?

No serial numbers, but I would bet the farm that all thous parts go to that pistol. The area was woods in 1812 and is, basically still the same woods as it was 200 years ago, though the owners have log it a little over the years. What gets me, other than the pistol, I have only found canister shot, grape shot and musket balls. In all I have a total of 181 artifacts of the battle and NOT one button or a coin.

 

[worldtalker]

No serial numbers, but I would bet the farm that all thous parts go to that pistol. The area was woods in 1812 and is, basically still the same woods as it was 200 years ago, though the owners have log it a little over the years. What gets me, other than the pistol, I have only found canister shot, grape shot and musket balls. In all I have a total of 181 artifacts of the battle and NOT one button or a coin.

Now you won't know about coins or buttons till next spring.

 

[gldnbrew]

Now you won't know about coins or buttons till next spring.

I have hunted it hard for two years, April - December and they still elude me. There has to be just one somewhere out there in the battlefield. Till next spring


Happy hunting to thous who can continue to hunt. Catch ya here on T-net.