bearbqd
Bronze Member
- Jun 20, 2007
- 1,094
- 624
- Detector(s) used
- Minelab EXP II w/ Sunray X-1 probe, Garrett AT Pro/Propointer
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
Wow, today was a very interesting day. I was gonna go to the spot where I recently found my civil war Maine and Virginia buttons. When I drove up to where I normally park, all of the spots were filled so I decided to keep driving down to the river where there was a fairly large civil war engagement. I used to hunt this area but the Park service has been trying to take over it for several years now. I haven't hunted there now for several years because I thought it was owned by them now. However, there is recently a for sale by owner sign there now so I had my doubts about the Parks Dept owning it.
I parked anyway and walked down to the river to see if I could eyeball any bullets or shell fragments by the water. After a few minutes I noticed something odd sticking halfway out of the water in the rocks. I pulled it out and it was this neat duck made out of hard porcelain or something like that. It has a hollow oblong hole in the back and looks like it was meant to hang on a wall. What surprised the heck out of me is when I washed it at home later the numbers 1773 appeared on the backside. This couldn't be the date it was made could it? Possibly a production number? The numbers seem to be written in an old style though. Did they have things like this hanging on walls that long ago?
Well, after I got back in my car I decided to call the number on the for sale sign to see what the owner was asking for the property. I mean how cool would that be, to own your own battlefield?? Well, the asking price was way out of my range and he said the Park Service didn't want to pay near his price. Although out of my range, he didn't hesitate for a second to give me permission to hunt there. WOOHOO!! I didn't officially have permission before but the property wasn't posted so I took my chances. A lot of people recreate there anyway so I figure it was no big deal.
With official permission, I jumped outta my car with detector in hand. With as hard as this place has been hit over the years, including by me, I couldn't believe how quickly I started pulling out one, two, three musket balls one right after the other. I ended up with 15 full pieces of lead which included mostly musket balls, but a couple of fired Sharps and a three ringer. Check out how that three ringer got perfectly filleted by whatever rock it hit. Found 5 partial pieces of lead too. My find of the day was a partial Shenkl fuse with the Patent date of Oct 16, 1861. If you look up Shenkl fuses, they have this on the top so I was able to positively id it right away with my relic book.
The crazy looking "face" musket ball is just a coincidence and not carved as one might think. This is actually a "buck and ball" round where three smaller pieces of shot are attached to and fired with a musket ball. The impression is made by the force of the rounds against each other as they are fired. What actually caused "the face" is that the bottom of the ball hit something in flight and cause the lower hole to smash up slightly to give the appearance of the whole thing having an "Oh SH-T!" look on its face. I've never seen anything like it and I think its pretty neat.
Also found some old shotgun shell caps as usual and a cork screw from an old pocket knife.
The coins are clad. Thought the dime was silver at first as it rang up that way and came out so nice looking. Unfortunately its a 1999. Thanks for looking and sorry so long winded.
I parked anyway and walked down to the river to see if I could eyeball any bullets or shell fragments by the water. After a few minutes I noticed something odd sticking halfway out of the water in the rocks. I pulled it out and it was this neat duck made out of hard porcelain or something like that. It has a hollow oblong hole in the back and looks like it was meant to hang on a wall. What surprised the heck out of me is when I washed it at home later the numbers 1773 appeared on the backside. This couldn't be the date it was made could it? Possibly a production number? The numbers seem to be written in an old style though. Did they have things like this hanging on walls that long ago?
Well, after I got back in my car I decided to call the number on the for sale sign to see what the owner was asking for the property. I mean how cool would that be, to own your own battlefield?? Well, the asking price was way out of my range and he said the Park Service didn't want to pay near his price. Although out of my range, he didn't hesitate for a second to give me permission to hunt there. WOOHOO!! I didn't officially have permission before but the property wasn't posted so I took my chances. A lot of people recreate there anyway so I figure it was no big deal.
With official permission, I jumped outta my car with detector in hand. With as hard as this place has been hit over the years, including by me, I couldn't believe how quickly I started pulling out one, two, three musket balls one right after the other. I ended up with 15 full pieces of lead which included mostly musket balls, but a couple of fired Sharps and a three ringer. Check out how that three ringer got perfectly filleted by whatever rock it hit. Found 5 partial pieces of lead too. My find of the day was a partial Shenkl fuse with the Patent date of Oct 16, 1861. If you look up Shenkl fuses, they have this on the top so I was able to positively id it right away with my relic book.
The crazy looking "face" musket ball is just a coincidence and not carved as one might think. This is actually a "buck and ball" round where three smaller pieces of shot are attached to and fired with a musket ball. The impression is made by the force of the rounds against each other as they are fired. What actually caused "the face" is that the bottom of the ball hit something in flight and cause the lower hole to smash up slightly to give the appearance of the whole thing having an "Oh SH-T!" look on its face. I've never seen anything like it and I think its pretty neat.
Also found some old shotgun shell caps as usual and a cork screw from an old pocket knife.
The coins are clad. Thought the dime was silver at first as it rang up that way and came out so nice looking. Unfortunately its a 1999. Thanks for looking and sorry so long winded.
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Great hunting ground has gave up some interesting relics 
the ol' duck and Ohhh $hi + faced musket ball is a quack up ! 
Get back out there , should be a more 
8)
