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Found a civil war reed shell...

h20hawgs

Elite Member
Joined
Jan 7, 2010
Messages
612
Location
Alpharetta
This is a good story maybe I should have posted under Stories and Pictures but it was pretty eye popping and mind blowing, especially the way I found this back in 2008. I was relic hunting a property for the first time with a friend of mine. We searched the woods for hours until we started finding bullets and a few buttons. It was pretty hot that day so we stayed out of a small field that was hot in the blazing sun. My buddy had to be home early and we decided to come back the next morning and hunt this spot all day. I was working my way back to the truck where I could see him and hear him honking the horn at me to come on... I crossed a small cut in the field where water ran when it rained. The cut was about 4' wide and 2-3' deep. I stepped down in the cut and walked up it and my detector blanked out from iron. I swung it on the creek bed and it kept blanking. I looked ans sticking out the side of the creek wall I saw what looked like a modern metal chain link fence post sticking out about 3 inches. There is alot of trash at this creek bed. I took my lesche shovel off my sholder and smacked the object more in curiosity and frustration then anything... A big chunk of rust fell off the end, and I knew exactly what I had just done... I had just hit a 3" Read Shell right on the fuse end.... My heart dropped to my feet and I physically dropped to my knees-over the creek bank and rolld about 5' and held my head in my hands with my eyes shut... It felt like every second was an hour! I waited... laying in the field with my head in my hands for about 2 minutes while my buddy was blowing the horn about 100 yards away. I yelled for him to stop and not move...Like it would have mattered! It's amazing what a person will do when they feel they are getting ready to get blown to pieces in a split second. He looked at me laying on the ground and yelled at me asking if I was ok??? I told him I found a whole shell of some kind and accidently hit it with my shovel...I rose to my knees with my eyes still squinted in the direction of the shell and pointed it out to him. He told me to bring it up...ha, ha. I cautiously crept over to the shell and proceeded to unearth the rest of it... He kept his distance! Once I had the clay removed with just a couple easy light shovels of clay dirt I picked it up and walked slowely to the truck holding my life in my hands literally. Once I got to the truck I sat the shell on the tailgate of his truck. I was lost for any words and all I said was "Do you think it will blow"? Well to shorten the rest up I wrapped it up in my sock and put it in my boot in the back of his truck. I left it with my buddy to send away and get defused since I had a plane to catch back to Georgia. I was only there for the week visiting my family. It was probably my best memory of relic hunting so far... Good thing I am still here to tell this story. I have made some really good finds in Va. Here in Georgia I am just now finding places to hunt. I usually post under relics and coins section but felt this was the appropriate spot to post this one. I hope you enjoyed my long winded version of that find... I will post more finds in the relics section I found this weekend. I will never hit another object in the civil war woods...ha
 

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I did post it under the right spot...sorry! I was going to post it as eye popping/mind blowing due to how I found it!
 
Shell

That is a great story and an amazing find. In the photo I think you can still see lathe turn marks on the metal casing up near the nose. What a find!

Hitting the dirt might not have been so foolish a thing. I remember recently some CW guy like you had a round cannon ball explode in his driveway killing him. It was a naval round and they think it had better waterproofing and so it lasted longer. You never know. And if one explodes on you, you'll never know that either. Best to duck and cover.

Hawg, I'm slowly becoming very jealous of your finds. All I get is rotten zinc pennies and the odd look once in a while.

Jennings
 
This Could Be!

First off, great find. Shells are becoming hard to find.....even in Virginia.

I believe what you dug is a US Parrot Shell and not a CSA Reed Shell. Don't get me wrong, I' think what you found is great but it looks like a Parrot to me.

I'm very happy for you, great job.

Waterhead
In Virginia
 
I thought the same but we sent it off to be emptied since the end was still plugged and it turns out its a confederate read per the gentleman that disarmed it. He does that for all shells. I had my buddy in VA take it to Rand at Sgt. Rikers and have it done to make sure it was no danger to anyone. Turns out the powder had all been poured out and could have been used by soldiers for muskets or to start a fire I am told that was common in camps. I have found quarte size cannon ball frags and all the grapeshot from them but never a full shell. They are there no doubt. I usually do not dig iron because we are still cherry picking spots and leave the iron for last. This shell was actuall about 3' below surface level of the field. When they turn the fields over where I hunt I am sure we will get many more great relics and some shells hopefully. These fields have not been turned over in 20 plus years... When I hear they do I am taking a vacation and staying on them for a couple weeks!
Thanks for looking and no reason to be jealous just keep dirt fishin and the relics will surface!
 
Jennings, yes those are laythe marks. It had rust all over it that I slowely knocked off. It was wrapped in cloth that leached rust into it forming an easy to remove layer!
 
Hawg, were all CW cannons muzzle loading? or were some breech loading too? I'm not much on CW artillery.

I ask because that shell has a long bearing surface and it most certainly is not a round ball type cannon round. I picture a shell like that being loaded from the breach as were guns later on in the World Wars. If it was a breech-loaded shell I'd expect to see softer driving bands on it to grip the rifling in the big gun. Something like copper or bronze that would not wear the gun's bore too much.

Were there driving bands on that old shell that have come off?

Jennings
 
I think they were mostly muzzle loaded and many had lead sabots to keep from wearing out the barrel. I have not researched much on artillary for all the shell types. I honestly have not dug much iron on the sites I hunt. I think some of the shells also had cloth sabots to serve the same purpose. This shell had what appeared to be cloth still on it and iron had leached/rusted into the cloth. It came off the shell pretty easy leaving what you see with no real cleaning necessary. I honestly do not know which big guns would be breach loaded. I am sure someone on here is familiar with artilary much more then I am...
 
WOW... What a story! I am glad everything turned out okay. You tell a great story, and you made a very cool find.

I recall reading a similar story with not so good results. Your story is a reminder that even though these pieces of ordnance have been in the ground for a hundred plus years they can still potentially be as dangerous as there were back when they were in use on the battlefield.
 
Thanks for reading my life flashing before my eyes moment. Digger Dan black powder becomes more volitile with time! Luckily some soldiers need the powder in that shell for their muskets or to build a fire. It is in fact a CS REad Shell...
 
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