olddude
Full Member
I haven't been around in awhile to little time. But I have been hunting some. A couple days ago I was digging in a spot that has been beat to death but it always good for a few bullets and the occasional brass piece. It was going to be a short hunt but ended up a half day of digging in one small spot. I found a few bullets then the AT Pro hit something that didn't show on the scale and was mixed iron sounds that had s couple sharp tones and a pop or two here and there. I started to pass it by but one more swing over the target I got a good solid tone, weak but solid both ways with a hint of iron at the end of the swing.
I thought what the heck I had dug targets like this many times and mostly end up wasting time but it was something that told me to dig so I did. I dug the 1st plug and laid it aside and hit it again.....no difference. I widened the hole a little and took another shovel deep plug and read it again and this time the sound was better and I got a reading of 66 mixed with 39. A little deeper and it seemed to lose a little of the higher tone and the iron sound picked up some. I was thinking as deep as I was at the time it might be a shell fragment or another piece of rusty iron. Still further down I hit a layer of hard sandy dirt that was really hard to dig through and I had to widen the hole a little more to get the shovel in there to get through this layer. Now The sounds come alive the hole was deep and just big enough to get the head in there and wiggle it back and forth and I could tell there was at least two different targets in there maybe three. I was seeing a good solid 68 with a nice tone with just a hint of iron. Nothing on the pin pointer yet so I kept pecking at this hard layer. This hard layer was 3 or 4 inches thick and when I broke through it was like day and night the layer under it was soft and wet and once I got the sandy stuff out of the hole and down a few more inches I pulled some of the softer stuff out and turned on my pin pointer, at first I thought the thin was messing up again so I tapped it on my shovel a few times and as I was sticking it in the hole it started singing again. I said, this dang thing I ought to throw it in the trash and picked up the pro and when I got near the hole it was singing like a bird. It was then that I realized that the last shovel of dirt was full of 69 cal round balls along with smaller buck shot balls.
I apologized to my pin pointer and said thanks to the pro and started pulling round balls and small pieces of rusty iron that looked to be a box that the balls were in. I was pulling out pieces of what I thought was paper but lather turned out to be pieces of leather. Then On the other side of the hole I started pulling out precusion caps by the hand full, there were over a hundred in all and I'm sure I missed a few. There were 66 round balls, 20 or more of the buck shot and several small iron buckles and what I think is a gun tool, a couple of sq nailes and just when I thought I had gotten everything I hit the hole with the pin pointer again real slow and I got another hit to the right of the hole so I widened out the bottom of the hole and about 6 inches over from where the balls were I pulled out another piece of this paper like material and then another and another until all at once I stopped getting readings. I said what the heck! I almost thought about cussing the pin pointer again but instead I pulled out those pieces of paper and as I hit them with the pin pointer I got a good crisp reading. By now it was pitch black dark outside and as I got out my flash light to look see, what I thought was wet paper was really pieces of and US officer's coat or part of it anyway. It looked like someone had cut away part of the front of the coat with 5 of those nice big gold plated staff officers buttons still attached. The buttons were wrapped in a wad and I didn't feel them as I pulled them out and put them in my trash bag. I'd say that was a nice bonus to the ball and cap pile I found.
I'm going to try and post some picks of this stuff and what I plan on displaying all of these things in a separate box in my display case. I cleaned one of the buttons a little to see what they were but they are in pretty poor condition so I'll probably just lightly clean the other 4 and leave the big hunks of leather still attached. What I was wondering is how do you preserve these leather pieces or at least keep them from falling apart to much just sitting in the case.
I thought what the heck I had dug targets like this many times and mostly end up wasting time but it was something that told me to dig so I did. I dug the 1st plug and laid it aside and hit it again.....no difference. I widened the hole a little and took another shovel deep plug and read it again and this time the sound was better and I got a reading of 66 mixed with 39. A little deeper and it seemed to lose a little of the higher tone and the iron sound picked up some. I was thinking as deep as I was at the time it might be a shell fragment or another piece of rusty iron. Still further down I hit a layer of hard sandy dirt that was really hard to dig through and I had to widen the hole a little more to get the shovel in there to get through this layer. Now The sounds come alive the hole was deep and just big enough to get the head in there and wiggle it back and forth and I could tell there was at least two different targets in there maybe three. I was seeing a good solid 68 with a nice tone with just a hint of iron. Nothing on the pin pointer yet so I kept pecking at this hard layer. This hard layer was 3 or 4 inches thick and when I broke through it was like day and night the layer under it was soft and wet and once I got the sandy stuff out of the hole and down a few more inches I pulled some of the softer stuff out and turned on my pin pointer, at first I thought the thin was messing up again so I tapped it on my shovel a few times and as I was sticking it in the hole it started singing again. I said, this dang thing I ought to throw it in the trash and picked up the pro and when I got near the hole it was singing like a bird. It was then that I realized that the last shovel of dirt was full of 69 cal round balls along with smaller buck shot balls.
I apologized to my pin pointer and said thanks to the pro and started pulling round balls and small pieces of rusty iron that looked to be a box that the balls were in. I was pulling out pieces of what I thought was paper but lather turned out to be pieces of leather. Then On the other side of the hole I started pulling out precusion caps by the hand full, there were over a hundred in all and I'm sure I missed a few. There were 66 round balls, 20 or more of the buck shot and several small iron buckles and what I think is a gun tool, a couple of sq nailes and just when I thought I had gotten everything I hit the hole with the pin pointer again real slow and I got another hit to the right of the hole so I widened out the bottom of the hole and about 6 inches over from where the balls were I pulled out another piece of this paper like material and then another and another until all at once I stopped getting readings. I said what the heck! I almost thought about cussing the pin pointer again but instead I pulled out those pieces of paper and as I hit them with the pin pointer I got a good crisp reading. By now it was pitch black dark outside and as I got out my flash light to look see, what I thought was wet paper was really pieces of and US officer's coat or part of it anyway. It looked like someone had cut away part of the front of the coat with 5 of those nice big gold plated staff officers buttons still attached. The buttons were wrapped in a wad and I didn't feel them as I pulled them out and put them in my trash bag. I'd say that was a nice bonus to the ball and cap pile I found.
I'm going to try and post some picks of this stuff and what I plan on displaying all of these things in a separate box in my display case. I cleaned one of the buttons a little to see what they were but they are in pretty poor condition so I'll probably just lightly clean the other 4 and leave the big hunks of leather still attached. What I was wondering is how do you preserve these leather pieces or at least keep them from falling apart to much just sitting in the case.
