DownNDirty
Bronze Member
Saturday before last I was surface hunting a creek in the Lowcountry of South Carolina for fossils and relics; the creek runs through the site of a large plantation that was started in the late 17th century. I found part of a flintlock barrel lying on the creek bottom, Aquachigger style (lol).
Intrigued by this find I metal detected the creek last Saturday, concentrating in the area where I found the barrel. Low and behold I found part of a flintlock mechanism just downstream from there! Continuing on I found several other period relics.
Yesterday I took my finds to an archeaologist at the University of South Carolina who is an expert in 18th and 19th century weapons and relics (Jim) for id. He said that all of the items are from the 18th century. The gun barrel is part of the barrel of a "fusil, " which is a light musket trade gun; these were used by the American militia during the Revolutionary War. The flintlock is of the type that would have been used on fusils.
Jim said that all of the finds are 18th century:
- a flattened musket barrel band
- a dropped round ball with a diameter of 64/100 of an inch; this would have been used in a French musket & is probably from the Revolutionary War
- a perwter spoon that has the letter H hand - scribed on the handle
-a nearly complete hoe blade
- a weight from an apothecary scale
- two black glass wine bottle shards (surface finds)
Just to put this into perspective there were skirmishes during the Revolutionary War in that area.
I definitely plan to hit that creek several more times with the detector-the rest of the gun parts have to be there. And who knows what else.
Intrigued by this find I metal detected the creek last Saturday, concentrating in the area where I found the barrel. Low and behold I found part of a flintlock mechanism just downstream from there! Continuing on I found several other period relics.
Yesterday I took my finds to an archeaologist at the University of South Carolina who is an expert in 18th and 19th century weapons and relics (Jim) for id. He said that all of the items are from the 18th century. The gun barrel is part of the barrel of a "fusil, " which is a light musket trade gun; these were used by the American militia during the Revolutionary War. The flintlock is of the type that would have been used on fusils.
Jim said that all of the finds are 18th century:
- a flattened musket barrel band
- a dropped round ball with a diameter of 64/100 of an inch; this would have been used in a French musket & is probably from the Revolutionary War
- a perwter spoon that has the letter H hand - scribed on the handle
-a nearly complete hoe blade
- a weight from an apothecary scale
- two black glass wine bottle shards (surface finds)
Just to put this into perspective there were skirmishes during the Revolutionary War in that area.
I definitely plan to hit that creek several more times with the detector-the rest of the gun parts have to be there. And who knows what else.
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