Kiros32
Bronze Member
- Feb 21, 2006
- 1,407
- 441
- Detector(s) used
- XP Deus, Whites MXT
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
I met up with a group of guys and gals that I have dug with for about 5 years now. All of our previous hunts were down on the James River in southern VA. We decided to check out a new site this time on the Shenandoah River near Front Royal, VA. After setting up camp on Friday, we bounced around the campground and found lots of clad and trash... as could be expected in a public campground. Saturday morning was spent a few miles south of the campground where they were tearing up both sides of the main road to put in some new lanes. This road has been there for many years and was used by troops on both sides. It became obvious within an hour that too much ground had been moved and barely a signal was had.
After a lunch break and much frustration, we decided to drive around and knock on some doors, hoping for someone to give us permission to hunt their land. Four knocks and no responses... this was turning out to be an unsuccessful weekend so far. We returned to camp and met up with everyone else. At this point on Saturday afternoon, no one had found anything other than trash and clad. A friend of a guy in our group came down and mentioned he had a piece of property just south of the campground along the same old road. Several of our group members had hunted this property earlier in the day and found nothing. So with one last hope of an old find, me and two other guys headed to the site, hoping to salvage something. I headed up an old road off the main road, and cut straight up to the top of the ridge. I got an iffy signal at about 6 inches and decided to dig it, as this was not a very trashy area. I dug the hole, pinpointed, and out came a .69 caliber Minieball in dropped condition. I excitedly walked down and showed it to another guy. The first thing he said was, "There has to be more here!" I headed back up to the ridge and get another signal within minutes. Bam... another dropped .69. At this point, I yelled to the other guys and told them to come in my direction. Again, a few minutes later, another signal, another dropped .69. The three of us hit this hill hard for another hour or so. After we were done, I had dug a total of 13 dropped .69's, and combined we found a total of 26. We determined that this was probably a picket post, as they would have had a prefect view of the road and the river. Perhaps when they were relieved of their duty, rather than hiking down the hill with 10 lbs or so of lead, they dumped their cartidge box on the ground. This would explain why they were all unfired and the of the same caliber.
Finding a single unfired .69 cal is a good day, but I never imagined I would ever dig 13 in a single day! Long story short... or long, it turned out to be a fantastic weekend of relic hunting.
Note the single .69 caliber Enfield Type bullet in the pics...
After a lunch break and much frustration, we decided to drive around and knock on some doors, hoping for someone to give us permission to hunt their land. Four knocks and no responses... this was turning out to be an unsuccessful weekend so far. We returned to camp and met up with everyone else. At this point on Saturday afternoon, no one had found anything other than trash and clad. A friend of a guy in our group came down and mentioned he had a piece of property just south of the campground along the same old road. Several of our group members had hunted this property earlier in the day and found nothing. So with one last hope of an old find, me and two other guys headed to the site, hoping to salvage something. I headed up an old road off the main road, and cut straight up to the top of the ridge. I got an iffy signal at about 6 inches and decided to dig it, as this was not a very trashy area. I dug the hole, pinpointed, and out came a .69 caliber Minieball in dropped condition. I excitedly walked down and showed it to another guy. The first thing he said was, "There has to be more here!" I headed back up to the ridge and get another signal within minutes. Bam... another dropped .69. At this point, I yelled to the other guys and told them to come in my direction. Again, a few minutes later, another signal, another dropped .69. The three of us hit this hill hard for another hour or so. After we were done, I had dug a total of 13 dropped .69's, and combined we found a total of 26. We determined that this was probably a picket post, as they would have had a prefect view of the road and the river. Perhaps when they were relieved of their duty, rather than hiking down the hill with 10 lbs or so of lead, they dumped their cartidge box on the ground. This would explain why they were all unfired and the of the same caliber.
Finding a single unfired .69 cal is a good day, but I never imagined I would ever dig 13 in a single day! Long story short... or long, it turned out to be a fantastic weekend of relic hunting.
Note the single .69 caliber Enfield Type bullet in the pics...
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