DownNDirty
Bronze Member
After being cooped up for a couple of days due to Hurricane Mathew's effects I had to get out Saturday afternoon. So I headed back to a vacant lot where I had previously found over 100 Union bullets with the hopes that maybe one or two might be left. I went straight to the general area where I had found the majority of them and dug a few test holes; most of the bullets are buried about 18 inches deep.
In the third test hole I picked up a good signal and found a Williams Cleaner so I knew I was in a good area. I broke out the pinpointer and small shovel and worked through the deeper dirt. I was finding bullet on top of bullet (literally) with a few percussion caps mixed in. Eventually I put the Propointer down, dug through the dirt by hand and felt for the bullets. In the end I had 73 unfired Union bullets-three ringers, Williams Cleaners and a few Williams Regulations.
To date I have found 183 unfired Union bullets at the site, and I had to stop Saturday because it got dark on me.
So how did all those bullets get there? Earlier this year I took them to an archaeologist I know at the University of SC. He said that whenever the gunpowder that was wrapped around the bullets got wet they would discard the bullets rather than risk them not firing in the heat of battle. I know that Union troops camped very close to that spot (well-documented). The archaeologist said (as I already knew) that when the troops came through that area it was raining heavily for several days so they likely dumped their wet ammo there.
Makes sense to me; no telling how many more bullets are there.
In the third test hole I picked up a good signal and found a Williams Cleaner so I knew I was in a good area. I broke out the pinpointer and small shovel and worked through the deeper dirt. I was finding bullet on top of bullet (literally) with a few percussion caps mixed in. Eventually I put the Propointer down, dug through the dirt by hand and felt for the bullets. In the end I had 73 unfired Union bullets-three ringers, Williams Cleaners and a few Williams Regulations.
To date I have found 183 unfired Union bullets at the site, and I had to stop Saturday because it got dark on me.
So how did all those bullets get there? Earlier this year I took them to an archaeologist I know at the University of SC. He said that whenever the gunpowder that was wrapped around the bullets got wet they would discard the bullets rather than risk them not firing in the heat of battle. I know that Union troops camped very close to that spot (well-documented). The archaeologist said (as I already knew) that when the troops came through that area it was raining heavily for several days so they likely dumped their wet ammo there.
Makes sense to me; no telling how many more bullets are there.
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