Boer War buttons and bullets

[boertjie]

Hi all, I found treasurenet site yesterday and this give me an opportunity to share the relics I found when I was a kid. I spent hours searching sites of the Boer War 1899 -1902. This was the war between the mighty UK vs the hand full of farmers of the Transvaal and Orange Free State of Southern Africa.
These articles were found in a British camp dump site
Various tunic buttons

Closeup of buttons

Back side of tunic button and shirt button

British Lee-Enfield .303 cartridges

Bullets

Cartridge case with cordite strings

Spent Boer Mauser cartridge cases

Mauser cartridge case back side dated 1896

I still have many relics that could be posted

 

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[tinpan]

Welcome to T-net,thanks for sharing your wonderful finds.17,000 australian colonial troops went to the second Boer war.have ever found any australian badges or buttons.If not i will post some pics of some might be a bit of help for you.Thanks for sharing

tinpan

 

[pgill]

Hello boertjie,

Are you still living in South Africa? I am in the Gauteng area.... I have also found some Boer war stuff by one of the forts. Great to have you with us, this is a great site to belong too... Please let me know where you are from, maybe we can get together or something.

God bless
Peter

 

[beerbarrel]

FANTASTIC FINDS!!! This is what I got my detector for. Finding relics such as you have found. Look forward to some more pics!

Lots of Luck

Beerbarrel
(Texas)

 

[boertjie]

Hello Peter

I live in Somerset West RSA. The relics was found in the Newcastle area where I grew up. I used to walk the battlefields of Bothas Pass and Allemans Neck where I found British shells, shell fragments and spent cases. I also found stuff at my mother's farm at Wonderfontein where there was a British camp. I want to get active again with this hobby. My next step is to get a detector, can you give me advice for specific battlefield application?, what do you recommend?
Regards
boertjie

 

[pgill]

Hi boertjie,

Thanks for the reply,,, you are a little far from me I have been looking for somebody else that does detecting in and around my area. I am living in Westonaria on the west rand of Gauteng. I am not sure what the best detector would be for this application, I am using a Tesoro Silver Sabre II, and it has worked well for just about anything and everything. It only has a tone when you detect, but it works well.
I have hunted some around the "Van Wysrust Fort" and found lots of spent cartridges, horse shoes and odds and ends.... Here are the links to my previous posts:

http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,49097.0.html

http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,47134.0.html

God bless
Peter

 

[boertjie]

Hi Peter
Thanks for the links, great and interesting finds. I must still take pictures of the collection that I dug up and I can see some similar Items you and I found. I will soon post the next batch.
Regards
boertjie

 

[Kas]

Welcome. You hit the jackpot with that site.

Beauty.
HH
Ken

 

[Gribnitz]

Good thing you got to those buttons when you did. It looks like some of them would not have survived many more years in the dirt had you not found them. I read up on the Boer war after someone else posted some finds from that era a while back. It is nice reading about other areas history and what people look for in other countries.

 

[boertjie]

Hi Gribnitz
Thanks for reply.
Yes, history comes alive if you find artifacts of that time. My great grandfather was a boer soldier and I have a picture of him. , I also have some stuff he made when he was taken prisoner and sent to India.
I visited US 4 years ago and I went to the Gettysburg battlefield; what a great experience!!!!
You Americans really protect your heritage well, not the case here...
I will be posting more stuff soon

Regards

boertjie

 

[pgill]

Hi boertjie,
That last Pic that you posted, do you know that those No are the date? I believe they do put them on some of the rounds.... I dont have any buttons yet, but I believe they come out the ground in better condition here than they do down your end.... I think it could be the dryer climate, we are not as humid up here in Gauteng
I am still trying to find if what I have found is the dump that belonged to the fort, as all the artifacts are in one part of a field only. As soon as the grass is not so long, we will be back there with more tools like shovels and picks I am lucky that the field now belongs to a farmer and I have exclusive rights to the search because I know the guy.... the fort is off his property and has been destroyed as usual.... there is a lot of ground that has been dumped on the site from a building project

God bless
Peter

 

[boertjie]

Hi Peter

I took a pic of 3 different Mauser cartridge cases and yea you are right, some of them have dates on and others not. In the picture, the left one is without a date and the other 2 are both dated 1896. All of them are stamped DM that I think refers to the manufacturer in Germany.


The Boer Republics bought their Mausers in 1896 and 1897 after the Jamison Raid because their Martini Henry's had shortcomings. At the outbrake of war in 1899 they had 49 000 mausers, 43 000 Martini Henry's and 6000 Quedes rifles.

I really would have like to join you with hunts on Boer war sites , I think there are many unexplored sites around.
regards
Tinus

 

[CRUSADER]

Welcome to tnet from the mighty UK

 

[boertjie]

Welcome to tnet from the mighty UK

thanks , mighty UK?? not with cricket though

regards
Tinus

 

[CRUSADER]

Welcome to tnet from the mighty UK

thanks , mighty UK?? not with cricket though

regards
Tinus

The only sport I care about is dirt fishing. Never liked team games, as it involes people.

 

[EDDE]

The only sport I care about is dirt fishing. Never liked team games, as it involes people.

same here mate

 

[beerbarrel]

All I can say is "FANTASTIC FINDS AND PICS"!!!!!!

Beerbarrel
(Texas)

 

[RevJoel]

Was this .303 British cartridge broken you found it? I didn't think that the cordite would last that long. That is what the strands sticking out of the case are.

Pax Christi
Rev. Joel+

 

[CRUSADER]

Was this .303 British cartridge broken you found it? I didn't think that the cordite would last that long. That is what the strands sticking out of the case are.

Pax Christi
Rev. Joel+

I've dug WWI .303 rounds with cordite sticking out. So another 10 years is possible.

 

[boertjie]

Was this .303 British cartridge broken you found it? I didn't think that the cordite would last that long. That is what the strands sticking out of the case are.

Pax Christi
Rev. Joel+

Yip, some cordite strings were sticking out. I have lit some of them and still burn viciously!!!