My Best Relic Find

[bigfootokie]

I've had the opportunity in the last 5 weeks to hunt an amazing spot 4 different times which has givin up a lot of mid 1800's military relics. These are VERY unusual and rarely found relics in my part of the country and I feel very privileged to have been able to make these finds. I have always wanted to find a personal item from a CW era soldier and now I have made a recovery that is better than what I could imagine.

This is a hand carved "Grizzly Bear Head" fashioned from a bullet or "camp lead". This relic is one of my top 5 finds in my 44 years of detecting.

These pics are from the same hunt. The far right cone shaped find is part of a coffee bean grinder. Thought that was pretty cool too.

Thanks for looking!

 

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[hamiddetecting]

I congratulate on these finds!!

 

[steelheadwill]

Neat bear !!
Very nice photo of your GS button, Congrats

 

[WVARelics]

Nice finds! Do you think the belt buckle is CW era or related? I found one a few weeks ago exactly like it, rust and all.

 

[CRUSADER]

As a finder of lead pieces, are you sure this is carved, because your pictures show otherwise?

 

[bigfootokie]

As a finder of lead pieces, are you sure this is carved, because your pictures show otherwise?

I am assuming that during the process of turning a piece of lead into a piece of art, that a soldier most likely used a knife at some point carving it into a likeness of something. Please explain why my pics show otherwise as I am curious about your thoughts...

 

[CRUSADER]

I'm not here to burst any bubbles, only get to the truth, so please bear with me.

I have attached a photo of some of the lead Dad & I have found. This doesn't include the hundreds of 4 & 3 ringers, Enfield smooth, & later bullets. With this comes plenty of splatter & also as you mention camp lead.

To me this is another one of those clouds which anyone can see an object/person/animal if you look hard enough or have a good imagination. It to me shows no signs of being man made. Its just my opinion based on the pictures.

 

[CRUSADER]

We see things like it all the time, makes us stop for awhile until we realise its random.

 

[bigfootokie]

Nice finds! Do you think the belt buckle is CW era or related? I found one a few weeks ago exactly like it, rust and all.

I'm not 100% sure on the buckle, but most everything else is definitely CW era.

 

[BuckleBoy]

This is simply melted "camp lead" that happened to melt into the shape you think you see. I do not see any cut marks on the lead.


Regards,

Buckles

 

[CRUSADER]

This is simply melted "camp lead" that happened to melt into the shape you think you see. I do not see any cut marks on the lead.


Regards,

Buckles

You always have a better way of saying it, thats exactly what I saw.

 

[master_cat]

i found a lead splatter that looked like a dog lol most of the time on the carved peices they will have knive marks and carve lines on them

 

[Erik in NJ]

I'm not here to burst any bubbles, only get to the truth, so please bear with me.

No pun intended I'm sure My thoughts when I first saw the pic (can you post a higher resolution one please?) was that it was just a natural formation that kind of resembles a bear--but it kind of resembles my buddy's ex-wife too so it's hard to tell


Kind of like someone finding a potato chip that looks like Richard Nixon.

 

[SouthJerseyJim]

Unfortunately although it resembles a bear I dont believe it was intentional. Its like seeing jesus on a cornflake. Its still neat though.

 

[CRUSADER]

No pun intended I'm sure My thoughts when I first saw the pic (can you post a higher resolution one please?) was that it was just a natural formation that kind of resembles a bear--but it kind of resembles my buddy's ex-wife too so it's hard to tell


Kind of like someone finding a potato chip that looks like Richard Nixon.

I bearly meant it

 

[bigfootokie]

Well...I guess we all have opinions. Thanks for yours. I have minimal experience in the relic field and always appreciate input from others.
Here are two pics of the back.

 

[got2dig]

Cool finds. I see the bear but I to think it's just melted. But with that you still have a very cool piece it will be nice to display. And all your finds are nice. HH

love the lead.

 

[bigfootokie]

You guys are funny. Maybe this is a better pic of the front.

 

[kuger]

.............great imagination,but its just a melted piece of lead....like Jesus in the Grilled Cheese Sand which.If you study actual "camp Art",these guys were actually quite skilled and detailed...they carved,didnt "cast"

 

[Erik in NJ]

Thanks for posting the higher-res pic! It's a cool find as it does resemble a bear to a certain extent, but it's my opinion that it's just a formation that happens to look a bit like that. There are a few things that just don't fit if an artisan were carving it to look like a bear: 1) the bump along the snout would not be there--almost resembles a rhino in that respect, 2) the jowls are not right with that big bulge along the bottom, 3) and most importantly there is no evidence that an eye was ever carved which I think would be highly unusual if this were hand carved--in fact I do not see any clear evidence of it being carved at all. I recovered a piece of branch one time as a kid that looked just like a bird sitting on a log. It was found like that and no one made it. I displayed it on my wall for several years as I thought it was pretty interesting.