🥇 BANNER *Possible* Colonial Iron 3" Smooth Bore CANNON DUG TODAY!!!!!!

FoundInNC

Sr. Member
Mar 20, 2012
458
637
Mebane, North Carolina
🥇 Banner finds
2
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
4
Detector(s) used
Garrett AT Gold and AT Pro
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
Hey folks, I am pretty excited to say that I think I have dug what appears to be an exploded cannon barrel fragment!

***EDIT***

CANNON FRAGMENT CONFIRMED!!!!!!!! Thanks THECANNONBALLGUY for an excellent ID and narrative!

I was hunting in Mebane, NC in a yard where an old home once stood and I got this iffy signal on my Garrett AT-Pro(bouncing from iron to silver dollar) and I decided to dig it. Boy am I glad I did. I finally hit some metal at about 9" down, and started carving around this massive chunk of iron with my worn out Lesche. After about ten minutes of hard core digging, I could finally get my hands on it and tug. It was cemented in the clay. I went to the neighbor's house and borrowed a pry bar, because I just had to see what this thick, solid chunk of iron was. Normally if I dig down that deep and see that it is a plow point, I will cover it up, but this had me curious. After prying on it a few different ways with the prybar, I had it loose in the hole, and had to widen the plug at the top so it would fit through. That is when I laid it up on the dirt pile and the thought ran through my head, could this be a cannon barrel fragment? The inside of it was round and smooth like a pipe, but the walls of the pipe would be 3"+, weighing AT LEAST 30 pounds. I showed it to the property owner and he was unsure but didn't reject the idea of it being a cannon.

I can't see what else it could be. I do not have an explanation for where it was found, but it was so deep, it had for sure been there for a while. I am confused as to why a cannon would have been on this property, much less have been fired, and exploded! I am open to discussion if you guys and gals do not agree with my analysis. (it just looks too beefy to be farm junk!)

Other finds for the evening included a small brass cuff link or button, an old "tombac" cow bell, and a early to mid 1800s toe tap, with fragments of leather and nails!

Thanks for reading, and enjoy the pictures!

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Upvote 24
Be sure to go to the Garret website and enter their Vaughn's favorite find contest. with this find you could win a propointer.
 

I am for sure going to be getting back out there in the next few days to try to find more fragments. Digging iron targets it testing, even if you know that there may be Rev. War cannon bits scattered. Just to get an idea of how powerful gunpowder is look at this youtube video. It is entertaining and not necessarily related to cannons, but is the best example I have seen of the power of gunpowder and moving heavy iron objects.



Knowing this, now, I bet you see why the search radius just increased significantly.....
 

In giving this more thought you may be better off first looking for bigger pieces of iron and not digging every iron signal you encounter, i.e., in other words keep going with your current discrimination levels. It would be interesting to hear what CannonballGuy has to say about the theoretical scatter pattern of the gun and how far the piece you found might have travelled. I'm assuming that your piece, because it contains the trunnions, would have been the only piece bolted down. I don't know what the two ends of the cannon are called, but it seems to me that the sealed end would be a piece that you'd like to find.

I'm also very interested to hear any research on the origin of this gun and whether it was in fact a US copy. I know CannonballGuy said he was going to look into this. If they made one then I assume they made many and there should be some record of these iron guns.
 

@ Erik, I too would like to know the origins of the gun, but am open to the fact that I may never know. That was a long time ago and I am not sure how well things were documented in America. I hope Cannonballguy has better resources because the internet is becoming a dead end for me. I do not even see another iron 2.9" smooth bore cannon on the web. The scatter estimate would be interesting to know too, to see how far I would need to search to find potential chunks. The larger chunks were probably salvaged for melt down over the years, or tossed in gulleys or creek fords. This was a plowed field, so the chunks could have been scattered by the plow too. There were so many skirmishes in my county during 1781, I am sure that not all of those were documented. I could be on the site of a small battle, but more likely the camp I mentioned.
 

All I can say is what a great "piece of history". Be interesting to know if that is the top half or lower half. If lower you would think it would have blown into the ground. If top half is could have traveled a long ways.
Great recovery.
Who does not wish to dig up a cannon!
HH
TnMtns
 

According to our esteemed member CannonballGuy, due to the offset nature of the trunnions, it would be the lower piece of the part of the cannon that would have been attached to the carriage.

All I can say is what a great "piece of history". Be interesting to know if that is the top half or lower half. If lower you would think it would have blown into the ground. If top half is could have traveled a long ways.
Great recovery.
Who does not wish to dig up a cannon!
HH
TnMtns
 

Hey folks, I am pretty excited to say that I think I have dug what appears to be an exploded cannon barrel fragment!

***EDIT***

CANNON FRAGMENT CONFIRMED!!!!!!!! Thanks THECANNONBALLGUY for an excellent ID and narrative!

I was hunting in Mebane, NC in a yard where an old home once stood and I got this iffy signal on my Garrett AT-Pro(bouncing from iron to silver dollar) and I decided to dig it. Boy am I glad I did. I finally hit some metal at about 9" down, and started carving around this massive chunk of iron with my worn out Lesche. After about ten minutes of hard core digging, I could finally get my hands on it and tug. It was cemented in the clay. I went to the neighbor's house and borrowed a pry bar, because I just had to see what this thick, solid chunk of iron was. Normally if I dig down that deep and see that it is a plow point, I will cover it up, but this had me curious. After prying on it a few different ways with the prybar, I had it loose in the hole, and had to widen the plug at the top so it would fit through. That is when I laid it up on the dirt pile and the thought ran through my head, could this be a cannon barrel fragment? The inside of it was round and smooth like a pipe, but the walls of the pipe would be 3"+, weighing AT LEAST 30 pounds. I showed it to the property owner and he was unsure but didn't reject the idea of it being a cannon.

I can't see what else it could be. I do not have an explanation for where it was found, but it was so deep, it had for sure been there for a while. I am confused as to why a cannon would have been on this property, much less have been fired, and exploded! I am open to discussion if you guys and gals do not agree with my analysis. (it just looks too beefy to be farm junk!)

Other finds for the evening included a small brass cuff link or button, an old "tombac" cow bell, and a early to mid 1800s toe tap, with fragments of leather and nails!

Thanks for reading, and enjoy the pictures!

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Awesome, what a find!!
 

Now that's an incredible find! Congrats!

btw, did you fill your plug? :laughing7:
 

Surprised that I didn't see this sooner. Congrats on a very cool find and making the banner. Look forward to seeing it.
 

Congrats on your BANNER find!!! :notworthy::occasion14::thumbsup:

NC rocks! :headbang:
-MM-
 

That's a nice find. I found a smaller piece of one about 20 years ago. A lot of the iron Rev War cannons were American made. They had the awful tendency to blow up, due to inconsistencies in the cast iron and are bubbles in the castings. A lot were manufactured in Maryland, Virginia and several other states. There are even documents in existence from General Washington complaining about the cannons exploding during use. The rest of it could be within a few hundred yards. hint hint
 

Wow that is a find of a lifetime right there , awesome !
 

Outstanding find! Congrats on banner. Love to see this stuff come out of NC soil!
 

WOW! What a nice treat to return to Treasurenet after a week break and see my find on the BANNER!!!!!! I am humbled to be given the honor! Thank you guys for all the nice comments! For those following the post, I have returned to the site three more times and have found several buckets of iron, mainly plowpoints. I can't say that I would think that any of the other pieces look like a cannon fragment. I have found a few flat buttons and brass bits while hunting the iron, but I am still looking. There must be more. I did send my story to Garrett, so hopefully they can use the media for their publications. Thanks for pushing the post to the top folks!!!! Made my day :) Updates will be posted if relevant!
 

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