Regiment of Riflemen Buttons w/ Bergie

Carolina Tom

Gold Member
Apr 4, 2014
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17,064
Charlotte
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
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Detector(s) used
XP Deus V3.2 9" & 11" Coils, AT Pro, ProPointer AT, Lesche 55, 75 & 80LT
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Other
I left early on Thursday morning to meet TNet member:Bergie. I can’t thank him enough for the invite.

On our previous adventures, he has been kind enough to flaunt his exceptional collection of War of 1812 buttons, in front of me. I especially envied the Regiment of Riflemen buttons, he was watching me like a hawk, so I was unable to slip one in my pocket.

The time had finally come for me to visit the site. I won’t go into the details, but we only hunted there about 5 hours. Permission issues. It was a spectacular place to hunt. The tidal river causes erosion, all sorts of “stuff” was eroding out, and onto this little beach.

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First thing I saw was a black glass bottle neck sticking out.

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I believe it’s an onion bottle from the 1700s. But would like input on that. The lip is way out of round, dark green glass with bubbles in it.

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The place had a giant patch of octopus stinkhorn mushrooms, also known as devils fingers. They have a putrid flesh smell. Between the smell and the bitting gnats, it was tough, but not that tough.

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They erupt from little white “eggs”.

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I found this rimfire brass. I think it might be a CW era Spencer. It’s really stubby, only about 1” long, but fat at .58” in diameter. Any idea?

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OK, here is the good stuff. The beach yielded a couple of US pewter cuff buttons.

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This would have been plenty, but I really wanted one of those Regiment of Riflemen buttons. Whilst digging through the nails, I stumbled upon a shankless green disc. I quickly brushed it off, and was thrilled to see the RR that I’ve been thinking about for a year and a half.

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I continued on thrilled, shortly thereafter I stumbled upon a RR cuff button. We left after about 3 hours, fully expecting 2 more full days on this site.

Friday dawned chilly and clear. We were at the site by 9:00AM. I took to the flat grassy area that had been hunted out. Within about an hour and a half, I managed to find another RR coat button, as well as a RR cuff button. Then the show abruptly ended.

Bergie informed me that he might have another spot and after a couple of calls, we headed to a beautiful waterfront property. Here is a pic of one of the giant live oak trees that dotted the second site.

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We dug some trash, and hand fulls of shotgun butts, in the hopes that something good would appear. I couldn’t believe it when 8” from a shotgun butt, a third RR coat button appeared. I could hardly have been happier.

Here’s a link on the Regiment.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regiment_of_Riflemen

Without further ado.

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I ended up with 5 RR buttons and 2 US pewters from the War of 1812. Here is a pic of them all together. 54 hours door to door, 2 nights at the Red Roof Inn, 700 miles of driving, 1 heck of a good time.

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I can’t thank Bergie enough for the invite and fellowship.

Thanks for looking and good luck on your hunts!
 

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Upvote 45
I absolutely love 1812 buttons! You found some real beauties and a great assortment of sizes. Those are some beautiful looking sites. Any site that spits out finds continuously is a dream. Well done guys. Congrats Tom on some real stunners
 

Outstanding finds! :headbang:
 

Congrays on an awesome hunt. What a piece of history that regimental button is!
 

Beauty's Guy's!!
 

You did good finding all those buttons, my son and wife always bust my chops that I can now make a old coat to go with all my old buttons! Your one of the few guys that understand my button fetish. Wasn't there an old TV series "have gun will travel" your TV series should be "have Deus will travel" (Smittyman and you) He's like your side kick.
 

outstanding finds! Did any of the buttons have shanks?

One RR cuff had a shank, one pewter had a flat shank, smashed in is more like it... alas the rest were shankless.

Edit: pic added.

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You did good finding all those buttons, my son and wife always bust my chops that I can now make a old coat to go with all my old buttons! Your one of the few guys that understand my button fetish. Wasn't there an old TV series "have gun will travel" your TV series should be "have Deus will travel" (Smittyman and you) He's like your side kick.


Smittyman is ready to go!

I managed to travel over 2100 miles, all driving, in the last 3 weeks on metal detecting forays. I think I have a problem.

Good luck buddy.
 

Love those War of 1812 era buttons. So much more interesting than Civil War era buttons IMO
 

Wowza I wanna hunt with you guys lol Really cool
 

Those are some dang nice buttons, next time I want to go, I’ll buy the hotel rooms. :laughing7:
 

Congratz on a bountiful and safe detecting trip/ trip's.
 

Those are some beautiful buttons, congratulations! Can't imagine a better condition for a dug button.
 

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