Africa
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Trip to The Battle of Stormberg Boer War
A few buddies (friends) joined us today to visit the area where basically The Boers stuffed up The British who were actually on their way to attack The Boers at The Stormberg Junction,this was on the 9th December, the actuall battle took place on the 10th December, however The British got horribly lost during their night march from Molteno and ended up in the wrong area, The Boers were alerted before The British could attack and The Boers had an advantage as they were posted higher up on the ridges and had a wide field of fire, The Boers had only one cannon, but The British had a lot more, but due to the confusion and such, The British ended up wiping out some of their own soldiers when their shells fell short.
I had obtained special permission from the person who owns this farm, a Letter of Permission was given to him and a display of items found at another related area, were donated to The School in Molteno as a Token of Goodwill, hunting at various areas, is not just about keeping eveything for yourself, it is also about giving something back to the community, in this way the history of the area is saved and with us hunting and obtaining these items, at least they will not dissappear completely, it has now been over 106 years that these items have been there and they are at their maximun life span, rusting away in the ground. The tin bully beef and biscuit cans that we sometimes find are nearly gone.
The area that this battle took place in is very rocky and on the right are the ridges of this mountain that prevented The British from obtaining an advantage to attack foreward, the cliff faces were just too steep to climb, The British forces retreated but in their confucion as well, they left over 600 of their own troops behind, there troops were captured by The Boers as well as their cannon and guns, never mind their personal items that they were carrying.
Looking at the items that we have found, it looks like The Boers were armed with Martini Henry rifles as well as some 303, and one cannon, but luckily for The British, the cannon shells that The Boers had, they had a problem with them.
The British had 15 pound cannon (I found a very nice piece of 15 pound cannon shapnal and this actual piece even has the number 15 written at the bottom. They also had 303 rifles as well.
If you want to read more about this battle, then do a web search and you will find a lot of interesting info, enjoy the pic's, I will briefly explain to you the items that we found today.
I was hunting a vast area, got this signal and then started to dig these buttons out of one hole, there were ten of them alltogether, tomorrow I will take better pic's of them and show them to you, some of them have a British crown on the face, some are very flat or worn off, but the funny thing is, what were they all doing in the same hole?
I also found a life 303 bullet as well as some shapnal, items that my friends found were, various parts from the 15 pounder cannon shell, wire wire wire, nails nails nail, 303 doppies, Martini Henry doppies, heads and 303 heads, barbed wire, we are led to belive that during this battle The farmers had already erected barb wire fences. We also found a variety of tins.
Today was enjoyed by all and we will be back again. The machines that we used were.
Ben was using my brand new Minelab VFLEX X-TERRA 50, without earphones, and I was using my Minelab Sovereign GT,with earphones. Both of these machines are awesome, they find, pinpoint and have excellent results, they work for us, Ben is busy buying a brand new X-Terra 505 series from Wolfgang who is The Minelab Agent who lives in Cape Town, (thank's Wolfgang) his cell number is
083 500 3723. He is a very friendly guy to deal with and has a Passion for Metal Detecting.
Ben's two kids also had their own little R1 600. machine not sure make or model, but they also found things with it, I think the one child is 10 and the other 12 or somewhere around there, they just found the spade work a bit difficult.
Then my other two friends, William and Johan had their Antique machines also as well, and they did find things but not as successful as The Minelab's
But at the end of the day, no matter what machines we each own or use, we all had a great time and ended the day off with a braai at Williams home in Sterkstroom and enjoyed looking at his collection.
Now what a wonderful way to spend a day and that is with your friends
Just another pic from a different angle of what we all found.
These are the items that William found with his machine, we think that the one item is the rear of a spoon, it has a date on it 1873 and some other words as well and on the other site, the soldier marked it with the letters WB. The other round item is the inside of a 15 pound cannon.
So you see, us guys here in South Africa also find very interesting items as well.
A few buddies (friends) joined us today to visit the area where basically The Boers stuffed up The British who were actually on their way to attack The Boers at The Stormberg Junction,this was on the 9th December, the actuall battle took place on the 10th December, however The British got horribly lost during their night march from Molteno and ended up in the wrong area, The Boers were alerted before The British could attack and The Boers had an advantage as they were posted higher up on the ridges and had a wide field of fire, The Boers had only one cannon, but The British had a lot more, but due to the confusion and such, The British ended up wiping out some of their own soldiers when their shells fell short.
I had obtained special permission from the person who owns this farm, a Letter of Permission was given to him and a display of items found at another related area, were donated to The School in Molteno as a Token of Goodwill, hunting at various areas, is not just about keeping eveything for yourself, it is also about giving something back to the community, in this way the history of the area is saved and with us hunting and obtaining these items, at least they will not dissappear completely, it has now been over 106 years that these items have been there and they are at their maximun life span, rusting away in the ground. The tin bully beef and biscuit cans that we sometimes find are nearly gone.
The area that this battle took place in is very rocky and on the right are the ridges of this mountain that prevented The British from obtaining an advantage to attack foreward, the cliff faces were just too steep to climb, The British forces retreated but in their confucion as well, they left over 600 of their own troops behind, there troops were captured by The Boers as well as their cannon and guns, never mind their personal items that they were carrying.
Looking at the items that we have found, it looks like The Boers were armed with Martini Henry rifles as well as some 303, and one cannon, but luckily for The British, the cannon shells that The Boers had, they had a problem with them.
The British had 15 pound cannon (I found a very nice piece of 15 pound cannon shapnal and this actual piece even has the number 15 written at the bottom. They also had 303 rifles as well.
If you want to read more about this battle, then do a web search and you will find a lot of interesting info, enjoy the pic's, I will briefly explain to you the items that we found today.
I was hunting a vast area, got this signal and then started to dig these buttons out of one hole, there were ten of them alltogether, tomorrow I will take better pic's of them and show them to you, some of them have a British crown on the face, some are very flat or worn off, but the funny thing is, what were they all doing in the same hole?
I also found a life 303 bullet as well as some shapnal, items that my friends found were, various parts from the 15 pounder cannon shell, wire wire wire, nails nails nail, 303 doppies, Martini Henry doppies, heads and 303 heads, barbed wire, we are led to belive that during this battle The farmers had already erected barb wire fences. We also found a variety of tins.
Today was enjoyed by all and we will be back again. The machines that we used were.
Ben was using my brand new Minelab VFLEX X-TERRA 50, without earphones, and I was using my Minelab Sovereign GT,with earphones. Both of these machines are awesome, they find, pinpoint and have excellent results, they work for us, Ben is busy buying a brand new X-Terra 505 series from Wolfgang who is The Minelab Agent who lives in Cape Town, (thank's Wolfgang) his cell number is
083 500 3723. He is a very friendly guy to deal with and has a Passion for Metal Detecting.
Ben's two kids also had their own little R1 600. machine not sure make or model, but they also found things with it, I think the one child is 10 and the other 12 or somewhere around there, they just found the spade work a bit difficult.
Then my other two friends, William and Johan had their Antique machines also as well, and they did find things but not as successful as The Minelab's
But at the end of the day, no matter what machines we each own or use, we all had a great time and ended the day off with a braai at Williams home in Sterkstroom and enjoyed looking at his collection.
Now what a wonderful way to spend a day and that is with your friends
Just another pic from a different angle of what we all found.
These are the items that William found with his machine, we think that the one item is the rear of a spoon, it has a date on it 1873 and some other words as well and on the other site, the soldier marked it with the letters WB. The other round item is the inside of a 15 pound cannon.
So you see, us guys here in South Africa also find very interesting items as well.
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