Weve Kept This Quiet Until Now: The Tenn. U.S. Williams Cleaner Camp-VIDEO

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We've Kept This Quiet Until Now: The Tenn. U.S. Williams Cleaner Camp-VIDEO

Last winter, a veteran relic hunter told us about a U.S. camp discovered in the 1980s. I contacted the landowner who had stopped all hunting over 10 years ago. I talked with him a few minutes and he said relic hunters had “covered him up”. I then told him that I appreciated his time and was pleasantly surprised when he gave me and the other Trio members permission to hunt.
After the Arkansas trip, I made 3 scouting trips to the large farm. I walked right in the middle of the field where the landowner said that relics were found. My first signal was a Williams Cleaner bullet. During the scouting trips, 40 % of the 52 relics I dug relics were Williams Cleaner bullets. The relics were only 5-8 in. deep. I didn’t tell Doug or Josh about the site until I felt certain that I had pinpointed the tent lines which I did on trip 3. Then, Doug went with me for 3 trips and we coaxed Josh into going this morning. Josh’s work schedule and other obligations do not allow him but a couple of hours of hunting daily after he travels to meet us and returns home.
Today, we met at the site to hunt and recovered 40 relics including Josh’s center to an eagle breastplate. The lack of many brass relics and the abnormal number of Williams Cleaner bullets is puzzling. Perhaps, a large box of cleaner bullets was brought to the camp instead of being packaged with each pack of 20 .58 cal. bullets as was normally done. The first pic shown on the red background are of my scouting trip finds. The 3 hunts with Doug are on the beige, light blue and green towel. Today’s Trio hunt is shown in the bottom pic. We will keep you posted on further finds. HH and Merry Christmas from Doug, Josh, & Quindy.

 

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Thanks my friend. I hope you, Shane, and you know who have a great Christmas. Hope all the planning goes well. Got you card today. HH, Q.

 

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Great video, and Merry Christmas to you guys too!

Thanks TH. Have a good one.

Also thanks to IF69. You have had a great hunting year Bud. Wish you an equal or better one in 2014. HH, Q.

 

[Dman]

That is a great place to hunt. I am looking forward to checking out the front field by the road. Cairo or bust.

 

[Markomyt1]

Good Job Tenn Trio.
Poor Doug, I'll see if I can find a hot water bottle to send to him.
Check out the foot warmers you can put in your shoes.
If your feet are warm, you stay warm.

 

[romeo-1]

Great post...thanks!

 

[hereandthen]

If it was a late war camp, then by that time J.W. William's claims for the superiority of the Type 3 Williams bullets had been rejected by the armies to which they were issued. Williams claimed first that his bullet was more accurate, second that it saved the army cost of materials, and third or fourth that it cleaned the rifle bore. The primary complaints, as summarized by Sherman in (I believe, going by memory here) a letter to Stanton, were that the bullets broke apart in flight rendering them wildly inaccurate and that the zinc base damaged the rifling in the barrel. Incidentally, the accuracy, cost, and cleaning claims were all debunked.

In a camp I hunt here in the Raleigh area I've actually recorded the location of all finds with GPS. Here are two interesting excerpts of the total data. The first picture shows the location of all dropped .58 caliber bullets at the site (all topographic data has been removed from these images btw). As you can see, the distribution pattern is random within the confines of the camp itself. The second picture, covering the exact same geographical area, shows the location of dropped Type 3 Williams bullets. As is apparent from the linear, regular spacing, these bullets were deliberately discarded en masse.

Thanks for sharing your amazing finds.

Jim

 

[beez0404]

That's a lot of bullets! Congratulations.

 

[VOL1266-X]

If it was a late war camp, then by that time J.W. William's claims for the superiority of the Type 3 Williams bullets had been rejected by the armies to which they were issued. Williams claimed first that his bullet was more accurate, second that it saved the army cost of materials, and third or fourth that it cleaned the rifle bore. The primary complaints, as summarized by Sherman in (I believe, going by memory here) a letter to Stanton, were that the bullets broke apart in flight rendering them wildly inaccurate and that the zinc base damaged the rifling in the barrel. Incidentally, the accuracy, cost, and cleaning claims were all debunked.


In a camp I hunt here in the Raleigh area I've actually recorded the location of all finds with GPS. Here are two interesting excerpts of the total data. The first picture shows the location of all dropped .58 caliber bullets at the site (all topographic data has been removed from these images btw). As you can see, the distribution pattern is random within the confines of the camp itself. The second picture, covering the exact same geographical area, shows the location of dropped Type 3 Williams bullets. As is apparent from the linear, regular spacing, these bullets were deliberately discarded en masse.

Thanks for sharing your amazing finds.

Jim

View attachment 1005151View attachment 1005152

Thanks Jim & beez. We are up to 495 relics from that camp as you can see in the latest video & still running 40% cleaner bullets. Thanks for the info. & AD Magazine will run the complete story this fall. HH, Q.

 

[HomeGuardDan]

I have dug camps where 90% of the bullets are cleaners. This was due to two things...1. if it is late war - there were stockpiles of cleaner type IIIs (one of my camps was an April 1865 camp). I dug over 350 type IIIs from it. 2. If it is mid war - they simply did not trust the bullet. When the cleaner III was issued, it was even less trusted than I or II. I have read countless records where troops would simply discard them. This was evident by another camp I hunted (64 Spring camp) where I found piles of them thrown to the ground or carved.

 

[CMDiamonddawg]

Toad lick , Tennessee lmao
MM 's fav watering hole kicka$$ season for sure Tenn Trio !!