What the heck is it?

[BenVa68]

I dug these along with several other items at my 1800s permission site. The one item is made of lead and resembles half of a clothes pin with a hole thru it. The other i believe is a shotgun shell made completely of brass or copper. I'm sure some of you know exactly what it is but I have never found one like it before. Thanks ahead of time for your input.

 

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[bologna321]

Shell is probably from a .50 cal machinegun made in the Lake City Ammunition Plant

 

[Tpmetal]

not a shotgun shell, looks more like a mangeled .50 bmg. The all brass shotgun shells are different

 

[BenVa68]

Thanks, Sorry i didn't measure the caliber

 

[RTR]

If that 50 blew up in the chamber,someone had a Bad day.

 

[BenVa68]

I cant believe someone was firing a .50 cal out there. This is not way out in the country it is in town. I am sure that years ago it was much less inhabited but the shell doesn't seem that old either. I have found all sorts of bullet casing at this location. Everything from Enfields and 3 ringers to Peters shotgun brass, musket balls, and many other assorted casings. Every time i dig up something i always wonder, how did it get here? who dropped it? what were they doing? That's really the exciting part of metal detecting to me.

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

It probably wasn't fired anywhere near there. Many a kid's show-n-tell item (with Dad's knowledge or no) ended up lost, swiped or dropped between school and home.

They also made great match cases with a cork stopper.

 

[Tpmetal]

It probably wasn't fired anywhere near there. Many a kid's show-n-tell item (with Dad's knowledge or no) ended up lost, swiped or dropped between school and home.

They also made great match cases with a cork stopper.

i packed a few with black powder back in the day as well.

 

[A2coins]

cool find

 

[HuntinDog]

i packed a few with black powder back in the day as well.

Yeah back when you could launch tin cans with Firecrackers.... That sort of stuff

 

[Hawks88]

Nice find.

 

[Digalotajunk]

Shell is probably from a .50 cal machinegun made in the Lake City Ammunition Plant

I live 10 min from Lake City! Awesome!

 

[mcmich]

The lead looks like a crude window weight

 

[BenVa68]

good possibility.

 

[pistol-pete]

Clean off the headstamp there are two numbers there indicating the year made. Looks to a 1, probably 51 for 1951

 

[BenVa68]

It's a number 4

 

[pistol-pete]

Lake City Ordnance Plant 1944 50 Cal. Browning Machine Gun

 

[Nathan6309]

I dont think it is a shotgun shell, because most older shells were made with paper surrounding the primer, which would have been worn away. The shell is definitely interesting, because it looks bigger than any standard rifle shell and the head stamp is one I am not familiar with.

 

[Nathan6309]

Could be from where the military was practicing with a weapon back in probably the 40's or 50's.

 

[imagearhead]

That lead piece is should be a window weight. I helped restore a 1901 home and we installed 14 of them. Looks dead on what we were replacing. The shell is a Browning 50 cal. casing.