CampSite Artifacts  

  New Year's Day, and really got the year off to a good start !  I am

  familiar with the dual-use campsite he decided to hunt, and it has

  been quite hard hit over the years, turning out a lot of nice relics.

  Lately though, it is tough to find many targets there, excepting trash !

  So, Young Matt decided trash was his "friend" and waded into the

  big middle of it  !  He was rewarded with a couple small caliber round

  balls, what looks like a S & W .32 Bullet, tiny piece of toe tap, and

  BEST OF ALL, a nice Confederate Spur ! Spur is still complete,

  and very much resembles CS9 in Howard Crouch's Book, Historic

  American Spurs.  Of course, he did dig a lot of trash too, but I'd

  have to say it was Definitely worth it !  Way to go Matt !!

1-4-10  Mark Lehman's glad to be back home in Springfield, Missouri,

 having been out of state for about 5 years ! He just got back last year,

 and is finding some of the old haunts hard hit.  That didn't keep him

 from continuing to swing that coil though, and it paid off nicely near

 his old home town.  He dug a super nice, thin silver 7th Corps

 Badge.  It's about the size of a quarter, and you can see the solder

 spots on reverse where the pin would have been.  Excellent and

 quite rare recovery here in the Trans-Mississippi !

                        Congrats Mark !!

Rick Steed, from south Arkansas wrote recently to tell about his boys

Ball Tournaments. Well, kinda.  He said that while they had some time

between games, he managed to work in a little bullet diggin ! Sure had

some luck too, as he recovered about 20 good targets. Looks like a nice

variety of pistol and carbine bullets mostly, and that one on the bottom

row, third from the left sure looks like a Sharps & Hankins. Good going

Rick, and I hope the boys team won ! Sure a good pile of lead for a couple

scant hours of digging !           SB

Mark Daughtery has been doing good up near Springfield, Missouri,

and not too long ago, sent this picture of an unusual bullet he dug !

Mark said he found it in a Union Camp, but all of these I've seen

down here, came out of Confederate Campsites. It's an approximately

.62 Caliber, 2-Ringer that looks suspiciously like a Hessian Pattern.

This one was apparently cast in the field, as it has a large uncut sprue

still attached too. Very thick cavity walls also. Neat bullet, and I don't

care where it came from, I'll take a dozen !! 

                           Congrats Mark !     SB

 and were hitting the tall grass in September ! They started at a Campsite

used by both sides, and divided by a creek, and the historic road. Finds

were few and far between, but included a coin button, a few bullets, iron

cannister ball, and nicely carved .36 Teardrop pistol bullet .  Good Dogs

got to go along, and found all kind of stinky treasure !! . . lol . .   Couple of

weeks later, at an old Missouri State Guard Campsite,  a few more bullets,

what looks like the top of some kind of badge, and the broken end of a

Sword Belt Plate surfaced.  Funny thing, the piece of a sword belt plate,

came right out of the hole, where a sword belt plate was recovered this

spring !  Think it would fit right on that plate too, if re-attached by a

professional . [ PS.  If you dug that plate, this piece is available. ] 

November 2nd, found the diggers out again, this time at a hard hunted

Company size Yankee Camp. Good signals were scarce, and after a

while one of them started diggin iron, with fair results. Two iron musket

barrel bands were recovered, one with the sling loop ! Other finds included

a nice cuff size flower button, and a few dropped bullets.  Grass is still

TOO tall, but the soil is nicely moist !  Another couple weeks, and

pounding a few new doors, may provide more interesting recoveries !

          SB