My Son's Metal Detecting Finds-Any Ideas

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nhpharm

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We live in a new neighborhood that is built in an area that had not had much past development, but my son has a cheap metal detector and apparently is finding some odds and ends that appear to have some age in a random spot in the woods behind our house. He's found a little bit of glass there too that appears to have some age as well as it has purpled. Nonetheless, the photo shows two items he found...one looks like a 22 bullet but there is some sort of strange protrusion from the shell and the other is a rivet (like for a piece of clothing) that has something impressed on it (maybe a flattened eagle or a cross or something?). Anyone have any ideas? I promised my son I'd try to figure out what these were.
 

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nhpharm

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Wow-that's it for sure! Thanks so much! I wonder how the heck a pinfire cartridge ended up in the middle of the woods here in Texas.

Now to figure out what the other thing is. Now I'm really intrigued.
Hi Brandon,
The ammunition appears to be an obsolete pin fire pistol cartridge.
An interesting item but be careful, it could still be viable!!



:)
 

willong

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I wonder how the heck a pinfire cartridge ended up in the middle of the woods here in Texas.

That intact cartridge is a nice piece of history. The production years of pinfire ammunition and arms matches up well with the Republic of Texas era and the Mexican War. Not everyone was a Texas Ranger packing Colt Paterson or, in later years, a big horse pistol like a Walker Colt or one of the Dragoon models. But nearly everyone in those early years needed firearms for protection and shooting for the pot. Pinfire arms were some of the first to utilize self-contained metallic cartridges. If you haven't done so already, I suggest you take a peek at the Wikipedia article.
 

saratogadriver

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Any chance for an old civil war encampment? I don't think the pinfire cartridge weapons were common much after the civil war. Once center fire and rimfire cartridges hit the market everything else fell by the wayside pretty quickly.

Jim G
 

nhpharm

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I appreciate the feedback from everyone! My son is at camp now but will be so excited when he gets home that he found something with some age and of interest! He's 10 and loves to explore. I'll have to get him to show me where this stuff was found...perhaps there is more to the area than the maps indicate.
 

nhpharm

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Any chance for an old civil war encampment? I don't think the pinfire cartridge weapons were common much after the civil war. Once center fire and rimfire cartridges hit the market everything else fell by the wayside pretty quickly.

Jim G
Its certainly possible, but there were not any battles nearby that I am aware of and I don't think there was much activity. I'll have to poke around in the history books and see what I might be able to find! We're about 1 mile from the San Jacinto river between Conroe and Houston.
 

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