Lookey What I Dug Up Today!

[Diggin It]

I'm always surprised what I dig up on this place that was farmed for decades and sold more than once. Old bottles, car parts, tractor parts, tools, you name it.

I'm out walking around today and see something on the top of some freshly tilled dirt. I've seen plenty of these before, but they were always empty. Not this one. The front picture shows it still crimped and the back shows the primer intact. Once I opened it (the brass pulled off very easily), the powder is clearly still there. I tossed that blue rag (loosely wrapped) onto a nearby brush fire and it flashed gently, so the powder was still at least partially viable.

I know it's been there for at LEAST 25 years, but who knows how much longer? I've been over that spot many times with the tiller and a mower. I have no idea the condition of the primer (that went into a different hole for disposal), but I'm not too wild about possibly having hit it just the right way with a mower blade.

 

[DrRod]

I could be wrong but I've always heard that any cartridge detonated [tossed in fire] outside the gun is nothing to worry about. The brass is lighter than the lead so it just blows back and is essentially harmless.

 

[LouNY]

I will slightly disagree with that I have seen two instances of boxes of cartridges being burnt in burn barrels.
Once was most of a brick of .22s that got tossed away by the wrong box being thrown out, the other was a box of .22-250s
that some how got in a trash can and burnt both burn barrels aguired lots of ventilation holes but nothing else got damaged.
In the one with .22 a mobile home was less then 20 feet from the burn barrel, with the 22-250 a vehicle was about the same distance.

 

[AWSubie]

SAAMI.org has excellent videos and general information on this topic.

Sporting Ammunition and the Firefighter – SAAMI

 

[BrokenTrack]

My family has farmed here for awhile, so every once and awhile, I will dig up something neat.

I plowed up an old swale, made after the 1953 hurricane-gale-gale storms that hit, and plowed up (2) potato digger bed chains. That was fun to dig out of the moldboards. But on rock walls I have dug up harrows, plow shares, potato digger bed chains, brand new disc harrow blades, and (2) brand new steel wheels from days gone by.

I think the neatest thing I saw, was a sheep watering station from the mid 1850's. I had been there many, many, many times, but for some reason, I never saw what was right there before me. It was a channel cut away from a stream, and lined with rocks, down to a circle for the sheep to drink from, then a spillway. It was pretty elaborate considering its age. That age was determined by its construction, and the trees in the area.

I am not sure if people can make it out, but here is a picture of it.

 

[BrokenTrack]

When I mow the sides of the road, that is when I really "dig up" some interesting stuff. It is so interesting, that I keep a note pad with me so that every time I hit something new, I can write it down.

Tires, tires, tires, I have hit hundreds of tires. But the more interesting things have been an oxygen bottle, a purse, a brand new chainsaw, (it was a Husqvarna so it was no loss), an igloo water cooler, a kids bike, property line pins, telephone pole guy wires, sheep fence, barb wire, telephone lines running into people's houses, and a boat anchor...away from the ocean, on top of a huge hill of all places. Not the kind of place you expect to hit a boat anchor.

And the telephone line, it was about 200 feet of it, and considering the woman was talking on the phone when I hit it, she was pretty decent about the whole thing.

I have hit way more than that, but those are some quick ones I remember off the top of my head.

 

[Thomas]

Wouldn't want hit those shells with riding lawn mower.

 

[Jstpssng]

My family has farmed here for awhile, so every once and awhile, I will dig up something neat.

I plowed up an old swale, made after the 1953 hurricane-gale-gale storms that hit, and plowed up (2) potato digger bed chains. That was fun to dig out of the moldboards. But on rock walls I have dug up harrows, plow shares, potato digger bed chains, brand new disc harrow blades, and (2) brand new steel wheels from days gone by.

I think the neatest thing I saw, was a sheep watering station from the mid 1850's. I had been there many, many, many times, but for some reason, I never saw what was right there before me. It was a channel cut away from a stream, and lined with rocks, down to a circle for the sheep to drink from, then a spillway. It was pretty elaborate considering its age. That age was determined by its construction, and the trees in the area.

I am not sure if people can make it out, but here is a picture of it.

(picture deleted)
Nature is not a static environment. It's pretty amazing what's out there in what has now reverted back to timberland. Supposedly at one time 90% of Maine was cleared land. I highly doubt that number, but do come across old evidence in the darnedest places. Looking at some of the pictures that members post of the deep, black soil in the more westerly slopes though, I understand why people moved west.

Getting back to the OP; as somebody else mentioned, without a way to direct the shot the brass will go farther than the lead. My first fall out of college we were marking wood on State owned land. Both of my coworkers carried Ruger .22 semi automatic pistols. We would paint a pass across the tract, then stop for a fire and they would share a joint. We'd make a pass back and do it again. I've never believed that firearms and alcohol or drugs mixed...
At one fire they smoked their smoke then Dave was standing over the fire warming his hands as he played with- I mean, unloaded his gun... dropping a shell into the fire. Everyone ran behind trees until we heard it go off. The casing was lying there on the snow with the side blown out.

I've also dropped a 30-30 shell into a stream. In the short time that it took to bend over and pick it up, the primer got wet enough so that it wouldn't fire.

 

[Molalla1]

Wouldn't want hit those shells with riding lawn mower.

Maybe not . . .

 

[buck12]

I own property that was first purchased by my great grand father in 1908. It seems every time I dig I find more junk. I just finished trenching for electrical service to the cabin we are building and found lots of old concrete and steel. Unfortunately my family was poor so no gold or anything of value.