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EX II finds Civil War Pistol ?

LaDigger

LaDigger

Member
OK, I have to admit that I lurk here more than I post , but I found something this morning that has me a little excited. I was hunting in a park that was once a plantation . I have dug old farm tools , parts of wood burning stoves and the typical iron invested site stuff there before. This morning I thought I would swing the EX II there to see what I might stumble upon. After about 20 minutes of digging a few pieces of junk, a brass whatsit and a few pennies, I get a deep warbly high tone at the bottom of the depth meter. I was running wide open IM and auto 25 at the time, with the stock coil. After digging a good 6" plug ,I wave the X1 probe in the hole and it sings like a canary. I dig a few more inches out with my digging tool and I see green metal, I figured it was another piece of old brass so I pried it out and was surprised to find myself holding what I immediately knew was a real old gun, and not just another toy. The weight and the rusted metal parts and what looked like a "crack barrel design" convinced me I had finally found an old gun, something I always wanted to find.After looking through some books for comparison, I am pretty sure its a Smith and Wesson # 1. Second Issue 22 Short cal. revolver , used by the union army during the Civil War..The added pic is from "The Civil War Catalog" book page246.
Do you think I'm right? I scanned the hole with the X1 but it didn't hit again, I know this land was bulldozed at one time so the barrel is probably rusted away or lost forever, but I may go back and dig some more in that immediate area.. Thanks for looking..HH..Rich
 
Nice! I have a few guns that are only remnants like that, but I still consider them "guns" :) Afterall, if they were too candy-apple nice shaped, they wouldn't be half the fun, eh? A little bit of time and effects add to the "wild west" really truly "dug" effect :)
 
Thanks for the replies, I am going back tomorrow to see what else I can find there, Not too optimistic on finding any more of the pistol ,but its worth a try...HH...Rich

EXII
 
Nice find, Rich!

And it looks like you've IDed it as far as I can tell. If I had Photoshop on this computer, I'd grab the pics and overlay them to doublecheck if it's an exact match but, with the tools I have currently, that would take too long. Just checking in case you were too excited at the time, but you weren't using any iron mask or other iron disc. at the time, were you? I'd definitely be looking for the rest of it too. If it'sth

Pretty cool!

(I thought I'd found a derringer a while back but, after electrolysis, it turned out to be an early cap pistol.)
 
That looks like a pretty good match to me. Congrats on finding a rare item like a Civil War pistol.

Hmm, didn't know the Union army used a .22 short pistol. Learn something new every day.
 
I put the pistol frame in one of my display cases of relics from an area camp I had permission to hunt a few years ago. I wish I could have found the whole thing ,but I'm not greedy, I happy I got lucky enough to find this.I think the plantation site I found this on was one that the union burned after some locals ambushed and shot a couple of sick Union soldiers riding in a wagon.They chased one of the guys through this plantation and lost him in the woods , where his remains were found a couple of years later...The story is in the Off. Records of the Union and Confederate Armies...Houma ,La..I also found that this model was manufactured from 1863-1866...HH...Rich
 
I can remember when I was a kid visiting my grand folks for the summer up in Maine and walking through a field below the 1796 house that they lived in and finding an old rifle frame and two bowls from long stem clay pipes that the old timers used to smoke. Even then I was always looking for old things.Your find reminded me of this time. Thanks.GR
 
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