ironman200081
Active member
This hunt was a while back, but I never got around to posting pictures. My partner and I were researching possible locations for a Fremont-era early war Yankee camp in the area and we had a pretty decent location pegged. We got boots on the ground and started sweeping the best looking terrain of the area. After a few hours, we were coming up nearly blank with a few shot pistol balls.
We move to the steeper, north sloping area and my friend hits on some mid-1900’s silver (half dollar and a dime if I recall). Our spirits perk up a bit, as we are both ok with coinshooting at this point. I get a 12-37 signal on my CTX and cut the plug, hoping to find an Indian cent or the elusive minie bullet. I see the white oxidized lead but notice that the bullet looks a little different. After brushing the dirt away, I had found a triangle-high-based .69 bullet that we call “French triangles.” I ran over to my partner and flopped it in his glove. Suddenly, silver coins were off the menu and we proceeded to hit the area low and slow. It wasn’t long until he had uncovered his first ever French triangle.
Now, up to this point, I have found five of the French triangles before and all of them were associated with early-war Yankee camps. The most I had ever found in one spot was 3. They are fairly rare bullet in Missouri. We were completely amazed to see so many of them get under our coils at this spot. The site also gave up .69 and .58 minies along with various pistol bullets.
We ended up with 35 French triangles between us. I found 10 in one hole alone (and a 10-count hole of .69 minies). We only found one button, a plain flat button. Based on the lack of other brass stuff or iron campsite items, my partner believes this was a picket spot. That means the main camp is still waiting out there somewhere for us to find.
We move to the steeper, north sloping area and my friend hits on some mid-1900’s silver (half dollar and a dime if I recall). Our spirits perk up a bit, as we are both ok with coinshooting at this point. I get a 12-37 signal on my CTX and cut the plug, hoping to find an Indian cent or the elusive minie bullet. I see the white oxidized lead but notice that the bullet looks a little different. After brushing the dirt away, I had found a triangle-high-based .69 bullet that we call “French triangles.” I ran over to my partner and flopped it in his glove. Suddenly, silver coins were off the menu and we proceeded to hit the area low and slow. It wasn’t long until he had uncovered his first ever French triangle.
Now, up to this point, I have found five of the French triangles before and all of them were associated with early-war Yankee camps. The most I had ever found in one spot was 3. They are fairly rare bullet in Missouri. We were completely amazed to see so many of them get under our coils at this spot. The site also gave up .69 and .58 minies along with various pistol bullets.
We ended up with 35 French triangles between us. I found 10 in one hole alone (and a 10-count hole of .69 minies). We only found one button, a plain flat button. Based on the lack of other brass stuff or iron campsite items, my partner believes this was a picket spot. That means the main camp is still waiting out there somewhere for us to find.
