SpudFiles

Hello, I got my metal detector two days ago and needless to say I went right out and tried it.

I found a lot of .22 bullets so I decided to go somewhere I know I haven`t shot and...
I found a hexagonal bullet and what appears to be a musket ball. I remember the hexagonal one being deep, around 8-9"

The other bullet you can see I just found 100m away from the musket ball and bullet location. It appears to be quite modern as it has a H (Hornady) stamped om its base, however it does NOT appear to have any jacket at all..

Only thing I have found is that the M1860/67 Long Army is Norwegian and did indeed fire hexagonal bullets.

Well just shoot me your thoughts, bet JSR will know it right away.





Other stuff found in a few hours:
1908 coin
about 100 6.5x55mm rounds ranging from 1909-1919 with wooden projectiles.
WWII junk
and a lot of trash like nails and older stuff like horse shoes ETC..

Recommended to try!

Were do you hunt, i never find stuff

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitworth_rifle

possibly this type of gun?

I think it's probably a bullet from a MG42, made by Nazi Germany because the polygonal rifling was faster and easier to make by hammering it over a mandrel than conventional rifling. I couldn't find what shape they used, but most polygonal rifling is hex or octagonal. The Lee-Metford (predecessor to the famous Lee-Enfield) also used polygonal rifling, but it was 7 sided.

Wait, that bullet has a hole in the back, so nevermind that last paragraph.

It's probably a Whitworth rifle, though I have no idea how it would have ended up in Norway, as it was designed in England and only used rarely as a sharpshooter's rifle due to it's superior accuracy and price. I can only find mentions of it being used in England and during the American Civil War by the Confederates.

Or an Alex Henry rifle, based off the Whitworth but breech loading instead of muzzle. They both used both cylindrical and hexagonal bullets. The cylindrical ones were soft lead with a hole in the back like a Minie ball, so they would conform to the shape of the barrel, and after firing were as perfectly shaped as the factory machined hexagonal ones, so that seems to be what you have.

Some more reading:
http://firearmshistory.blogspot.com/201 ... worth.html

Edit: Aww, I got sniped to that one by jhalek. (pun intended)

Huh, take a look at this, a Norwegian breech loader based off the Whitworth:
http://www.svartkrutt.net/articles/vis.php?id=31

Fascinating!

SpudFarm wrote:Well just shoot me your thoughts, bet JSR will know it right away.

Whitworth would have been my first guess, given the context of your location though M1860/67 Long Army is a good estimate. Sounds like quite a rare find in any case!

The other bullet you can see I just found 100m away from the musket ball and bullet location. It appears to be quite modern as it has a H (Hornady) stamped om its base, however it does NOT appear to have any jacket at all.

Looks like a bullet for a black powder rifle, these typically did not need jackets due to the relatively low velocities and spin rates. Is the base lead, it does not appear to be of the "Minie ball" expanding type and therefore is probably more recent. Did you measure the calibre?

WWII junk

Like?

Were do you hunt, i never find stuff

All those where found within 200m of my house. The coin was found on a very old road.

possibly this type of gun?

My first thought but it would never get to Norway.

Fascinating!

Indeed!

Sounds like quite a rare find in any case!

There can`t be too many around, no

Did you measure the calibre?

Picture

Like?

Nothing mayor, spent cartridges marked 194x

Did you measure the calibre?

11.77 mm is the dimension quoted for the long army so allowing for barrel compression it would seem this is the one. Amazing to find it outside your house!

Nothing major, spent cartridges marked 194x

7.92mm, 0.303", 30-06?

The newer lead bullet seems to match this in dimensions: http://www.buffaloarms.com/Detail.aspx? ... 1&CAT=3871

Probably not that particular one though...

11.77 mm is the dimension quoted for the long army so allowing for barrel compression it would seem this is the one. Amazing to find it outside your house!

Yepp, I am pretty sure about it now as I asked on a Norwegian black powder forum. It is very likely a 1860-1867 bullet as just about all of the kammerlader rifles where converted to cartridges in 67.
They where also quite impressed about the fact that I found this as they are rare.

I do know that there was a hexagonal rifle on a farm about 300m from here when my grandfather lived there but I don`t think the lead would oxidize to this extend in that amount of time. It has sand imbedded in the oxide and that really brings the age to its right.

The coin I found from 1908 is also marketed online as a "difficult year" so I do have luck with me!

7.92mm, 0.303", 30-06?

I am not completely sure that any of those actually are WW2 but at my grandmas house I found several rifle cases dated to the 40`s did not check the caliber as I gave them to her for her to display.

Today I went to what once was one of the only bridges over a decent sized nearby river in a deep valley and searched the 800m of trail to the collapsed bridge I am pretty confident the germans must have used, and one of the first good signals was a old 9mm FMJ pistol bullet, completely intact and with rifling grooves.
It seemed to have been fired from pretty far away as it was not deep and there is no signs that it hit something before entering the ground, I went on with the search and eventually I found the source. IIRC about 8 or so 9mm shell casings was lying around in a area of 20m on the trail.
They where marked 9mm 44 and then two letters and an arrow of some kind.

I also found rifle cases in that area but I haven`t looked to closely at them yet, they ended up in my junk bag as I have enough of them.

Think I will search the area one more time later and hope to find a completely intact 9mm casing for the bullet as the best one I have now has a small nick in it.

Hope that answers some questions

Nice metal detecting finds. It looks like copper.

Those are pretty cool finds. I am interetsed in the the bullets finds because of my interet in shooting and its history in firearm development.

I had an uncle (RIP) who had a farm on the Red and Assinaboia Rivers where they converge near Ft Garry. He would often while tilling find spear and arrow heads from the great plains indians who lived there before the onset of the europeans.

His collection was quite extensive and I believed along with his firearm collection (in excess of 300 firearms) he donate dit to the museaum of man and nature in Winnipeg.

It nice to see that history can still be found if you have the interest, I think it would be awesome to visit some of the civil war, WWI and WWII battle grounds to see what is still left there, not to remove items (i think of them as war graves), but just to see and feel what thetimes were like.

I visited many battle grounds while i was stationed in Germany and it was daunting and I was awestruck at the destruction around me. Vimy Ridge is a must see, very sombering.