New military site - new ID required

[Wally69]

Went to a new site tonight chasing a hunch about some possible WW2 occupation, it was very trashy and looks like some landfill has covered the section I was hoping would produce some finds.

Did the fringes but it is a modern day midden; area has been used as a camp for alcoholics for the last 20 year by the amount of ring pulls that came out. I did find a pistol bullet, so it looks like the site has some promise.

Not sure what this is and if it is old or not. Looks like brass or copper. Maybe a hip flask or storage tube.

What do you think?

 

[silver]

could be a pill tube,..could it be aluminium ?

 

[kemjak57]

It is the cleaning kit for a .303 rifle. It goes in the butt of the rifle and usually has a pull through in it.

 

[treasureman]

found plenty of those cylinders. Usually contained oil to oil the gun. Found one not too long ago

 

[Wally69]

Thanks guys, a real relic then.... That's cool

 

[Nightjar]

Have seen a similar container that housed matches to keep them dry.

 

[Wally69]

Had an interesting afternoon stroll for some interesting relics.

Found a couple of WW2 ID discs

I did some quick research on the round disc as I could make out some of the details without cleaning it.

William Charles Ellis
VX93456
31/51 Australian Infantry Battalion
Served 15 September 1943 - 6 August 1946

Born 1 September 1925 Beaufort, Victoria
Died 5 September 1965, aged 40, Buried Beaufort, Victoria

 

[silver]

King of research Wally,...he got 19 years in after it was all finished(hats off).

 

[Wally69]

And another mystery item

 

[silver]

Be darned if that aint a spoon ya got there Wally !
.
.
And maybe a set of callipers or some such thing to ensure that an artillery shell is nice and straight(only a guess).

 

[Billy]

Great finds Wally! Can positively ID one of those!!
A spoon!
Cheers,
Billy.

 

[Wally69]

It is actually a personal sustenance device and the other one, despite looking like a set of brass handcuffs is actually a kit bag locking D pin. Unfortunately it looks like the locking part has been hacked off with the spoon.

This is what it should look like.

 

[silver]

That is a nice piece of equipment Wally.

 

[Heatho]

Nice finds mate, some interesting stuff popping up from that site.

 

[Wally69]

There seem to always be a surprise waiting to be uncovered there Heath.

 

[Wally69]

Went back to a different part of the same site this afternoon ...... Silver.....wooohooo :lol:

I finally pulled silver out of my local military site with two three pence coins dating 1942 and 1948 plus a bonus 3 half pennys, 2 x 1961 dropped together and my oldest HP to date at 1933.

Still digging up plenty of 303 bullets but got another colonial musket ball and button

Another mystery item..... whistle....cigarette holder.....or razor handle ????? Any ideas

 

[silver]

definitely a razor handle, I used to unscrew my Dads as a kid. It should have a thread inside the small open end.

 

[Jaros]

Yep. Jaros

 

[Wally69]

definitely a razor handle, I used to unscrew my Dads as a kid. It should have a thread inside the small open end.

You are on the money Silver....under the dirt is a thread.

This slug has me interested, I sat it next to the musket ball for reference it looks like it is the same bore size, has some extremely rough rifling/scoring and is barrel shaped. It does not look like it has impacted with anything too hard giving me the impression this is how it was made. The bottom is flat with some slight impact bending but top is roughly finished.

Anyone know if they use that sort of bullet in muskets???

 

[Robert Le Mal]

for military grade muskets ... and I should say that technically a musket is smooth bored so you wouldn't get any rifling on the bullet, you're looking at .577 or .75 caliber.

So at .577 you're looking at a 3 band Enfield Rifled Musket usually called the pattern 1853 (confusing when they put "rifled" next to musket) or at .75 cal the earlier Brown Bess or it's percussion cap derivative the 1842 model.

How big is the bullet?

The Snider conversion (they took the 3 band Enfield and made a crap breach loader) also fired a .577 bullet.
I may stand corrected but the Bess and the 1842 should have fired a round ball which is close to an ounce of lead if I remember correctly - essentially at .75 cal you have a 12 gauge shotgun. And someone please correct me if I'm wrong it's been a long time since I've handled these things.

The Martini-Henry fired what almost looks like a modern bullet and is .45 calibre soft lead, large & nasty but still black powder.

The bullet could be a lot of things. I doubt it's that early because the Enfield fired a bullet confusingly called a "Minnie Ball" which has 3 bands incised near the base which is hollowed out so that it could engage the rifling when fired and impart spin. Once you've seen a Minnie ball you'll always spot them right off - not like modern bullets at all.

Anyway looks like you're bullet has hit something hard and fragmented? Is it solid lead or is there any trace of copper or brass?

Sorry if that was a bit meandering - was up at 2 am in the low tide.