DIV Blog: Day 2

Day 2 at DIV XXII started off slowly for me, but ended up being another really great day for Civil War relics.  Once again I spent most of the day detecting with my NC friends Jim, Dwight, and Glenn.  We detected at a new section of the farm, starting at the top of a hill and working down.  The soil here was some of the worst I've ever encountered, and detecting was challenging to say the least.  I managed a few bullets in the morning, and then an iron trigger guard from a musket.  The iron loop on the front of the guard would have been used to attach the rifle sling.

After that find, I hit a dry spell for quite some time.  After checking in with Jim and telling him about my slump, he suggested I head to one small section of the field where electromagnetic interference from nearby electrical lines made some of the high-end detectors unstable.  Since many people will avoid these areas, and my DFX is less affected by the EMI, he thought I might be able to find a bullet over there.  I went exactly where he had pointed, and dug a three ring bullet within just a few minutes.  As it turns out, there was a small pocket of bullets in that area, and within fifteen minutes I had dug three more, including a pulled three ring bullet and two Confederate gardner bullets.  I have only dug one gardner before this, so I was thrilled to find them.

I found two more bullets before the day was out, a three ringer and a colt pistol bullet.  With just a few minutes left to go, I found another musket piece, the trigger assembly!  It's humbling to think of the history contained in that small piece of iron.  When I got a chance to start cleaning my finds at the hotel, I discovered that one of the three ringers I had dug included a star in the base.  This is a maker's mark used by the Washington Arsenal, and is the second such bullet I have dug (the first at DIV XIX at Hansbrough ridge).  It was another great day of digging, and I am having a blast up here in ol' Virginia!  Until next time, thanks for reading!