When hobbies coincide (shooting and metal detecting)

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Here's my latest mystery....

Our house is a 275 year old Colonial on 50 acres of land, we grow Timothy and alfalfa hay that our neighbor cuts and bales, it's a working farm...

I've gotten into metal detecting, and have been finding a lot of cool stuff unde the lawn, copper flashing, old parts from horse drawn equipment, wheat pennies and modern clad coins (no silver or gold yet...) and cartridge casings...

Most of them are .22 Rimfire, as I have a backyard range, but I've also found a few rifle cartridges buried as well, so far, I've found;
1 30-30
3 7mm
1 .270

First interesting fact, neither Dad or I have had any of these calibers, and I know Dad never shot any of these calibers
Second interesting fact, these casings were found in the FRONT lawn, facing the road, and there are no safe shooting lines here
Third interesting fact, our land is posted no trespassing and no hunting, so they can't be from anyone but us (or the original property owners)

So, if dad never shot these calibers, and nobody else shot them on our property, how'd they end up in our lawn?

Maybe this is the Flying Spaghetti Monster's way of telling me I need one of the above found calibers? (Dad loved leverguns, so I'm thinking a .30-30 levergun here....
 
Third interesting fact, our land is posted no trespassing and no hunting, so they can't be from anyone but us (or the original property owners)
Click to expand...

.....either Im missing some sarcasm, or this is like suggesting that a criminal will leave his gun outside at the door of a gun free establishment because of the sign......

Possibilities that come to mind.... poachers, company that had an empty in their car and tossed it / kicked it out.... someone walking by found something by the side of the road and tossed it in your yard once they were bored of it.... I'd be inclined to go with the flying spagetti monster theory though, assuming that you'd like a gun in either of those chamberings.

Sounds like a cool hobby, especially around a house/farm with that much history. I bet theres lots of neat old stuff to be found.
 
If there was a trespasser on our property where I found those cartridges, it would have been blatantly obvious as they would be on the front lawn, if that was the case, they would be emphatically directed to leave and not come back (Get off mah' property!)

Personally, I think the answer is more mundane, either the original owners used those cartridges, or someone hunted the property before my parents bought it and we grew up on it

As far as cool things under the lawn? I've found a couple Tootsietoy toy cars, a couple original Matchbox cars made in England, and an old 1930's vintage Tootsietoy Buck Rogers Battlecruiser string-rider toy

Then there's the big mystery cylinder that looks like a milk tank, a good amount of copper flashing, and a few lead sheets

Wonder what's out in our woodlot which originally was a junkyard for horse drawn farm equipment and old Model A and Model T ford cars....
 
The most likely senario is that the previous owners saw a varmint like a coyote or racoon poking around in the front yard, maybe at street side where your trash cans might be, and decided it was enough of a nuisance to shoot it.

Flying Spaghetti Monster
Click to expand...

Can you explain this? Never heard it before. I realize it's a joke, but what it the meaning?

Previous owners may have only owned a rifle in those calibers, so granted, they would be over powered for varmints, but if that's all you own.......
 
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Kids playing in the yard lost them is another likely suspect.

We used to trade empty cases back and forth all the time so we had something to play army with.

A lot of them got scattered to the wind.
Or scattered in the yards.

rc
 
Well the .30-30 has been around since 1895 and the .270 Winchester since 1923. However, the 7mm Remington Magnum has only been around since 1962.

Some of the head stamps may be interesting if they are really old.

Mike
 
The FSM invented gunpowder and metallurgy and so, today, we can go shooting. Seems simple enough, really. And who else could have given such wonderful ideas to such people as Sam Colt and JM Browning? Had to have been noodly touches!

I know of a site where finds have included AmerInd dart points, old Spanish coins and .38-40 brass. Another, the finds include a dart point, a spear point, a few .30-30 cases and a Prince Albert can.

Amazing what one finds in the back of beyond. :)
 
I found a couple of beautiful obsidian bird points on our property, left behind by roving bands of Native Americans some time ago. I'm still looking for the buried cans of .577 Snyder that the FSM should have left behind for me to find. :rolleyes:
 
Had to look it up, might as well reiterate it here....

"However, as of 2012, cases, bullets and cartridges as well as others of the .577 family are available from Tenbury Guns Limited in the United Kingdom. New brass can be form from 24 gauge hull and reloading die is available from Lee. (sic)"

From wiki on ".577 Snider"

Now... where can you get 24 gauge shotgun hulls?

"I'm still looking for the buried cans of .577 Snyder that the FSM should have left behind for me to find."

Maybe they left some 24 gauge shells instead?

So then I had to look up Tenbury Guns in England:

http://shop.tenburyguns.com/

Wow ! About US$950 for a Deactivated British SLR L1A1 (new spec).
 
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