Critterhunter
New member
Well, that *MIGHT* or might not have happened, but it is interesting to wonder and think about. A little while back I was scouting the woods and found a rather remote look out spot on the top of a ridge spine. More like a nice flat overlook area that could serve several purposes, including a strategic vantage point in case of attack, a nice place to put a cabin, a good perch to watch for game, or just a nice area to picnic and enjoy the view.
Anyway, this spot isn't obvious unless you take a decent hike up some hills into the woods, and even then you pretty much need to be standing close to spot it. It's that remote in a sense and very hard to get to. The only way to get to it while staying on public land is via crossing a rather steep and slippery edge of a gully. Not something most people in their right mind would want to do, but one day I was hunting nearby in the woods when I spotted this "perch" that gave a good view of the valley below. After a little investigating I found one spot that would allow me to get over to it while still standing a good chance of not breaking my neck.
It was worth it, because I found my first barber half next to an old oak tree that gave a good front row seat view of the valley below, a 1903-S I think from memory. Anyway, there was also a v-nickle in the hole with it. I also found a barber dime and Indian about 90 yards away, but the real shocker was what I found within about 8 to 10 feet of the barber half- What looks like a musket with the end of the barrel "flowered" as some call it, or blown up as most would call it. At first I wasn't sure if this was just a pipe or a barrel but then I saw the crushed trigger guard and trigger at the other end of it. That's when I knew I had dug up some kind of gun barrel.
After looking at the end of it I think this might in fact be a musket because the barrel hole looks to be bigger than even a 10 gauge shot gun. I'm a gun hunter and have owned a 10 gauge, which is bigger than a 12 gauge, and yet this hole looks bigger to me. That combined with how big, fat, and heavy it is makes me think it might very well be a musket, which are older than muzzle loaders or flint locks. But, I'll let somebody with more knowledge of antique weapons give me a more informed opinion on it.
Which all brings up an interesting thought. I realize muskets are much older than a 1903 barber half but back in the day I'm sure people pretty much used what they had when it came to survival in the woods. Anybody think maybe this poor soul loaded too much powder into the gun, which exploded and probably took a good piece of his face with it, and in the process he lost the barber half and v-nickle? What's interesting is the gun was laying right near the edge of this overlook while the coins were behind it by about 8 to 10 feet. I could see the guy standing at the edge of this overlook and aiming his gun down into the valley at whatever friend (deer or other game) or foe he desired to kill and getting blown backwards by the explosion and landing were I found these coins. Yea, there is a good chance these items aren't related but I found no other old coins in the exact area of about 90 yards. The others were a good ways down the spine of the ridge.
Now, as a final note to this tale of wishful thinking, I'd like to bring up one other point. I had left the gun barrel laying next to a rock that day because it was getting very dark and I didn't want to have to carry it along with my detector over the steep way out of there. I had only been back up there a few times since but kept forgetting to grab that barrel to take with me. I had taken a few friends to this spot and even pointed exactly to one place where I had dug a barber dime next to a large oak tree and told them that I didn't get a very good signal from it due to the iron and hot rocks in that spot. Anyway, I also said I didn't want anybody to know of this area I found and that they could only hunt it if I was with them. Not because I want to be selfish with the finds. I don't care what they find there and I hope they do well, but because I wanted to be there to SEE whatever other finds they recovered while I watched the history of this place be recovered from the past.
Well, today I hiked up there to finally get that barrel and noticed some holes dug. At first I was amazed that anybody else could ever find this spot, let alone risk getting to it. Then I noticed that there were several holes dug within a few feet of where I got that barber dime. I know for a fact that I dug any remotely decent signal around where that dime was because it didn't even give me a good signal. I also had told them this, and with that in mind it's obvious that they didn't let it slip to others what I had recovered up there on that ridge because those people would have no clue where I got the dime or any motivation to dig any real iffy signals right where it was at.
So, I've come to my own conclusions about who it was. Somebody that knew I was going to be out of town for a while and wouldn't have any risk of me showing up on them. Let's just say that I plan to keep new spots I find amongst any even more select circle of friends than I have already had been doing. I don't mind sharing spots with friends because to me half the fun is watching them find stuff at a place I discovered, but I do mind people giving me their word that I would be there with them when they hoped to make those finds. I work too hard at finding remote or virgin spots for other people to just use those spots when they feel like with whoever lord knows they feel like. You start sweating your behind off and hiking for hours on end looking for what might be worth while areas to hunt. When you start doing that and sharing them with me MAYBE I'll start bringing you back to my spots again.
I am NOT happy and don't try to tell me it wasn't you. After a remark you made to another friend about "cleaning out my sites" when I was out of town I think you obviously were doing more than joking. Bet you didn't expect me to go back up to this spot for a while since it's so hard to get to and by then the evidence would be gone? And the reason why I know it wasn't just somebody who found the site by chance was because of the obvious holes dug right around where I pointed out the iffy dime signal. It's going to take a long time to earn my trust again but you might. Start finding some virgin ground for a change and bring me along and then maybe we'll talk.
Sorry for the rant and I hope it didn't ruin what might have been a good story, but I'm pretty sure the suspected person is going to be reading this message. This is pure speculation on my part based on some very flimsy evidence so I could very well be wrong. I'll be willing to listen to any reasonable denial and we'll see if it "takes".
Oh, and here's the photos of the barrel. Somebody clue me up on if they think this is a musket and if so how old. I plan to electralysis it and then paint with some Extend to preserve it. Will look so cool in a glass case along with a barber half and v-nickle and a little "story" that one can wonder might have really happened.
Anyway, this spot isn't obvious unless you take a decent hike up some hills into the woods, and even then you pretty much need to be standing close to spot it. It's that remote in a sense and very hard to get to. The only way to get to it while staying on public land is via crossing a rather steep and slippery edge of a gully. Not something most people in their right mind would want to do, but one day I was hunting nearby in the woods when I spotted this "perch" that gave a good view of the valley below. After a little investigating I found one spot that would allow me to get over to it while still standing a good chance of not breaking my neck.
It was worth it, because I found my first barber half next to an old oak tree that gave a good front row seat view of the valley below, a 1903-S I think from memory. Anyway, there was also a v-nickle in the hole with it. I also found a barber dime and Indian about 90 yards away, but the real shocker was what I found within about 8 to 10 feet of the barber half- What looks like a musket with the end of the barrel "flowered" as some call it, or blown up as most would call it. At first I wasn't sure if this was just a pipe or a barrel but then I saw the crushed trigger guard and trigger at the other end of it. That's when I knew I had dug up some kind of gun barrel.
After looking at the end of it I think this might in fact be a musket because the barrel hole looks to be bigger than even a 10 gauge shot gun. I'm a gun hunter and have owned a 10 gauge, which is bigger than a 12 gauge, and yet this hole looks bigger to me. That combined with how big, fat, and heavy it is makes me think it might very well be a musket, which are older than muzzle loaders or flint locks. But, I'll let somebody with more knowledge of antique weapons give me a more informed opinion on it.
Which all brings up an interesting thought. I realize muskets are much older than a 1903 barber half but back in the day I'm sure people pretty much used what they had when it came to survival in the woods. Anybody think maybe this poor soul loaded too much powder into the gun, which exploded and probably took a good piece of his face with it, and in the process he lost the barber half and v-nickle? What's interesting is the gun was laying right near the edge of this overlook while the coins were behind it by about 8 to 10 feet. I could see the guy standing at the edge of this overlook and aiming his gun down into the valley at whatever friend (deer or other game) or foe he desired to kill and getting blown backwards by the explosion and landing were I found these coins. Yea, there is a good chance these items aren't related but I found no other old coins in the exact area of about 90 yards. The others were a good ways down the spine of the ridge.
Now, as a final note to this tale of wishful thinking, I'd like to bring up one other point. I had left the gun barrel laying next to a rock that day because it was getting very dark and I didn't want to have to carry it along with my detector over the steep way out of there. I had only been back up there a few times since but kept forgetting to grab that barrel to take with me. I had taken a few friends to this spot and even pointed exactly to one place where I had dug a barber dime next to a large oak tree and told them that I didn't get a very good signal from it due to the iron and hot rocks in that spot. Anyway, I also said I didn't want anybody to know of this area I found and that they could only hunt it if I was with them. Not because I want to be selfish with the finds. I don't care what they find there and I hope they do well, but because I wanted to be there to SEE whatever other finds they recovered while I watched the history of this place be recovered from the past.
Well, today I hiked up there to finally get that barrel and noticed some holes dug. At first I was amazed that anybody else could ever find this spot, let alone risk getting to it. Then I noticed that there were several holes dug within a few feet of where I got that barber dime. I know for a fact that I dug any remotely decent signal around where that dime was because it didn't even give me a good signal. I also had told them this, and with that in mind it's obvious that they didn't let it slip to others what I had recovered up there on that ridge because those people would have no clue where I got the dime or any motivation to dig any real iffy signals right where it was at.
So, I've come to my own conclusions about who it was. Somebody that knew I was going to be out of town for a while and wouldn't have any risk of me showing up on them. Let's just say that I plan to keep new spots I find amongst any even more select circle of friends than I have already had been doing. I don't mind sharing spots with friends because to me half the fun is watching them find stuff at a place I discovered, but I do mind people giving me their word that I would be there with them when they hoped to make those finds. I work too hard at finding remote or virgin spots for other people to just use those spots when they feel like with whoever lord knows they feel like. You start sweating your behind off and hiking for hours on end looking for what might be worth while areas to hunt. When you start doing that and sharing them with me MAYBE I'll start bringing you back to my spots again.
I am NOT happy and don't try to tell me it wasn't you. After a remark you made to another friend about "cleaning out my sites" when I was out of town I think you obviously were doing more than joking. Bet you didn't expect me to go back up to this spot for a while since it's so hard to get to and by then the evidence would be gone? And the reason why I know it wasn't just somebody who found the site by chance was because of the obvious holes dug right around where I pointed out the iffy dime signal. It's going to take a long time to earn my trust again but you might. Start finding some virgin ground for a change and bring me along and then maybe we'll talk.
Sorry for the rant and I hope it didn't ruin what might have been a good story, but I'm pretty sure the suspected person is going to be reading this message. This is pure speculation on my part based on some very flimsy evidence so I could very well be wrong. I'll be willing to listen to any reasonable denial and we'll see if it "takes".
Oh, and here's the photos of the barrel. Somebody clue me up on if they think this is a musket and if so how old. I plan to electralysis it and then paint with some Extend to preserve it. Will look so cool in a glass case along with a barber half and v-nickle and a little "story" that one can wonder might have really happened.
Ah, never mind....I'm off to drink a few and watch the Cavs win tonight's playoff game. 
