Most Interesting Field Finds?

I haven't found anything like that but some other Surveyors here in Orlando did! Then all hell broke loose.... ?????ÿ

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/orange-county/orl-pinecastle-bomb-range-school-homes-071909-story.html

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@williamh

It's obvious you are a "normal" surveyor, find a bomb, bring it home, and plop it on the?ÿgranite kitchen countertop. ?????ÿ

Found an old cannonball once. It has a small hole filled with a lead plug that no one can explain.

A Native American grinding rock that was a call as a corner accessory in mining claim notes from 1876.

@FL/GA It amazes me the lack of thought that went into reusing some old bombing and artillery ranges. One of the stranger jobs I've done was doing a UXO survey on a military base.?ÿ Where I walked around and located UXO markers. This was all around base housing...?ÿ

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Don't worry,?ÿ that old shell was in the earth for over 100 years is completely inert. I honestly thought it was a funny looking pipe at first tell I exposed more of it. I found it with the business end facing the sky, the fuze was completely missing, and the interior was full of mud and water.?ÿ It was extremely rusty tell I put it in an electrolysis tank.

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several arrow & spear heads over the years.

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I would have told a co-worker it was a petrified dinosaur egg and left it where it was.?ÿ Mainly because I wouldn't have known what it really was.

Arrowheads??ÿ We got 'em.?ÿ I have yet to pick one up to bring home, though.?ÿ Not my thing.?ÿ Let the enthusiasts have them.?ÿ Sort of like picking up change from a convenience store parking lot.?ÿ I stopped doing that many years ago although there is always a coin or two near my path almost everywhere I stop.?ÿ Was taking a "sit down" in a convenience store restroom recently.?ÿ Looked between my knees to see a dime on the floor.?ÿ It may still be there, but I doubt it.

My best find is a victorian sovereign coin - 1/4 of an ounce of gold

While surveying we walked past a farmstead that had been abandoned in place.?ÿ The factual report is that one day in the 1950's the family walked out of the house and drove away, never to return.?ÿ The descendants still own the land, but will not go out there.?ÿ All of the farm equipment and tractors are still setting where they were on that day.?ÿ A peek through the windows shows furniture as expected and a kettle setting on the stove.

Found a big chunk of steel cable buried 2'+ down in a hard frozen gravel road that took me nearly 45 minutes to dig out with a jackhammer yesterday. Was within a foot of a centerline PC calc in an old subdivision where I'm sucking wind trying to find any corners. Does that count?

@williwaw?ÿ

NOPE, things that common In AK don't count ?????ÿ

@holy-cow?ÿ

I've worked with several people over the years that just seemed to have all the luck in the world for finding things. One would just be walking back from setting backsight or something, see an envelope just laying there, decide to pick it up and lo and behold there'd be a few twenties in it (split it with the rest of us, yeah right, he found it we didn't, but would most likely scream the loudest if it were the other way around). I was once walking along a road, Major highway behind me, hotel to my right and woods on the left. Spotted the top of something roundish back in the woods, but kept walking thinking why would there be a motorcycle helmet back there like that. After doing whatever I was up the road for and walking back, there was my compadre swingin something round in my direction, he had retrieved the bowling ball that I mistook for a helmet and was about to roll it up the road in my direction. Stopped him, took a look at it, had a few little dings, but fit my hand (really stretched though for fingertip use), tried it that night at my weekly league, did ok, but I kept it around and never used it again.

Does a remote Meth lab count?

@mightymoe?ÿ

Depends

Recently used or old and used up?

I found a big abandoned one of those out in nowhere no one cares Nevada near the the railroad valley north of Highway 6. Same one?

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@flga-2-2?ÿ

Funny.?ÿ Those are?ÿ the older articles.

I worked that site in January of 2013.

We found nothing in our area except a fast moving rare tortoise.?ÿ

Yeah.?ÿ Development of FUDS is interesting. The developers feel like why should they have to pay to clean up the 1 dollar an acre purchase price they picked it up for knowing there was issues with it.

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Don't get me started.....

Is the mortar shell an explosive shell? If so has it been neutralized??ÿ

@larry-scott?ÿ

Based on #5 in the list below where it shows a cut-through of the Schenkl shell, it did have explosive material inside.?ÿ The yellow section is a papier mache sabot for correct alignment within the firing tube.

https://www.minecreek.info/museum-philadelphia/union-field-artillery-projectiles.html

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@holy-cow So has this find been neutralized??ÿ

@larry-scott?ÿ

Let's clear this up for everyone since it's been mentioned more than once.

I said on page one that it is inert....

This isn't London and this isn't a WWII era 500 pound bomb found stuck in the mud and completely intact....

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Y'all need to understand, this is a 3" 1860's Union artillery shell. There weren't any fancy weapons being used in the Civil War... The Confederate States were still using smoothbore muskets and cannons firing round ball and grape shot.

The propellant and explosive of the day was black powder....

The shell is made out of solid iron with a hole bored down the middle and threaded at the end for a brass percussion fuse.

It was obviously fired at a Confederate position and was a dud. It sat in the ground for over 150 years tell I found it. I found it with the fuse missing and the threaded fuse end facing towards the sky and full of water.

Water neutralizes black powder. Potassium nitrate, which is one of the three ingredients of black powder is water-soluble and will completely wash out of the mix with prolonged exposure to water.

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I took it home and washed off the mud and further cleaned out the already barren cavity.

All it is now is a chunk of iron and a piece of American history.