Metal Detecting finds?

[Stubby]

1 minute ago, Billhook said:

Yes the lead shot is negligible but the real pain are the brass cartridge caps.  The old ones had cardboard tubes which rotted and left a coin sized piece with writing. I remember finding my first one with my first detector.

  Blimey,  I thought, 12th century and King Eley!

They are not actually brass . Its just plating .  They are steel .  I pick them up a whole bunch at a time with a telescopic magnetic stick .

[Billhook]

1 minute ago, Stubby said:

They are not actually brass . Its just plating .  They are steel .  I pick them up a whole bunch at a time with a telescopic magnetic stick .

I sit here corrected, as usual!

[eggsarascal]

3 minutes ago, Stubby said:

They are not actually brass . Its just plating .  They are steel .  I pick them up a whole bunch at a time with a telescopic magnetic stick .

I realise you are getting near the grave Bud, but you definitely ain't stupid. All those idiots going out buying these flash metal detectors for hundreds if not thousands of pounds and all that's needed is a telescopic magnetic stick...

[Mike Hill]

50 minutes ago, Stubby said:

They are not actually brass . Its just plating .  They are steel .  I pick them up a whole bunch at a time with a telescopic magnetic stick .

They used to be brass,or even Copper.

[Peasgood]

15 minutes ago, Mike Hill said:

They used to be brass,or even Copper.

They certainly did, tbh I thought they still were.

I've been fooled into thinking I have found treasure when my metal detector picks them up. I have found a few pinfire versions too which was a bit more interesting. (equally worthless mind)

[Mike Hill]

I found a Cannon ball in the yard.I had been reversing over it for literally years before I bothered to dig it out.

There were quite a few Naval battles in Bergen Harbour,it might have come from one of those.

[Billhook]

11 hours ago, Stubby said:

They are not actually brass . Its just plating .  They are steel .  I pick them up a whole bunch at a time with a telescopic

11 hours ago, Billhook said:

I sit here corrected, as usual!

 

11 hours ago, Mike Hill said:

They used to be brass,or even Copper.

 

10 hours ago, Peasgood said:

They certainly did, tbh I thought they still were.

I've been fooled into thinking I have found treasure when my metal detector picks them up. I have found a few pinfire versions too which was a bit more interesting. (equally worthless mind)

magnetic stick .

I sit here  now uncorrected Stubby!

On reflection, many of the cases are very old and I suspect any iron plated ones do not last long in the soil, maybe that was the purpose of them.

Certainly brass gives a short sharp blip in the headphones and has a high number to match, but iron gives more of a blurred lower note with a lower number on the scale.  Do you know when they started to change to steel plated ones?

[Peasgood]

I don't know the dates of any changes but I expect the reason for brass is it won't cause a spark, this is quite an important feature of any materials used in explosives factories.

 

[Mike Hill]

51 minutes ago, Peasgood said:

I don't know the dates of any changes but I expect the reason for brass is it won't cause a spark, this is quite an important feature of any materials used in explosives factories.

 

No

 

Brass is elastic,so when the gun is fired it expands to the diameter of the chamber forming a gas seal.Then it relaxes to enable the spent case to be extracted. 

 

Brass plated  steel cartridges  have a lower height to the metal portion,even though it stays about the same diameter as the chamber once fired ,there is less bearing surface to make extraction too difficult.

[Stubby]

2 hours ago, Billhook said:

I sit here  now uncorrected Stubby!

On reflection, many of the cases are very old and I suspect any iron plated ones do not last long in the soil, maybe that was the purpose of them.

Certainly brass gives a short sharp blip in the headphones and has a high number to match, but iron gives more of a blurred lower note with a lower number on the scale.  Do you know when they started to change to steel plated ones?

I stand re corrected Bill 😁