Author Topic: Stuff you've found (Read 4336 times)

JonnyReb · « **on:** November 11, 2012, 01:47:09 PM »

Just wondering what cool stuff ya'll might have come across outdoors and in the woods. This is a set of old binocs I found when I was about 14, hunting a hemlock forest mountainside in the town of Howard(village of Bath) N.Y. The lense eyepiece was shining in a sunlit spot beside a deer trail. The rest of the binocs was buried in the earth. When I cleaned them up they actually worked, not great but they do. They are labeled "Paris- Field-Marine". A reference I found to them dated them around 1900 and i've often wondered how they ended up on that steep hillside and who, probably long gone, left them there. If anyone knows anything about them(binoculars) i'd love to hear it, if you've found something cool please tell of it. J

kynardsj · « **Reply #1 on:** November 11, 2012, 02:28:04 PM »

If those binocs could talk I'd love to hear the story. Back in about 1968 some friends and I were hanging out by the river. I noticed a piece of metal sticking out of the bank and pulled it out. It was about 3- 4 inches in diameter and 12 - 15 inches long. Got to poking some of the mud and dirt off of it and found it to be a small cannon. Cleaned it up best I could and gave it to a friend that collected stuff like that.

JonnyReb · « **Reply #2 on:** November 11, 2012, 02:57:38 PM »

Geez you found a CANNON lol. How cool is that? Would love to know the story on that one. A boat mounted gun musta been? What River? J

Graybeard · « **Reply #3 on:** November 11, 2012, 06:10:09 PM »

Technically speaking that is not a binocular. Proper nomenclature is field glasses. No prisms just lens.

Old Syko · « **Reply #4 on:** November 12, 2012, 01:12:51 AM »

Plowed up a gold wedding band in a field we were working many years ago. No idea how it could have gotten there or how many years it could have been there.

Victor3 · « **Reply #5 on:** November 12, 2012, 01:44:05 AM »

Quote from: Graybeard on November 11, 2012, 06:10:09 PM

Technically speaking that is not a binocular. Proper nomenclature is field glasses. No prisms just lens.

I was taught that binocular is plural for monocular, regardless of prisms...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binoculars

bobg · « **Reply #6 on:** November 12, 2012, 02:56:49 AM »

Went fishing with my father when i was about 8. We were crossing a ditch to get to the creek. Looked down and there was a pair of binos. Picked them up. Said made Germany on them. The old man had them for years. Years later ask the old man for them. He told me too bad he sold them a long time ago.

kynardsj · « **Reply #7 on:** November 12, 2012, 11:15:47 AM »

The small cannon was on the Alabama river at Selma, Al. I kinda figgured it came off a boat too. Who knows, Selma had an arsenal during the Civil War. Word has it that a lot of guns went into the river when the northern forces were about to take the town.

mcbammer · « **Reply #8 on:** November 12, 2012, 01:59:43 PM »

Quote from: kynardsj on November 12, 2012, 11:15:47 AM

The small cannon was on the Alabama river at Selma, Al. I kinda figgured it came off a boat too. Who knows, Selma had an arsenal during the Civil War. Word has it that a lot of guns went into the river when the northern forces were about to take the town.

I If Alabama law hasnt changed ,all civil war artifacts belong to the state. a Group of treasure hunters were diveing near Selma a few years ago ,they found a cannon brought it up and were arrested.

kynardsj · « **Reply #9 on:** November 12, 2012, 02:26:41 PM »

Yeah they won't let you dive for stuff like that. I found that out after I was grown. In 1968 I was 15 years old. I was raised around Selma and know the things that are in that river. I have zero desire to dive in it.

hillbill · « **Reply #10 on:** November 12, 2012, 03:14:16 PM »

one time i was running a road grader on a remote dirt road. there was a savage 16 ga auto shotgun, a winchester 22 auto, a couple baxes of shells and a 8 pack of beer in a pile on a high bank in the brush.they had been there awhile and were wet thru, rusty and swollen stocks.cleaned them up and dried them out.they worked fine but looked bad.sold the 22 and still have the shotgun.it works like a new one but looks bad.very light good handleing bunny killer.always wondered how they got there.

Victor3 · « **Reply #11 on:** November 13, 2012, 12:34:38 AM »

When I was about 8 years old my Dad and I were target shooting in our spot, way out where nobody usually went on a 4x4 trail. It was overlooking a wash, with a high cliff where we used to stop at the top to shoot from. We were walking out to look over the cliff and found an H&R Topper 12 ga. Had a broken firing pin and it looked as though someone got upset that it wouldn't fire and tried to throw it off the cliff but didn't make it.

Dad made a new firing pin on his lathe and we used it regularly for about two decades.

JonnyReb · « **Reply #12 on:** November 13, 2012, 04:04:45 PM »

Amazing how many guns are lying around. Modern day versions of the indians arrowheads I guess. Made me remember the gun barrel my brother in law uncovered behind my house with a bobcat skidsteer. It is just the barrels of a 20?ga. Double barrel with the exposed nipples indicating a muzzleloader percussion. It got bead blasted and looks pretty good, very pitted of course. Still has its brass bead atop the 26" barrels. Not damascus either so I guess its a late percussion gun. The area I live in was mined heavily in the 1830-40's and had a much larger population then than now. Was other houses around then too, now long gone. One barrel was still loaded with shot/different sized pieces of rusty iron? All I can figure is it misfired sometime after cartridge guns came out and someone decided it was dispensable and proceeded to wrap it around a tree, which dents torward the muzzle indicate may have happened. I really need to get a metal detector and go looking for the lock and other possible large parts, the little screws and such would be long gone. J

FPH · « **Reply #13 on:** November 13, 2012, 04:15:17 PM »

I live near a Military training ground. When I was about 10 my neighbor and I found repelling ropes and a case of grenades. We were with my friends parents ( they were pottery hunters) and we had to turn them in. Have also have followed tanks around picking up belts of .50 cal.

FPH · « **Reply #14 on:** November 13, 2012, 04:32:12 PM »

My friends found a cave which had a rusty Peace Maker, some old rat chewed cloths and a crate of weeping dynamite. They took the gun and placed the box of dynamite on top of the small hill where they found it. They then came back to town, picked up an .06 and went back and shot the box from a safe distance........boom.

JonnyReb · « **Reply #15 on:** November 14, 2012, 02:12:38 AM »

I saw an unuseable rusty old colt peacemaker go for 800 bucks not long ago, that woulda been quite a find. J

FPH · « **Reply #16 on:** November 14, 2012, 04:54:14 AM »

I doubt that anyone still has the Peacemaker, that was 30 some odd years ago.

tdoor · « **Reply #17 on:** November 14, 2012, 05:27:26 AM »

Last weekend my wife and I went up to check a friends cabin. On the way back down I had to go behind a tree ( to much coffee) and found a bow, quiver and backpack some had left there.

SHOOTALL · « **Reply #18 on:** November 14, 2012, 05:43:25 AM »

I have found stuff when doing ground work. Most of the time it is hushed up and removed from the site by those in charge. One job down the street from where I was working was held up for over two years so the area could be dug up with dental tools and brushes.In Va. and Richmond in particular finding Civil War stuff and medicine bottles is vert common . Another one the grader took the top off over 30 graves. The best so far was a job near where I was working where two guys digging footers and found a box of money from a house of ill repute. Then there was the job I worked on where we dug up 500 LB bomb casings that had been burried during WW2 and forgotten about.

JonnyReb · « **Reply #19 on:** November 14, 2012, 08:49:47 AM »

Damn Shootall thats cool as *#%?:-)

SHOOTALL · « **Reply #20 on:** November 15, 2012, 04:11:27 AM »

When you roll a 500 lb bomb casing out of the ground with a backhoe the pucker factor is at an all time high.

guzzijohn · « **Reply #21 on:** November 15, 2012, 04:43:44 AM »

Out pheasant hunting with the temp in the mid 30s. Had been walking a ways and getting kind of thirsty when I stumbled a bit on something. Something turned out to be an unopened can of Coors. Hit the spot!
GuzziJohn

SHOOTALL · « **Reply #22 on:** November 15, 2012, 05:00:03 AM »

When in high school I played football. Our team buss run out of gas on the way home from a game. It was on a back road with almost no traffic . The coach driver went to get help , it was back when rotary phones were still in use no cell's. Well he said stay on the bus so as soon as he was out of site some got off and found a whole 6 pack in the ditch. He was pizzed when he got back as they had been consumed . But then back then 18 year olds could drink 2/3 beer.

JonnyReb · « **Reply #23 on:** November 15, 2012, 02:18:06 PM »

Made me remember a walk down a dirt road when I was about 10. Me and 2 friends had our bb guns and were "hunting" as we walked down torward the dead end. We had split up a bit when the buddy at point said "hey,. Look! ...Ballons!" we walked over as he picked up a red ballon from the ground, then a blue one. Something seemed strange about the ballons as he put one, the red one, to his lips and blew it up. It was long, and ribbed, and was the 1st rubber any of us had seen. My buddy turned green as began spitting and choking and trying to puke as I laughed as hard as i've ever laughed in my life. He never did die from it lol, as we got older we realized that cul de sac was a local lovers lane and all I can say is i'll bet my buddy pat never ever blew up another ballon in his life without thinking about that happening. -). J

FPH · « **Reply #24 on:** November 15, 2012, 02:27:10 PM »

My guys found an old sack with about $20.00 and a pitted nickle plated pistol in a wall we were demoing at an old Bar/Diner remodel. I kept a couple of gold certificate ones and gave the remainder of the sack to the owner.

Victor3 · « **Reply #25 on:** November 15, 2012, 11:24:58 PM »

Quote from: tdoor on November 14, 2012, 05:27:26 AM

Last weekend my wife and I went up to check a friends cabin. On the way back down I had to go behind a tree ( to much coffee) and found a bow, quiver and backpack some had left there.

So THAT'S where my stuff went.

I was behind the other tree (too many beans).

tdoor · « **Reply #26 on:** November 16, 2012, 07:50:40 AM »

discribe the bow, name of arrows and contents of backpack and I eill give back. I already know who the owner is and have got it back to her. now she has to buy me dinner

Rex in OTZ · « **Reply #27 on:** December 31, 2012, 02:04:54 PM »

Northern Nebraska just south the Niobrara river, In mid 1980's I'd walked back from some field work (bunching stack butts in the west hay meddow with a Farmall hay sweep) in need of a new governor spring I walked back and took a shortcut by taking a cow path down through a old ravine sand wash (Nebraska Sandhills) sticking out the sand was a spur rowel, I pulled out a old rusty spur, thinking it was kinda neat I brought it home and put it on the dash board of the pickup truck, went back and finished my work, later on a neighbor saw the rusty spur and was excited, said it was a civil war era army spur, close to a mile to the south and east of where I found the spur is a old Pawnee winter camp.
That winter camp just looked like bull holes* scatterd on the south slope of some hills in the pasture down the road, lots of arrow heads laying round if you know how to look for them.

* -A bull hole is circular depression 6-10 feet in diameter and a foot or so deep in a pasture created by a Bull digging up sand to flick on its back to get rid of flies.

Rex in OTZ · « **Reply #28 on:** December 31, 2012, 02:30:42 PM »

Mile's from anything, what the heck is this pile of dirt? I was asking what a raised piece of dirt was that ran south to north through a haymeddow, it was all grown in with very old Cottonwood trees, dirt was about 25' wide and about 8feet high, a 80yro neighbor said it was a rail bed for a spur line of a railroad that was supposed to cross a bridge down on the Niobrara River out north by the Round barn on the Boyd County side, seems the financing for the bridge fell through, this was branch line of the CB&Q Missouri Valley Railroad (1855/1867) 1980's era Nebraska most old rail lines were being closed down, and I find one hardly anyone remembers.

http://www.kancoll.org/books/andreas_ne/railroad/railroad-p4.html

over east by Verdel is the Ponca Fort
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponca_Fort

and just 36 miles as a crow flies is Fort Randall
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Randall

The Govt moved the santee in east of Niobrara Nebraska
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santee_Sioux_Uprising

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santee_Sioux_Reservation

ultramag44 · « **Reply #29 on:** January 09, 2013, 09:36:12 AM »

There was an old fellow that passed on perhaps 20 years ago he lived in upstate NY.

He claimed that about 1920 to have been hiking on what was called "old military road". There he claimed to have found a rusting cannon w/ a broken wheel.