No rest for the wicked!

[2ndoldman]

Sorry Chase but you are right I don't sleep

No marathon hunting secession yesterday for me. Only did about 3hrson Sunday.
Have I said how much I hate those wine bottle twist caps?
Dear wine makers will you please go back to corks!!!


Before I get to far ahead of myself I forgot to ask if any one had ideas about this.
Eric found the large shotgun shell on Saturday and the 12 gauge is mine.
The gun must have needed a tripod to hold it up.

OK back to today. Gas was covered again.

This little silver piece was a pendant of sorts before the lawnmower decided it was hungry.

And I thought that I had my first seal matrix, but plain bottom equals no matrix.

So I hit this little pocket spill which started out with 3 60s pennies then this showed up.

[2ndoldman]

Then a 68 quarter, sadly magnetic a couple more pennies and then a 68 nonmagnetic dime. :woohoo:

  The last find of the day I thought was a junk ring because of the size and colour.
It really is this golden colour.

How big is it?

The band says 925 Mexico Taxco. Another one that will not fit in my display case. inch:

[Hoss]

Back in the day there were 8 gauge shotguns usually turret mounted and used in commercial operations to hunt ducks and geese. That might be an old 8 gauge shell casing.  Run it by some old time duck hunters.
Personally I have heard of the eight gauge and only ever see one in a museum. They would use them to shoot flocks rather than single birds and then just go scoop up all the dead.

[Hoss]

correction they go down to  4 gauge.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gauge_%28bore_diameter%29
Information on this link might help you friend out.

[painshill]

I think what you believed might be a seal matrix is a "pipe-tamper" for use with tobacco pipes. Like this one:

[2ndoldman]

Thank you Hoss. The outside diameter of the head is 30 millimeters and the inside diameter of the casing is 26 millimeters. 

PS this one was found in the bush quite far away from any area where a flock might be.

[2ndoldman]

Roger that is a perfect idea. I think you have nailed it for me

[Kyflintguy]

Awesome finds Bruce, I think that ring is amazing That shell is HUGE! Talk about a sore shoulder, hope you or someone can figure out what it was to and why it was there. Thanks for sharing!

[2ndoldman]

For those of you who do not know about coins and silver content.
The US mint did away with silver coins in 1964 but the Canadian mint kept producing them until 1967.
In 1968 they put out some that were 50% silver and many that were clad coins.
So if it doesn't stick to a magnet it's 50% silver. :woohoo:

[painshill]

Hi Bruce
Shell casings aren’t really my expertise but I checked my database for anything helpful.
The cartridge manufacturer Eley Brothers was founded in the Edmonton area of London in 1828 and the name still exists today. That’s a centrefire shotgun cartridge, which came in during the 1880’s. Eley cartridges manufactured from around 1930 have a small roundel imprinted as part of the headstamp with the letters “ICI” (as well as Eley’s name) since the explosive charge was manufactured by Imperial Chemical Industries (founded in 1926). So that puts the cartridge sometime between the very late 1880’s and late 1920’s.
The 4 gauge shell is odd. If that’s from a personal gun, it’s what most folks over here would call an “elephant gun”. It would be an infrequent find even in Colonial Africa or India… never mind Canada. I would suspect it’s military and from a field weapon. It’s not a common calibre, although several companies made such weapons. There was a Gatling one-inch gun for example and also the more obscure Nordenfelt – both used by the British, but I don’t know about use in Canada. I guess there were others too. It might even be from a flare pistol? They come in various large sizes all the way up to 1 gauge.

[2ndoldman]

Thank you Roger, a military flare gun is a strong possibility for the area we were in.