10/4/17 Report - Beach Erosion and Conditions. Jupiter Beach. Musket Balls and Lead Shot Finds. Nine or Ten Foot Surf. PM Update.

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

Seven Foot Cliff At Fort Pierce South Jetty Park Yesterday Afternoon.

Most of the sand they dumped here a couple of months ago is almost gone.  It is all renourishment sand.  That doesn't mean there can't be something old in it.  I showed one WW II hat emblem that I found in renourishment sand there once.  It depends upon where the new sand came from, and I don't know where that is, although I think it is from near the south bridge in the river.

Fort Pierce South Jetty Park Looking South Tuesdsay Afternoon.

You can't see it in the picture, but there was a detectorist working the slope at the bend.  That is the an area I mentioned once as producing a lot of WW II dog tags.  It is also not far from an old wreck that is believed to well picked over.

Frederick Douglass Park Looking South Yesterday Afternoon.

As I said yesterday, the water was high and getting back over the berm, but there were no cuts or other erosion at John Brooks or Frederick Douglas Tuesday afternoon.  I suspect most erosion will be around barriers or obstacles such as rocks, jetties or erosion control structures ( irony ).

I was going to take a picture at John Brooks too, but the rain started pouring down and I couldn't get the picture.  It turned out to be so much like Frederick Douglass that it wasn't necessary anyhow.

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Joe D. sent the following report from Jupiter.

South of inlet conditions are pretty much unchanged! Worked a little farther south past the renurished beach and did find a small coin line along a small cut that had formed from morning high tides! Hoping the King Tides will create a few more cuts since the wind and waves are making low tide hunting unavailable awhile!

Thanks much Joe!
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I showed a lot of lead and musket ball Irma finds.  In one other post I mentioned the following web site that was referred to me by Trez.

http://woodsrunnersdiary.blogspot.com/2016/04/more-on-small-shot-for-smoothbores.html

If you do some research, you'll find that musket balls can be tell you a lot.  Don't just look at them as round balls of lead even though that is what they look like.

The size can tell you a lot.  You can find tables that tell you the size to be used for different types of wild game, for example.  One size is recommended for pigeons and another size for ducks and another size for geese.

The size can also tell you something about the type of gun.  Smaller sizes were used as buck and sometimes shot with larger size balls.  The next larger size would be used for pistols, and then carbines and muskets.

You can find tables giving the size and weight of lead shot recommended for both different kinds of wild game and different fire arms.

By looking at the examples I've posted the last few days, I think the musket balls were being made at a camp on the beach.  Any spare lead could be melted and poured into molds.

Here are a couple links to start, if you want to learn what you might be able to tell from musket balls, or perhaps more properly, lead shot.

http://www.rubiconheritage.com/2011/12/16/biting-the-bullet-the-archaeology-of-musketballs/

https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/266828

The PAS finds database is a good resource.  Too bad we don't have something like that in Florida or the U. S.

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There was a time when everyone would be eagerly hoping for a nine or ten foot surf.  Now after the hurricanes and big surf that brought very little erosion, it seems that a lot of people are discouraged, but even without big cuts and erosion this is still better than the continual summer south winds.  It gives you a chance, and at any time a window of opportunity could open up.  I'm rating Treasure Coast beach detecting conditions as a 2 on my 5 point scale.  It is far from excellent, but certainly better than those boring summer conditions.  Some old things will be found.

Here is the Wednesday prediction summary.

I love the windy rainy weather.  I guess I associate it with some of the better hunting days of the past and for me it is a lot better than the hot beating sun.

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One day remaining to respond to the blog poll.  Shortly after that one, there will be another blog poll to follow up.

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PM Update

I took a look at John Brooks, Frederick Douglas and Waton Rocks and saw very little change in any of the beaches from yesterday.  No cuts other than to the base of a few new front beach dunes in one case, and some renourishment sand near the back of the beach in another case. 

It looked like a the first two beaches might have a flat spot near the waters edge.  There seems to be a wide sand bar in front of those beaches.  Maybe it will separate from the beach a little at low tide.  I still feel a few old things will be found on the Treasure Coast.  I thought there were some spots worth checking out even if they weren't terribly exciting.  I have not seen and have no reports from Vero/Sebastian yet.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net