11/18/15 Report - Old Bullet Or Not - That Is The Question. Predicted Big Treasure Coast Surf Disappears.

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

Picture submitted by Ken B.

Yesterday I posted pictures of what I thought might be an old bullet and asked for help with an ID.  I sent some information and pictures to Ken B., who sent me the following message in response.

I have forwarded the info to my friend Vernon, who said he'll give it look and get back to me.
After looking at some reference books I have here at the office , I proposed that it might be a "paper cartridge" conical round from around the Seminole War time frame, but with my limited expertise, that would qualify as a 'WAG" - a wild-assed guess!

  
The base and overall look makes this projectile look like a conical "Minnie Ball" type item, but I have never seen a Minnie ball with the crimping marks your bullet has.  Also, the crimping does not look evenly distributed like in modern ammunition, which led me to think of the old hand loaded paper cartridge transitional firearms between old style muzzleloaders and the full on brass cartridge....  I know some Spenser Rifles used paper cartridges.  I have attached a picture of one below...

Vernon, by the way, is a forensics expert.

Thanks much Ken.  I like your "WAG" terminology.  Your WAG is way more informed than mine, but I noticed the hash marked rim and wondered if that might mean it was from a paper cartridge.

Your comments helped.  I already learned a few things.  I'm eager to see what your friend has to say.  It is always good to network with bright people.  Thanks for your help Ken!

Here are some pictures I found after reading what Ken said. You can see different kinds of bullets in these paper cartridges.

Interesting! That old grungy bullet, whatever it turns out to be, has already led me to some new and interesting information.

It is important to be able to identify various things in the field.  They can be important signals.  If you can identify the approximate age or identity of items you dig up, that can be very helpful.

I remember various times when I didn't recognize the importance of things that I dug up and wish I would have known better.

You can use the following link to look at more pictures of old bullets and related items.

See pictures of more bullets and cartridges.

I'll try to keep you informed as I learn more about the bullet.

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Unfortunately I was right yesterday.  The predicted ten foot Treasure Coast surf has disappeared from the predictions already.  First they dropped it down from 10 to 7 feet, then they dropped it down some more.  Now it is only about six feet, which is not much different than what we already have.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

11/17/15 Report - Lead Bullet Find I'd Like To Know More About. Good Old Bullet Web Sites. Managing Errors.

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

I've been showing some things that I recently found on a trip up north. To me one of the more interesting finds was this lead bullet that was found along a path not far from some coins.  Old items such as a crotal bell and old horse shoe were previously found in the same area.

This bullet has a very concave base.  It is a touch less than 3/4 inch long.

I don't know much of anything about old bullets, but from what I recently read, it seems to me the ridge with the hash marks near the bottom of the bullet is for connecting a cartridge.  I think that means it is older, but I don't know that.

I'm sure there is someone out there that can give me an idea of the age of this bullet.  I also found a small lead strip that could have been used to make bullets.

I think what intrigues me as much as anything is the unknown.  I don't know much about this bullet.  I suspect that it might be old, but I might be wrong.

I guess it is the story that might be there.  The story hasn't emerge yet and maybe never will.  But in the scratches and scars there is a lot to think about.

I'd really appreciate it if you can give me an age range for this bullet.

Here is a good view of the indentations on the end.  How did that happen?  What do you think?

I ran across a couple excellent web sites on old bullets.  Here are the links.  They provide a lot of excellent pictures and information.

http://sgtriker.com/bullets.htm

http://www.tennesseelead.com/

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Mistakes are inevitable, but they can be intelligently managed.

It pains me to go back over a post after I think it is done and find a lot of mistakes.  It happens all the time.  It seems I never publish a perfect post.

The only way to completely avoid mistakes is to not do anything, and that is the biggest mistake.  If you get too tied up with making things perfect, you won't get much done.

In metal detecting there are different types of mistakes.  One type is the false positive.  That is when you get a good signal, but when you dig up the item you find it isn't any good.

Another type is the false negative.  That is when you get a trash signal or no signal at all when there is actually something good there.

Detectors aren't perfect and neither are the people that operate them.  You will get both false positives (when there is a good signal but no good target) and false negatives (when you do not get a good signal but there is a good target).  Of course it isn't really quite as simple as that in reality.

You can adjust your detector settings so that you get very few false positives, but that will probably increase your false negatives.  Or you can adjust your detector settings to eliminate false negatives, but that will probably increase your false positives.

To put it another way, decreasing sensitivity and increasing discrimination will cause you to miss more good targets, while increasing sensitivity and decreasing discrimination will cause you to get more false signals.

If you are aware of the trade-offs, have specific goals and a good idea of the probability of different types of targets, you can manage your errors effectively.

I'll talk about that more in a future post.

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The most interesting thing to me today is the surf predictions for the Treasure Coast.  This week the surf isn't supposed to get much bigger, but beginning next week the surf is supposed to increase up to 6 - 10 feet by Thursday.  That is interesting.  Too bad the long range predictions on MagicSeaWeed, especially when they predict a big surf, are not very accurate.  90  percent of the time the predicted big surf does not occur.  We'll have to wait and see how it develops this time.

Just added Tue. afternoon:  They already bumped it down to seven feet.  That isn't bad, but more decreases won't be surprising.

I'd still like to get information on a couple of the things I preciously posted as well as the bullet I posted today.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net