Collecting 1877-91 United States Indian Wars Battle Dug Relic Casings and Documenting Your Collection...by Troy R. Kinunen

[thebionicbigfoot]

I have become fascinated by dug relics, so I have begun to collect them. This article deals with some I recently acquired that were obtained during the time of the Indian Wars.

http://www.mearsonline.com/index.php?mact=News,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt01articleid=851&cntnt01returnid=97

 

Questions or comments can be directed to [email protected]

 

Thanks, Troy R. Kinunen

 

[45govt]

Hello Troy

I also have dug cases and other items from Indian Wars sites

A couple of my favorites are attached here

 

A early rare complete 1880's US belt plate

and a case with the liner instead of the wads reportedly found at Big Dry Wash battle site in Arizona

 

 

 

 

[thebionicbigfoot]

I love the belt plate, but the original wad is wild. I have not ever seen that before, Phenonimal specimens. The history of dug items is quite remarkable. Thanks for sharing. Troy

[gwb123]

A year or two ago the Iowa State History Museum in Des Moines had an exhibit titled something like "From the Museum Attic". I was featuring one of a kind items that were normally not on display.

 

It was quite surprising to see the following....

 

I have no idea if these are still on display or not.

[thebionicbigfoot]

A year or two ago the Iowa State History Museum in Des Moines had an exhibit titled something like "From the Museum Attic". I was featuring one of a kind items that were normally not on display.

 

It was quite surprising to see the following....

 

I have no idea if these are still on display or not.

 

I wonder if the museum would want to trade?

 

Troy

[Charlieb]

I've collected a nice(legal) lot of spent casings, rounds, etc. from Reno's valley fight at the Little Big Horn. As soon as I can reach the required number of posts I'll present them to you guys.

[viking73]

I've collected a nice(legal) lot of spent casings, rounds, etc. from Reno's valley fight at the Little Big Horn. As soon as I can reach the required number of posts I'll present them to you guys.

 

I'd sure like to see them. I believe this part of the battlefield is located on private land isn't it? I visited the battlefield two years ago and it was really incredible. I saw the re-enactment that is done there and visited the little museum at Garry Owen just down from the battlefield.

 

-Derek

[suwanneetrader]

I've collected a nice(legal) lot of spent casings, rounds, etc. from Reno's valley fight at the Little Big Horn. As soon as I can reach the required number of posts I'll present them to you guys.

 

I believe you can post informational photos at any time. You just have to have 50 certified posts "real info type" before you can sell. Richard

[Patchcollector]

Neat stuff.I don't "dirt fish" but I do enjoy seeing what others find.As for the documentation part, a "GoPro" type cam can be attached to a hat,your chest,or even the metal detector itself,and the videos used as part of ones' provenance.

 

 

There is a guy that uses one and posts his videos on YouTube.Here is a link to one of his videos:

 

 

 

 

 

[dunmore1774]

Seeing the spent cases from LBH reminds me of a project I heard about. Supposedly they can use the spent cases to "forensically" prove if a rifle was used there. A few high end auction trapdoors suppsiedly had this done and of course sold for big money. Does anyone know more about this project?

[45govt]

Hello Dunmore

 

There is a book on the subject by the people who did the work it is called "

Archaeological Insights into the Custer Battle: An Assessment of the 1984 Field Season

By Doug Scott

 

I am highly skeptical though as there is another book on a dig at the battle of K-H Butte in Arizona, an Apache battle, that found the cases to corroded to do anything with, and that is a dry arid climate in Arizona and the cases the LBH dig was using were in Montana which is a lot wetter where you would think there would be more corrosion.