Finished Cleaning the Champion Hill Shell

[Tom Hughes]

Just finished putting the last touches on the shell found near Champion Hill. It's a Short Pattern 20 Pounder Read-Parrott.

 

[lelliott19]

Looks amazing! Congratulations!

 

[Tom Hughes]

Looks amazing! Congratulations!

Thanks!

 

[Patrick H]

Do you think it was an unexploded dud, or perhaps rolled off the ammo wagon and no one noticed?

 

[bdtex]

Very nice. I'm still waiting for @alan polk to post a picture of this one after he cleaned it up.

Ammo - Mud-Covered 12-pounder Finally Sees Daylight | Cannons / Artillery & Crew Served Weapons

Deer season ends and the relic hunting begins. Shuffled around in the mud and muck, swamps and brush, but lucked into this 12-pounder case-shot today while searching for an artillery impact zone. I had read about this supposed artillery affair in half-buried, obscure records. A lot of...

civilwartalk.com

 

[redbob]

Do you think it was an unexploded dud, or perhaps rolled off the ammo wagon and no one noticed?

View attachment 559186
Just finished putting the last touches on the shell found near Champion Hill. It's a Short Pattern 20 Pounder Read-Parrott.

A fine job and a good looking shell.
As it appears to have the remains of a fuse holder and that it has thrown it's sabot, I would think that it was fired; especially if it was found within Union lines.

 

[bayonet]

Do you think it was an unexploded dud, or perhaps rolled off the ammo wagon and no one noticed?

rolled off and no one noticed! What you think that happened often? Well ok there was that time that the Private leaned against the tree at night during movement to a live fire and the Claymore Mine fell out of his rucksack. I was so happy he had a helmet on when I smacked the heck out of him. Lucky we retraced our steps and found it

 

[alan polk]

Very nice. I'm still waiting for @alan polk to post a picture of this one after he cleaned it up.

Ammo - Mud-Covered 12-pounder Finally Sees Daylight | Cannons / Artillery & Crew Served Weapons

Deer season ends and the relic hunting begins. Shuffled around in the mud and muck, swamps and brush, but lucked into this 12-pounder case-shot today while searching for an artillery impact zone. I had read about this supposed artillery affair in half-buried, obscure records. A lot of...

civilwartalk.com

Well….long story short: Apparently no one in Mississippi drills artillery shells anymore. Or at least any that I can find. My buddy Tom got lucky… but my luck ran out.

Needless to say, the shell is resting in my garage.

What I actually want to do is to get it cut in half so that I can examine the insides. Years ago, I had a guy cut a 12-pounder I found in half and it revealed a lot of information. But to get it cut, I have to get it drilled. And, I'm afraid, even if I get it drilled, I'm not so sure there are any people left who will cut it in half.

We are getting old, Tex!! . Not sure there's enough younger people coming up to replace all the skills of the older generation.

But, alas, I'm holding out hope that something pops up!!!!

Thanks for the inquiry. Hope all is well!!

 

[redbob]

Do you think it was an unexploded dud, or perhaps rolled off the ammo wagon and no one noticed?

Well….long story short: Apparently no one in Mississippi drills artillery shells anymore. Or at least any that I can find. My buddy Tom got lucky… but my luck ran out.

Needless to say, the shell is resting in my garage.

What I actually want to do is to get it cut in half so that I can examine the insides. Years ago, I had a guy cut a 12-pounder I found in half and it revealed a lot of information. But to get it cut, I have to get it drilled. And, I'm afraid, even if I get it drilled, I'm not so sure there are any people left who will cut it in half.

We are getting old, Tex!! . Not sure there's enough younger people coming up to replace all the skills of the older generation.

But, alas, I'm holding out hope that something pops up!!!!

Thanks for the inquiry. Hope all is well!!

The only person that I have found to drill a shell was Carl Slitherwood from bulletandshell.com and he is in the Atlanta area.

 

[bdtex]

Well….long story short: Apparently no one in Mississippi drills artillery shells anymore. Or at least any that I can find. My buddy Tom got lucky… but my luck ran out.

Needless to say, the shell is resting in my garage.

Too dangerous to clean the outside without drilling first?

 

[alan polk]

Too dangerous to clean the outside without drilling first?

Not too dangerous. I actually cleaned a little on it. I'll post a picture of it when I get home. My crew and I are presently out at the farm cleaning up plots for deer season!!

 

[Tom Hughes]

Do you think it was an unexploded dud, or perhaps rolled off the ammo wagon and no one noticed?

I believe it was fired. It had shed its brass sabot which would've been lost once exiting the barrel of the cannon tube.

 

[Tom Hughes]

A fine job and a good looking shell.
As it appears to have the remains of a fuse holder and that it has thrown it's sabot, I would think that it was fired; especially if it was found within Union lines.

I also found about a dozen fired bullets around it....

 

[Tom Hughes]

Well….long story short: Apparently no one in Mississippi drills artillery shells anymore. Or at least any that I can find. My buddy Tom got lucky… but my luck ran out.

Needless to say, the shell is resting in my garage.

What I actually want to do is to get it cut in half so that I can examine the insides. Years ago, I had a guy cut a 12-pounder I found in half and it revealed a lot of information. But to get it cut, I have to get it drilled. And, I'm afraid, even if I get it drilled, I'm not so sure there are any people left who will cut it in half.

We are getting old, Tex!! . Not sure there's enough younger people coming up to replace all the skills of the older generation.

But, alas, I'm holding out hope that something pops up!!!!

Thanks for the inquiry. Hope all is well!!

Alan is right - It's definitely a changing world. I got lucky and found a local fellow to drill my Parrott but he said he isn't drilling any more shells. I don't know of anybody around here that drills anymore. That used NOT to be the case, but this older generation that found and drilled shells have apparently retired or died off.

 

[Tom Hughes]

rolled off and no one noticed! What you think that happened often? Well ok there was that time that the Private leaned against the tree at night during movement to a live fire and the Claymore Mine fell out of his rucksack. I was so happy he had a helmet on when I smacked the heck out of him. Lucky we retraced our steps and found it

I found fired bullet around it too, so there was action there...and shells were contained within a caisson. How do they just "fall out" of a caisson. No, I believe this shell was fired. It didn't have a sabot either, another indicator that it had been fired. Also the zinc fuze adapter showed trauma.

 

[Joe Whitworth]

About 25 years I watched a "renown" expert drill a 20lb Parrot shell I took him. To my surprise his setup was a kid's Radio Flyer wagon equipped with Craftsman drill press and a garden hose. This was in a neighborhood by the way. He clamped the shell in place, started the drill press and turned on the water to spray the shell. Then playing out about 30-40 feet of rope attached to the drill press down handle we took shelter in his garage. Peering thru the cracked door he proceeded pulling the rope to start the drilling. The door looked a bit flimsy to me so I stood behind a concrete pillar for better protection if it went off . All went well, I paid him the $20 fee and the surreal experience left me a great story to tell. I wonder the local Police and neighbors would have thought of his operation if only they knew

 

[bayonet]

Alan is right - It's definitely a changing world. I got lucky and found a local fellow to drill my Parrott but he said he isn't drilling any more shells. I don't know of anybody around here that drills anymore. That used NOT to be the case, but this older generation that found and drilled shells have apparently retired or died off.

"died off" as in the one guy that had one blow up on him

 

[alan polk]

Not too dangerous. I actually cleaned a little on it. I'll post a picture of it when I get home. My crew and I are presently out at the farm cleaning up plots for deer season!!

Here are a couple pics of it. As one can see, the fuze is damaged due to my carelessness when digging it out of the ground. It's the main reason I think it a good candidate to cut in half.

 

[1867crete]

Wow looks amazing!!! Can you imagine boxes and boxes of these in an artillery wagon?! Love the shell

 

[Tom Hughes]

About 25 years I watched a "renown" expert drill a 20lb Parrot shell I took him. To my surprise his setup was a kid's Radio Flyer wagon equipped with Craftsman drill press and a garden hose. This was in a neighborhood by the way. He clamped the shell in place, started the drill press and turned on the water to spray the shell. Then playing out about 30-40 feet of rope attached to the drill press down handle we took shelter in his garage. Peering thru the cracked door he proceeded pulling the rope to start the drilling. The door looked a bit flimsy to me so I stood behind a concrete pillar for better protection if it went off . All went well, I paid him the $20 fee and the surreal experience left me a great story to tell. I wonder the local Police and neighbors would have thought of his operation if only they knew

The guy that drilled my shell used a drill press. We sheltered behind a brick wall while the drill bit penetrated the shell. The shell was full of lead case shot balls and a tar matrix. It's safely disarmed now.