My 'little' site in Oxford

[dangermouse]

Well, what a great day yesterday! Just after arriving at the site, we found an old man... odd really as neither of us had our MD's on 'old man settings. But, this old man was great. He told us exactly where the grenade range was. Although we still have no idea really where they threw them from as we found parts everywhere! so they must have had 'incoming' where ever they stood!

But, when we started to search we found part after part. I totaled up 14 base nuts! (I missed some when I counted at the site Jay, Beat ya!!!) nearly all can be ID'ed to which is great. Along with those a small stash of filler caps, not of what we call "French helmets" or as you guys would more correctly call them anvils. Also parts of the centre column? Also, a few more heads and cartridges ofc. Upon kind of wondering back, got the top of a US grenade happy days! Some loose change £1.11

Jay however had a lovely couple of bits... .that I'm really finding it hard to tell you all about now, but I will leave it to him. Here's my pics anyways from my bits. They have only had a quick bath so still pretty grubby.

[Whitehunter]

Well done DM and Jay! That's so cool you found someone who rembers the area. looking forward to seeing Jays finds

Keep up the good work gang! You should go over the area again and dig the iron signals there could be some nice bits of shrapnel. Hope you can find the area they threw them from. That would be nice to find a few clips.

John

[dangermouse]

Yeah, its was a great day, time flew by.

LOL @ go over it again! We didn't even really start on the area properly, its huge. But, I did think about turning my MD to dig iron, but I will leave that for another day as I'm loving the base nuts so much!!!

Yeah Jay, pull your finger out and get those pics on here

DM

[jayh]

clasp knife!!


various internal grenade parts


various "heads"


spirally thing from inside of grenade(i think)the only one of these we found


a few cartridges



prob my fave find of yesterday.... grenade lever


filler caps


nuts and helmets !!!! (thats what we have nicknamed them anyway!)

[dangermouse]

whos the makers names Jay on the Bases?

[Steve T]

Some very nice finds there guys.

Jayh - What are you using to clean your stuff ? It's bringing the copper out of the brass and making your cartridges go a funny colour ! I use soapy water and a brillo pad, this retains the colour of the carts but also cleans them nicely.

Like WH says, you need to start digging the 'rusty iron' detections now. You will find some nice chunks of grenade. HOWEVER.......BE CAREFUL. There will be quite a few unexploded grenades around on the range. If you find one, don't even THINK about taking it home.......they can still easily go off, even after all that time in the ground.

Also, the 'rusty iron' detections will get you more of those striker arms. If you use a decent rust remover and go steady, you can get them to a pretty nice condition.

Cheers

Steve T

PS My detector picks up dog walkers and, strangely, female joggers. Must see if I can get it to detect 'sunbathing women' as well for my next beach visit.

[jayh]

I have been using Viakal but i wondered if i was using it wrong ,i must admit i was concerned about that as i certainly did not like the colour they were going think i will stick to water and elbow grease!

[dangermouse]

Wondered when you would comment

"There will be quite a few unexploded grenades around on the range. If you find one, don't even THINK about taking it home.......they can still easily go off, even after all that time in the ground." - Don't worry, I'm not even gonna touch them! That will be Jays job but seriously, if they are intact they can stay there. I'm not playing with them!

But, I do like the idea of finding nice chunks of grenade!

I want to attract female joggers! I guess that's what you get with a nicer detector

As for Jays cleaning, that may be partly my fault... I said I used Viakal to get the crap off... it works wonders. But, he ended up with a different type of viakal and I think it may be super strength.

[Steve T]

that may be partly my fault... I said I used Viakal to get the crap off... it works wonders. But, he ended up with a different type of viakal and I think it may be super strength.

LOL ! We'll blame you then.

Well, I use one of those metal pan scourers, the ones that have lots of curly bits of foil made into a ball, and then a brillo pad. Gets the stuff nice and clean without making them go that funny colour

Cheers

Steve T

[jayh]

ok i will stop using the viakal!!! lol
i will train the kids on the therapeutic beautys of metal cleaning!!