Target Practice - Musket Balls from a Georgian Firing Range.

Since relocating to Coventry from London way back in 2008 I have gone out detecting just a few times and then without any serious mission in mind. However, over the past few years, my wife, Judy, has developed a keen interest in Medieval history and especially the period of the Wars of the Roses. When I regaled her with tales of actually finding coins of the period with the heads of the monarchs struck upon them she expressed an interest in having a go at finding the same for herself.

Alas we had nowhere to start, but we were attending a rugby match at Ricoh Arena and at half time I went outside for a smoke, where I ran into a local farmer. I knew something of his land and so I asked for permission which he readily gave. The next day we walked our dogs to a couple of his fields and began instruction in the art of swinging a search coil.

Learning to swing with it...

She was fine with it, albeit a little unsure about how to use it effectively and swang the coil upwards on every sweep wasting half her time and missing half of her targets. After half an hour she had the swing mastered and began to find things. 

Nothing of any interest appeared until we came to a corner where she began to dig lead musket balls. Five were discovered in a short space of time and so I got the chance to explain a very important tenet of detecting theory - that people gather together for activities in discreet areas.

One these balls had in impact mark and so we discussed the idea that we had found the butts end of a firing range and this ball was one that had hit its target. Of course, then we thought that somewere nearby and within a few hundred yards at most, would be the best area to search for other items associated with this activity - the firing line.

The five musket shot recovered. These are not a type of ball that I'm familiar with, because each possesses no less than three sprue marks around the casting-seam. I am guessing that they were not cast individually but in a complex multi-shot mould. 

We did not find it that day, but no matter - the idea was locked in her head. And I think it to be a very important lesson to learn, for people in the past gathered together to do things in certain places and for good reason - and such places had boundaries outside of which very little will be found associated with the activities that took place.

Target practice!