Finding the best line of fire from Civil War relics

Nemo

Nemo

Established Users
Wonder why I always recommend the use of the GPS to mark and plot the locations of CW relics?

Here is a study I just completed from an 1861 practice area that shows how to calculate to best line of fire for bullet locations. Took almost 3 years to get all the locations and we will be looking for more along the trend line.

The study is at:

http://www.pochefamily.org/campsites/

Hopefully, this method will be of use.

Nemo
 
Hey Nemo & Kim,

That's a nice piece of work. Thanks for the effort and for sharing the findings.

If this was a practice area, then there would be no pressure to load and fire quickly, so:

1. Why would there be dropped bullets ? Wouldn't he pick them up and use them ?
2. Did you work the area for percussion caps ? Per the drawing there should be at least 14 in that area.
3. What is the yardage from the shooter to the farthest fired bullet ?
4. And could the pattern of fired bullets indicate that the shooter was actually sighting his rifle ?

Cool stuff, this one's going in the files. THX !

Rodney
 
Rodney:

Good questions. Here are some answers.

1) You might be right about drops unless you were very green and had an ugly Sgt. in his face telling him to load weapon. Not quite sure why.

2) Percussion caps are not found in this area and neither are casings because of high acidity and farm fertilizers.

3) Yardage was about 200 yards between first and last relic on trend, since this was 1861 most practice areas in this area had targets at about 100 yards. Overshots and misses went out to at least 200 yards. I can imagine a young person from Chicago or some other large city of the Midwest who had never handled a firearm just starting out.

4) The Lorenz RM had a block sight which was not adjustable.

Hope these are suitable answers.

Nemo
 
Hi Nemo,

Thanks for the answers and input. Good point about the farming and fertilizers. Didn't know about the Lorenz not having an adjustable site either. The yardage and target location makes a lot of sense, too, in that most of the fired bullets seem to gather at or near the half way point.

How did you learn that this was a practice area ?

And, what other types of bullets have been found in the practice area ?

THX !

Rodney
 
Could have been a couple of torn cartridges as well, being drawn out of the cartridge box...... powder spilled out and unusable..... discarded.

That, and the guys practicing..... one guy says to the other, "Hey, lets drop a couple of these cartridges so that 140 years from now some guy with a metal detector can come along and try to piece together just what the heck we were doing here."

:wink:

And, Rodney, This is Dave's piece.... all his research, etc..... all I did was offer a suggestion or two.

Take care,

Kim
 
Rodney:

How did I know it was a practice area?

1) within a mile or so of a known campsite.
2) found only bullets and nothing else but some melted lead. GPS mapping showed bullets were concentrated along two low hills running east-west. Shooters probably shot north. This was an 1861 PA found so mostly .58 minies, some .69 bullets and RB, French triangles, pickets and several varieties of pistol bullets. Even found the RR tags that went on ammo boxes.

Site was reoccupied in 1863 by cavalry and found several fired carbine bullets from various post-1861 models (including Smith and Gallagher) and some possible horse tack but could be from farm it's on.

the only .54s found described in the trend.

The dates were confirmed in ORs and Dyer's Compendium.

Nemo
 
Hey Guys,

Very nice piece of research. That's what makes you successful.

One more question: what model GPS do you use ? To get that kind of accuracy it must be a good one. Most I've read about are good to 3 meters or about 9 feet.

Thanks !

Rodney
 
LOL ....LOL

The only requirement is that it be capable of receiving WAAS satellites along with the regular GPS satellites.

I use OziExplorer to do the mapping of waypoints on either Air Photos or Topomap images. I would go to their site (OziExplorer) and look for a compatibility list.
I have an old steam-driven Garmin Etrex Venture which are a clear day when the wind is blowing right can get me in at 8 feet but a lot of the time I am in the 10-20 foot range. Kind of like asking how deep your metal detector goes. The new Garmins have usb connections and flash memory like a digital cameras and a very nice color display.

Other guys use different mapping programs also. If you are just getting started with GPS I would recommend the following site:

http://gpsinformation.net/

There is a lot of good information there.

Nemo

Much of this is going to be in my new book which I hope to get out in 2007
 
Hey Nemo,

Thanks for all the good info. Yes, indeed, I was looking at that Garmin Etrex Ventures unit. They're now claiming 3 meter accuracy along with the WAAS correction. I'll take your advice and check out the web link.

Can't wait for the new book, LOL ! I'll get a copy so that I can stop asking you so many questions !

I do appreciate the help, thanks !

Rodney
 
Rodney:

Glad to be of help. PM me if you have anymore questions.

3 meters (9 feet) seems to be the limit for hand-held GPSs. This would be about the thickness of a pencil point mark on a standard topo map.

The guys who are making out like bandits are, believe it or not, are farmers! Their GPS equipment on their tractors can keep a 6-inch accuracy in the field. The tractor literally "drives itself" up and down crop rows. During harvest the farmer can sit in his air conditioned cab, sip ice tea and listen to Reba while the tractor drives itself.

They now have sensors on implements which measure soil moisture instantaneously and vary the amount of fertilizer and other chemicals going into the ground.

All we have to do is figure out how to get a metal detector mounted on a tractor and we would be in. LOL

HH

Nemo
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top