# did not expect to pull these!



## PorkDaSnork (Sep 18, 2020)

So I’m walking in my forest, with a metal detector and I’m striking big fat zeroes. My metal detector starts going crazy! I get a hit that is long and big, so I start digging it out and it is a 2 foot tall mortar shell! These are them all cleaned up. Big one is Soviet, pretty obvious because of the Cyrillic writing on the top, I think it’s from 1975-1985, and the small one is possibly Canadian/American/UK because it is in English on the bottom, inscribed “A/S MARK 10 MORTAR”, plus more things i don’t understand. It also says 1963 on the bottom, so possibly from that year? 710 mL Coke bottle to scale.

UPDATE: Friend has told me that the Soviet one is much older than I thought... it’s an Anti-Tank shell from WWII.

Any facts/thoughts would be nice!


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## PorkDaSnork (Sep 18, 2020)

Probably gonna put my pool cues in them or just donate them. The small one is light but the Russian one is around 30-40 pounds.


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## sandchip (Sep 19, 2020)

I'm confused.  You preach that we other members are supposed to leave artifacts where we find them for the enjoyment of others, while you take home your finds.  What am I missing here?


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## PorkDaSnork (Sep 19, 2020)

sandchip said:


> I'm confused.  You preach that we other members are supposed to leave artifacts where we find them for the enjoyment of others, while you take home your finds.  What am I missing here?


Because I found these on my private property, so they were technically already mine, I just didn’t know about them. 

You shouldn’t be digging anywhere that isn’t your property, or if you have permission from the land owner. Most shipwrecks are historical sites, so unless you’re salvaging them legally, you have no right to take things from them. I’m probably not gonna keep them anyway... perhaps donate them to the Canadian War Museum.


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## treasurekidd (Sep 19, 2020)

Brass makes good scrap metal cash!


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## RCO (Sep 19, 2020)

my guess is someone left them in the woods cause they didn't know how else to dispose of them , your not near any military bases or training facilities .you can't exactly put them in the recycling or weekly trash pick up


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## PorkDaSnork (Sep 19, 2020)

My 





RCO said:


> my guess is someone left them in the woods cause they didn't know how else to dispose of them , your not near any military bases or training facilities .you can't exactly put them in the recycling or weekly trash pick up


my thoughts exactly. I wasn’t near Base Borden so I wasn’t exactly near any sort of military bases... probably a veteran took em home as a trophy of war and then years later didn’t want them anymore and dumped them away.


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## PorkDaSnork (Sep 19, 2020)

treasurekidd said:


> Brass makes good scrap metal cash!


That will be my last resort, if I can’t donate them, sell them or use them... they’re too bulky to keep in storage.


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## sandchip (Sep 19, 2020)

PorkDaSnork said:


> Because I found these on my private property, so they were technically already mine, I just didn’t know about them.
> 
> You shouldn’t be digging anywhere that isn’t your property, or if you have permission from the land owner. Most shipwrecks are historical sites, so unless you’re salvaging them legally, you have no right to take things from them. I’m probably not gonna keep them anyway... perhaps donate them to the Canadian War Museum.



The following is our exchange from the "Dead eye" thread:


> sandchip said:
> Not worth anything? I have items that wouldn't sell for a dime, yet I wouldn't take a million dollars for them. Value, like beauty, is in the eyes of the beholder.


exactly why you shouldn’t take them for yourself.

*PorkDaSnork*

What's chafing my rear end here, Saint Pork, is that you are making the pompous and incorrect blanket assumption, that my items were probably acquired illegally, or at the very least, unethically.  Aside from my own land, everywhere I look is with written permission from the landowner, not only to cover myself, but to protect them from any liability in the event something should happen to me or my son while I am on their property.  And I most definitely do not search historic sites, State, Federal or otherwise.  I'd appreciate it if you'd save the self-righteous, moralistic lectures, at least until you know exactly what the hell you are talking about concerning the individual upon whom you are passing judgement.

What's almost amusing is that the item that came to mind that prompted my reply concerning value, is a pry bar about 5 ft. long that my grandfather made from a wagon axle during the Depression.  To anybody else, it would be worth no more than scrap value, but to me, it's priceless, because both of my grandfathers died long before I was born and items like this are all I have of them.  Exactly why I shouldn't take them for myself, huh?  LOL.


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## RCO (Sep 20, 2020)

PorkDaSnork said:


> My
> my thoughts exactly. I wasn’t near Base Borden so I wasn’t exactly near any sort of military bases... probably a veteran took em home as a trophy of war and then years later didn’t want them anymore and dumped them away.



there is a few military surplus stores in northern Ontario , not exactly sure what they sell , there is one in North Bay . someone could of bought them maybe ? or found them on a military base


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## Bohdan (Sep 24, 2020)

PorkDaSnork said:


> Because I found these on my private property, so they were technically already mine, I just didn’t know about them.
> 
> You shouldn’t be digging anywhere that isn’t your property, or if you have permission from the land owner. Most shipwrecks are historical sites, so unless you’re salvaging them legally, you have no right to take things from them. I’m probably not gonna keep them anyway... perhaps donate them to the Canadian War Museum.



So what are we doing here? We dig bottles and artifacts. Do you really think we should all just dig them up ... and then rebury them? Gimme a break! Some things in life just don't have a "politically correct" angle. GAWD!


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## hemihampton (Sep 24, 2020)

I dig them up & then rebury them, if they are Slicks.


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## FreeRangeAsparagus (Sep 27, 2020)

Since I get mine from the bottom of a river, I recycle post-1930 slicks and fragments to keep people from stepping on the sharp edges. Happens a lot. I keep the rest.


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## Drift (Sep 27, 2020)

FreeRangeAsparagus said:


> Since I get mine from the bottom of a river, I recycle post-1930 slicks and fragments to keep people from stepping on the sharp edges. Happens a lot. I keep the rest.



How/where do you recycle antique glass or fragments? I've heard recycle plants can't do anything with old bottles, and especially broken pieces, and get irate about having to deal with them, so I've stopped recycling my slicks and try giving them away for free, but even that can take a while sometimes.


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## sandchip (Sep 27, 2020)

Drift said:


> How/where do you recycle antique glass or fragments? I've heard recycle plants can't do anything with old bottles, and especially broken pieces, and get irate about having to deal with them, so I've stopped recycling my slicks and try giving them away for free, but even that can take a while sometimes.



There's a glassblowing shop associated with a local university not too far away from me.  I'd try checking out something like that in your area.  Most glasshouses love cullet and will probably be glad to take brokes and slicks off your hands.


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## FreeRangeAsparagus (Sep 28, 2020)

sandchip said:


> There's a glassblowing shop associated with a local university not too far away from me.  I'd try checking out something like that in your area.  Most glasshouses love cullet and will probably be glad to take brokes and slicks off your hands.



I had the same thought, called a few glassblowing shops and the consensus among them is they won't take old glass because they have no way of knowing how it was made. A lot of it has different melting points and mixing them together apparently never goes well. They all turned me down, but I did find a solution.




Drift said:


> How/where do you recycle antique glass or fragments? I've heard recycle plants can't do anything with old bottles, and especially broken pieces, and get irate about having to deal with them, so I've stopped recycling my slicks and try giving them away for free, but even that can take a while sometimes.



I did some research about recycling glass and it was really depressing at first, but I called my town and we are lucky enough that they actually put money into the recycling center. All our single-stream gets sent to a separate facility where they sort it out. The glass itself is crushed into minuscule fragments and used as a mix-in for asphalt when they build highways. It's not a perfect solution but by then the glass is so small and fine I feel okay about it being "back" in nature, not just as a bottle sitting in the landfill for the next 1000 years.


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## seniorscuba1 (Sep 30, 2020)

PorkDaSnork said:


> Because I found these on my private property, so they were technically already mine, I just didn’t know about them.
> 
> You shouldn’t be digging anywhere that isn’t your property, or if you have permission from the land owner. Most shipwrecks are historical sites, so unless you’re salvaging them legally, you have no right to take things from them. I’m probably not gonna keep them anyway... perhaps donate them to the Canadian War Museum.


hello One thing we find when diving around Halifax Harbor for 40 years is quite allot of old spent and live  ammo,  and don't be confused   these things definitely safe just because they've been in the ground for 4 40 or 50 years ,doesn't mean when it gets warm they could go off. There is an ammunition ship new Halifax called the S.S Claire Lilley   it struck a reef while trying to enter  Halifax Harbor 1942 the Navy spent many years well into the 70s and 80s and later cleaning it up. I was driving in the wreck with my son who was newly certified When We Came Upon a rather large shell , we looked at it for a few minutes laying amongst the wreckage it had no Fuse on the top but other than that it was completely intact we got an idea how big it was and when I get back to the boat I realized this is no artillery shell is the bomb designed to be dropped  from  an aircraft. We obviously left it right where it was , the Navy did some more cleaning picked up  a couple of these at the time they had spent 50 years underwater they took them out to a military test range wired it up ,filled the hole it was in with sandbags  and boom I saw a video and the  blast sent the sandbags straight up it was an explosion.  the A/S mark 10 mortor if not made safe can be really dangerous . if you are going to keep them i suggest you have someone  qualfied look at them and  be sure they're  safe


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## seniorscuba1 (Sep 30, 2020)

One of the thing just because some old veteran decides to take a couple of souvenirs home doesn't mean what he's taking his safe. A friend of mine was working at the Museum here in Halifax when two young guys brought an army Foot Locker into the museum it seems to grandfather passed away and it'll be nice to donate this stuff to the museum , so when they open the box to take an inventory of what was there they got the standard British Style World War II era tin hat , Canadian army uniform with various badges medals etc  a few other bits and pieces and in the bottom of the Foot Locker two live  mortar rounds it seems grandad brought them back from the war and they spent 40 years in the hot attic in the bottom of an army Locker my friend call them up and ask him if you left anything else they said no it was all in that box they were shocked when they learned about the live rounds. And I guess this was a common occurrence


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## PorkDaSnork (Sep 30, 2020)

Bohdan said:


> So what are we doing here? We dig bottles and artifacts. Do you really think we should all just dig them up ... and then rebury them? Gimme a break! Some things in life just don't have a "politically correct" angle. GAWD!


For Pete’s sake you are missing the point. How many times I gotta say it? Removing artifacts from Shipwrecks is illegal. No ifs ands or buts. That’s all I’m saying.


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## PorkDaSnork (Sep 30, 2020)

sandchip said:


> The following is our exchange from the "Dead eye" thread:
> 
> exactly why you shouldn’t take them for yourself.
> 
> ...


You’re so stupid it’s beyond belief. The pry bar is YOUR property. It was never someone else’s. That’s sentimental value, and it’s kinda cool too. Dead eyes are not. I never ever said you dug without permission, I was assuming you DID ask permission, because thats my point. You wouldn’t dig on someone’s property without consent, right? So what makes it okay for people to salvage wrecks without permission? Here, I’ll even give you a couple things to read.


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## PorkDaSnork (Sep 30, 2020)

sandchip said:


> The following is our exchange from the "Dead eye" thread:
> 
> exactly why you shouldn’t take them for yourself.
> 
> ...











						Abandoned Shipwrecks Act - Wikipedia
					






					en.m.wikipedia.org
				




This is what I’m pushing. I’m not trying to be a “saint”, I’m not trying to be politically correct, I’m literally enforcing the effing LAW.


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## seniorscuba1 (Sep 30, 2020)

PorkDaSnork said:


> Abandoned Shipwrecks Act - Wikipedia
> 
> 
> 
> ...


but I am from Canada !!  and as I said i started to dive in 1974 ( no doubt before you were born ) it was the wild west of Scuba those days . I remember getting stopped in a roadblock coming back from a wreck dive once when the RCMP   officer saw the  tanks and gear in the back seat . he asked me if i had taken any lobsters which is a big no no up here even than , I told him no I don't  have any lobsters. he asked if he could look in my gear bag i said go ahead  so he opened it and saw there was only wet dive gear and an empty scuba tank. I also had a goodie bag with 2 bronze spikes i found on remains of an old wreck . he opened the goodie bag saw the spikes and told me ok I could go . As long as I didn't have any lobsters it was OK . this was the way things were for quite a few years than . they are stricter now . and when the last of us old timers hang up the gear the days of finding portholes which is mounted over head as i write this is over


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## sandchip (Sep 30, 2020)

PorkDaSnork said:


> You’re so stupid it’s beyond belief. The pry bar is YOUR property. It was never someone else’s. That’s sentimental value, and it’s kinda cool too. Dead eyes are not. I never ever said you dug without permission, I was assuming you DID ask permission, because thats my point. You wouldn’t dig on someone’s property without consent, right? So what makes it okay for people to salvage wrecks without permission? Here, I’ll even give you a couple things to read.



I'm stupid?  Read your own direct reply to my statement right here.  And rise above the insults, Pork.


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## Mjbottle (Sep 30, 2020)

seniorscuba1 said:


> but I am from Canada !!  and as I said i started to dive in 1974 ( no doubt before you were born ) it was the wild west of Scuba those days . I remember getting stopped in a roadblock coming back from a wreck dive once when the RCMP   officer saw the  tanks and gear in the back seat . he asked me if i had taken any lobsters which is a big no no up here even than , I told him no I don't  have any lobsters. he asked if he could look in my gear bag i said go ahead  so he opened it and saw there was only wet dive gear and an empty scuba tank. I also had a goodie bag with 2 bronze spikes i found on remains of an old wreck . he opened the goodie bag saw the spikes and told me ok I could go . As long as I didn't have any lobsters it was OK . this was the way things were for quite a few years than . they are stricter now . and when the last of us old timers hang up the gear the days of finding portholes which is mounted over head as i write this is over
> [/QUOTE
> Your story reminds me of the time i bought some bottles from an older gentleman, and he was explaining to me how him and his friend dug them from the sand while diving at freeport harbour in the bahamas in the 70's, he described the way they got them so well and vividly i could picture the scenery  under the water that they had dived in.he sold me 9 beautiful bottles and told me they had brought back many more, i was amazed and asked him how they managed to bring all these back on the plane and he just looked at me with a smile and said "things were just different in the 70's" i loved that response lol. He was a realy cool dude. Anyways i just thought id share that since you brought back a good.memory for me.
> Cheers


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## seniorscuba1 (Sep 30, 2020)

sandchip said:


> I'm stupid?  Read your own direct reply to my statement right here.  And rise above the insults, Pork.
> 
> View attachment 212518


 hi Hi I see in your profile you live near Georgian Bay 7 minute if I'm not mistaken it is from what I've heard the greatest shipwreck dive spots in North America if not the world. the wrecks are in freshwater I have never drove there unfortunately but from what pictures I have seen and talking to people that have been to Georgian Bay is something to see, Atlantic Ocean off Nova Scotia is a little different it has more life and all the Great Lakes combined but the corrosive effect of salt water in the pounding of Atlantic storms and the fact that these wrecks I've been blown salvaged long before Scuba diving was discovered means shipwrecks especially wooden ones don't last long. I'm sure I can take you over spots where rather large wooden constructed vessels are wrecked and you probably wouldn't know  there was a shipwreck there. As for the Petra the wreck the deadeye came off of are those made of iron it' has been  on shallow Reef 110 years  and was blown and heavily Salvaged long before the scuba divers I could put the deadeye back but there's nothing to put it on the wreck is rusted smashed pieces of iron spread across a shallow Reef


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## seniorscuba1 (Sep 30, 2020)

Baby do that that manthank you sir brings back good memories for me to it was seat of the pants scuba t hose days. Using an old ex Navy flat neoprene wetsuit  that you had to load the powder to put on an old set of Tanks -38 cubic foot co2 fire extinguishers stamp usn 1942  with a 1 1/2 inch to 1/2 inch bushing  so  the valves will fit do call plumbers nightmares no shop would ever fill rem now and an old double hose regulator that was made in the sixties and that was about it no gauges when you ran out of there you pull down your reserve in the divers over. God I miss those days


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