We Found A Civil War Era Shooting Range

While visiting my mother my best friend and I went metal detecting in an old city park with lots of hillsides and limestone bluffs. It is along a lake in the town where my mother lives.

While hunting at the base of a hillside I was thrilled to dig up a fired three ring Minie Ball. I called my friend Rick over to see it. Thinking it a single find I moved on, but Rick, who is an experienced hunter, thought that a bullet found at the base of a hill might indicate someone was taking target practice there. He continued to dig and started to find two and three ringers.

When I came back to see how he was doing he told me what he'd found and I started hunting the hillside as well. We ended up with about 17 bullets.

It's exciting to think that back in the 1860s or so someone stood on that spot firing away at some sort of target.

I also found a .925 silver ring in another park across the lake, just below the city cemetery. It was at the top of a steep hillside.