Scary Things Found In Caches

[+Simply Paul]

Ok, we've all heard about condoms and cigarettes in caches, but can anyone beat this, which I found today... (Powers That Be, please accept this as my having informed you about it. More info on demand!)

 

 

SP

[Leoness]

Looks like a centre fire .303 or 7.62 round.

 

Is it live?

[+rutson]

With that ammount of knowledge, I'd better avoid North yorks for a while Maybe that's how you persuaded Slytherin

Edited August 1, 2004 by rutson

[+Simply Paul]

I know it was hidden in an ammo box but....!

 

I have no idea if it's live - I'm no expert. It looked just like a riffle bullet to me and I wasn't going to take any chances with it. I didn't even want to remove it from the cache - what the hell would one do with such a thing? If I handed it in to the police there'd be questions about where it came from and I didn't want to bring caching into disrepute...

 

My log makes reference to it so the owner has been informed and can go and remove it if they feel it's contraband.

 

I might be making a load of fuss about nothing but I didn't half jump when I dropped into onto the stony ground at my feet...

 

SP

[Leoness]

With that ammount of knowledge, I'd better avoid North yorks for a while  Maybe that's how you persuaded Slytherin

 

LOL!

 

Actually, I shoot full bore target rifle for a hobby. My OTHER hobby, apart from geocaching!

 

I have no idea if it's live - I'm no expert.

 

To tell if it's live, look at the bottom, where the firing pin would hit the cartridge. It looks like a centre fire so if it's NOT live, there will be an indentation in the centre of the bottom where it HAS been fired and the bullet has just been pushed back into the top. If there's no dent in the middle of the bottom then it could well be live!

[+º]

from left to right (all 7.62 x 51 mm):

- emtpy cartridge

- blank cartridge

- normal bullet

- tracer bullet

 

 

here you can see where the pin hit the cartridge (left):

 

my advice: just bury it somewhere deep in the forest - you're rid of it and it doesn't matter to anything. You only get into trouble if you show it to the police ...

[+Simply Paul]

Panic over then, the firing pin had been struck as ih had a good sized dent. Still, a rather worrying thing to find in a cache, to my mind.

 

Anyway. phew!

 

SP

[+Happy Humphrey]

Shouldn't Pharisee have something to say on this matter?

HH

[+NickandAliandEliza]

You only get into trouble if you show it to the police ...

Why?

[Cholo]

It appears that this isn't a live round. I haven't seen one in years, but this may be a roach clip. A spent casing is used along with a piece of metal turned on a lathe to look like a bullet. An electrical connecter called an alligator clip is soldered to the bottom of the bullet and this is pushed into the casing.

[SlytherinAlex]

Maybe that's how you persuaded Slytherin

You just used beer !!!

[+Pharisee]

Shouldn't Pharisee have something to say on this matter?

HH

Yes... and he will.

 

I only read Simply Paul's log at 7 o'clock this morning and immediately phoned the cacher that left the bullet in the cache. It's a dummy 7.62mm round that was purchased from Duxford Air Museum. While I agree, it's not perhaps the best thing to leave in a cache, it was intended as a bit of a joke, given that the cache box is an ammo box of somewhat smaller dimensions that usual. If it's still in the cache when I next pass that way, which I do fairly frequently, I'll take it out.

[+Simply Paul]

Now that I get the joke I think it'd be a shame to lose it from this cache. Perhaps a bit of string and a sticky label saying what it is and where it's from attached to it would do? As John said in this mornings e-mail to me it's harmless...unless someone chucked it at you! If that was made clear I'd personally have no issue with it what-so-ever. Just a thought

 

SP

[+º]

You only get into trouble if you show it to the police ...

Why?

'cos weapons law in the UK is quite strict as in Germany - if you come up with a real bullet you'll have to answer a lot of questions but it's a dummy anyway.

[Leoness]

'cos weapons law in the UK is quite strict as in Germany - if you come up with a real bullet you'll have to answer a lot of questions but it's a dummy anyway.

 

When my grandfather died a few years ago, we were tidying out his bungalow and came across some live mortars and anti aircraft rounds in his garage which he'd kept as souvenirs of the 2nd WW.

 

We called the police, who came round and peered gingerly into the garage, keeping what they thought was probably a "safe" distance and they then 'phoned the Army bomb disposal team who arrived a couple of hours later, identified what they were and took them away for distruction.

 

We explained how we thought they'd got there and that was that. No questions, no grilling, no arrests. I think the police were more concerned with the public's safety than anything else.

[+Sparky-Watts]

It appears that this isn't a live round. I haven't  seen one in years, but this may be a roach clip. A spent casing is used along with a piece of metal turned on a lathe to look like a bullet. An electrical connecter called an alligator clip is soldered to the bottom of the bullet and this is pushed into the casing. 

Now why didn't I think of that in my youth?

 

My father was in the Reserves here in the states back in the late 60's, and after he passed away last year, we found many, many items he had "forgotten to take out of his pockets when leaving the base". These included, but were not limited to, an entire M-1 Garand in parts, several hand grenades, several smoke grenades (gone as of July 4th ), thousands of rounds of military issue M-1 ammunition (regular and tracer rounds), half a dozen or so .50 cal rounds, half a dozen AAA rounds, a mortar round, a tank round, and a couple of bayonnets. No, we didn't call the bomb squad. We did, however, properly ( ) dispose of the more dangerous items.

Edited August 2, 2004 by Sparky-Watts

[+Pharisee]

When my grandfather died a few years ago..........

Had a similar occurrence when my grandmother moved. Granddad and been many years dead but his shed and barn had remained pretty much as he left them. During the 'clearing out' I came across something covered in a couple of long woollen socks in one of the cupboard. It turned out to be a pump action Winchester repeating rifle, similar to the sort that you sometimes see in the shooting galleries in fairgrounds. It had obviously been well oiled when it was last put away (at least 50 years earlier) as although it was a bit rusty the action still worked. Further searching brought to light quite a large quantity of .22 rim fire ammunition. Dad vaguely remembered Granddad using it for shooting rabbits before the war but had long since forgotten about it. I packed the whole lot up, walked into the local police headquarters and asked to see the firearms officer. When I dumped the whole lot on his desk he didn't seem at all bothered about it. Just wanted to know where I'd got it. He asked a few question, filled in a couple of forms and I left it all with him. Sometimes wish I'd kept it

[+Sparky-Watts]

When my grandfather died a few years ago..........

Had a similar occurrence when my grandmother moved. Granddad and been many years dead but his shed and barn had remained pretty much as he left them. During the 'clearing out' I came across something covered in a couple of long woollen socks in one of the cupboard. It turned out to be a pump action Winchester repeating rifle, similar to the sort that you sometimes see in the shooting galleries in fairgrounds. It had obviously been well oiled when it was last put away (at least 50 years earlier) as although it was a bit rusty the action still worked. Further searching brought to light quite a large quantity of .22 rim fire ammunition. Dad vaguely remembered Granddad using it for shooting rabbits before the war but had long since forgotten about it. I packed the whole lot up, walked into the local police headquarters and asked to see the firearms officer. When I dumped the whole lot on his desk he didn't seem at all bothered about it. Just wanted to know where I'd got it. He asked a few question, filled in a couple of forms and I left it all with him. Sometimes wish I'd kept it

Do you have any idea what something like that would bring in terms of money in America?!?!?!? Holy cow, you could have financed your children's schooling, or if you don't have kids, you could have financed a lovely holiday for yourself and the Mrs. If there's no Mrs. Pharisee, you could have financed the rest of your life!!!

[+Pharisee]

Do you have any idea what something like that would bring in terms of money in America?!?!?!?   Holy cow, you could have financed your children's schooling, or if you don't have kids, you could have financed a lovely holiday for yourself and the Mrs.  If there's no Mrs. Pharisee, you could have financed the rest of your life!!!

Somehow, I don't think I'd have been granted an export license for it and I'd have been in deep doo-doo if I'd have tried selling it in this country!!!

And we're talking about 30 years ago, anyway.

Edited August 2, 2004 by Pharisee

[+Sparky-Watts]

Do you have any idea what something like that would bring in terms of money in America?!?!?!?   Holy cow, you could have financed your children's schooling, or if you don't have kids, you could have financed a lovely holiday for yourself and the Mrs.  If there's no Mrs. Pharisee, you could have financed the rest of your life!!!

Somehow, I don't think I'd have been granted an export license for it and I'd have been in deep doo-doo if I'd have tried selling it in this country!!!

Alack and alas, 'tis true. Would your government have allowed you to keep it for sentimental reasons? I have an old Winchester that my great-great-grandfather carried with him on horseback when my family came into the new country to homestead their land. I wouldn't part with it for any amount of money.

[+Pharisee]

Would your government have allowed you to keep it for sentimental reasons?

The British Government.... sentimental..... Jeez, what planet are you from ???

[+The Hokesters]

The British Government.... sentimental..... Jeez, what planet are you from ???

Mental yes - sentimental? Not on your nelly!

[+NickandAliandEliza]

You only get into trouble if you show it to the police ...

Why?

'cos weapons law in the UK is quite strict as in Germany - if you come up with a real bullet you'll have to answer a lot of questions but it's a dummy anyway.

No you wouldn't.

 

Taking it into a police station and explaining how you came by it doesn't exactly show dishonesty.....

 

Now if it was a grenade, I expect the person on the front counter wouldn't be best pleased!

[+rutson]

Now if it was a grenade, I expect the person on the front counter wouldn't be best pleased!

Depends on the relative positions of the pin and the grenade

[+NickandAliandEliza]

Now if it was a grenade, I expect the person on the front counter wouldn't be best pleased!

Depends on the relative positions of the pin and the grenade

I'd already be out the back gate so b*&&er where the pin is!!!

[+sTeamTraen]

Just got back from Canada... spent 3 days caching in beautiful, unspoilt Algonquin Park.

 

What on earth can have inspired two cachers (or one doubly stupid one) to leave a lighter in two separate caches, in a high-risk forest fire area ??

 

In each case I logged my official trade, then marked the lighters as "confiscated". They went straight in the trash (when I got back to Toronto).

 

The Ontario cachers have enough problems (see pinned thread in the Canada forum) getting the parks jobsworths to stop treating caching as littering, without this kind of idiocy. And of course the same applies - redoubled in spades - to anything that might look like a genuine explosive or other form of ordnance.

[Cholo]

It turned out to be a pump action Winchester repeating rifle, similar to the sort that you sometimes see in the shooting galleries in fairgrounds.

As it did to Sparky, this caught my attention. The first thing I thought was, " did it have an octagon barrell?". Finding somthing like this would be more like finding a vintage Martin guitar or a 1940 Ford coupe stashed away in an old farmer's barn. Yes, I would've kept it, and I wouldn't shoot it or sell it.

[+Pharisee]

It turned out to be a pump action Winchester repeating rifle, similar to the sort that you sometimes see in the shooting galleries in fairgrounds.

As it did to Sparky, this caught my attention. The first thing I thought was, " did it have an octagon barrell?". Finding somthing like this would be more like finding a vintage Martin guitar or a 1940 Ford coupe stashed away in an old farmer's barn. Yes, I would've kept it, and I wouldn't shoot it or sell it.

Yes, to the best of my recollection, the barrel was octagonal, but as I said it was around thirty years ago when we found it. I have absolutely no idea how my Grandfather came by it or when. He apparently owned and used it prior to WWII. It was very rusty but with a bit of persuasion was made to operate. The stock and wooded grip on the slide under the barrel had suffered badly.

As you're no doubt aware, owning guns in this country is ... well.... difficult. It was just easier to dispose of it and the ammunition by the only legitimate means open to us. It's potential value as a collectors item was never given a thought.

[+Sparky-Watts]

It turned out to be a pump action Winchester repeating rifle, similar to the sort that you sometimes see in the shooting galleries in fairgrounds.

As it did to Sparky, this caught my attention. The first thing I thought was, " did it have an octagon barrell?". Finding somthing like this would be more like finding a vintage Martin guitar or a 1940 Ford coupe stashed away in an old farmer's barn. Yes, I would've kept it, and I wouldn't shoot it or sell it.

Yes, to the best of my recollection, the barrel was octagonal, but as I said it was around thirty years ago when we found it. I have absolutely no idea how my Grandfather came by it or when. He apparently owned and used it prior to WWII. It was very rusty but with a bit of persuasion was made to operate. The stock and wooded grip on the slide under the barrel had suffered badly.

As you're no doubt aware, owning guns in this country is ... well.... difficult. It was just easier to dispose of it and the ammunition by the only legitimate means open to us. It's potential value as a collectors item was never given a thought.

Ah, well....ya do what ya have to do! It's a shame, but I can understand trying to stay on the proper side of the law.

 

As for scary things in caches, I've not found anything bad yet, just a few food items and maybe a pocket knife or two. I've taken the knives (both cheap pieces of junk) simply because they are forbidden. Personally, I don't mind finding knives, as I am a knife collector, but anything that is against the rules leaves the cache and goes with me. Keeps the game on the up-and-up for everyone that way. I don't think a bullet would scare me any, so long as it wasn't in the chamber with a string tied to the trigger and the lid of the box. That'd kinda put a damper on the day......