Hi all, currently up in Canterbury for work and staying in a wee town with quite a bit of history it turns out. Anyways, went for a very quick detect last night just before dark and before the heaven’s unleashed, only managed two hole’s and this was in number two… An Enfield Snider?
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It certainly looks like an Enfield or Snider - a good find - now you want to see if the rest is somewhere close. That means digging up the ferrous signals.
Now all you have to do is put a label on it “Found on the site of Gate Pa” and you have a historically significant relic which you can put on Trademe and sell it for a fortune. (Statement made tongue in cheek)
Cheer’s Mr. Law, certainty am stoked, first old gun part.
Ha, I know exactly how that scenario would go down, not very well methinks…
It’s the full moon, pulling the goodies to the surface…
If everyone pooled their respective bits of armory, d’ya reckon we might have enough to build one 
I can supply the muskie balls, just need the rest.
Gday Shane, yeah I remember seeing it and thinking it was awesome, and went back and had a look that’s what I based my conclusion on. Pretty cool finding thing’s like this, found with a Garrett 400 too!!
Praise be the moon goddess mudwiggle! Keep them coming. Not sure why the old boy’s were pulling their trigger guard’s off their Snider’s, but I’ll take it. Combined, I imagine it would be a rather convoluted mash of an engineer’s nightmare!!
The interesting point is that someone out there will be looking for a Enfield/Snider trigger guard and after the Tang was straightened and repaired it would be worth a considerable amount…$100 or so. Great finds.
Really? Didn’t even think of that, I shall though keep hold of this one, the next however, financing an upgrade and all… Years ago my cousin found the original Alex dump, and amongst mountains of stuff he found an old pistol, but just being interested in bottles left it… Still irks me to this day, but you’re into what you’re into I guess!
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I collect old guns and bottles and come to think of it I collect everything…windmills long since defunct, stationary motors, coins, bottles, old guns, military stuff, books, even got a sluicing gun…plus many other collections. That tip would have been a ball. I heard that a couple of cottage ink bottles were found there…they are worth a few hundred each. But finding an old gun and discarding it is a hanging offense!
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Yes it is, after being hung drawn and quartered! Unfortunately I was overseas when that got explored, it was a bit like trench warfare by the time a few people knew about it apparently.
I pretty much spent my childhood with my cuz on our bikes after school and weekends digging behind old pub’s and gold mining area’s looking for old timer’s rubbish, was great fun. One of my favorite find’s was from a Chinese hut in the Roxburgh gorge, (the terrible new cycle track pretty much has destroyed it now) but in a hole in the floor was a full vial of opium and cardboard gambling chips! I’ll post pic’s if I find them tomorrow.
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I collect Chinese goldfield artifacts and the area you mention had always fascinated me. I once found a full bottle of European ‘Davis Patent Painkiller’ better than any alcohol per glassful as it was full of opiodes and a bottle would send you to laa laa land very quickly I guess.
Years and years ago I picked these up - I used to spend a lot of time at Macetown and some came from the hills near there but most came from Waipori.
The vial you speak of with Opium - did you get it identified as Opium as I believe that most Opium came in little brass tins? I had what I thought were Opium vials but it turns out that they are not - they are actually pill bottles.
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WOW! Now that is a collection! I’ve only ever found one whole soy jug. No I haven’t had it verified bit the tiny bottle that contains it is in multiple museum’s as being an opium vial, so hopefully… When held in the hand for a while it turns liquidy. I take it you didn’t find the boxed revolver or the scales in the field, is it a webbly?
Hi LL
I saw a large crucible the same as on the bottom shelf a couple of weeks ago that must have still had a good half to one ounce of gold imbedded on the insides of it. This guy had picked it up in the bush.
Cheers
Love the scales
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No its an original cased Beaumont Adams with Braziers Patent ramrod. It came from an old goldfields estate and was sold to an early collector who has long since curled up his toes as well so that is how I got it…but yes it is a Gold fields gun.
I showed this to my old Doctor and friend who happens to be New Zealands leading expert on the Chinese on the Goldfields. He has written four books and now on a fifth, all on the Chinese on the Goldfields. I told him that i had an opium vial because everyone told me that is what it is. He corrected me and told me that is not correct. They were actually a pill vial. in any case for anyone who can read Chinese - the lable says all!
I also have European scales but they are ont he top shelf and that doesnt feature in the photo. The crucible was an ace find and once again I am jellyarse! The guy who found it would be over the moon.
This is the gold mold from the Alexandra Dredge - cost me $40 at a Garage Sale - the guy I got it from had been casting lead ingots in it and when I cleaned the lead residue out here was gold adherring to the sides and base of the mold - a bonus. I began to clean it out then decided that it looked better where it was. Conversation value I guess.
Two molds were found on the dredge and the second one which was unused or appears unused is in the Alexandra Museum. Personally I prefer the used one!
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Awesome collection, and a good friend to have, the Chinese element in centrals goldmining history is brilliant, adding another layer to a colourful past. I remember as a kid exploring Cromwell’s old Chinatown below the township. Lammerlaw, have you seen the remains of the old dredge still in situ near the vet’s between Clyde and Alex? Worth a look.
No I have not seen it and always wanted to as I have seen photos of it…one day…if I dont wake up dead first! Over the years I had found a few of the vials when I have been digging up in Central but when they were taken out of the ground they went ‘ping’ and split into two or three pieces.