DetectingWales.com

                             I have been beach combing and detecting on Talacre sands for several years now, and have recovered almost 60kg of .303 / .30 WWII projectiles, 5kg of copper shrapnel,1 X 0.45 projectile, a small number of rotting cartridge cases, 1 X 0.22 hollow point projectile, several 0.22 airgun pellets, and a couple of shotgun cartridge basses......both 12 gauge and 0.410.

                             Now and again, I find what I first thought were bits of lead shrapnel, but on closer inspection they turned out to be little lead cones. Each is perfectly formed, weighs 0.3 grams, and has a smooth base. Rather than being bits of shrapnel, they appear to be purpose made!!!!

                            Any ideas what they may be chaps?


                            I will post a picture later this evening.

True shrapnel is purpose made ie a shrapnel round which contains shrapnel as opposed to a fragmentation round which "fragments".
I would look at types of WWII rounds that were used and tested ;)

                                Here we go; picture as promised. Being so small, I doubt that they are dress weights.

                       

I have a number of them, in various stages of decay. Have often wondered what they are. I don't think they're lead, more like Aluminium.  I'll watch with interest.

Val

I think they are the contents of some kind of anti = aircraft shell / flak shell

Hi Val and Mike,
                           they look and have the feel of lead; no sign of aluminium or lead oxides. Scratch them with a sharp blade and they behave more like lead than aluminium. I think that they may be to small and light to be antiaircraft bits.

                           They come of a beach that was used as an air-to-ground target range, and was also covered in barbed wire and pill boxes. It was also mined during WWII hostilities. I wondered if they may have come from some sort of antipersonnel weapon.

                          I have only ever found four of the little critters and find them to be rather puzzling!

                            Here is, perhaps, a better picture that will give an improved idea of the size of the cones. The coin is a 5p decimal.

Might sound daft, I don't anything about bullets, but could they be dummies ??

Val

Hi Val,
             I can see where you are coming from; they do give the impression that they may be some sort of mini bullet. I get the impression that the similar items you find are larger.

             I have posted some pics on an other web site, and a military specialist on there may be able id them. Just waiting for the guy to pick up on my thread.

No, Chris, they look to be about the same size though most of mine are badly degraded. Pendine beach sounds about the same as Talacre. MOD site along side and plenty of practice shooting. And, of course, the area was used during WW11 when they practised the D.Day landings.

If we found as many coins as bits of blown up bits we'd be rich. :D

Val

                  Last year when I weighed in my beach scrap, it brought me in forty odd quid! At Talacre, being an old air-to-ground target range, thousands and thousands of projectiles finished up on the beach. 

                  If you detect the section of beach where the highest concentration of projectiles landed, it drives the detector wild and even people with super duper expensive detectors avoid it at all costs. But!!! if you wait until the tides strip the sand from the area, you can pick them up by the kilo, using eyes only.

                 I have had a George III halfpenny, George V, George VI, and  Elizabeth II coins; as well as modern decimal money. I am convinced that there will be lots more ancient items hiding under and in between the WWII scrap if only one has the patience to work through it. I have recently bagged a gold signet ring and a mobile phone. The phone has now been returned to it's owner ( in working order ), and I am presently working on trying to find the owner of the ring, but that may be mission impossible!

               Copper ship's nails also turn up amongst the bullets, but when one considers that there has been over a hundred shipwrecks within 11 kl of the beach, that isn't surprising. Wreckers also operated in this area!  :o

One of the beaches near me is a well known hot spot for rubbish but I've always had a sneaking suspicion that if there's rubbish there's got to be goodies.
I've tried it several times because it's handy but it's a nightmare. Talking to another local detectorist one day he told me that there used to be a fella that spent a lot of time there. What he used to do was mark off an area and pick it clean of rubbish and then go for the goodies. Apparently he was quite successful but how much patience must that take.
Last year after the sand had moved for a while some one else found £120 odd quid in one day from the stream area that runs down the beach. I queried this but was assured it was genuine as he had taken the coins to show off at a club meeting.
Goes to show what can be done but it sounds like a lot of hard work to me.

Val

                                  Well. I suppose you can look at it as hard work; or you can look at it as exercise! I look at it this way.......I am getting plenty of exercise, I'm not paying gym fees, I'm out in the fresh air with nature at my side, I'm meeting new people, and I'm doing a public service by removing sharp nasty materials that could injure some ones dog or child. Oh, and I am occasionally get some nice finds.

                                  The whole place is like a three dimensional, multi layered, jigsaw puzzle. At times you think you have put a piece into it's correct place, and then you find that it just doesn't fit the picture. At other times you get objects like those three little cones and they become a real puzzler!

                                  I think the guy you are talking about has the right idea, pick a small area and go over it inch by inch; just as if you were mowing a lawn. Only for an hour or two; or it will become a real back breaker!