Found a cartridge casing in my duck's run area

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I've been wondering about this very thing, ever find them in chickens?

I shot .22RF for almost 30 years around the house before I got chickens. Probably tens of thousands of empties scattered about the back yard. Was wondering if my chickens would eat brass empties.

They most likely will...

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

There's an adage....
.....'you might be a hillbilly if there's cartridge casings in your yard'.

So your screen name has come true

Nope! Those don't count! Those are not my casings! They must be fired by myself!
And i still need to brew some shine…
Duck poop whiskey!

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Unless they were shooting Blazer .45 ACP steel case (unlikely due to the +P rating) only a metal detector will pick up on brass casings and jacket shards. It will help with finding any lead cores as well, who knows where or how they were shooting.

They were telling is they were only shooting in that particular area between their party-platform (now my work-platform) and the target at the forest rim…
Seems they were talking a lot to sell the house.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

When we were working on our new duck run construction we were very careful about dropping screws and washers. When we dropped one we knew it and stopped everything until we found it. I borrowed one of those magnetic poles from @Runner duck mom. I went around the run with it and found a ton of staples, screws, nails clips and all sorts of metal stuff that we didn't put there. They were all old, rusty and not something we had used.

I felt good and thought we had everything until the ducks started foraging in the new area and I couldn't believe all they dug up. 4" screws, big long nails, more staples every day there would be something sitting on top of the ground. I hope we've got it under control now because I haven't seen anything lately but it's certainly a scary thing to find all that crap!

There is still that glass marble somewhere around, that by now must have passed through all of my ducks! Whenever it gets pooped out another duck comes running to swallow it again before i can remove it!

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Metal detectors are really expensive, my husband has one. Most metals would be picked up for just $10 though.

Already ran with a borrowed shop magnet all over the place. One of my neighbors has an auto-repair shop and their magnet is called »Brutus«… - Sold the scrap metal to a chinese trader and they built this out of it:

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

BTW I wouldn't buy a metal detector for my husband, so my mom did last Christmas. I felt like it was a waste of money. Guess who was right. In one year he used it 2 times, and that was only because our sons begged him to!

Did they found the buried car in the yard?

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I would recommend the Garrett 150 or 250 metal detector. They aren't very expensive and pretty readily available. Really easy to use. Good luck! I would be worried too!

Thank you very much! That was the answer i was hoping for. I really have no clue about metal-detectors and don't have the time now to educate my self about the technology and terminology to understand all the lies in the advertisements…

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

We’ve had a lot of rain and things are always washing up yesterday I found a screw without the head laying on the walk way right by the feeder house. It’s very scary when you see how far down they drill into the ground. I am getting a metal detector I have one of those magnets.

No you understand how shocked i was! - I too thought i made my homework when suddenly the teacher changed the subject without notice.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

And Heavens help the whole world if I'm a "Redneck Oklahoma Hillbilly", right?!?!

Ya have hills in Oklahoma? - I thought of y'all as flatlanders!

 

[Saigey]

We lost one of our first ducks due to swallowing a screw. Xrays showed she had swallowed a 2.5 inch screw which I would have thought would be way too large and unappealing for a duck to eat. We just didn't know it was hidden in the yard.
$600 unsuccessful surgery and we were heartbroken, plus her sister was left all alone as we only had two ducks at the time.
$20 pole magnet purchased on the way home from the vet has picked up countless other items in our yard. It won't get everything but it's a start.

I'm so sorry! I know what you mean about thinking things must be too big to swallow, though. I have random bath toys for my littles. I had a couple of My Little Pony accessories I had kept for nostalgia purposes, and somehow Downey got an entire circular plastic comb that's about 2 1/2 or 3 inches all the way around completely in his mouth. I grabbed that thing from him so fast!