I thought I'd go ahead and post this up now hoping to speed Pete's recovery along. Here are two shells that I found last summer (in the same location), and as you can see, there is some sort of rope or twine wedged between the sabot and iron. I haven't seen this before but do remember a discussion a few years ago about the purpose of the wood block associated with Mullanes. Some speculated it was to tie on the powder bag, but I think it was decided that it was there to aid in the working of the sabot.
So... do you think "this" rope placement was to fix ammunition? And if so, how the heck did they get it under the sabot on the Read?Or is it something entirely different?
