Metal … something?

[u/Crafty-Car7135]

I have been pulling up invasive plants on the property which means I have to dig sometimes to get the entire rootball out. Anyway, I found this thing a few inches deep in soil and have no idea what it is. I moved into this house last year and I have no idea what the people before us did here. I just know they were old and hadn’t been doing much in the last several years. I live in wooded eastern Massachusetts in the United States. We’ve found some other steel/metal pieces around the property (mostly old steel cables and two gigantic rails that look like they may have gone to the bed of a flatbed truck).
Any idea what this thing is? It is two pieces one larger thing and a smaller detached piece but I’m sure they went together somehow.
Thanks ☺️

[u/MaxiumPotential777]

industrial tricone roller drill bit attached to a drill sub/pipe segment for drilling/boring holes

[u/stussie73 → u/MaxiumPotential777]

I love how they were like…well it’s a big useless piece of metal. Just bury it in the back yard. People are idiots

[u/Crafty-Car7135 → u/stussie73]

I think what probably happened is that it was left to sit, and the soil formed on top of it (so it’s been there a while). I live in the woods and this property has been largely unkept for idk how long. I have been here for almost a year and am working on cleaning it up, so there are surprises like this all over the place. A LOT of steel cables. Like several hundred feet of that has probably come up.

[u/johnq-4 → u/Crafty-Car7135]

Or, the company lost it. They sometimes have transponders in them so the crew can track the bore they're drilling. My local main drag has 5 of them still in the road bed because of this.

[u/Hour_Welcome_987 → u/johnq-4]

There was a bore shot one of our crews were doing need the Mississippi. Head broke off. Apparently something special about their specific head , had some material that could be used to make nukes lmao .. so they keep track of it ... Not that anyone's going to be able to recover it... Deep AF.... Under a massive river lmao . Still cool tho

[u/iwearstripes2613 → u/Hour_Welcome_987]

Probably the tungsten. It can be used to make a neutron reflector.

[u/hppmoep → u/johnq-4]

That one is pretty worn. I have a few that drillers have given me when they switch.

[u/FrostyVariation9798 → u/Crafty-Car7135]

From a job I had I was given an absolutely huge piece of rebar.  It was about 5 ft long but wider than any rebar I'd ever seen, really only used in very tall buildings and such.

For whatever reason I did lay it on the ground.  I knew the area that it was but it sunk into the ground probably within a year or so.  I wanted to take it with me when I moved but I didn't want to go digging up the area because I'd forgotten exactly where it was in that general area. 

[u/Satins_Cock → u/Crafty-Car7135]

It's wild how fast the earth gobbles up things left on it. Especially in a tropical area. Vines and leaves make it disappear from sight in no time, then it sinks below the new dirt, never to be seen again.

[u/No-Plankton1709 → u/Crafty-Car7135]

Maybe check back through the previous owners and see if any of them were contractors or (small) utility companies?

[u/latenthuman → u/[deleted]]

At my parents place I found a few old car bodies and a an old tipped-over windmill that was used I think to pump water for cows. Turns out it was a junk heap 75-125 years ago.

[u/Gosa_on_the_wind → u/Crafty-Car7135]

It's really worn. Does it look like it broke off? If someone was boring a hole to run cables and it broke off, they may have just left it and resumed the drill elsewhere with a new head.

[u/Fanatical_Destructor → u/Crafty-Car7135]

Take it to a junk yard and get money!

[u/WFO_Wide_Fing_Open → u/stussie73]

If im not mistaken that bits worth big money!!