Many – probably thousands – of seventeenth century cannon shot have been found in the years since the Civil Wars. It is likely that the largest number were picked up and reused, or scrapped, within a relatively short period of the time they were fired or lost. Shot are recorded as having been removed from many of the major battlefields, notably Marston Moor and Naseby, over a very long period of time. More recently similar finds have been better recorded, and have added to our knowledge of artillery of the period. A 29 pound ball was recovered from the field of Hopton Heath, in 1940 helping to confirm contemporary accounts of a demi cannon being used during the battle. Similarly a 3 pound 7 ounce minion ball was found near Lansdown in 2002, and a saker ball at Cheriton at about the same time. Even more recently a 3.5 pound shot has been found at Taynton, Gloucestershire, probably indicating the site of a Civil War skirmish. Professionally organised archaeological excavation has also produced a sizeable crop of shot finds, notably at Longton Castle, Herefordshire; Sandal in West Yorkshire; Corfe; Dudley; Laugharne in Pembrokeshire; Banbury and Basing House.

Most Civil War cannon balls have simply been picked up from farm land, or, in the last few decades, found with the aid of metal detectors – but others have been located in rather more extraordinary circumstances. In 1845, for example, an ancient yew tree at Crowborough in Sussex was struck by lightning. When the shattered limbs were examined a ball was found still lodged in the wood. Later in the nineteenth century Bronsil Castle in Herefordshire only yielded up its secrets when the moat was being dredged. In 1915 a small round shot was removed from the tower of St Philip's church in Bristol, a relic of one of the sieges of the town. At a house in Maiden Street on the Melcombe Regis side of Weymouth there is still a shot wedged in the wall high above street level, and shot are similarly embedded in the masonry of Rushall Hall, Staffordshire. For many years there was also a ball cemented into the town wall of Hereford.

A newspaper story from 2001 describes the surprise of a couple at Bishop Auckland who found a cannon shot in their vegetable patch: this was later attributed to the nearby Civil War siege of Witton Castle.