Productive Summer Hunt

[Dan(NM)]

I got out this past Sunday to hunt a place we hunted a couple weeks back to give it another pounding. It's a WW1/WW2 dump site out in the desert, it looks to have been burned somewhere and dumped here and spread out. Just under the surface is powdered ash, some things look burnt, others don't. It's littered with every type of metal you can think of, copper, alum, brass, lead and iron everywhere. I was running park 1, using the 6" coil, recovery speed 6, sens 18,  0 disc, 0 iron bias, 2 tones with my tone break at 17 and ground balance at 0
  I decided to go over the same area that me and another guy had hit previously only from a different direction, ? man we both suck lol, it was like we never hunted it before. I spent close to 9 hours going slowly thru all the crap, I was amazed at how much we had missed !! I finally had to call it a day when it hit 104 ?
  As you can see, it pays to hit a spot from different directions multiple times.  My favorite finds are the large rosettes, the 2 WW1 dog tags, the heart rosette and the collar buttons.

[GB_Amateur]

Great finds, Dan.  It seems that spot is button paradise!  Oh, do you know what that thing is with the heart on it?  I found an identical one last weekend hunting an old homestead.  Do you think it has military origin or just a coincidence that it showed up there?

[Dan(NM)]

38 minutes ago, GB_Amateur said:

Great finds, Dan.  It seems that spot is button paradise!  Oh, do you know what that thing is with the heart on it?  I found an identical one last weekend hunting an old homestead.  Do you think it has military origin or just a coincidence that it showed up there?

It's a military horse bridle rosette from WW1, when I first dug it, I thought I had a watch fob.

[strick]

Thats a great place to hunt..I have a place similar but only WW2 stuff and not nearly as productive as your spot... here is a link to the bridal rosette says they may be civil war era 

https://www.etsy.com/listing/613318664/vintage-brass-heart-horse-harness-buckle?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=civil+war+bridle&ref=sr_gallery-1-19&sca=1

on your second picture there is a button that has a round ball and what appears to be a flame on it middle of the picture left side second button...do you know what that is? I got one like that last weekend and my friend says its a bomb squad insignia ?

strick

[steveg]

Dan -- 

Just an amazing amount of cool finds, you have there.  From such an unsuspecting-looking site, in the middle of the desert!

Great recoveries!

Steve

[Dan(NM)]

1 hour ago, strick said:

Thats a great place to hunt..I have a place similar but only WW2 stuff and not nearly as productive as your spot... here is a link to the bridal rosette says they may be civil war era 

https://www.etsy.com/listing/613318664/vintage-brass-heart-horse-harness-buckle?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=civil+war+bridle&ref=sr_gallery-1-19&sca=1

on your second picture there is a button that has a round ball and what appears to be a flame on it middle of the picture left side second button...do you know what that is? I got one like that last weekend and my friend says its a bomb squad insignia ?

strick

That bridle rosette was, from what I was told, used during the civil war, but, I can't confirm that.  The collar disc you mentioned is the first one I've found from the 3 sites we hunt. Im unsure  what it represents.

[Skate]

That was a great day of hunting for sure. Well done and you cleaned them up well.

[Dan(NM)]

4 hours ago, steveg said:

Dan -- 

Just an amazing amount of cool finds, you have there.  From such an unsuspecting-looking site, in the middle of the desert!

Great recoveries!

Steve

Thank you Steve, it is mind-boggling how much stuff is out here. It sure makes for some interesting hunting.

[Chase Goldman]

5 hours ago, Dan(NM) said:

That bridle rosette was, from what I was told, used during the civil war, but, I can't confirm that.  The collar disc you mentioned is the first one I've found from the 3 sites we hunt. Im unsure  what it represents.

The “Shell and Flame” insignia belongs to the Army Ordnance Corps.  The two rosettes/collar insignias that have this symbol in your pics are slightly different.  In the context of your other finds are likely are WWI and WWII vintage but the upper one with the more prominent and spread out flame is definitely an older design that could pre date WWI (the lower more modern “3D” shell and flame insignia is oriented inverted, the flame shoots out of the top of the shell, the upper one is oriented correctly FWIW).  Great finds that cleaned up nicely.

Context can only provide likely clues, the pic below is of what turned out to be a modern day uniform insignia for a South Carolina Field Artillery National Guard unit that I found at a SC site that was coughing up colonial era flat buttons and Spanish silver.  Thought it was a much older piece of interesting brass upon recovery until I was able to later ID it.  Still interesting, just not old.

 

[StevenB]

That site looks awesome!  I dug an identical heart "rosette" earlier this year at an old home site, and found all kinds of conflicting information online about its age and use.  Then I flipped open my 1929 Montgomery Ward catalog and lo and behold I found the answer (see photo).  It's actually a buckle cover, not a rosette.  Mystery solved!