How Many Of These Have You Dug Over The Years?

[Au4Gold2]

I leave them where I find them these days....have plenty of rust a relics in my garden. They add to much weight in my backpack while hunting.  I do like the hatchets and chisels miners used in the mines. 

[deathray]

Lots, but still enjoy them. Found a pile of about ten in the spot Ive been hunting this year, laying on top. Left them where found em. 

[klunker]

  I always question weather or not to remove an artifact from it's resting place. If I leave it the next guy will take it and if I take it, it has less meaning than if left in it's historical setting but it can be shared with others.

  I found three axe eye pick heads and an octagon crow bar in a pile one day. I bragged to everyone that I found "three pickers and a solid gold bar" - No one believed me---again. 

[beatup]

I don,t pick them up any more, i always seem to find them a mile or more from my transportation.

[RKC]

G'day,

Unearthing relics when detecting is nearly as much fun as getting the yellow from the ground.

Picks are commonly found here in New Zealand (Godzone). I got this one in among some tailings in Otago a few years back ... which I left in place. 

One mine on NZs West Coast has this collection of old timers picks ...

 

And the mine also has these ...

 

Regards,

Rob (RKC)

[LipCa]

Bob, if all could talk, what a book they could write...

[RKC]

On 2016-3-25 at 3:43 AM, LipCa said:

Bob, if all could talk, what a book they could write...

G'day LipCa,

But ... uncovered relic's can talk, and can often tell you a lot of what may turn out to be very useful! 

A couple of years back I uncover this when detecting one perfect summers day in Godzone. It was fully buried and well out of sight, but only had a couple of inches of dirt over it. What it told me was that there was the high probability there was a smelter close by. And after digging around I found some fire bricks which confirmed for me that the area was used by the old timers for smelting gold. 

This was an interesting find from another area. It was not buried but was placed at the base of a tree, easily seen. Its obviously a bolt from a gold stamper battery which attaches the iron part of the battery to its solid wooden base. But the baffling part is that I found it at least a kilometre from where  the closest battery had operated. That was a find that did not tell me anything much ... but was interesting nevertheless.

Battery part.

Bottles are always interesting to uncover.

Regards,

Rob (RKC)

 

[RKC]

G'day,

Nails, and a gadd (a small rock wedge or chisel ) used for working a quartz vein.

Battery parts.

Tools used in hard rock mining.

Regards,

Rob (RKC)

[Old Farm Hunter]

I have found about 5 of thee in the year even a cool double sided one ,and I have also refurbish a few of them cleaning them up sharpening them and still using them to this day. A reason i think they discarded them and threw them away is probably the handles broke on them or they just lost them .

[GB_Amateur]

In the USA if you're on Federal public land (such as BLM or National Forest) you're better off leaving them there.  A fine, equipment confiscation (or possibly worse) isn't worth the risk, IMO.