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  1. After moving to Minnesota this summer, it was time to see what the local parks still hold. The items in the pics represent a total of three times out. Some highlights: 2 50¢ pieces, a silver dime, a buffalo nickel, a State Farm license tag, and 29 dimes from one park that were mostly in one area above the soil hidden by grass. The tool shown is a spark plug wrench that I modified after speaking with an old-timer years back. It is what I have been using here so as not to leave a trace as it has been fairly dry. It works well for coins that are not too deep, and it does a great job hooking the pull tabs. Equinox 800 with 15" coil using park 1
  2. Recently a group of us made a trip to the mountains in Colorado to search for coins and relics. We have made trips to these same sites in the past and came away with some nice coins, relics and tokens. Some of the sites can test your patience with the amount of iron you encounter lying above and below the surface, but putting in long hours of detecting you are sometimes rewarded with a few keepers. Three of us in the group were using XP Deus II and two were using the original XP Deus and we were able to come away with some nice coins, tokens and interesting relics. One of the tokens I was hoping to find this trip was a token from Bucktown, Colorado, as they are rare and valuable in any condition. The first two days I wasn't finding any thing spectacular compared to the others in the group, but the last day my luck had changed. I was very fortunate to find a "Good for 5 cents in Trade" square token from a proprietor that had a saloon in Bucktown. I check with several sources to see if others had been found and so far this is one of a kind. Another interesting find was a "Knights of Labor" pin. The pin is 1/2 inches in diameter and still trying to find out what the meaning of the letters S,O and MA are. Of course you find a "what is it". It measures 1 1/4" x 3/4" made of brass or copper, maybe a gunsight? A few of the non-ferrous targets that I found. . One of the sites we detected on this trip.
  3. Can someone tell me if I have found a Native American artifact? It appears to be an image carved in slate. Found in a river bed near my home in NJ. It is approximately 2.5x 3.5 inches
  4. And all I got was this buckle! Okay there's other finds, mostly rim-fires and the usual common relicky finds. Interesting site, unfortunately a couple of our hunts where shorter than anticipated due to equipment issues or other desert challenges haha Hopefully @Tom_in_CA will share his finds too, he made some epic token finds 🐍
  5. Short outing 3hr-ish evening hunt. Need to spread out in hopes of finding another yard size area I can walk in circles for years worth of trips. I got out in the woods,it's thick already. It'll be unswingable very soon (some odd fern looking stuff cover the floor,many other undergrowth too) so I got in it. Saw briars be damned,they got me a few times! Found a 50's or 60's bottle dump,messed around to long in it! Salvaged 3 milk jars(glass),2 coke bottles but killed a 1hr. 🙃 damn trash pile and I'm prowling in it! I do think I meandered on what potentially was some soldier housing. Found cuff button,cap,2 bullets (1 burnside) and deteriorated sheet metal(period). Loaded with iron and the rotten metal with these few finds in a tight spot. Not far from access road of that period(just thick woods now road is opposite side of land now! I'll take it and honestly I am excited about it! Who knows when or how much time I'll have to chase it. 1 certainty, good lord leaves me here I will chase it sooner or later any chance I get! My kids are almost big enough to chase with me and they already practice a bit in the yard in va! I hope to bring them to the al field o dreams one day! Yall be safe, best of luck too!
  6. Or am I the only one who loves to clean up and hoard their brass relic finds, especially old buckles and horse tack. I dunno, but I love to get these old relics shiny again, just to appreciate their quality and craftsmanship. If you have a collection like me, post some pics.... I would love to see what’s out there. These are just some of mine from South Oz.
  7. Got out to the field of dreams( detecting here for over 5 years,several hundred hours,mostly over same small area). Trying to spread out to hit the large areas on property I've never ventured. Found that can buckle in one of these areas few days ago. These nails and bits if not dug on false are in every single hole dug! It's insane and can lead to hardship atleast for myself! I'm still working out some second guessing from digging signals I shouldn't be! I love getting out here to this spot though as I know the chance of epic is always valid! The knowing old things are 100% lying around is all any of us could ask for I reckon! The thin metal piece is like a ar bolt cover,it has attachment places tiny little holes like a flapper of some sort. My finds tackle box. I know how tough it is for some to get on good ground or my experience says it is anyway! I've dug maybe 150 bullets,50+ shot or smashed added to it,around 20 cw buttons, lot of clad,10 or so silvers not really a coin chaser though, flat buttons,cannister shot , cannonball frags,box plate,cav buckle and many random items. 3/4 of all relics from this field of dreams! Ive had long stretches of many outings low numbers of sought after relics to show. Gave many of bullet to anyone interested to spread interest and because I'm just that way I reckon! Have a great day fellas,be safe. You are your own first responder!
  8. Hey fellas, It's been a bit since my last post! Still here lurking in the shadows though! I've had pretty crap luck on good finds but detecting is still my therapy and I've bopper around steadily. Combined with point lookin! Yesterday evening got off work in (al) was close to the field of dreams so I headed for her! Got out,shot the crap with owner and set up 2 d2s or one remote and 9" unit and the ws6,wsa and 11×13 strapped my pads on and took off! About 10 steps in 93,94,96 93 signal was sounding much like some frustration materials but that's high numbers so I dug. Probably 13" down this baby popped out and I was a happy son of a buck! Wild this spot is as bullets and many things are 3" deep so this find tells me I need a damn earth moving company to stack the relics! Lol Made my day,week and broke my whiny butt no good finds mentality! Be safe fellas and enjoy
  9. Got back from a day hunt in Culpeper Virginia yesterday, usually I post immediately but struggled with a title 😀 This post is more an ode to the Deus 2 than anything spectacular, I'd be in a world of cramps and pain today without it. 🤔 This farm is in Rixeyville VA, it was a part of the Battle of Brandy Station in 1863. The owner hosts hunts there, it's a beautiful place with an incredible old house called Liberty Hall. The hunts are "limited" to 100 detectorists, and despite the absolutely miserable weather there were only 5 no-shows out of 82 signed up. I saw every kind of detector in use, from an Ace 400 too the WS6 Master, and PI's galore. I don't know how they do it. It doesn't get much more miserable than 42 degrees and heavy mist that turned to rain. Luckily it only rained for a couple hours. Add to that the heavy mineralized sticky Culpeper red clay, and you've got quite an adventure. 😀 I had to keep wiping my pinpointer off in the grass just so I could push the button! I'm not complaining, my time in the Army both in winter Basic Training and the muddy hills of Germany helped me mentally overcome adversity, Chase was there to get trigger time on the Axiom, but he hunted with the D2 as well. According to him the place has been hunted for quite some time now. He made quite a stir with the PI guys. Turns out that hunting the fringes and woods of this place was the way to go, they seeded some stuff but mostly prize tags, and on 220 acres that wasn't much. I think only 9 of them were found. Most successful finds were made in remote areas. Here you can see my track in OnX Hunt, many of the areas had horses or cattle in them and were off limits. I mostly tracked around the marks I made, pickets and cannon emplacments and such. Seemed like all the walking was uphill. 😀 I'm 63, and still have a bit of "go" in me so I was able to make it through 7.75 miles of up and downhill. Yikes. Sadly I didn't photograph my trash, it was meager but covered with red mud so I left most of it there. I got an iron "Chain Trace" that was identified by one of the participants. The rest was wire and nails. I did find a couple of .223 shells, but stopped digging them and left that area. Here's my ode to the D2, if I didn't have that light machine I would have cramped arms and a bit of a rough time today. Despite the heavily mineralized clay, every good signal was a good find, I just didn't get my coil over many good targets. Iffy signals were all iron or junk. I have complete confidence that I can hunt with the D2 and come home with a minimum of junk. I used my Reaper program almost exclusively, which while acting somewhat differently because of mineralization still gave me the returns I expected with a VLF. With SteveG's carbon fiber shaft and the 13x11 I was able to cover a lot of ground, my legs did the rest. All I got in 7.4 hours of hunting and walking was this Yankee General Service button, I'll post better photos after cleaning it up more. It has the shank and should have backmarks. I followed a hunch, went to the top of a hill on my last push to find something, and there it was. An "11th hour" find that made the day worthwhile. 🙂 It was by far the toughest hunt I've ever been on, my wife wasn't happy with all the red clay on my clothes but she managed to get them spotless. 😀 Some of my gear now has nifty "battle scars". 🤣
  10. Second day of spring was a winner! A bit chilly to start, but it warmed into the 60s. At no point was it really cold because there was no wind, or just enough. Last night I told Chase I was headed to the big old farm today, I've done well there recently and wanted to check out a few more areas as well as go over some of what I already hunted. I got there fairly early, Chase has a long drive so I decided to go to the top of the largest hill, I only did it once before. The photo doesn't do it justice but it's 141 feet high, yeah not that big by any standard, but a long walk here. It's almost terraced, but probably all natural. This was shot from the top, I only found a couple of buckles on the way up and behind it. Saw Chase walking into the field below, and we searched around the farm for quite a while, both of us had the D2 and the 13x11" coil. The bigger the better here. I used my Relic program, changing from 0 reactivity to as high as 1.5 when it got trashy. I tried to go higher but targets disappeared. The 13" has excellent separation for its size. I ended up walking over 6 miles today, and got only a handful of trash: All the usual stuff, shotgun shell ends, buck balls and metal bits, very little iron even though it is everywhere. Here's what I got, I thought it was interesting/amusing enough to post: An old stamped buckle with decoration, a chrome plated and painted rooster (same reverse), an extremely old spectacle buckle, and a piece of elongated oval lead with no marks. Next row is a strange copper coin with a center hole, it appears to be either cast or hammered with the sunburst design. Two IHP's, a 1902 and 1904. Here's the large coin, it's a bit bigger than a large cent: The side is wavy so I don't think someone used a real coin to make it. It was an 81 which is a standard cent ID. The stamped buckle is very decorated. I'm thinking it was part of the last of its era. My favorite find is the metal rooster, it is probably chrome plated and painted brass. It's not painted one the other side but had the same markings. Chase got some interesting stuff too, it wasn't a spectacular hunt but it was a really nice day for one.
  11. The focus while designing the Axiom was 100% on the nugget detecting aspects. But I do think it will end up finding favor with some relic and coin hunters also. I will add information and videos about the subject to this thread as I come across them. This is my best "not nugget" find with the Axiom so far is a silver 1914 sixpence I accidentally found while nugget detecting in Australia.
  12. Beautiful day here in sunny VA, I was excited to get out early this morning to go to a place I haven't been to. Today I used the Deus 2 and 13", but now I have lowers for all the coils so I brought the 9" with me. Little ol' 40 acre farm across from one I have hunted and didn't get much. Followed all the hunting tricks I could, this field must have been cleared and managed by mechanized farm equipment, there was absolutely no sign of anything colonial or even Victorian. Stayed there 3 hours and walked 3 miles, got nothing but some junk and a 22-250 bullet shell. I thanked the farmer for his generosity and left. 🙂 Next up the really big farm, I have to park about a half mile or more from where the farmhouse stood near an old barn and silos. These two fields are side by side, part of the same plantation, and I have permission to both. The big one isn't too far from here but the house and barns are. Well I never got there - again. 🤣 The minute I set foot in this field I got a great target, and I stayed in that area for the rest of the day. Got a lot of trash today from both places, even some iron, as the ground is drying out despite the rain, and iron tends to false more or so it seems. 🤔 Guess I made ya wait long enough for the haul, only got 3 things today, after walking 2.3 more miles over 3 hours. My first target was the Pistareen, a 1/4 cut silver 1720s-1740s 2 Reale: Here's the reverse: You can see the "II". It was an 85, thought it was a penny. This is what the whole coin looks like: Walked along the line between the fields, got a 95 which shocked me, and dig this 1852-ish 🤔 large cent. Here the reverse, certainly enough details on this one but it's not round: Here's this one: I wish it was that nice 🙄 Got a fat flat button last. Keeping the silver streak alive, and this is the first 2 Reale bit I've found.
  13. Wasn't planning on going detecting today, it was cold and windy yesterday, and today was colder. Not much wind. It was supposed to start raining in the afternoon and rain all the way through Monday, windy on Tuesday. The next good day will probably be next Thursday, so I figured I'd try to brave the cold. It was in the mid 30s when I got out here, a farm close to my house. It's 200+ acres. If you've been following me it was also a horse racing track that was pounded by other detectorists. I've only found two spots they didn't know about or find, I've done pretty well there, and there was sort of a third today. One was a house that was there a long time ago, another a barn. This spot may well have been where some betting occurred, you'll see why. I was only out for 6 hours today before it started raining, but all things considered it was a great day. At one point I had to go back to the house to get my heated socks and gloves, they really helped. Unfortunately one of my neighbors tests his hunting rifles here, so at a certain distance there are a lot of bullets, mostly deer slugs that hit the Deus 2 in the high 80's and even low 90's. Dug a fair amount of trash today, even a couple bits of large iron. The green shotgun shell is a live round. Digging a lot of bullets is never fun, but you hope they caused someone to miss something, and today they sure did. I had just got out there, searched about 20 feet from my cart, and got a really nice 84/85 that I thought was either a bullet or a penny. I was surprised when this popped out of the plug: A totally beat up Spanish half Reale, I think the date is 1775, but it's really hard to read. It's off center, kind of normal for these. This is what it looks like in good shape: And the reverse: I'll probably never find one that nice! My first Spanish silver of the year 🥳 At least the were enough marks to ID it. I searched around that area, Chase found another coin there recently. Got another 85 and thought it was a bullet. Again a surprise, and something very interesting: This appears to be a large cent that was used as a "cutting board" for cutting other coins into "change". It has no identifiable marks of its own, but the knife cuts tell a story. Here's the other side: It's 28mm so it's probably a large cent that broke on one of the knife cuts. Didn't find much else but bullets in this area, so I decided to walk along about 20 feet in from the road that bisects this field. Got a 93, and thought I'd found another silver, but got this instead: It's brass and does not appear to have been crushed or damaged. I have no idea what it is. Got another 85 and got this silver plated medium button: It was a bit taco'ed so I flattened it. A little further down the road, after digging a few bullets, all in the 80s and 90s, I got a 91 that turned into a 94, and dug this, my last find of the day: It's a little mangled but hey it's silver! I looked around a bit longer, and decided to call it a day, it started raining as I drove back to my house. For a hunt that I almost didn't go on, it was a good one. 🙂
  14. I've been trying to improve my relic hunting chops since I detected my first ghost town a little over a year ago. For a relatively new detectorist, it was a daunting experience, but I managed to make a couple of cool finds and was instantly hooked on relics. Hunting in "machine gun iron" is not for the faint of heart and I was mentally and physically exahausted after my first relic hunt. At that time I was using my Nox 800 with the 11" coil and it was absolute chaos in the headphones. Fortunately I had just received the Coiltek 10x5" coil and put that on and it was like night and day. That combination made the hunt manageable and was my first dip into the concept of separaration. Previously, I had just swung around in parks and would make an occasional good find but was completely oblivious to what I was missing. As relic hunters know, separation is king. I got the Deus II last Spring largely because of it's reputaion of being able to separate well in iron. Of course the first thing to do was to learn the machine and learn how separating works on it. Learning basic operation of the D2 has been relatively easy, but learning the intricasies is where the learning curve is and I've been working hard on that. While I'm not to the end of that curve, I'm making some progress and it's starting to to show in the field. Case and point is a hunt I did a little over a week ago when I followed the relic trail far enough to escape some of the frozen ground between the weekly snow storms. The site was pretty clear of snow but the wind was howling, but the hunt must go on! Following a railroad track, I came upon the scattered remains of a foundation. The iron in the ground was intense but I started turning up some personal artifacts and indications that there was a house or possibly hotel or gaming house at the location. I have been trying to learn how to hunt by ear to be able to hear the differences in target sounds and while it's a work in progress I was able to hear some important differences. The best representaion of that was the 1932 wheat penny I found about 7 inches down in a veritable bed of nails. I was able to distinguish the penny sound mixed in with the nail grunts and falsing high tones. The ID showed a flashing mix of high and low numbers and if I was depending on that I would have passed it by, but I could hear the penny sound so I dug it. That ended up bing the only coin I found but I did find some other interesting items including a miner's tag, suspender clips, a stocking clip, a small flower desing snap button, a metal 2-hole button, some smaller snap buttons, a couple of ladies brooches (one still has some gilding on the back), ladies face cream jar lids (circa 1890s-1920s), part of a 1936 license plate, and a back of a Victorian ladies watch marked "Neusilber", which is German nickel-silver. Unfortunately nickel silver has no silver in it, it's an alloy of copper, nickel, and zinc. So while they're not necessarily jaw dropping finds, to me they're pieces of the history of lives lived long ago and possibly more clues to even bigger finds.
  15. Heh, snazzy title huh? Let's find out... 🤔 Yesterday I got a new permission, an enviable one for sure, but to quote the owner, "it's been detected about 150 times" 😪 I've heard that before from other landowners and still came away with something. I also mentioned the beach I was hunting, and he told me he and his son own some property near there, but I would have to ask him if I could go there. I called him this morning, and he was very nice and told me to go ahead. He said turkey season is about to start so I'd better get in there ASAP. He didn't have to tell me twice. 😀 The farm is about 50 acres, half of it wooded at least. There was a house there, a small one with a cinder block foundation. Very overgrown and difficult to hunt because there is junk everywhere. There must be a dump behind the house, these were right on top of the leaves: Mostly newer bottles, didn't spend a lot of time there. The fields are divided by ditches, so I searched each one, hunting the "Turn Zone" at each end and zig zagging the field to see if I could find a hotspot. It started out nice this morning but went downhill in the afternoon. 63 became 54. 😵 The first field by the road was unproductive but it got better and better. First thing I found was this nice rein guide, at that moment I knew at least I'd find some 19th century stuff: It was as expected in the part of the field where they turn the animals. Next was this D buckle: Not impressive but in keeping with my observations. As I got away from the first 30-50 feet I got a solid 58 on the edge of the field and this came up: 1898 "V" nickel in pretty good shape for this area, they're always trashed but sometimes you get a date. 👍 That was it for that division, next field was much larger. Went to the far turn zone and got another 58, and this came up: 1936(8) Buffalo nickel with a readable date! Yay. Must have been in pretty good shape when it was lost. Began my zigzag of the last field, hoping there might be a silver coin, but I wasn't prepared for this at all. I found this 3 feet away from it, and knew the game had changed. I've found a few of these lately, and before I get to the main event... I have a detecting buddy who makes all kinds of innovative and cool stuff, he's a real genius and I respect him a lot more than he knows. At Christmas last year he sent me and a couple of other guys one of these: A cast 4 leaf clover that we all put on our gear. I'm not a superstitious person, but since I put that thing on my finds bag, my silver count has gone up, I dug a 1694 Scottish Twopence, and I'm not even digging much junk 🤣 It was said the Twopence was the find of a lifetime, but it just got beat today. Got a sweet sounding 75 while at the edge of this last field, and dug this, I got it identified by my other good pal @dogodogwho I really miss on this forum, he's a hell of a person and a great detectorist: Half of a 1607 Hammered King James 1 silver Sixpence. At first I thought it was Spanish, but my buddy jumped on it and got the correct ID: Good Lord, never in my life did I think I'd find something like this! 😅 Well there ya have it, Lady Liberty, a Buffalo, and King James, all in a field. Trash was nothing. I think one of the pull tabs is very old, maybe Mary Queen of Scots... 🤣
  16. Gotta say after finding that 1607 sixpence half, today was very relaxing. February 28th started out cloudy, but ended up sunny and warm. I invited Chase to pick a place and he chose a farm near me, we've found lots of great stuff here. The farmhouse was built in the 1740s and is still in use, the family that owns it has been there for a very long time. I got there early, poor Chase has a 2 hour drive to get here. Today I decided to hunt the "Turn Zone" of this field, we've hunted this farm many times but never by the road where they turned the animals plowing. As usual it provided me with many finds. We hunted mostly in this area and some other places, but I got nearly everything here. First the trash, no more than a handful, my program works very well and I don't dig much junk. Next, the stuff that doesn't fit in a display case: The stirrup was the only iron thing I dug today, it insisted it was a 78 until I finally excavated it almost 2' down. Even fooled my discriminating pinpointer! Got a small 3-ringer, ~52 caliber. Another ox knob that either has a stick in it or horn material. A heavy brass door knob escutcheon, what I think might be a heavy brass heel protector and a split ring half. Now for the finds destined for display: Some buckle bits, a stud, and some odd rounded thing that may be a squashed bullet. 10 buttons, the largest only slightly larger than a penny. One broken Tombac with a shank, one small fancy decorated one, and a couple silverwash and one silver plated. For coins I got a 1945 wheat, and a 1906 IHP. Only walked 3.5 miles today, it all came from about a 4 acre spot in this huge field. Chase got some interesting stuff too.
  17. Yet another beautiful day here in sunny VA, it got up to about 67 again. I had been talking to Chase about some new mapping Intel I got on the farm we've been hunting, located some roads and a large field way out back that was used for something and seemed to have a cellar hole and some foundations. I got there first and found some newer relics at a site where a "staff" house was. Interesting point, this farm is the oldest of my permissions, found out that it dates back to the mid 1600s. The possibilities here are as enormous as the farm. There were indentured "staff" here until Emancipation. Here's the gratuitous big picture, the farm is huge, and today I had my trusty Equinox 600 with the Coiltek 10x5. Chase thought we should hit this place with the Equinox to see if we were missing stuff with our Deus 2s. I haven't used mine in months so I was up for that! He brought his new Equinox 900. (We both had Deus 2s with us in our backpack vests, can't get too far away from totally wireless 😏) Absolutely monster hunt today, we walked almost 6 miles over nearly 8 hours. This is a 400 acre farm so it's huge! We went to the farmhouse location, checked over where we detected, and found literally nothing. Tells us both the Equinox isn't going to do any better than the Deus 2 here. After that rather disappointing event we decided to cross the winter wheat to where the entrance to the field was, the last time it was visible was in the 60s, it has overgrown completely. It's also 80 feet lower than this field, so the paths to it are steep. We decided to save it for another time. There's Chase digging something or other. 😀 I had 3 stages of finds today, the trash was horrendous, but even with the Equinox I don't get much iron. All the usual suspects. Next the larger finds that won't fit in a display case: Some pretty cool brass, rein guides and other stuff, including an octagonal shaker top that you have to twist to open by lining up the holes. Finally the finds : A 51 caliber 3 ring bullet, dog tag, a stamped piece of something, a small button that says "PREMIER", a plain 2 piece button, two really old buttons with no backmarks, and two 4 hole overall buttons I found at the "staff" site. Not over yet though. I mentioned that at the end of a hunt you sometimes get a "Thank You for saving history" find, and today was the coolest one ever: A solid silver button. Drop it on a table and it rings like a quarter and it's just about as big. At first I thought it was engraved, but I think it's just really scratched from hundreds of years in the field. From what I hear these are pretty rare finds, so it made my day, and I bought dinner for my wife. 😀 Chase also treated me to a demo of the Axiom, that detector is incredible. I can't thank him enough for sharing his knowledge with me personally. When I got home I was treated to this rare sight, the crescent moon, Venus, and Jupiter in a row in front of my house. They aren't very clear but it was cool.
  18. Today had a cold start but we're going into La Niña warm again this week, started out at 34 and got up to 57. It was also windy. I used the Deus 2 and 13" coil with my relic program. Today I hunted a very large field near my house, going to places I haven't hunted because there didn't seem to be anything there. 😀 I've been getting a lot better than I used to be with scouting, today ended up being pretty good! About a year ago the farmer of this 200 acre farm told me there was another barn here but I never found it. First I hunted the extended field and only got a spoon and some bullets. The next section I went to seemed to have nothing, but I was walking around the edges in the "turn zone" looking to find coins. This field has been hit hard in all the known places, but I now know of two that haven't been discovered. The first one gave me a lot of old relics, coins and buttons, even a KG3 cent last year and a standing liberty quarter last Sunday. It was a house no one knew about. I got back out to the big field, and turned back into the field I had circled to check the center, often people gathered in the center of these fields, and this happens to be where horse racing and training occurred. Started hearing iron, a lot of it, and found my first button. None of the buttons I found today were even the size of a penny, they came up in the 50s and 60s on the D2. Most were co-located with iron so in some places I had to turn reactivity up to 2, but mostly ran it at 0. Digging was easy, it's been a while since it rained, and there was only a light ice crust on the field which melted quickly as it warmed up. So here's what I got: The largest and most undamaged thimble I've ever found, an old thin spoon marked "Alaska", the only word I can read on it where makers marks are. 7 small buttons, none even as large as a dime. One huge Dandy button with edge decoration, a very cool extremely old brass buckle I found all 3 pieces of, part of a big frame buckle, a couple small bits and some unusual whatzit. A couple of the small buttons are decorated too, this place has very old stuff so they're also more toasted than other places, the first has a circle and square: This one has a star in the center and a circle, possibly a wreath and it looks like it has reeding around the edges: I've never found a full shoe or knee buckle, but this one I got all of. I wish I found more of this one! And here's the whatzit, no idea. It's copper, it was an 81. Here's the big thimble: It's brass and appears to have markings on top. Trash today wasn't even a handful.
  19. Looked at the weather this morning, it looked like the rain would hold off until afternoon. I grabbed my WS6 Master and gear and loaded the golf cart up, I thought I'd go hit a local spot I got some great finds in over a year ago. I know this field looks like all the others, 😀 but it's less than a mile from my house. It's a 200 acre farm that has given up some good stuff but should have been better had it not been bushwhacked by another detectorist who really didn't have permission. They didn't know there was anything in this field, there was a house here up to the 60s, and it's long gone. It's just a small hotspot that I dug a lot of great military buttons and other relics, mostly Victorian. I hunted around this spot for a while, got a 1918 wheat and a pretty cool Blue Bell jacket button, a really old one. Blue Bell ended up being a part of Wrangler, but I don't know when. Got to looking way back in the field, I really hadn't searched much there. There was next to nothing until I got in a wash, a dip in the field that runs into a ravine. I had a feeling something would turn up. I suddenly got a 90, dug my plug, and then it shot up to 95. I thought "oh great, a deep aluminum or steel can". 😵 However, this field doesn't have much trash at all... Well my feeling became reality. 🥳 My first Standing Liberty quarter! I know some of you probably find these a lot, but here it's a shocker 🤯 I've finally done it tho, Seated, Standing, Walking, and a Barber. Yay. Only took almost 3 years. Went back to the hotspot, dug a few more things, and it started raining. I was happy so I jumped in the cart, went back to the house, and took my wife out to lunch. 😀 Got a small spoon, a button back of some sort, very thin and broken, and a razor handle. Got silver! 🙂 Not much trash today.
  20. Not too long ago I added a 550 acre permission to my "portfolio", one of the people I meet knew the owner and asked him if I could hunt his huge old farm, he doesn't visit it often. The person told me that the owner said it was fine, that the place had been detected but we were welcome to go there. Yeah, that's it in the distance, about a half mile away from where I had to park. Walking across bean stubble swinging a detector isn't the easiest thing to do, those stalks can actually hold your weight sometimes! There was a lot of walking to do. I invited Chase to hit this place for the first time with me, I wanted him to get a chance to hunt a permission I hadn't been to 😀 I got there early, he was running pretty late so I checked out one portion of this place that was off to the right, supposedly there was a house there long ago. I found some evidence of it but nothing of real interest was there. Ended up going to the top of this hill, and found a few things going up and coming back. Even though this farm has been hunted, the mass expanse of field leaves plenty of promise for cool random finds. By the time I got back to the other end of this field, Chase arrived and immediately got something great. We went for the prize, when we got to where the farmhouse and barns are, I called the owner directly and asked him if there was anything off limits. He said no, and we could keep everything we find! Man, the people here are so generous. 👍 Hunting around the farm was a chore, there was stuff everywhere. The fact that others had been there (the owner said about 25 years ago) didn't much deter us. The coolest place was around this cellar hole and foundation. This was just the Kitchen, the main house stood next to it but is long gone. We hunted all around it, and it into the field around it. Chase did quite a bit better than me, but I had a great time. Here's my stuff: A bit boss, a small piece of flatware handle stamped "ENT.", probably patent. An interesting button that says "Towers Wire Fastened" on it. A completely unmarked aluminum token about the size of a quarter, 3 wheats, 1909, 1912, and 1941, an IHP from 1890. I have no idea that the brass cap with the holes is, next to it is a stamped metal flower that decorated something with a clip on the back. Part of it is missing. Last but certainly not least is a huge dandy button! No fancy decoration. I hope Chase will drop in with his finds at some point, they were pretty awesome. Heck he can do a thread of his own with those! 👍 we didn't even explore half of this place. More like a fifth.
  21. Not a great day today, never got much over 45 degrees but the wind was light enough to go hunting. Went to the big farm again. I was headed to the distant tree line, I found a hotspot there where a house stood long before recent memory. On the way I did a little random hunting where the barns and paddocks were behind the house, silver was found there last couple of trips. All I got there today was a button and some kind of gold plated broach. The button surprised me, haven't found too many here but that was going to change. It's kind of large, either held a big glass stone or maybe a timepiece. Went over next to the house, and dug a ~1930s lipstick case and a 1937 Canada penny. The penny wasn't in great shape, but again an odd find. I headed along what I thought was the "road" in to where the house was, and got some early stuff, a Tombac in pretty bad shape and a shankless gold plated button with backmarks: Also a tiny ladle shaped bit. The other side is a bowl, no idea what it might be used for but it's very old. Finally got to the spot I wanted to concentrate on, and the finds kept coming! Got 3 IHP's, 1881, 1887, and 1895. At last some old coins! These pretty much give the era of this house, the new one was built in 1903. Here's the total haul today, a mixed bag of stuff, mostly Victorian: I even got a ~.50 caliber 3 ring bullet. Great double D buckle with a brass pin, first time I've found one with an intact pin. An old spoon with no monogram or makers mark, a couple overall buttons and a four hole. Probably the most interesting bits I dug today were these two filigree objects: neither appear to be buttons, just stamped decorations. Pretty good day! I was hoping for a Barber or seated coin, the era is right, but nothing stood out. Maybe the residents at the time were very careful of their silver. 😀
  22. Hey Guys, I've been detecting for close to 40 years now, and I wanted to pass on my recommendation for a really deep-seeking and stable detector: the Tarsaci MDT 8000. It's great to have a machine that provides a good 2-3 inches of additional depth over my older detectors. I'm using the 11"x9" DD coil. Earlier this month I located 3 Civil War infantry coat buttons in one hole (ranging from 9"-12" in depth), two Civil War cuff buttons at 6" each, and an 1880 cartridge belt buckle at 15". Yesterday I took it back out and found half a dozen rimfire shell casings at 4"-8" in depth, and a Minie ball at 10". Not that I want any more of these, but it's also great at finding rivets, some at up to 5" deep. Most of these areas had sandy soil, which thankfully made the digging easy. It took some getting used to the way I use it in "MIX" mode, since you hear both good and bad targets alike. Fortunately the good targets have a nice ringing tone to them. The ground balance is easy to set and very effective; I have not used the salt balance yet. Once I do, that will open up even more areas of detecting. I'm very happy to see this forum--I hope to pick up some good advice on using my new machine. Good hunting!
  23. Got out for a bit yesterday to see what I could find on some places I've hit hard locally. Started out fairly warm, but late the wind came up and that was the end of T-shirt hunting this week! 😵 The first place I went was this spot on the big plantation where a house once stood, it's grassy and full of trash. It rained the day before so I really didn't want to get all muddy, walking in grass is damp but better. 😀 I used the WS6 Master rig with both my relic program and a version of Silver Slayer that only finds objects ID'ing from 87-99, as you only get one notch. I hunted around here for an hour or so, got lots of high tones but they were mostly aluminum bottle caps and whole beer cans. Ended up with 5 coins, all modern. No Zincolns though! Next I've been meaning to hunt this field right near the old house that was built around 1740. I had been told that it was heavily hunted before, so I didn't expect much. Only spent about 45 minutes here, nothing but can slaw and deep cans. This time I used the 13", but the grass was kinda high for swinging the big coil. Finally went out to the big field and hacked around randomly. Here's the take: There I got the big D buckle, 4 buttons, some kind of knob, a buckle fragment and a very old syringe top, by far one of the odd finds so far. The buttons were one ball button, one two flat, medium and small, and the top part of a two piece that looks like a rose: The knob was a 93, and one of the stranger objects I've found: it has a square hole on the small end and a set screw hole. Very heavy brass. Last is the syringe top, kinda weird to find one this old! I had to be really careful cleaning it up. Trash was less than a handful in this field. Old pocket knife end and the usual metal junk, pistol and buck balls. Not even a handful. The relic program I'm using is pretty successful, if a few of you more experienced people are bored enough to want to try it, let me know. I doubt it will be great for mineralized areas, but in fairly clean farm hunting it is a killer. I'd like to get some impressions! Notice I dig almost no iron, the discrimination makes it stay where it should be for the most part. It is an "all metal" program using full tones, it will really sound off when you hit shallow targets, and reactivity is so low that you will have to investigate every medium to high "blip" you hear. 🙂
  24. Days like today are rare in the winter, but I'm thrilled I get to take advantage of them. It was already t-shirt weather by the time I got out, it got into the 60s today, sunny and no wind. Perfect! I hit this field late last spring, got a lot of great buttons and a small brass cannon. There was a house here long ago, just a small two room shack probably inhabited by plantation "staff". I finally found the cellar hole for it. Searched around it a bit, but found nothing. On a hill nearby is a big iron patch, I think a barn burned there or the house was pushed there and burned. Today I wanted to see how the 13" did finding stuff in it. It did ok, but even Silver Slayer didn't produce anything, so I just hunted in my custom relic program that has been doing well for me. For a place I hit hard, I did ok. I had to park my truck at the entrance to this field, about 2 acres I don't have permission to but no one minded me parking there. They tell me the owner isn't worried about it, and the farmers are done for the year. Only got a handful of trash today, molten metal from the fire, copper nails, bullets, buck balls and the like. It really only is a handful 😏 Here's the take: A bit boss, 3 buttons - one overall, one silverwash and one small. 4 coins, 2 IHPs, 1888 and 1889, a 1963 memorial, and a silver 1950 Roosevelt dime! Got the dime heading back to my truck for a Coke. 😀 Got 3 pieces of what I think is an ancient fancy buckle, a parasol slide (thanks, JCR!) A large piece of cast brass that was attached to something and broke, a buckle fragment and an odd two headed bent copper nail. If anyone knows what that is I'd appreciate it! 😀 It's a curiosity for sure. I was glad to find anything at all here, and thrilled to yet again get a silver coin. Maybe this year I'll be luckier with that. Also found some old bottles, but left them there. There is a dump site on the edge of the ravine, the clear one says "Old Witch", apparently an ammonia brand. I don't think they are very valuable, and the ravine is dangerous, drops off almost 100 feet in some spots.
  25. Over the weekend I took another look at some old topographic maps of the old farm I've been hunting. I found I had mis-marked the position of a house that was on the old maps up to 1944, but is now gone. It's kind of a good thing I did because I wouldn't have found all that 1600s stuff I've posted lately. 😏 In addition, I wanted to try Silver Slayer behind the existing house, the house, barns and paddocks completely bisect the farm in one straight line. Everything is gone behind the house now, it's all open field but there is a ton of junk left behind. I invited Chase to come down and check the new spot out. I got there early, it was cold this morning but warmed to to 50, albeit windy most of the day. This farm is about 100 acres, and we can only park on one side. While I was waiting for Chase I searched this area, we already hit it pretty hard. All I got was a musket ball and this tiny button. too bad the glass insert is long gone. I have found one with the glass intact. This is the first button we've found in this farm! After a while Chase arrived, and we headed across this field, just for the heck of it when we crossed the building line I changed over to Silver Slayer, swung a few times and got a 96. Dug this pretty beat up 1947 D quarter! My first silver of the year. 🥳 We finally got to where I had marked the new house position, and sure enough the relics and coins started popping up. The first one I got was this silver plated spoon handle with a "T" on it, I'll have to find out if anyone knows the name of who lived here in the 1800s. It's possible no one does. It ended up being late 1800s Gorham silver plate, I later found the bowl with the marks on it. The anchor indicates the era, according to this chart, but it's a bit confusing. Here's the haul for the day, we went back to the house but didn't find anything great using silver Slayer, last time we were here Chase got a silver dime, but that was it. Got 3 pennies, two IHPs, a 1900 and an 1890, both in pretty good shape. Got a 1910 wheat too. Dug an interesting two piece button: A heart locket that had been separated but I found both halves, a lock slide and some patented item that looks like some kind of lantern mantle: The thing on the right was connected to the thing on the left, you're looking at the back of it with the stamped stuff in reverse. It was the only way I could read anything, so I flipped a photo of it: 1890s patent dates. Got a big buckle and a lock slide, and while walking near the trees I got a very loud 95, and dug this matron large cent. All I can make out is the bust, I don't know the year or type. The reverse has nothing. The trash was pretty heavy today, most of the big stuff dug using Silver Slayer, I want y'all to know it's great for finding coins, but not a "magic" program, you're going to dig junk. 😀 It was a lot of fun, and I had great company. While we were talking to the farmers I got another 550 acres of permission! What a day.
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