One Last Hunt Gets Weird Before The Freeze * With Update On Page 2 *

[CPT_GhostLight]

A few days ago I got invited out on a friend's relic site permission to get one last hunt in before the approaching freeze. This place is rather remote and not the kind of place you want to be when a storm moves in. So I headed out early to meet my friend and hit the ground running. When I arrived the air was already getting cooler, but there was almost no wind, which is rare at this site. I unpacked the Deus 2 with the 9" coil  mounted that I usually use on brushy sites, but as I looked around I could see that most of the tumble weeds were gone thanks to the high winds a week or so earlier. So I decided to go with the 11" coil first just to see how it would handle the high iron and trashy site. I stayed near the car at first because I figured I'd have to switch back to 9" coil pretty quickly, but to my delight, I started hitting good targets and some really small ones too, so I decided to stay with the 11" coil.

As I moved deeper into the site that has been detected for generations, I began finding a few strange items, but I had no idea just how strange this day would end up. One of my odd finds was a Pronghorn (antelope) shedded horn. I've seen a lot of Pronghorns but I've never come across a shedded horn before. The next odd find was not too far from the shedded horn. I noticed an area of broken glass and larger rocks, and as I moved closer, a rock with a strange pattern on it caught my eye. It looked like a snake skin pattern or maybe fish scales, but it's definitely a sandstone fossil and it was definitely out of place with the surrounding rocks.

The next unusual find (for me anyway) was what I thought was a fairly large button. Later at home after a light cleaning, I determined that the button was actually a US Infantry collar tab insignia which date between 1908-1910.

There were many other interesting finds made including a soda bottle topper, an organ reed, a small compact or pill case, an oil lamp wick holder, a silver or nickel plated lady's locket watch back, a lady's brooch, hair, or other decoration, ceramic doll's leg, several buttons, other bits and pieces, and a taco shaped coin.

My best find of the day came as a deep surprize. I was in the middle of an open field when I hit what I first thought was a large piece of falsing iron. As I rotated around the target I could hear obvious iron grunts all the way around, but I kept hearing a faint high squeak with an occasional 91-93 popping up on the ID. Since the only coins I found for the day was a 1982 copper memorial penny, a 2003 zinc penny, and that tacoed coin or whatever it was, I decided to go for broke and dug, and dug, and dug some more. I fully expected a giant hunk of iron to show up in the bottom of the 9 inch deep hole. There were nails, several of them, but in the bottom of the hole I could see a faint greyish rim. Could it be a Barber or Seated something or other? Well it turned out to be the next best thing, a 10 cent token fom the Alamo Club! Weirdly enough, this would turn out to be the third old token I have found, because the secound old token was that tacoed coin, which turned out to be a 5 cent token, probably also from the Alamo Club but I haven't tried to pry it open yet to check the other side.

Well it was getting late, the sun was setting fast, and the weather was turning colder, so I packed up the gear and said goodbye to my friend who headed out as I finished packing. It was getting really dark as I jumped in the car and hit the ignition when absolutely nothing happened! I hit the ignition again and everything inside the car with a light on it started flashing on and off randomly and out of sync. Every message programmed into the car's computer screen was popping on and off like Christmas lights. As I glanced out the window, I remember thinking that it has been a long time since I saw so many stars. Then I started thinking about every alien movie I had ever seen and and thought, "Well, this is UFO alley, so this is how I go out... being abducted by little green men... I sure hope I don't get probed!"👽

I had a call into my friend who was probably half way home by now and AAA was not responding, so I sat there waiting for the end. With hungry coyotes and bears, and maybe even a wolf or two roaming aound the area, and me being the only source of meat for miles around, I began to think that the alien probe might not be so bad. Then my friend calls up and said he was on the way back and that the weirdest thing happened and a semi truck had hit the highway's underpass and the highway was closed farther north. Okay maybe we can fight our way out after all! When he arrived back after an hour or so I told him about the weird lights going on and off and asked if he had seen anything weird in the sky. He told me to get a grip and whipped out his jumper cables. "That's not going to work because the aliens have fried my electronics!", I thought and I was hoping they didn't fry my D2 in the process!😱

He connected the cables and said to fire it up, and if by magic, the car fired right up! Had the aliens thought I wasn't worth unpackaging another probe and let me go? It was a pre-Christmas miracle! We headed out in the pitch dark and found our way back to the highway. I was trying to look for another route around the highway crash site but when we got there, there was nothing there at all. The light traffic was running both ways and there was nothing there to even indicate something had happened!

So we made it home, much later than intended, but safe and sound, with no bite marks or anal probes, and a pouch full of cool finds! Happy Holidays, everyone! 🖖

 

[F350Platinum]

Wow, Cap'n what a great hunt. 👍 An incredible assortment of historical stuff. Even your iron is interesting! Seems you had a blast. Always a great story from you!

That happened to me at a gas station in NC towing my RV. I had shut the engine off at the gas pump, and when I tried to restart it all the crazy stuff happened as well as my seats adjusting themselves. 🤪

Turned out both my truck batteries were dead. It took forever to get a tow out of the diesel bay, I'm sure the truckers weren't thrilled. It was too late to get service, so I dropped my RV in the parking lot and fired up the generator. The station attendants were nice to let us stay the night.

Took most of the next day to get the truck a new set of batteries but we finally got home. 😀 I'd replace that battery! 🤔 It ain't aliens... 🤣

[JCR]

Those are some nice relics & glass too.  That will be a memorable hunt for sure. Glad you got out & back home.

[Lodge Scent]

Thank goodness you were spared the probe CPT !!! Nice bunch of finds! The fossil with the scales is really cool!

[CPT_GhostLight]

On 11/26/2023 at 5:58 PM, F350Platinum said:

Wow, Cap'n what a great hunt. 👍 An incredible assortment of historical stuff. Even your iron is interesting! Seems you had a blast. Always a great story from you!

That happened to me at a gas station in NC towing my RV. I had shut the engine off at the gas pump, and when I tried to restart it all the crazy stuff happened as well as my seats adjusting themselves. 🤪

Turned out both my truck batteries were dead. It took forever to get a tow out of the diesel bay, I'm sure the truckers weren't thrilled. It was too late to get service, so I dropped my RV in the parking lot and fired up the generator. The station attendants were nice to let us stay the night.

Took most of the next day to get the truck a new set of batteries but we finally got home. 😀 I'd replace that battery! 🤔 It ain't aliens... 🤣

Lol! It was definitely a fun day. The night was a little sketchy though! I'm not saying it was aliens... ,but... 🛸

I had the battery checked and it's in good shape. I tracked the problem down to the dome light. It must have been on for days because I don't remember turning it on. That's the danger of leaving the lights on "Auto", I suppose. Now I check to see that everything is off before I leave the car. And I bought a remote battery jumper to keep in the "just-in-case" box! 😉

[CPT_GhostLight]

On 11/26/2023 at 7:32 PM, JCR said:

Those are some nice relics & glass too.  That will be a memorable hunt for sure. Glad you got out & back home.

Thanks! I don't think I'll forget that hunt anytime soon. My wife was about to make my son drive 3 hours out in the wilderness in the dark to try and find me. Luckily my friend saved my bacon before that happened! 😉 

[CPT_GhostLight]

On 11/26/2023 at 7:51 PM, Lodge Scent said:

Thank goodness you were spared the probe CPT !!! Nice bunch of finds! The fossil with the scales is really cool!

Thanks, LC! Yeah, that fossil was a nice surprise. You just never know what you'll find metal detecting! 😎

[NCtoad]

That was a great story!

[Geologyhound]

Cool hunt!  I would love to find more tokens. Looks like your fossil may be a Lepidodendron (scale tree “bark”) fossil.

On a side note, aren’t aliens supposed to wipe your memory after probing?  So maybe you were there longer than you thought… 🤣

[ColonelDan]

Great report on a great hunt!!!👍🏻