Got To Do A Little Relic Hunting Sunday - May Have Found A 49ers Style Buckle??

[Cal_Cobra]

Had some business to do out in the country over the weekend and hit a recommended spot that produced in the old days. It's been hard, hard hit, so hard hit it was left to wither away. I don't mind taking a crack at those kind of sites.

At any rate, I gave it a try for a few hours and was pleasantly impressed with what I was able to dig up on this site left to die. I think I may have dug a half to one of those cheap stamped brass 49er buckles, but this one is a plain Jane. Also got a civil war era eagle button but it's seen better days. Some kind of neat buckle all twisted up, but the prize was a surface find - I believe that tiny bottle is an opium bottle? And of course, leave it to me to find a merc that's likely 100 years newer then the site!!!

The canslaw was punishing!!

Not too many small arms shells, zero shotgun shells (amazingly!) but some BIG OLD LEAD (bottom) !!!  
As large as a couple of those pieces are, there could be anything from a gold coin to a silver dollar still out there IMO ?

Aside from aluminum, not many conductors left!

This poor eagle button:

Felt good to get out!!  

I did a lot better at the sale I was picking stuff up from, but there's nothing like detecting old sites

HH,
Cal

[Jackpine]

I don't know what some consider hard hit but that is a huge amount of non-ferrous targets left to be found .  The previous hunters must have been cherry picking.

Good job!

[steveg]

NICE digs, Cal!  Looks like a tough site to hunt, based on the amount of non-ferrous junk.

Has the Merc been through a fire?

Also, that round-ish piece with the "keyhole" in it -- is that a lantern piece?  I have dug those before, on sites of that same era...

Neat little bottle, too...

Steve

[Cal_Cobra]

6 hours ago, Jackpine said:

I don't know what some consider hard hit but that is a huge amount of non-ferrous targets left to be found .  The previous hunters must have been cherry picking.

Good job!

They were likely cherry picking high conductors for the most part.  I'm going to research the site a bit more to get a better idea of the layout, there's a ton of low conductors to dig through, but you never know what might show up in the low-mid conductor range, can get some nice buttons in that range, coins too.

[Cal_Cobra]

6 hours ago, steveg said:

NICE digs, Cal!  Looks like a tough site to hunt, based on the amount of non-ferrous junk.

Has the Merc been through a fire?

Also, that round-ish piece with the "keyhole" in it -- is that a lantern piece?  I have dug those before, on sites of that same era...

Neat little bottle, too...

Steve

Hey Steve!  Yeah it's a lantern part, no idea how I missed that, I should've know it.  Not sure on the merc, it's totally possible.  Need to ezest it and look for a date, but no matter what the date, it's at least 100 years newer then what should be at that site.

Cool that detectorists can snag an old intact bottle now and again.  Yeah happy with the opium bottle! 

[Mark Gillespie]

Nice relics

[sillllvar]

Way to go sniffing out the merc ? 

[Cal_Cobra]

10 hours ago, Mark Gillespie said:

Nice relics

Thanks!!

[Cal_Cobra]

6 hours ago, kiwijw said:

That's incredible for a totally thrashed well hunted site that has been left to die. Like you said, any one of those bits of lead could have been the find of a lifetime. Some nice finds & you would have had a blast. The little bottle is cool & you didn't even need your detector for that one. Thanks for sharing.

Good luck out there

JW  

Thanks!  I'm sure if one was to dig all conductors, as one should at a 250 year old site, something good might come out of there, like a old coin.   I'm going back next weekend, got a bit more insight as to where ground zero was, so may do better there, but who knows, it's where you find it.

[Cal_Cobra]

21 minutes ago, sillllvar said:

Way to go sniffing out the merc ? 

The irony, but still