So where are the detector reports??

[diggerdirect]

After a slow start due to the weather this year is looking up, found my first gun! I've found locks, trigger guards and butt plates but this is the first intact (or nearly so) real gun that I've found. Its been a good couple days, a Canadian large cent (1888), 4 buffalo nicks, 4 jeffersons (3 are wartime silvers), 18 wheaties, 3 indian cents, 7 silver rosevelt dimes plus a 64 kennedy half. Also brought home a half dozen old bricks of various manufacturers and several copper pots, pans & cans. Last fall I was plotting some foundation sites from old maps I aquired and noticed there were 5 sawmills scattered along a small trout stream that runs through our neck of the woods. I've had good luck in previous years detecting around our old 'swimmin hole' thats been used for generations and is actually the result of a dam built for a sawmill back in 1823. Hiking in to the 5 old mills sites on my maps theres not much left, some stacked fieldstone walls, earthworks and one still had the spillway but I could determine where the dams were, about how high they were, and where most likely would have been good spots for a swimming holes. Two of the 5 sites paid off with these finds but I'm sure there is more to come!

 

[cobaltbot]

Very nice! Good luck with future hunts. There were a lot more mills back in the old days than people realize.

 

[Plumbata]

Fantastic recoveries diggerdirect, nice work researching/hunting the old swimming holes. Be careful with that cool gun find, otherwise you might have a whole horde of liberals chasing after you! I got out today for more curb strip detecting (Iron - just wandering around Columbus, Ohio wherever utility work has disturbed the grass/soil). Aside from 3 bucks in clad, I got: One 1890 Indian Cent with a nice green patina and 2 wheats; a toasty 1910 and a 1953D. The Indian was the absolute first signal and first target out of the ground. I guess it was pretty much all downhill after that, heh.

 

[cobaltbot]

Not sure why it works that way but many a time the first thing I find, bottle or MD is the best find of the day, its almost like I'm being told "you found something good, now be happy with that and go home and do something else!"

 

[cobaltbot]

So yesterday at Stonetown, Dave my farmer friend showed up with the tractor and I got him to remove a big pile of dirt I had placed on top of the upper most room when I first started digging. I'm lucky he lets me keep open this tiny bit of crop land and helps me out with it! Today I found my first Trime and only the 2nd silver coin after so many coppers. Its so tiny and dated 1851 the first year of this 3 cent 75% silver coin also nicknamed a fish scale. Also found an 1859 Indian head (also first year) and my 7th thimble from there, this one has a different design than any of my others. I'm pretty sure a seamstress was living in this room or the one above it.

 

[ironmountain]

amazing finds digger.... a whole gun...wow....nice to have friends with big equipment... Friend and I started digging the far backside of the 1800's hotel property I'm working on and the guy who owns the land on the opposite side had given us permission and said if we need help to just yell...he came over with one of the small cute backhoes and dug for us..Good thing ppl love their toys! I like that thimble cobalt... Those old thimbles can get pretty decorative... 7th one..someone liked them some sewing. Glad you could get out before the rain and bad weather hit Rich.It was mid 50's here..next morning 4" of snow and ice. Then it melted and the other day we picked up another 6" overnight and it froze...no school..Now it's 50's and melting again.... I stopped by the auto parts store and it runs along the old RR tracks I started on last year. These are the tracks (3 sets, 2 are buried) that were put up in the 1800's when iron mining started....Drove behind the auto parts store and the tracks and areas along them are almost melted.. Might have to take a walk with the dogs on Monday. Figure the vegetation is dead..perfect time to go... Hope the weather stays nice down there so you can hunt!

 

[MIdigger]

Got out a couple more times. About $6 in assorted clad. Only old one was a 1940-S wheat. One 90 degree copper 3/4 inch elbow (scrap). One gold plated ring with an amethyst stone. Good luck all. Iron--hoping the snow melts were headed up there May-1st.

 

[ironmountain]

skip coming up to the UP..i'm going downstate! you get tons of finds. I hit Cowboy Lake and found some old RR stuff and dug up a couple of old mt. dew shards and some squirt shards. it's a nice place..alot of different terrain.drive in and on the right it's pretty much open grass to the lake and that swings around 50yd wide to the swimming area. if you go left when you pull in, you get a huge flat area and a ton of trees and depressions on the "cliff" of the Menominee River. Pretty thick in there. Didn't have a ton of time, but had a bunch of signals. headed out to friend's house I was talking about with the spring fed pond and the stills and valleys. Daughter and I went there for an hour or so and I left with a handful of .22 shells and some springfield 30-06. was finding those at 3" or so. It would be nice if this rain would stop.. keep the finds coming! I have a few nice finds..wife isn't too happy.... more reference books!! i'll make a sep. post for that hough.

 

[ironmountain]

Plumb..forgot to answer your question, sorry... The guy we work with that makes his knifes from forge to leather makes Damascus. He does about 10 patterns.The raindrop one he came up with...oh man...looks like raindrops on a windshield that don't slide off... I was telling my best friend from back home about the huge burls I'm going to chainsaw off next time I get to the inlaws. He takes a pic of a tree and asks if that's what I mean....this tree is huge and is nothing but huge burls. Said he'd cut them up and send me some.will be nice when they dry out... here's a damascus he did...can't see too well because the lighting is junk....the other one is a light pattern ladder style...the handle of the first one is curly maple from his land.the sheath was hand sewn. made to be a simple sheath.

 

[ironmountain]

hey guys/gals! been out hunting on a regular basis?weather here has been flip flopping from 40's and rainy to 60's and sunny.