Question on where to hunt my own property

[Clint in KY]

I have gotten into MDing and have done some parks and the like and am systematically working on my yards. I know that the house was built about 25 years ago and am finding appropriate items in the 4 acres that are cleared. The property is almost 17 acres, most of which is wooded. One of my property lines is a part-time creek. That is that is only flows in the rainy part of the year. I was wondering if it would be worth the time and effort to hunt the heavily wooded areas most of which are a steep hill towards the creek.

And if so, what techniques would cover the most ground with the requisite coverage to give reasonable results? There is a not-so-well-worn path that runs the length of the property - about .3 mile east to west. I assume (always dangerous) that I would start on the path and off to each side some distance, but beyond that I am looking for ideas to do this if it is deemed worthwhile.

Thanks

 

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[WhiteTornado]

Have you looked at any old maps or other documents which may show what was on your property in decades past? Maybe there was an old farm house or other structure, or perhaps that not-so-well-worn path was heavily used way back when. I would also look for any large, old trees, especially any in the cleared off land area. Hunt around the base of any such trees.

 

[Normsel]

Anyplace people may have been they may have lost something. I would try the path and as the one person said check out old maps of the area. Hunting in a woods is always a crapshoot but can be very worth your time and effort. The creek may reveal a few items as well. I have hunted many fields and wooded areas but the most I found in the fields is cans and old nuts and bolts along with some arrowheads. In the woods I have hunted I found some old shotgun shell brass and a few brass rifle cartridges.

There is no right or wrong as where to hunt.

 

[Clint in KY]

Using historicaerials.com I have gone all the way back to the 1936 USGS Topos and none show any structures on the property.
The aerial photos only go back to 1968 and they show the area where the house is situated as being only partly cleared.
Legend (rumor?) has it that where the house sits used to be a wooden tower from which the locals would signal the city of Benton. Some of the old maps show my .3 mile drive labeled as Telegraph Road. But as I said the topos do not show any structures back to 1936.

 

[Diggin-N-Dumps]

There is no right or wrong as where to hunt.

Thats right. Especaillly in your area...there might not have been in structures in the 30s....but maybe way before that. I love randomly hunting fields and farms..You just never know

 

[airscapes]

How wide in diameter are the trees? THey 200 years old or 75 years old.. Just cause there are trees there now, does not mean there were there 100 years ago.. So I have been told by those who hunt the woods and find old coins..

 

[Rangerbb]

Given that you can't find anything on old maps that was located there before. I would look around the property for old bricks/glass/iron, depressions in the ground, large old trees, stone walls, wells, trees/flowers that are not natural to the area...etc. If you can't find any of these sorts of things then to be honest I would only metal detect the area if I was hurting for a place to go. There are too many good places to hunt to waste time on a place with very little activity. US is not like Europe where you can hunt practically anywhere and people have been using that land for hundreds of years.

 

[WhiteTornado]

Given that you can't find anything on old maps that was located there before. I would look around the property for old bricks/glass/iron, depressions in the ground, large old trees, stone walls, wells, trees/flowers that are not natural to the area...etc. If you can't find any of these sorts of things then to be honest I would only metal detect the area if I was hurting for a place to go. There are too many good places to hunt to waste time on a place with very little activity. US is not like Europe where you can hunt practically anywhere and people have been using that land for hundreds of years.

Along those lines, I have heard that the presence of black glass could indicate there was a Civil War encampment there at one time. Reason being they used to keep perishables (like beer) in black glass to avoid rapid spoilage due to sun exposure. A member of the local metal detecting club I belong to told us that tip. Hope it helps.

 

[foiler]

Where there is water there is life. Where there is life there is potential.

 

[Rangerbb]

Where there is water there is life. Where there is life there is potential.

I agree you never know what is there until you try, but if you have another property to hunt with documented activity (homestead, school house, mill, fort, battle/skirmish) I would go for that as it can become too frustrating randomly hunting sites where nobody has really ever been.

Sometimes you will be completely surprised by what you will find though. Last year I metal detected an almost brand new soccer field. I didn't think I would find much because it was so new, but it was fairly close to an old revolution era town, actually between the town and the major river to the coast. Back in the day the rivers were the highways of today for transport. Anyways, I started finding deep signals...revolutionary war musket balls, camp lead, some old silver...you never know!

 

[Clint in KY]

Where there is water there is life. Where there is life there is potential.

While this is generally true, my creek is not large enough to be an avenue for travel or even a water source.
I will do some random hunting of the path and any open spots and will decide if I should bother making any further effort.

 

[foiler]

I you fail to check the creek banks, you've failed.