After 10 years, a hunt with my mentor in Virginia

BuckleBoy

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Hello All,


This past week I went hunting with the guy who got me started in this Great hobby over 17 years ago. It was the first time we'd hunted together in a long time, so I lined up a site or two, and he did the same, and we got out diggin' twice during the week. I wanted to see if I could keep up with the guy after a lot of hours detecting and some good finds under my belt. (He used to detect circles around me. :D )

Well, it was tough. He nailed some good CW relics and I did the same on our first trip out. You'd think that two decades and a knee replacement would've slowed this guy down, but not so. He is a Master at the top of his game.

We hopped in his truck--which was new when we first started hunting together, but now was rusting out a bit and had no A/C. :P

It was a beautiful drive to our spot:



hills.jpg



We jumped out and hit the pasture on the outskirts of the camp. I got lucky and walked over two targets in the first 30 minutes or so--a complete shoulder scale button mechanism, and a nice dropped three-ringer. (If I hadn't had this good fortune, I wouldn't have been able to keep up with him!) I was quite pleased to see the scale button, because I do not have a complete one in my collection yet--only pieces of them. :thumbsup:

My third signal there, after I dug the plug I saw a thick iron piece sticking out of it--and my first thought was "Ram Rod!" I cut the plug wide and gave it a tug, but it was only four inches long. :-\ I still wonder if it is a piece of one. It is too thick to be a piece of fence wire.

After hunting a bit more in the pasture, we hit the woods. The lead kept coming at a more or less steady pace. Here's a photo of my mentor hunting for the CW goodies with a passion:



T in woods.jpg



Pretty soon, I heard him say "I think I've got a nickel." I walked over to him to take a look (his eyesight isn't what it used to be). I knew before I got there that it would be a shield nickel, and it was. :icon_thumleft: We hunted a good while there, then stopped for a sandwich and hit the road. Here's a photo of the finds for the hunt:



CW finds.jpg



shield nickel.jpg



The next outing was a housesite hunt, and to be honest, we spread ourselves a little too thin. We ended up with more sites than we could hunt, and one property owner told us that we could hunt his yard if we wished (there was only new clad there :tard:). We then took a short drive to a spot that the owner had told us a little story about: Back in the 50s, two kids that were always in trouble with the law had robbed a nearby store and walked away with a few pocketfulls of half dollars. When they got back home to their parent's log cabin that night, the police pulled in and knocked on the door. Both boys ran out the back door with their loot, tossing it out somewhere in the field behind the house to get rid of the evidence. The property owner had been told this by one of the culprits himself, but he didn't know if any or all of the half dollars had been recovered by the lawbreakers at a later date.

When we got to the field, only half of it was huntable. The other half had hay on it. So we hunted for an hour or two, stopping occasionally to dig a Great signal and find an aluminum can. I figured we couldn't go wrong to at least check out such a great, firsthand story like that. The other half of the field will be there waiting for us still, as well as the cabin site itself (which was overgrown with weeds and poison ivy).

Then we hit a spot where there was a sledding run back in the 40s and 50s, hoping to snag a silver or two and save the day. Here's a few photos of the hill we were working:



T down hill.jpg



T uphill.jpg



T uphill closeup.jpg



We ended up with a pocket full of wheaties and I got a little silver. :) It was pretty new compared to what I usually find, but I wasn't about to throw it back. :wink:



quarter.jpg



quarter hand.jpg



Best Wishes,



Buckles
 

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Tnmountains

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So you were able to pull off a hunt with your old friend. Thats so cool when paths cross again. It looks like the CW site was the place to stay. But you guys were hungry. Nice hunts and lots of spots on private land.
Some hunts will always be remembered and I am sure this will be one of them.
Thanks for taking us along.


Regards,
TnMountains
 

Tank69

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:icon_thumright: awsome hunt
 

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BuckleBoy

BuckleBoy

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ModernMiner said:
BB,
Great story and some beautiful pictures. :icon_thumleft: Glad to hear you guys were finally able to detect together again.
Nice job on the relics, and now I have a question..........
What is a shoulder scale button? ???
Congrats on the silver too,
MM

The shoulder scale button is the brass piece in the center of the truck tailgate finds photo. :)

scale_button.jpg

Shoulder scales were removable and interchangeable, and they were held in place by two little pieces which were sewn into the fabric of the uniform itself: the scale button and the scale slide. Here are diagrams of the shoulder scale, the button, and the slide. You can see the little holes in the last two pieces where they were sewn into the garment. The slides are small pieces, which probably do not get accurately ID'ed except by more experienced CW relic hunters. (They are only a centimeter wide, and many were broken and discarded, but the tell-tale holes for sewing them into the fabric will ID them.)

I also threw in a nice period photo of a medical officer wearing shoulder scales. Most troops discarded them early in the war because they were uncomfortable, heavy, provided little protection from sabre blows, and hindered the shouldering and unshouldering of their firearms.


Regards,


Buckles


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scale_slide.jpg


scales.jpg
 

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ModernMiner

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BB,
Thanks for that info on the shoulder scales and the great pictures. I learn something new here on TN all the time. :icon_thumleft:
I'll keep an eye out for those pieces now.
I can see why they would consider them a pain to have on the uniform. ;D
Thanks again & great find,
MM
 

Jaw Jah Danny

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BB,
Awesome post. Love them pics of my favorite state(besides NC) Virginee ! :thumbsup:Thanks for for lesson on shoulder scales. :thumbsup:Enjoy learning about the CW.
Look forward to your next hunt report with your "mentor".
 

RPG

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I just figured out why your mentor hunts circles around you.

All the pics show him hunting.

Want to guess who's got the camera? :D
 

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BuckleBoy

BuckleBoy

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RPG said:
I just figured out why your mentor hunts circles around you.

All the pics show him hunting.

Want to guess who's got the camera? :D


LOL, you got that right. I have no photos from hunts with him as a kid because I only had a little cheap camera that took 110 film, so I wanted to make sure I took a few.

Hopefully he'll pay a visit and hunt with my team and I here in KY in during the harvest window.


Regards,


Buckles
 

tndigger

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Thats some really beautiful country and some great finds!
 

extractor

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Great story and pictures thanks for the post :coffee2:
 

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BuckleBoy

BuckleBoy

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TnMountains said:
So you were able to pull off a hunt with your old friend. Thats so cool when paths cross again. It looks like the CW site was the place to stay. But you guys were hungry. Nice hunts and lots of spots on private land.
Some hunts will always be remembered and I am sure this will be one of them.
Thanks for taking us along.


Regards,
TnMountains

Yeah we were hungry. Too hungry. But that's ok, there is more than enough in the ground left to find :)

I will always remember this hunt. It was like coming home.


Regards,


Buckles
 

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