Hello All,
I can't figure out how to post videos from YouTube on the forum just yet, but I will still provide you with a great CaneField Bandits Soundtrack here:
Went diggin with Shanegalang today, and the conditions were horrible. Low 80s temps with loads of sun and 100% humidity. With a foot of rain having fallen this week, the mud was unbelievable. Sucking, sticky, mucky mud.
So all day it was slogging around with 10 lbs of mud on each boot and a shovel that weighed twice its normal weight, digging holes in the bottoms of cane rows that immediately filled with water, and finding out targets stuck to our shovels, shoes, and gloves. This honestly was the worst I'd seen out here. Then there were the mosquitos and swarms of gnats.
Oh, and Shane killed a water moccasin today with his shovel in the field. He came up to me with the headless snake hanging by its tail out of his glove, saying "Look what I killed." 
Well, we jumped in the fields for a 7-hour assault by the bugs, heat, and mud. Right out of the starting gate, I got a nice, sweet coin signal (these are usually can slaw or big brass or lead chunks). When I located the target, I was shocked to see silver shining through! I had been in the field for less than 15 minutes at that point, and I yelled over to Shane to take a look.
I could tell it was a Seated Dime, but I didn't rinse it off until much later, when I discovered that it was an 1838-O (no stars)!
After doing a cajun two-step with 20lbs of mud on our feet, it was back to diggin. We hit a dry spell. I dug a few musketballs, and he eyeballed some pipe stems and dug a few flat buttons. Then I got a nice CW Enfield bullet (plain base).
I wandered into an area that has never given us much in the way of finds, thinking I might make a half-mile pass all the way through that section of the field. When I got on the first row, I dug a flat button. Then it was a LONG dry stretch of about 3/10ths of a mile. Then I got a decent little aluminum signal in the side of a cane row. When I dug down I saw this:
I thought there was a chance it might be the little aluminum piece that pulltaps punch in on cans, but it looked alot like a coin. I started getting excited. Snapped the photos, and then removed a chunk of mud or two in order to bring SPANISH SILVER #10 from this field to the light of day for the first time in over 200 years.
I decided to grid that area of the field, hoping for more finds. I looked over and saw Shane in the distance swinging away. The sun got lower in the sky, and the mosquitoes and gnats intensified. Ugh. I got nothing in that area, finished up the grid finally, and heard something that sounded like a wounded waterfowl far away in the field. "AAAAIEEEEEEEE!" I saw Shane coming toward me with a big grin. He'd just dug his first military button: War of 1812 Artillery.
This is the 3rd 1812 Artillery button from this field, and it is now obvious that there will be a few more to find. Like 3 more. Or 4.
We could tell by the killer gilding on the back that this would be a fantastic button. Here's the happy finder
The sun set, and tired and happy we left the Field of Dreams once again, with our pockets full of great finds and the next hunt already on our minds.
Here are the finds. First off, Shane's finds. (Knee buckle?, musketballs, 1812 Artillery, clay pipe stems...) I couldn't fit in a photo of my total finds for the day (1838-O Seated, 178(?) Half Real, Enfield, etc., so it appears down a few replies in the thread. But the rest of the great photos are just below.
MORE PHOTOS BELOW IN THE FIRST REPLY!
I can't figure out how to post videos from YouTube on the forum just yet, but I will still provide you with a great CaneField Bandits Soundtrack here:
Went diggin with Shanegalang today, and the conditions were horrible. Low 80s temps with loads of sun and 100% humidity. With a foot of rain having fallen this week, the mud was unbelievable. Sucking, sticky, mucky mud.
So all day it was slogging around with 10 lbs of mud on each boot and a shovel that weighed twice its normal weight, digging holes in the bottoms of cane rows that immediately filled with water, and finding out targets stuck to our shovels, shoes, and gloves. This honestly was the worst I'd seen out here. Then there were the mosquitos and swarms of gnats.
Oh, and Shane killed a water moccasin today with his shovel in the field. He came up to me with the headless snake hanging by its tail out of his glove, saying "Look what I killed." Well, we jumped in the fields for a 7-hour assault by the bugs, heat, and mud. Right out of the starting gate, I got a nice, sweet coin signal (these are usually can slaw or big brass or lead chunks). When I located the target, I was shocked to see silver shining through! I had been in the field for less than 15 minutes at that point, and I yelled over to Shane to take a look.
I could tell it was a Seated Dime, but I didn't rinse it off until much later, when I discovered that it was an 1838-O (no stars)!
After doing a cajun two-step with 20lbs of mud on our feet, it was back to diggin. We hit a dry spell. I dug a few musketballs, and he eyeballed some pipe stems and dug a few flat buttons. Then I got a nice CW Enfield bullet (plain base).
I wandered into an area that has never given us much in the way of finds, thinking I might make a half-mile pass all the way through that section of the field. When I got on the first row, I dug a flat button.
Then it was a LONG dry stretch of about 3/10ths of a mile. Then I got a decent little aluminum signal in the side of a cane row. When I dug down I saw this:
I thought there was a chance it might be the little aluminum piece that pulltaps punch in on cans, but it looked alot like a coin. I started getting excited. Snapped the photos, and then removed a chunk of mud or two in order to bring SPANISH SILVER #10 from this field to the light of day for the first time in over 200 years.
I decided to grid that area of the field, hoping for more finds. I looked over and saw Shane in the distance swinging away. The sun got lower in the sky, and the mosquitoes and gnats intensified. Ugh. I got nothing in that area, finished up the grid finally, and heard something that sounded like a wounded waterfowl far away in the field. "AAAAIEEEEEEEE!" I saw Shane coming toward me with a big grin. He'd just dug his first military button: War of 1812 Artillery.
This is the 3rd 1812 Artillery button from this field, and it is now obvious that there will be a few more to find. Like 3 more. Or 4.
We could tell by the killer gilding on the back that this would be a fantastic button. Here's the happy finder
The sun set, and tired and happy we left the Field of Dreams once again, with our pockets full of great finds and the next hunt already on our minds.
Here are the finds. First off, Shane's finds. (Knee buckle?, musketballs, 1812 Artillery, clay pipe stems...) I couldn't fit in a photo of my total finds for the day (1838-O Seated, 178(?) Half Real, Enfield, etc., so it appears down a few replies in the thread. But the rest of the great photos are just below.
MORE PHOTOS BELOW IN THE FIRST REPLY!
Last edited:
Upvote
0
