Not worth much except to me...

digger27

Bronze Member
May 18, 2011
1,506
3,225
A big park and 3 different areas were hunted by me yesterday.
A wide open area I thought was not used but I saw families camped out in tents there last weekend.

An area near a lake and a picnic pavilion that I have scoured in the past many times.
Love hunting near water...so serene.

A site that had an old house for decades just outside the park but it is now inside the park boundaries and the house is gone but an unbelievable amount of iron and other debris was left behind.

At the camp site I found a small silver ring and clad early in the week so I know there is still more there.
Found no jewelry yesterday but did find more clad and a couple sets of keys including a small leather key case with this beautiful Buick tri color silhouette key with a little red, white and blue enamel still left on the shields.

The lakeside site yielded a bit more clad and saw this pair of hemostats sitting right on top of the ground right next to the water.
A hook extractor tool that some fisherman forgot.

The old home site is both one of the most difficult and most interesting sites I have ever hunted.
I have hit this thing many times with different detectors and coils including a Judge2 which has the uncanny ability to see through iron and still hit high conductive targets near, next to or even underneath even large iron.

So far I have come away from that site with a few wheaties and a good amount of personal objects like old rusty tools, very old cosmetic items like compacts and lipstick tubes, pieces of clocks and more.
It is almost like they knocked the house down with many personal possessions still inside and left all the metal still there then covered it up with a thin layer of fill dirt and threw some grass seed on top of it.
There might be some silver coins in here somewhere, but with about a million pieces of iron from huge to tiny, odd shaped steel garbage, a billion nails of all sizes and screws and nuts and bolts plus so much other trash good luck finding it.
To give you an idea, you can just pick a spot in most places, dig a 6" wide hole and pull out 5-6 tiny nails, many small bits of rusty wire and odd shaped pieces of rusted steel and iron from just about every one.
Yesterday I used the F70 and the standard elliptical coil and tried something new and surprisingly that seemed to work very well so I will go back and try this again and tweak the settings a bit to see if it can get even better.

I usually hunt in disc at most sites that aren't woods but with the disc real low at 1-4 so I can hear all the iron grunts and figure out the pop tops and other trash.
Plus, some iron targets are very cool to find like pocket knives and such.

Here, the unbelievable amount of constant iron grunts among all the other signals were too much for me to handle using 4H tones, my usual park hunting setting.
I switched to program 2 on the F70 which in a park is my check system for deep targets and my favorite for woods hunting.
This set up is as hot as you can get this thing...All metal, SL speed, Sense on 99 and Thresh on 9.
Only one tone which was easier to listen to, and I seem to have the ability to usually pick out the more solid good signals at most sites even with the huge amount of EMI problems, falsing, ghosts and actual target signals you hear set up like this at more normal sites.

I was insane to even try this here but the results were amazing.
I could hardly get any solid signal at all, this thing was jumping around like a chicken on a hot plate on every target, but I ignored most of the many numbers I saw on the screen flash by in the iron section and concentrated on anything at higher numbers that didn't drop down into iron much if at all.

I ended up with a slew of goodies and I can't wait to get back and see what else I can find using this crazy method.

I found some interesting odd shaped iron objects, not pictured, a little winder from I think an old alarm clock, a crushed burner unit from an old oil lamp and a frosted glass pull that is too small to be a doorknob so probably it was on an cabinet or drawer inside the house.
The three most interesting things were...

1...A nice size iron object that is very ornate and appears to be hollow.
It seems there is a door on one side that might open but it is now rusted shut, and I need to set up an electrolysis system because this would make a great candidate for that process.
Probably from an old iron stove or something huge, don't know if this thing does open or why or what could be inside if it does but one day I will find out.

2...A heavy copper or probable brass plate from some sort of western kids toy like a hobby horse or something else.
Real thick, I had to use a hammer to straighten it out to this extent, man I would like to know what this thing was attached to in the past.

3...The prize of the day was this also very thick 2.5 oz. insurance emblem still with some of the red and blue enamel existing even though I suspect this thing has been underground for more than half a century.
Maybe way more.
Where this was attached to on a car I have no idea...maybe a bumper or somewhere on the back plate?
I have seen other insurance tags like this but they usually have a tab coming from the bottom that fits under a license plate screw.
This one has 2 small holes on either side so it was nailed, pinned or screwed into something somewhere on a vehicle...where I don't have a clue.
These things with the tabs are called license plate toppers...pretty popular back in the day.
Pretty huge, I would think it would cover up too much info mounted right on a plate, but what do I know?

LICENSE PLATE TOPPER | eBay

This one is from the "Republic Automobile Insurance Company of Detroit".
There is no info on the web about this company that I can find, only one other Eagle emblem from this company someone is selling on E Bay.
I grew up in Detroit...I never heard of this company so again I suspect this thing is pretty old.

More to come from this interesting site I am sure!
 

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Upvote 13

beez0404

Silver Member
Jan 4, 2014
2,883
2,001
Newton, NC
Detector(s) used
XP Deus
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
Lots of hard work but it paid off nicely. Good finds!
 

mikeraydj

Bronze Member
May 19, 2014
1,288
1,513
Montana
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
Minelab E-Trac, Deteknix X-Pointer, Garrett Pro Pointer
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Digger you go where most of us would run from. Nice!
 

dirtlooter

Gold Member
Jun 5, 2014
8,889
13,497
mid western ARK
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
3
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XP Deus with 9"LF and 9" HF Coils and 600 Equinox with stock and 6" coils
Primary Interest:
Relic Hunting
great looking finds
 

Hookedondetecting

Full Member
Jul 18, 2013
190
99
Michigan
Detector(s) used
Tesoro COMPADRE and Mohave
ORX and Deus II
Fisher F 75 LTD "2"
Minelab 600
Minelab Explorer SE Pro
Makro Multi Kruzer
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Nice,
That Buick Key looks familiar. I have seen one something like it before long long ago.
 

CoinandRelicMan

Silver Member
Apr 3, 2011
3,979
2,244
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3
Detector(s) used
E-Trac, Safari, Cortes, Musketeer, Makro Pin-Pointer
Primary Interest:
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Neat digs , always seeing something new to me in finds!
 

OP
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digger27

digger27

Bronze Member
May 18, 2011
1,506
3,225
Digger you go where most of us would run from. Nice!

You are correct, sir!
My experience around basketball courts and picnic pavilions helps.
This is unusually trashy and even more so than sites like that.
I ain't afraid...I am out there to enjoy the outdoors and get some exercise most of all, I believe.
I find what I find, doesn't really matter where I do it or what I have to do all that much to me most of the time.
I wouldn't choose a site like this to hunt every day, but there could be so much more neat and cool targets a guy has to at least try.
 

OP
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digger27

digger27

Bronze Member
May 18, 2011
1,506
3,225
Nice,
That Buick Key looks familiar. I have seen one something like it before long long ago.

I believe the gold looking ones were popular on several Buicks from 63 to 66.
Then these chrome looking ones might have been used on about 30 models from 1972 to 1984.
There are also some with just red on the shields and maybe a few others.
All so confusing and you can't go by E Bay because many of those sellers don't have a clue.

Lets just say in my mind I know this particular one fit a black 1965 Buick Wildcat 2 door sport coupe with the standard 325-hp, 401-cid, nailhead V-8 that put out 325 hp.
I also know for a fact that the owner did not opt for the standard three on the tree or optional four on the floor transmission but did spring for the more pricey Super Turbine automatic.
Don't ask me how I know...I just do..

My key, my story and sticking to it! :laughing7:
 

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unfound

Sr. Member
Apr 15, 2014
421
317
Western Pa
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
Garret Ace 350,
BH Tracker IV,
Garret Pro Pointer,
Lesche Sampson Shovel
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
I have an old house in the woods like that. When I'm feeling tough I go and try to find things, it kicks my butt every time and I run away !!! I don't mind the exercise I just get bored diggin up iron. Places only the brave and well committed hunt, my hats off to you.
 

rodarian

Hero Member
Jul 20, 2014
820
483
upstate New York
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AT Pro, ACE250, Garrett pro pointer
Primary Interest:
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I grew up in detroit, also. I have never heard of that company or seen anything like it. Nice finds!
 

david680

Bronze Member
Jun 4, 2014
1,565
1,445
Salem, Indiana
Detector(s) used
Tesoro Bandido
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
1...A nice size iron object that is very ornate and appears to be hollow.
It seems there is a door on one side that might open but it is now rusted shut, and I need to set up an electrolysis system because this would make a great candidate for that process.
Probably from an old iron stove or something huge, don't know if this thing does open or why or what could be inside if it does but one day I will find out.

2...A heavy copper or probable brass plate from some sort of western kids toy like a hobby horse or something else.
Real thick, I had to use a hammer to straighten it out to this extent, man I would like to know what this thing was attached to in the past.

That really looks like a door lock insert. Not exactly sure what to call it, but it would have been the actual latch/lock.
 

masterjedi

Bronze Member
May 24, 2014
1,757
1,349
Oregon
Detector(s) used
Minelab's CTX 3030, E-Trac & EQ800, Fisher F75LTD SE & F44, Whites MXT All PRO, Whites TRX Pointer & Shovel, Predator Tools Raptor hand digger & Ranger shovel. Grey Ghost Ultimate headphones.
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
Those are very cool finds :) Wish I found them! Good Job!
 

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digger27

digger27

Bronze Member
May 18, 2011
1,506
3,225
That really looks like a door lock insert. Not exactly sure what to call it, but it would have been the actual latch/lock.

Someone on another forum just clued me in on that.
Thanks to you too!
This might move up the list to one of my favorite finds.
More research ahead for me...God I love this hobby!
 

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digger27

digger27

Bronze Member
May 18, 2011
1,506
3,225
I have an old house in the woods like that. When I'm feeling tough I go and try to find things, it kicks my butt every time and I run away !!! I don't mind the exercise I just get bored diggin up iron. Places only the brave and well committed hunt, my hats off to you.

This site has some very interesting iron.
The big iron thing just peaked my interest so I dug it...luckily.
I tried to avoid most of the iron on this trip.


"Fortune Favors the Bold".
 

justdon

Bronze Member
Aug 6, 2013
1,819
347
Florida
Detector(s) used
Teknetics delta4000/Tesoro compadre/Garrett ace 250/Garrett propointer/Garrett at pro/Tesoro silver umax
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
Congrats.Those finds look great to me..HH
 

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OP
digger27

digger27

Bronze Member
May 18, 2011
1,506
3,225
Ok that iron thing...Nailed it!

This iron piece is an antique victorian vertical rim lock.
Might be from the Norwalk Lock Co in Connecticut.. This company started in 1851 and manufactured and patented locks like these, along with several other companies, mostly in the mid 1860's.

These were in common use from the mid 1860's up through about 1900...maybe a bit longer up to 1910.
I believe at that time more modern lock sets started to become more popular.
I saw many antique sets for sale just like this and most of them were marked manufactured between 1865 and 1880.

You know all those skeleton keys we are always hot to find?
This is the exact mechanism that those keys fit into and operated.
One of the main ones, anyway.

Not a stove part, this probably fit on the front door of the house if not the rear.

As I said...way, way cool!
 

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Hookedondetecting

Full Member
Jul 18, 2013
190
99
Michigan
Detector(s) used
Tesoro COMPADRE and Mohave
ORX and Deus II
Fisher F 75 LTD "2"
Minelab 600
Minelab Explorer SE Pro
Makro Multi Kruzer
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
We have a couple of those in the smaller style still in service at the old farm house that has been in the family since 1940. Farm was settled just after the civil war.
 

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