Hello All,
It was a heat wave this past weekend, with the heat index up in the 112 range--so naturally it was a perfect time to go dig for 12 hours in the sun in Louisiana!
So I got up early to meet ole Shanguloid at a new permission of ours. Scouted some of the 3500 acre permission and found several new sites but mainly worked just one. The one we explored had a lot of potential, but we didn't realize that it would give us such a great day of digging! On the way there I almost hit an gator on the road. On the way to lunch, I noticed that someone else had hit one. 
Here's the video of the hunt, a day spent dodging some rain showers and questioning our sanity since it was so hot.
Well we got out there and within no time Shangalangalang had found himself a half real! So nice to see that silver come out of the dirt!
The coin was a little plow-bent, but it was a nice looking 1811.
We dug some more stuff, and Shang found a silver war nickel. Funny story--the very first silver we dug while hunting together was in the fall of 2011 at a civil war site when I dug a war nickel. I think he was a bit jealous since he'd never dug a silver before--and I told him "when you finally dig one, it's gonna be OLD" Well...four weeks later he dug his first silver ever--a 1700s spanish! Nice to see you got your war nickel, buddy. Only 5 years too late haha.
He also dug what looks like a musket nipple protector chain but it's too long. Any ideas appreciated (see finds photos at end of post). I dug Mary's head from a lead religious statuary, eyeballed some marbles, an dug some more modern junk. Obviously a mixed site like so many are down here. Then I got a nice signal and popped out what looked like a bit boss embedded in a hunk of dirt!
I had Shang flip it over and was STOKED to see a Civil War bit boss. This one has the stippled background, no period after the "U" in "US." This is my first ever, in 25 years in the hobby. In a great stroke of luck, this one was not destroyed by the plow!
After getting over that craziness, we dug some wheat pennies and musketballs. Sigh. And a bunch of pack rivets, which sound exactly like half reales. Then all of a sudden I got yet another half real signal and I told Ole Shangy that I thought it was a pretty good half real signal. Well I was surprised when I broke open a clod and--it was!!
Turned out to be a very worn 1818 half real.
After that excitement, I kept on digging and not 6 minutes later I hear Shangimus Maximus yelling that he's got ANOTHER one! This one turned out to be a BEAUTIFUL 1809 half real! Congrats, buddy!
Throughout the day it rained off and on. Sometimes we were lucky dodging showers but at the end of the day we got drenched and the fields became horrible mud pits. I'll dig in heat and humidity, but add 10lbs of mud on each shoe, the difficulty of recovering targets when they stick to everything, and holes that fill up as fast as you can dig them, and you get a nightmare instead of a happy little hobby
So when that happened...we left!
Here are the finds photos. Enjoy!
Happy Hunting,
The CaneField Bandits
It was a heat wave this past weekend, with the heat index up in the 112 range--so naturally it was a perfect time to go dig for 12 hours in the sun in Louisiana!
So I got up early to meet ole Shanguloid at a new permission of ours. Scouted some of the 3500 acre permission and found several new sites but mainly worked just one. The one we explored had a lot of potential, but we didn't realize that it would give us such a great day of digging! On the way there I almost hit an gator on the road. On the way to lunch, I noticed that someone else had hit one.
Here's the video of the hunt, a day spent dodging some rain showers and questioning our sanity since it was so hot.
Well we got out there and within no time Shangalangalang had found himself a half real! So nice to see that silver come out of the dirt!
The coin was a little plow-bent, but it was a nice looking 1811.
We dug some more stuff, and Shang found a silver war nickel. Funny story--the very first silver we dug while hunting together was in the fall of 2011 at a civil war site when I dug a war nickel. I think he was a bit jealous since he'd never dug a silver before--and I told him "when you finally dig one, it's gonna be OLD" Well...four weeks later he dug his first silver ever--a 1700s spanish!
Nice to see you got your war nickel, buddy. Only 5 years too late haha.
He also dug what looks like a musket nipple protector chain but it's too long. Any ideas appreciated (see finds photos at end of post). I dug Mary's head from a lead religious statuary, eyeballed some marbles, an dug some more modern junk. Obviously a mixed site like so many are down here. Then I got a nice signal and popped out what looked like a bit boss embedded in a hunk of dirt!
I had Shang flip it over and was STOKED to see a Civil War bit boss. This one has the stippled background, no period after the "U" in "US." This is my first ever, in 25 years in the hobby. In a great stroke of luck, this one was not destroyed by the plow!
After getting over that craziness, we dug some wheat pennies and musketballs. Sigh. And a bunch of pack rivets, which sound exactly like half reales. Then all of a sudden I got yet another half real signal and I told Ole Shangy that I thought it was a pretty good half real signal. Well I was surprised when I broke open a clod and--it was!!
Turned out to be a very worn 1818 half real.
After that excitement, I kept on digging and not 6 minutes later I hear Shangimus Maximus yelling that he's got ANOTHER one! This one turned out to be a BEAUTIFUL 1809 half real! Congrats, buddy!
Throughout the day it rained off and on. Sometimes we were lucky dodging showers but at the end of the day we got drenched and the fields became horrible mud pits. I'll dig in heat and humidity, but add 10lbs of mud on each shoe, the difficulty of recovering targets when they stick to everything, and holes that fill up as fast as you can dig them, and you get a nightmare instead of a happy little hobby
So when that happened...we left!Here are the finds photos. Enjoy!
Happy Hunting,
The CaneField Bandits
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I am glad you finally got your U.S. bit boss! And I FINALLY got a war nickel lol............I had an amazing time and look forward to getting out there again. Good luck at the beach! I hope you find some gold rings!
