Spent the long weekend bushwacking with decent results...

[paleomaxx]

The past few weeks I've been doing yard permissions, which are fun, but I've been wanting to get back in the woods so I resolved to spend the long weekend quite literally off the beaten trail. I managed to spend two whole days in the woods and found four different cellar holes I'd never been to before. Two had already been hit; one very well, and the other seems like they only dug high tones because I found an incredible amount of buttons for a "hunted out" site and nearly nothing else.



Based on the buttons it looks like this was a colonial to very early 1800's site so I'm a little sad it had already been hunted, but the dandy button made me feel better and I've never seen a tombac come out of the ground with such a strong silver sheen. It rang extremely low (34-36 on the AT Pro) so I knew it wasn't actual silver, but the coloration caught me off-guard.

The third site had a ton of modern trash and deep weeds so I didn't spend long there, but I did dig up an 1800's axe head so I know it's probably worth revisiting in the fall even with all of the trash. The fourth site was very deep in the woods and didn't have so much as a shotgun shell for modern trash. I'm also reasonably sure I'm the first to hunt it based on the easy surface high tones and complete lack of iron piles!



From my research I know it was built in the 1850's and likely abandoned around the 1880's. No coins, but my best brass thimble so far and an early looking suspenders buckle. There was also this next brass piece which I hope you guys can help me out with.



It pegged the detector in the high 90's and it's very thick brass with light tool marks all over it. Some of the holes are threaded, but not very precisely. Is it part of a rifle?

There are still more sites in the woods based on the maps, but I'll need to go at least 2 miles to get to them and none of it is easy old growth; it's all thick swamp plants and ferns. It reminds me of a rain forest and it's very beautiful, but slow going so I'll need so set aside another entire day to reach the next site. Until then best of luck to you all out there!

 

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[Scrappy]

Well, I can commiserate with you about the buckwacking! Nice set of finds, and poorly hunted sites like that second one you hit, is a good detectorists "bread and butter". Nice snags and congrats

 

[paleomaxx]

Well, I can commiserate with you about the buckwacking!

And I can commiserate with you on the ticks! Fortunately only one bite and I got it off quickly, but caught dozens climbing up my pant legs. In the thick brush I get into the habit of taking a dozen steps, checking the pant legs, take off the 2-4 that are there, and then repeat. They seem to be endless this year!

 

[pepperj]

You did pretty good for sites that have been hit or overgrown. No idea on the unknown object

Most of my sites are within a mile of any road luckily, but if isn't plowed or a bush trail, the going is tough, so it mostly has to happen just before or after freeze up. More then once I've been crawling and stumbling through the under growth only to find that I was about to fall in a cellar hole. No way of swinging a coil even, and to get through the saplings that grew over the sites it was push them aside and drop coil, push drop. So a few still remain pretty well unhunted as it was nearly impossible to get a coil on the ground.

 

[Kurios1]

Love them buttons. Not sure what the big brass thingy is? You be a brave soul heading into them infested woods. I'll be waiting for the freeze off.

 

[Diggin Dude]

Very nice!! Congrats and HH

 

[paleomaxx]

Most of my sites are within a mile of any road luckily, but if isn't plowed or a bush trail, the going is tough, so it mostly has to happen just before or after freeze up. More then once I've been crawling and stumbling through the under growth only to find that I was about to fall in a cellar hole. No way of swinging a coil even, and to get through the saplings that grew over the sites it was push them aside and drop coil, push drop. So a few still remain pretty well unhunted as it was nearly impossible to get a coil on the ground.

I've been lucky so far where the cellar holes have been reasonably clear from the thicker brush so the tricky part is just getting to them. I figure the deeper in the woods they are the less likely they've been hunted so I just have to set the time aside for a long hike.

 

[trapperart]

Congrats and good luck