Depth

[SkyPirate]

How do these items I am finding get so deep in the ground?

I find coins 6 or more inches down, iron parts deeper, shotgun shells at 6 or more inches. I just dont understand how they get down there?

 

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[Zincoln Miner]

what items
cannonballs are heavy...
as for coins:the grounds density,root system,and topsoil deposits (natural or artificial) can sink a coin in time(short or long).

 

[Sandman]

Think of erosion of derbies covering the items. Over time items get covered with lots of stuff that decomposes into dirt.

 

[vayank54]

The weight of the item plus people walking over it when the ground is wet are couple things. I don't know how much it affects you all but here is Va the freezing and thawing of the ground will move things around. If you have ever seen a breast plate or buckle that was shaped almost like a bowl with no visible damage that was caused by the ground freezing around it. Also in civil war camps you had soldiers walking all over the sutff packing it into the ground. Years ago before, we had bad ground detectors and discrimators, a union camp we had been digging was cleared. Once they took the dirt off we started finding VA and SC stuff. The confederates had been there first but the union troops there throughout the war walking over the stuff had packed it down deeper than our machines would go.

 

[Silver Surfer]

I wonder that myself all the time... I cant believe the number of coins I find at 5 or 6 inches that are less than 5 years old.. The grass gets mowed, but not that much foot traffic, and although we have very big rains here in Florida, the grass should prevent any soil from moving too much.. How does something so light wiggle it's way so deep is a great question... I can even understand things going deep in tot lots that have sand or wood chips, since both of those things move a lot with a heavy rain, but not a well established grass area..

 

[RPG]

And then you go in the forrest and dig a flat button at 2".

 

[vayank54]

It still amazes me how you can be out in the middle of old hardwoods and find a civil war bullet sticking out of the dirt but in the same spot you might dig a modern shotgun shell 6 inches deep.

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

We also tend to think what is always was. Plows have been dragged over a whole lot of every state on the eastern seaboard.

Last summer I had a dime hit at 9" and thought I was into something great. It was a 1971 Roosevelt! Go figure. Frosts, worms, floods, lawn aereators, plows, graders, etc., etc. The soil is a very active place . . . and also why lots of Civil War relics aren't. Most sites haven't been sealed and continue to collect detectable objects.

 

[vayank54]

We also tend to think what is always was. Plows have been dragged over a whole lot of every state on the eastern seaboard.

YEP!!!!

 

[liftloop]

It still amazes me how you can be out in the middle of old hardwoods and find a civil war bullet sticking out of the dirt but in the same spot you might dig a modern shotgun shell 6 inches deep.

if that butten fell of the person next to alittel tree and that tree grows and the button sinks because of rain, vibration,and deadbre, and if the tree grows up an then the tree falls over the roots of the tree will pull that button rite to the serface, then the tree after many years rots and disapers. leaving the button on the surface too start it's sinking cycle one more time. do you fallow me. liftloop

 

[vayank54]

I almost forgot something. Back in the late 60's and early 70's we figured that they would never come out with a machine better than a Metrotech. For those of you who don't know, in the best ground a metrotech might pick up a civil war bullet about 6 inches deep and a buckle maybe a foot or so. Lots of times when we would dig junk we would bury it deeper than our beloved Metrotechs would pick it up. Also a friend of mine used to drink a particular brand of beer and bury the cans deep in the ground So if you are digging in VA, or MD and dig shot gun shells a foot deep I may have been there