HomeGuardDan
Bronze Member
(disclaimer...the stool that everyone likes is doing well, I am simply out of town he he he)
While visiting my family where I grew up (NC) my dad and I were able to get out to some old stomping grounds to hunt for a half day. We spent time wandering through a thicket of coastal NC yucca, mosquitoes, briers, and pine forests as we revisited and explored coastal NC water front property.
I do always enjoy getting back to some of our old sites to see what new tricks can produce. We spent the beginning of the hunt hitting older and more hard hit sites that yielded 3 or 4 flat buttons for me (including a nice early 1-piece navy button...SCORE!!!) But that was only the beginning. We changed up the pace a bit and began to walk a new piece of property that adjoins an older one that provided a plethora of memories and relics over the years. A short while later I began to spot some signs of early inhabitant. This particular property was the site of plantations, encampments and other human activity from the 1600's through the civil war. First just a piece of pottery/china popped out with a button or two and an occasional large brass nail. At the time I thought nothing of the nails, but knew I was most likely at a home site or work-site. This was a nice little ridge between two small streams and seemed perfect for activity. Then the iron picked up and along with it the good targets, including...nails. In total, I dug over 20 of those big nails and my father dug quite a few as well. Man they sounded GOOD each and every time!
Buttons were fairly consistent, though no good ones popped up. In total I dug about 30 buttons during the short hunt with most ranging from the 1700s to early 1800s. My first really good find was a rev war to early 1800s era bayonet scabbard tip. Just across the creek we had found a rev war camp 15 years earlier and this along with the Brown Bess escutcheon plate probably came from that occupation period.
My best overall find had to be the solid silver buckle with very cool hallmarks. This thing sounded like a silver coin and was quite deep...once i saw a glimpse of silver in the dirt, I was almost certain I would be holding a 1 or 2 reale. Actually, I am happy to have this one as I've found my share of colonial silver coins while a find like this is less common.
I also recovered plenty of lead and pewter, from lead shot (some still unclipped from the molding process along with rat tail spoon dishes and stems). I found a neat little brass tinkler and a piece of silver one (thought it was a coin as well). To round things out is a nice large padlock! My father did well too with buttons, an 1819 Large Cent, small trade weight with London and Queen Anne markings, brass padlock and yes...brass nails.
You could say we nailed this site! HA HA
HH
Dan
While visiting my family where I grew up (NC) my dad and I were able to get out to some old stomping grounds to hunt for a half day. We spent time wandering through a thicket of coastal NC yucca, mosquitoes, briers, and pine forests as we revisited and explored coastal NC water front property.
I do always enjoy getting back to some of our old sites to see what new tricks can produce. We spent the beginning of the hunt hitting older and more hard hit sites that yielded 3 or 4 flat buttons for me (including a nice early 1-piece navy button...SCORE!!!) But that was only the beginning. We changed up the pace a bit and began to walk a new piece of property that adjoins an older one that provided a plethora of memories and relics over the years. A short while later I began to spot some signs of early inhabitant. This particular property was the site of plantations, encampments and other human activity from the 1600's through the civil war. First just a piece of pottery/china popped out with a button or two and an occasional large brass nail. At the time I thought nothing of the nails, but knew I was most likely at a home site or work-site. This was a nice little ridge between two small streams and seemed perfect for activity. Then the iron picked up and along with it the good targets, including...nails. In total, I dug over 20 of those big nails and my father dug quite a few as well. Man they sounded GOOD each and every time!
Buttons were fairly consistent, though no good ones popped up. In total I dug about 30 buttons during the short hunt with most ranging from the 1700s to early 1800s. My first really good find was a rev war to early 1800s era bayonet scabbard tip. Just across the creek we had found a rev war camp 15 years earlier and this along with the Brown Bess escutcheon plate probably came from that occupation period.
My best overall find had to be the solid silver buckle with very cool hallmarks. This thing sounded like a silver coin and was quite deep...once i saw a glimpse of silver in the dirt, I was almost certain I would be holding a 1 or 2 reale. Actually, I am happy to have this one as I've found my share of colonial silver coins while a find like this is less common.
I also recovered plenty of lead and pewter, from lead shot (some still unclipped from the molding process along with rat tail spoon dishes and stems). I found a neat little brass tinkler and a piece of silver one (thought it was a coin as well). To round things out is a nice large padlock! My father did well too with buttons, an 1819 Large Cent, small trade weight with London and Queen Anne markings, brass padlock and yes...brass nails.
You could say we nailed this site! HA HA
HH
Dan
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I gave up on detecting here in Colorado, because we don't have a deep history such as the eastern states do. All I ever found was cans, nails and scrap iron mostly. Once though in the early 80's I located a can dump under a sand wash at a small mining camp and it had a dozen or so unbroken 19th century bottles in the pile of cans, but I was looking for the bank location as the whole town burned to the ground as history says and I was hoping to find melted rolls of silver coins, so the bottles seemed like a appointment and I gave them all to an old lady who loved old bottles. If I was finding the stuff your getting then maybe that metal detecting would sound fun?. I do find some cool old relics in the antique shops, flea markets and thrift store though from time to time, but those I have to pay for.
