Newby would like some places to MD

[Philvis]

Treasure Detector,
A month or so ago I went to the old white house on the hill that used to be on the corner of St. Claire and Mechanicsville Tnpk. It is right beside the Chevron and near The Showplace. The old house was razed a couple months back to make way for the condos they are building next door. The site is still in tact sans the house. I searched for about 20 minutes before noticing the ground was full of filled holes. Someone had beat me to the punch and dug a lot of targets. I only found some modern junk. The house property has CW ties and there used to be a earthenworks fort behind it. There may be more there, but it was about to storm and the tons of filled holes really discouraged me.

There is an old house in Mechanicsville I may try my luck with in the next day or two. One other place I want to see about getting permission to hunt at is Westhaven Lake. That place used to be a big swimming hole for the area 30-40 years ago. If I do get permission when I finally get around to asking, I will let you know.

 

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[Philvis]

Just got back from digging in the backyard for about 45 minutes or so. Found 5 or 6 pull tabs and couple other junk metal items. I found YET another penny. I swear that this Tejon is adjusted to find pennies as that is all I pull from the backyard. I also found a key I ran over with the lawn mower nearly 2 years back and another fired bullet, bringing my total to three now. The bullet is definitely a little different as it appears to have made a head on impact with something. The inside also looks like there is a plug in it or something like that. The 2nd pic is of the bullet beside another one I found for size comparisons.

That bullet with the plug is a CW Enfield. They had wooden plugs in them.


Regards,


Buckleboy

Thanks Buckleboy, my backyard and what it holds(besides all the modern pennies) ceases to amaze me.

 

[newbob]

I tell you a very promising place to detect would be the shopping center just before you get to Laburnum and Rt. 360 if you are coming from Mechanicsville. There used to be a Bradley's there long ago and currently there is only a Firestone and Anthony's Pizza. They have torn down all the buildings except the Firestone one. From what I have heard over the years Lee's camp used to be there, which is right across from Chickahominy Bluffs Battlefield. Being the shopping center was built prior to the surge of metal detecting, the area may still be chock full of Civil War era relics. I went there a few weeks back to try and detect the grassy area behind the shopping center, but the weeds were too high. I really do think there is some great potential there and now is the time to hunt before they redevelop the area.


I drove by there today. I'm off the next few days and going to try to hit it. Anybody want to join me more than welcome.

 

[Treasure Detector]

I am off on Thursday....... give me a call/email and I will join you is possible.

My email:
[email protected]

I thought I would get out yesterday, but never did.

 

[Philvis]

I am off on Thursday....... give me a call/email and I will join you is possible.

My email:
[email protected]

I thought I would get out yesterday, but never did.

Let me know what you boys find. I pass by there everyday on my way to and from work.

 

[newbob]

nice map locator of the area of the shopping center

http://maps.live.com/?mkt=en-us

 

[curtismstang]

Just got back from digging back in the woods behind my house at an old home site. Nothing much left of it but a few footer field stones to locate the position. Well anyway, I dug and old horse shoe, belt buckle and a bunch off junk. Also got my best find yet, a 1907 Indian head penny. Not to bad for a newby of 1 month. May go back again this weekend if it COOLS OFF.

 

[Digginman]

Sweet, Curtis. What kind of buckle did ya find??

DM

 

[curtismstang]

Nothing fancy, looks like a buckle to hold up " Old farmer Jacks' britches, or maybe from a horse bridle, since I found an old horseshoe also.

 

[Philvis]

Nice finds Curtis....I am still trying to break the 1960 barrier for coins, haha! Did you ever call about Hall's Tavern? I never heard from them.

 

[curtismstang]

Philvis, No, I havn't tried calling on Hall's Tavern. I did send them a letter early last week and have had no response as of yet. I may give them a few more days and then try and contact them by phone. Been doing any digging yourself?

 

[Philvis]

Curtis,
Unfortunately I have been busy this week when I get home from work or it has stormed, so I haven't been out digging at all. There is an old boarded up house on 6 acres that is for sale here in my town and I want to try to hit around the house area this weekend. It is surrounded by corn so there shouldn't be any issues. There is probably 1/4 acre tops of searchable area, but I think it is early 20th or late 19th century, so maybe I will break my modern clad roadblock finally. I am finally starting to get the hang of my detector, so my confidence level is a lot higher now. I had a metered Garrett Grand Master I got in the early 90's and never really found much with that as I didn't learn the detector. Back then, you didn't have all these online sites to look at for advice, so you were on your own pretty much. I now use a Tejon that doesn't have Target ID, so it is weird not having the TID and has taken some getting used to. I still consider myself a novice since I never really learned my Garrett, so its school everytime I go out.

 

[RJH02]

Way to go, nice finds!!! Does the mstang in curtismstang stand for mustang? If so we would get along well

 

[Philvis]

Way to go, nice finds!!! Does the mstang in curtismstang stand for mustang? If so we would get along well

How are you liking the DeLeon RJH02?

 

[RJH02]

I like it alot. To me it is very much like my silver umax except it has the target ID feature and the 8x9 coil .

 

[curtismstang]

RJHO2, Yes the mstang stands for Mustang, I have two 67 coupes, one is restored and we gave it to my daughter for graduation. We are restoring the other 67 now, we bought it for my son for his graduation. It's kind of going slow now that he has moved to Lynchburg and the car is here in Louisa. It just needs a paint job now and engine put in, we have all the new interior and glass ready to go. Maybe soon.....................................HAHA!

 

[DCMatt]

Philvis, No, I havn't tried calling on Hall's Tavern. I did send them a letter early last week and have had no response as of yet. I may give them a few more days and then try and contact them by phone. Been doing any digging yourself?

Good luck with the Hall's Tavern guys. I tried to get permission for a group of us to hunt it and turn over the finds to them for the museum (like we do on the Pipsico hunts). Sent several emails and said we would hunt at their discretion so we wouldn't be in the way of the project. They acknowledged getting the emails and said they would consider it, but I never got a yes or no answer.

DCMatt

 

[Philvis]

Philvis, No, I havn't tried calling on Hall's Tavern. I did send them a letter early last week and have had no response as of yet. I may give them a few more days and then try and contact them by phone. Been doing any digging yourself?

Good luck with the Hall's Tavern guys. I tried to get permission for a group of us to hunt it and turn over the finds to them for the museum (like we do on the Pipsico hunts). Sent several emails and said we would hunt at their discretion so we wouldn't be in the way of the project. They acknowledged getting the emails and said they would consider it, but I never got a yes or no answer.

DCMatt

Matt,
I'm a former archaeologist so I didn't see any reason they would have to get a n archaeological survey done on the property since it wasn't a state or federal project, so all they will be doing is bulldozing it to make way for an industrial park. It would have been a great opportunity to find some older coins, etc. If I lived closer, I would have stopped by there once the house was removed and as long as there wasn't any no trespassing signs. Too far of a drive from Richmond for that though. Sights like these are best just be detected on a weekend before construction starts in all honesty. Put an orange vest on and you are good to go.

 

[DCMatt]

Philvis, No, I havn't tried calling on Hall's Tavern. I did send them a letter early last week and have had no response as of yet. I may give them a few more days and then try and contact them by phone. Been doing any digging yourself?

Good luck with the Hall's Tavern guys. I tried to get permission for a group of us to hunt it and turn over the finds to them for the museum (like we do on the Pipsico hunts). Sent several emails and said we would hunt at their discretion so we wouldn't be in the way of the project. They acknowledged getting the emails and said they would consider it, but I never got a yes or no answer.

DCMatt

Matt,
I'm a former archaeologist so I didn't see any reason they would have to get a n archaeological survey done on the property since it wasn't a state or federal project, so all they will be doing is bulldozing it to make way for an industrial park. It would have been a great opportunity to find some older coins, etc. If I lived closer, I would have stopped by there once the house was removed and as long as there wasn't any no trespassing signs. Too far of a drive from Richmond for that though. Sights like these are best just be detected on a weekend before construction starts in all honesty. Put an orange vest on and you are good to go.

I like your attitude! Frankly, I would have done the same if I lived closer. But it was too far to go on the risk of being kicked off and having nothing to show but an empty gas tank... For the record, I made it clear in my emails to them that my recovery of relics would NOT be an archaeological survey.

I looked at pictures of the tavern site. Given the location, history, and condition of the property, I suspect it has been hunted more than once over the years.

We have hunted the Pipsico BSA camp in Surry county a number of times. We have an agreement with management. There's a TON of history on the property as well as modern coins and stuff dropped by the scouts over last 50 years. We document the finds and turn them over for display in the camp museum. We are allowed to keep the modern coins. It's always a blast!

DCMatt

 

[TenedorDelDiablo]

Curtis,

Which map software did you use to attain the arial view? I've searched it on Google Earth and Virtual Earth and the plot (as well as the pond on the property) looks somewhat different than the image you provided. I'd like to know which is the latest view. In my experience, Virtual Earth is a little more updated than Google Earth.

Thanks
T