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   | Feature | Vol. 35 June 2001 |
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| Feature | Vol. 35 June 2001 |
 Experience has taught author Bruce Conley not to give up too soon. As a result, what began as a bad day ended up adding another great relic to his collection. |
Have you ever had days when nothing was going your way, and you thought it would be better to pack up and call it a day? This has happened to me on several occasions. Instead of giving up, though, I fought the urge and was rewarded with some good recoveries despite my adversities. I try not to develop a defeatist attitude when things are not going as planned. Let me tell you some of the strange things that have happened to me in the past.
While I still consider myself fairly new to metal detecting (four years), there was the time when I was so excited about just being able to get out in the woods and metal detect that I left my recovery tool behind. Unfortunately, I did not realize this until I was at the site. I decided that if I could find one good target, I would then go home. I hate wasting a good opportunity to search for Civil War relics. After getting a good-sounding signal I proceeded to find a sturdy stick to recover the target, which, luckily, was relatively shallow. To my surprise, it turned out to be a rare fired Whitworth bullet.
 A trio of keepers recovered in the Rocky Face area (l-r): Minie balls fused after colliding in midair, a North Carolina coat button, and a Confederate cast "I" button. |
On another occasion I was trying to recover a target when my digging tool broke. To make matters worse, it was raining. I was tempted to leave, but instead I used the pointed end of the pick to uncover a nice Civil War era pocketknife.
My most recent tribulation was due to a problem with my detector. The previous night I had called several of my hunting partners to see if they would like to go out the next morning. Everyone had to bow out for one reason or another, but I decided to go on anyway. One of the guys had told me about some road construction going on in a historic part of Tunnel Hill, so I drove by to take a look. However, the area looked a little too trashy for my taste, and I turned around and headed back toward a site in Rocky Face. This general area was a part of a major Civil War battle in May 1864 in Dalton, Georgia.
 After getting a strong signal, Bruce was expecting to unearth another shotgun shell. Instead, up came a North Carolina "sunburst" (rayed star) button! |
I finally got to where I wanted to hunt and had dug up only a couple of shell cases when the armrest on my detector fell off! You talk about discouragement... I stood there for a minute, debating whether or not I should go home or figure out a way to detect some more. Well, I took the Velcro strap, wrapped it over my arm and doubled up the end, placing it under the upper rod between the housing. This worked well enough for the time being. Again, I thought that if I could find a Civil War bullet or anything related to that era, then I would go home.
I began detecting beside a ravine and got a loud signal close to a sapling. Due to the signal and the high ID numbers, I suspected that the target was going to be a large, shallow shotgun shell. After removing the dirt and loose rocks, I still had not recovered anything. That is when I used my White's pinpointer to determine that the object was under a root. Continuing with the recovery, I pulled it loose and saw it lying in the soil. At first glance it looked like a shotgun case, as I had expected; but on closer view it turned out to be Confederate North Carolina "sunburst" coat button. Was I ever excited- and to think that only moments earlier I had been ready to call it quits!
Later, at home, I cleaned the button. It had about 95% gilt remaining. Sadly, it did not have the shank on the back, but it was my first button like this, and otherwise in excellent condition. It also reminded me of a fundamental rule of relic hunting: Don't let your adversities get the best of you. Hang in there, and you just may find something unexpected!
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