Float Plane Hunt

[OutdoorAdv]

I do an annual trip up to the woods in Northern Maine and this year I decided to take one of my metal detectors. We charter a float plane to fly us out to a lake, that is only accessible by float plane and hiking trail, and drop us off for a week. There are a lot of very remote camp sites off the lake and trails that I figured would be fun to check out with a metal detector. The soil in places was very spongy and dark due to the constant decomposition of organic matter burying things deeper and deeper. I brought my old Whites Coinmaster Classic III+, but my next trip I am going to bring my v3i. I don't think that Coinmaster could get the depth I needed in that type of soil.

I ended up digging nearly $6 in clad, and found no silver! I know its there though since I dug a few wheat cents from the 20's, 30's and 50's. I dug two nice ax heads and the largest horse shoe I've ever dug with some odd square cleats on it. I usually toss my iron aside when I get home, but I plan on giving electrolysis a try on these. I may even get a new ax handle for one of them! Where I go is closer to Canada than any other state, which is probably why I dug my first Canadian coins... 2 pennies and a dime. Other than that, some fishing lures, old pocket knife, an ear ring, bunch of ammo shells and bullets and the normal assortment of pull tabs and aluminum. When our pilot came to pick us up he told me about a sporting camp from the 1890's then flew me over it on our way out... I was KICKING myself for not asking him on our flight in.




We also found some old bottle and trash dumps from the 40's and 50's, so I brought back a few of these cool outboard motor oil cans

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Minelab PRO-FIND 35 Waterproof Pinpointer Metal Detector for Experts with Tone ID & Adjustable Sensitivity - Grab it through Amazon!

[mdmaniac]

Very nice...I like the oil cans! Americana!

 

[OutdoorAdv]

Very nice...I like the oil cans! Americana!

When I got back and showed them to my girlfriend she thought they looked like junk. I told her they were "Americana"... it wasn't very convincing. After all, they are old rusted cans I pulled out of a trash dump in the woods. haha I left a pile of about a dozen more in the woods up there for my next trip. I plan on bringing back all that Americana next time!!

 

[bigbry]

I laughed when you said your girlfriend thought it was junk! I got lucky and my girl is into the same things i am! She keeps more than i do!!! She has a good eye for "americana" keep up the good finds.

 

[doc-d]

Very nice........any plans to return and hit the 1890's camp?

 

[vpnavy]

Nice finds OutdoorAdv.

 

[OutdoorAdv]

Very nice........any plans to return and hit the 1890's camp?

I wanted to tell my pilot to leave me another day and come back tomorrow!! I was really excited about the camp and will absolutely be going back with my nicer detector on my next trip.

 

[arapahoscout]

The shoe looks to be forged for ice use. The lugs create traction in all directions as opposed to a standard shoe only keeping traction at the toe for moving forward.

 

[PeteWmass]

rusty cans can be cleaned up quite a bit sometimes...check out www.therustybunch.com -oxalic acid works well...doesn't effect the paint..the beer cans are where the real cash is........

 

[OutdoorAdv]

The shoe looks to be forged for ice use. The lugs create traction in all directions as opposed to a standard shoe only keeping traction at the toe for moving forward.

Thanks a ton for the info. I did a google images search and one of them was from another TNet post and the guy had found the exact same shoe. Its enormous... its wider than those full size ax heads.

 

[OutdoorAdv]

rusty cans can be cleaned up quite a bit sometimes...check out www.therustybunch.com -oxalic acid works well...doesn't effect the paint..the beer cans are where the real cash is........

I had no idea cleaning that rust was even an option. I'm looking in therustybunch can cleaning forum and the oxalic before\after pictures are awesome. I will absolutely give that a try. Thanks a ton.

 

[OutdoorAdv]

I built an electrolysis setup and wanted to show the results on my ax heads and that huge cleated\lugged horseshoe from my original post.

Before:


During:


After:


Also, thank you PeteWmass for pointing me to www.therustybunch.com!! I ordered some oxalic acid off amazon and followed one of the recipes in the rusty bunch forum and got some awesome results.

Before:


After:


Now I only wish I brought more of those cans home with me. During next year's trip I plan on fixing that! I gave the older Texaco can away as a gift already... it turned out amazing too. Thanks again.

 

[Sawyer]

The shoes are probably for draft horses(Think Clydesdales,etc) that pulled logs, ice and other such goodies across the frozen lakes and rivers. Those things really cleaned up nice. Maybe the girlfriend might change her opinion and become a hunter too!

 

[OutdoorAdv]

The shoes are probably for draft horses(Think Clydesdales,etc) that pulled logs, ice and other such goodies across the frozen lakes and rivers. Those things really cleaned up nice. Maybe the girlfriend might change her opinion and become a hunter too!

I think you're right. I found the shoe on an island so it was either frozen when it got there, or it wasn't attached to the horse when it got there! Its also easily the largest shoe I've ever found... so I was also thinking Clydesdale! The whole area used to be logged too, which possibly explains its use and those ax heads.

Lately she's thought some of my finds were pretty cool, so there's hope still. haha