BuckleBoy
Platinum Member
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2006
- Messages
- 18,159
- Reaction score
- 9,723
- Golden Thread
- 4
- Location
- Moonlight and Magnolias
- 🥇 Banner finds
- 4
- Detector(s) used
- Fisher F75, Whites DualField PI, Fisher 1266-X and Tesoro Silver uMax
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
I knew such a hunt was coming...and with some nice finds lately I knew the inevitable would happen sooner or later. Today was ALMOST a skunk hunt for Rodeo Recon and I. We took off to find a couple of old house sites that were on an old map. The first house site was pretty easy to find...and we spent a good while there...we found only pulltabs and newer items, plus some old iron. When we'd dug a TON of holes in that field we decided to try and pinpoint another house site in the area. Let me tell you...I have found some house sites in my day, but this one was TOUGH! Even with such a capable detectorist as Rodeo as my wingman, this site took some work! To start off, we found a BARN site in the field instead of the HOUSE site, and it took us a while to realize it (losing valuable digging time in the process). Then we finally started to see old broken glass, pottery, and brick in the holes. 
Of course, there was a LOT of iron... Anyhow, we kept bringing the iron up... For several hard hours we dug the iron out of the site so that we could hear the deeper and smaller targets. We got a few old bridle buckles...I found what I think is a toe tap (I had never found one before). Darkness was getting close upon us... I knew that the signals were getting fewer and farther between, and we knew pretty well what the perimeter of the site was--I have never seen such a dramatic decline in signals over the course of a few feet in a plowed field! It was almost like there was a fence row at the edge of where the yard once was. I paralleled this "line" for a while, getting iron "pops and clicks" as I swung to the left, and silence as I swung to the right. In this way we were able to determine where the house site ended and open fields began. Finally I managed to get a coin right about dark. I thought it might be a nickel, but the nick in the coin's rim had me thinking it could be something else as I squinted to see it in the failing light. I took it over to Rodeo's Ace 250, and he said "Yep, that's definitely a nickel." It is a 1901 V Nickel. Rodeo immediately started hunting like a detectorist POSSESSED. We pounded the site for another 45 minutes until we couldn't see our searchcoils in the darkness--and by that time the signals had gotten quite sparse.
If Gypsy is the Queen of Rust, I certainly feel like the King of Rust today. Between the pieces of a potbellied stove, door hinges, axe heads, cooking pot fragments, iron rings, and a hub from a wagon, I'm exhausted! I think we dug OVER 50 lbs. of iron today, easily (we disposed of the big pieces of iron), but here is a photo of what we had in our pouches and pockets when we got home:
Here is a close-up of the buckles, toe tap, and V Nickel:
And another of the coin:
There are two things that really make me proud as a detectorist. One is making a great find in a well-hunted site. The other is when a coin is found that would likely have never, ever have been found by anyone otherwise. Such is the case with house site coins like these--frequently even the property owner has no idea that anything was ever there...
Regards,
Buckleboy
Of course, there was a LOT of iron... Anyhow, we kept bringing the iron up... For several hard hours we dug the iron out of the site so that we could hear the deeper and smaller targets. We got a few old bridle buckles...I found what I think is a toe tap (I had never found one before). Darkness was getting close upon us... I knew that the signals were getting fewer and farther between, and we knew pretty well what the perimeter of the site was--I have never seen such a dramatic decline in signals over the course of a few feet in a plowed field! It was almost like there was a fence row at the edge of where the yard once was. I paralleled this "line" for a while, getting iron "pops and clicks" as I swung to the left, and silence as I swung to the right. In this way we were able to determine where the house site ended and open fields began. Finally I managed to get a coin right about dark. I thought it might be a nickel, but the nick in the coin's rim had me thinking it could be something else as I squinted to see it in the failing light. I took it over to Rodeo's Ace 250, and he said "Yep, that's definitely a nickel." It is a 1901 V Nickel. Rodeo immediately started hunting like a detectorist POSSESSED. We pounded the site for another 45 minutes until we couldn't see our searchcoils in the darkness--and by that time the signals had gotten quite sparse. If Gypsy is the Queen of Rust, I certainly feel like the King of Rust today. Between the pieces of a potbellied stove, door hinges, axe heads, cooking pot fragments, iron rings, and a hub from a wagon, I'm exhausted! I think we dug OVER 50 lbs. of iron today, easily (we disposed of the big pieces of iron), but here is a photo of what we had in our pouches and pockets when we got home:
Here is a close-up of the buckles, toe tap, and V Nickel:
And another of the coin:
There are two things that really make me proud as a detectorist. One is making a great find in a well-hunted site. The other is when a coin is found that would likely have never, ever have been found by anyone otherwise. Such is the case with house site coins like these--frequently even the property owner has no idea that anything was ever there...
Regards,
Buckleboy
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