BuckleBoy
Platinum Member
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2006
- Messages
- 18,132
- Reaction score
- 9,701
- Golden Thread
- 4
- Location
- Moonlight and Magnolias
- 🥇 Banner finds
- 4
- 🏆 Honorable Mentions:
- 2
- Detector(s) used
- Fisher F75, Whites DualField PI, Fisher 1266-X and Tesoro Silver uMax
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
Hello All,
After digging the Pelican button in our straggler field a month ago, I haven't posted any finds. Work hit here pretty hard, and I took a few weeks off. Then a quick talk to the property owner and we got a green light on hunting in between the newly sprouting sugar cane. So off we went to re-hunt the straggler field (systematic grid), and see what the plow had turned up for us to find. This wasn't a deep plow and rolling (that's once every three years here), but rather just a stirring up of the top of the rows. I went and met Shanegalang for the first hunt, and got a few decent bits. He eyeballed a silver Philippines occupation coin made into a brooch, pin, or tie tack. Thought that was a real cool find.
Musketball, an assortment of marbles, mid-1800s pipe bowl, what I believe to be a kepi buckle (please confirm if you know for sure), and a solid silver thimble which I was pleased with. Also got the back from what was most likely an Eagle cuff button. Here's my finds from this first hunt:
I then met up with Shane the following week to continue the grid. On this hunt I dug our first Dropped minieball from the site (this is an important clue, since we were in the process of hunting for a camp when we stumbled on the straggler field in the first place). The bullet wasn't wormed or pulled, so we're not as close as we could be... At one point, I looked down and saw a tiny speck of brass laying on the surface. When I picked it up, I realized it was an unfired percussion cap. The tiny thing wouldn't even give a solid beep on my detector it was so small. Probably why I have never found one of these before. I also dug a piece of a Bormann timed fuse (strange find at this site, but we have dug them a mile away, so anything is possible...) And got another silver thimble...or a piece of one. Thought it was aluminum at first, but turned it over and realized what it was. At any rate, it was the usual mix of old and new from the field:
When I got home, I cleaned some iron relics that have been under foot at the house, and fished a little relic out of the vinegar. I thought it was a spur rowel, not a clock gear, and after cleaning off the rusted iron, I think I'm right.
Well, we went out this past weekend again, and Diggergirl was free and able to come along too. We gridded off a lot of rows, but we intend to finish the field before the cane gets too tall to hunt. The finds were pretty good. Diggergirl got her first Louisiana minieball, and her first silver thimble (a nice one that likely had a stone in the top at one point). I had just dug the back of yet another cuff button, and was greeted by a two-piece button in the dirt. I yelled for everyone to come over, seeing a rmdc backmark and knowing it was a CW era find rather than WWI. After the photo op, courtesy of Diggergirl, it was time to unveil...
And it turned out to be... a flower button, mid 19th century. That is only the second non- military two-piece button we've ever dug down here. Oh well. Still a fun find for the collection, and there will be more military to come I'm sure.
Then I eyeballed another mid-19th century pipe bowl and an early clay pipe stem, and dug a piece of another spur. This is spur #7 from this field--all different styles and manufactures. We will have a big jigsaw puzzle with these once the field is plowed again! This spur appears to be more western style, and post CW, but there have been CW era Confederate style spurs, goose-neck and "saw back" styles, and federal issue M1859 examples as well. Nice that this one was decorative.
When we got home, we tossed out the trash and can slaw, pitched the cast iron junk, and spread out all the finds on a table on the porch:
After getting rid of the bits of brass sheet metal and junque in the recycling bin, we had this left to show between Diggergirl and I:
Her first silver thimble (Congrats, Diggergirl! It took me a long time to find my first one of those!), a nice piece of fired, Louisiana-Dug Lead
and what may be a piece of the chain that led from the strap box stud to the boot on a spur.
I was pleased with a lantern wick knob that says "SUN LIGHT PAT DEC 14 1869".
It's nothing earth shattering, but we are dealing with limited hunt time here due to heat, and crop in all our decent fields but one until harvest. Chugging away, and there are still CW finds being made. Shane dug a tombac button from the field last hunt, and I think we may get an occasional sweet surprise still hiding in this field. And once harvest happens, it's open season on Spanish Silver, New Orleans Seated Silver, Civil War, and Colonial!
Best Wishes and Happy Hunting,
Buck
After digging the Pelican button in our straggler field a month ago, I haven't posted any finds. Work hit here pretty hard, and I took a few weeks off. Then a quick talk to the property owner and we got a green light on hunting in between the newly sprouting sugar cane. So off we went to re-hunt the straggler field (systematic grid), and see what the plow had turned up for us to find. This wasn't a deep plow and rolling (that's once every three years here), but rather just a stirring up of the top of the rows. I went and met Shanegalang for the first hunt, and got a few decent bits. He eyeballed a silver Philippines occupation coin made into a brooch, pin, or tie tack. Thought that was a real cool find.
Musketball, an assortment of marbles, mid-1800s pipe bowl, what I believe to be a kepi buckle (please confirm if you know for sure), and a solid silver thimble which I was pleased with. Also got the back from what was most likely an Eagle cuff button. Here's my finds from this first hunt:
I then met up with Shane the following week to continue the grid. On this hunt I dug our first Dropped minieball from the site (this is an important clue, since we were in the process of hunting for a camp when we stumbled on the straggler field in the first place). The bullet wasn't wormed or pulled, so we're not as close as we could be... At one point, I looked down and saw a tiny speck of brass laying on the surface. When I picked it up, I realized it was an unfired percussion cap. The tiny thing wouldn't even give a solid beep on my detector it was so small. Probably why I have never found one of these before. I also dug a piece of a Bormann timed fuse (strange find at this site, but we have dug them a mile away, so anything is possible...) And got another silver thimble...or a piece of one. Thought it was aluminum at first, but turned it over and realized what it was. At any rate, it was the usual mix of old and new from the field:
When I got home, I cleaned some iron relics that have been under foot at the house, and fished a little relic out of the vinegar. I thought it was a spur rowel, not a clock gear, and after cleaning off the rusted iron, I think I'm right.
Well, we went out this past weekend again, and Diggergirl was free and able to come along too. We gridded off a lot of rows, but we intend to finish the field before the cane gets too tall to hunt. The finds were pretty good. Diggergirl got her first Louisiana minieball, and her first silver thimble (a nice one that likely had a stone in the top at one point). I had just dug the back of yet another cuff button, and was greeted by a two-piece button in the dirt. I yelled for everyone to come over, seeing a rmdc backmark and knowing it was a CW era find rather than WWI. After the photo op, courtesy of Diggergirl, it was time to unveil...
And it turned out to be... a flower button, mid 19th century. That is only the second non- military two-piece button we've ever dug down here. Oh well. Still a fun find for the collection, and there will be more military to come I'm sure.
Then I eyeballed another mid-19th century pipe bowl and an early clay pipe stem, and dug a piece of another spur. This is spur #7 from this field--all different styles and manufactures. We will have a big jigsaw puzzle with these once the field is plowed again! This spur appears to be more western style, and post CW, but there have been CW era Confederate style spurs, goose-neck and "saw back" styles, and federal issue M1859 examples as well. Nice that this one was decorative.
When we got home, we tossed out the trash and can slaw, pitched the cast iron junk, and spread out all the finds on a table on the porch:
After getting rid of the bits of brass sheet metal and junque in the recycling bin, we had this left to show between Diggergirl and I:
Her first silver thimble (Congrats, Diggergirl! It took me a long time to find my first one of those!), a nice piece of fired, Louisiana-Dug Lead
and what may be a piece of the chain that led from the strap box stud to the boot on a spur. I was pleased with a lantern wick knob that says "SUN LIGHT PAT DEC 14 1869".
It's nothing earth shattering, but we are dealing with limited hunt time here due to heat, and crop in all our decent fields but one until harvest. Chugging away, and there are still CW finds being made. Shane dug a tombac button from the field last hunt, and I think we may get an occasional sweet surprise still hiding in this field. And once harvest happens, it's open season on Spanish Silver, New Orleans Seated Silver, Civil War, and Colonial!
Best Wishes and Happy Hunting,
Buck
Upvote
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Could you post an example? 
