Civil War Relic Hunting, yeah right.

[mastereagle22]

So for the last month I have listened on and on to Baldingboy about how he had this GREAT place to go hunt for CW relics, how once it rained we were going to go and find belt plates, and bullets, and buttons and heck even officers' swords! Well being the friend that I am I just patted him on his nearly bald head and said "yeah ok". And then I called his wife to have her call his doctor because his meds might just need a little bit of adjustement. Finally last week the rain came and it really helped to turn the concrete dirt into something slightly less hard, more like asphalt when it is newly put down. Anyway, BB says to me, "Let's go find some relics from the CW tonight" so trying to keep him happy I said OK. When we arrive the place looks nice enough until the little ol lady that lives there set her dobermans on us like the dude from Magnum PI did to Tom Sellek, once we got them fought off things were looking up!

We started swinging and got about 50 feet away from the car when a car pulls up and out jumps Charles Manson, you know the serial killer, and he starts heading for BB. I quickly ran through the situation in my mind, I was closer to the car than BB was, I can move faster than BB, the crazy serial killer dude is heading right toward BB and the Theme from JAWS is running through my head. I gripped the beast as tight as I could and got ready to bolt like a deer catching wind of a hunter. Just as I was about to make a dash for the car and saftey Manson Dude opens his mouth and says, "Dude it is so cool to get to meet other people that hunt here too." with a lopsided grin and a voice that reminded me somehow of Cheech and Chong, we had just met MissouriJohn (forum member). He went on to explain how he had hunted the site before and how he had found "lots" of good stuff from the very ground we were hunting on, I kept one eye on him and one hand on the Lesche at all times and I never turned my back because you never know when you might just wake up dead from trusting the wrong dude!
After a few minutes he says, "Hey I got my machine in the car mind if I hunt too?" Of course BB was jealous and didn't want to share his "prime" spot with me, let alone anyone else, but he said sure. MJ suggested we move "over the hill" because that was where the good stuff was, so we headed over the hill. As we topped the hill my heart just about stopped. Standing on top of the hill, I stood there looking at what can only be descrived as something from the set of a war movie, holes everywhere. I mean if you have seen the movie Holes then you have some idea what the place looked like. I stopped counting after 125 previous dug spots. After a while of exciting hunting (it was like watching Jello set up inside a fridge with a glass door) MJ comes loping across the field with a big grin on his face and shows us a musket ball he just found, BB and I quickly pulled out all the iron nails we had found and said in unision "Oh yeah well take a look at these." Really the musket ball was cool and BB and I were drooling all over ourselves trying to imagine what finding one would be like.
After two-and-a-half hours we started working back to our cars and I got out the Deleon. Five minutes swining it and out pops the first item, I think it is off the top of a gate or something. Not two minutes later I found the bullet, it is a modern bullet but a bullet none-the-less.

I suggested to BB that we move to a local soccer field because we obviously weren't going to find anything tonight and he agreed. We moved to the soccer field and found a LOT of canslaw and moved again to a local school. Found several coins, BB and I tied for coin count 16 each. BB found a really cool whatzit at the school and we wrapped up our hunt. Won't get to hunt next week, have to be out of town for a seminar, but I will be ready to go the week after that and then the week following that one is the Chisholm Trail Hunt. So all in all didn't find much and I am only posting pics of the finds from the CW site. I am trying to get permission to hunt a few other CW sites that are supposed to be "unhunted" and maybe if I do I can invite MissouriJohn along for the hunt. He turned out to be a cool guy with lots of good info and some good stories to tell. I wonder if he even knows he met the infamous Baldingboy and Mastereagle22 lastnight and lived to tell about it?

 

[Colonial KirkPA]

You are a hoot, buddy!

I am rolling on the floor laughing my metal detecting a$$ off!

 

[birdman]

Cool post,I went to an old house yesterday and there were huge holes wide open every where. Alot of the plugs were still intact but some one was just to lasy to put em back in the hole. Thats what gives us all a bad name.

 

[artemis moon]

Did they finally let Charlie out for good behavior? Keep him away from your Lesche. Sounds like you all had a good time.Can't wait to hear Balding Boy's take on all of this.

 

[COUNTRY GIRL]

You guys are a hoot! Now 3 of you, oh no . What the heck is that in the 2nd picture? Thanks for sharing your adventures.

 

[NC_Horn]

Great post, keep it up!

 

[Tricia]

Don't suppose it occured to anyone to fill in the holes.

Make us all look good?

 

[Colonial KirkPA]

Don't suppose it occured to anyone to fill in the holes.

Make us all look good?

Mastereagle was too busy listening for those wilver tones. Plus, if Mr. Mastereagle decided to fill in the holes, Baldingdude would infiltrate his detecting area. It is allll about competition, ma'am.

 

[mastereagle22]

You guys are a hoot! Now 3 of you, oh no . What the heck is that in the 2nd picture? Thanks for sharing your adventures.

Well I will adress a few items on the agenda now:

1. The item is a whatzit. I personally believe that it is a decoration that goes on top of a wrought Iron fence.
2. The pictures are so bad because I used the craptastic camera here at work, I didn't get home last night until after 11:30 and my wife wouldn't "let" me use the digital camera
3. The holes were filled in but you could just look out at the place and see where the holes had been dug. This place is hunted HARD!!
4. I always carry a ground cloth thing I made and every hole I dug you could barely tell I had ben there. BB is also very good at his digging and recovery technique. The lady that lives at the spot saw my ground cloth and asked what it was for, when I explained it to her she said that it was very nice that I was so good about it. She has had over 40 people on the site at one time or another she told me and all but one has been very good about digging and filling in holes. From what I could tell Missouri_John was using a red t-shirt as his ground cloth.
5. Haven't heard the magic WILVER tones in a while. I did have one other funny thing happen last night, when detecting at the school my Explorer kept telling me there was a wheat penny the size of a hub cap under the ground. No joking, one solid tone that you could lay a 16" wheel hub cap on! Dug down 6 inches and found an OLD burried Copper drainage pipe. BB almost wet himself laughing at me for digging that thing up. I covered the thing back up and you could barely tell I had been there but the pipe won and I didn't get it out.
6. BB ALWAYS follows me around now and as soon as I get a good signal and start to dig he sneaks up right next to where I am and starts swinging like a madman!

 

[Colonial KirkPA]

You guys are a hoot! Now 3 of you, oh no . What the heck is that in the 2nd picture? Thanks for sharing your adventures.

Well I will adress a few items on the agenda now:

1. The item is a whatzit. I personally believe that it is a decoration that goes on top of a wrought Iron fence.
2. The pictures are so bad because I used the craptastic camera here at work, I didn't get home last night until after 11:30 and my wife wouldn't "let" me use the digital camera
3. The holes were filled in but you could just look out at the place and see where the holes had been dug. This place is hunted HARD!!
4. I always carry a ground cloth thing I made and every hole I dug you could barely tell I had ben there. BB is also very good at his digging and recovery technique. The lady that lives at the spot saw my ground cloth and asked what it was for, when I explained it to her she said that it was very nice that I was so good about it. She has had over 40 people on the site at one time or another she told me and all but one has been very good about digging and filling in holes. From what I could tell Missouri_John was using a red t-shirt as his ground cloth.
5. Haven't heard the magic WILVER tones in a while. I did have one other funny thing happen last night, when detecting at the school my Explorer kept telling me there was a wheat penny the size of a hub cap under the ground. No joking, one solid tone that you could lay a 16" wheel hub cap on! Dug down 6 inches and found an OLD burried Copper drainage pipe. BB almost wet himself laughing at me for digging that thing up. I covered the thing back up and you could barely tell I had been there but the pipe won and I didn't get it out.
6. BB ALWAYS follows me around now and as soon as I get a good signal and start to dig he sneaks up right next to where I am and starts swinging like a madman!

I am laughing super hard to this one.

 

[mastereagle22]

Thanks for the encouragement. Yesterday was the first time I tried to use the Explorer for Relic hunting it does great for coins and deep coins too, but it was making noise ALL the time it took me about 30 mins to just get into a Zen state with the machine and only dig NAILS!!!

 

[Missouri_John]

hahahahahaha, thanks for the great laugh. Its nice to met fellow metal detectorists as crazy as i am

 

[Nana40]

Love this! Hey..make sure BB brings his medi when he comes to the hunt too, ME.

Relic hunting is definitely different that hunting at the park. Make sure you go REALLY slow around all that iron. Lots of times the good stuff is next to the not so good stuff and if you go fast, you'll miss it.

Can't wait to meet you all!

Nana

 

[Mental Granny]

Cool finds, and LMAO at your stories! But I can not wait to meet the both of you and get both sides togeather!

Evy

 

[piggman1]

That's hilarious! Love the story, and those finds are absolutly AWSOME!!

 

[COUNTRY GIRL]

Thanks for the encouragement. Yesterday was the first time I tried to use the Explorer for Relic hunting it does great for coins and deep coins too, but it was making noise ALL the time it took me about 30 mins to just get into a Zen state with the machine and only dig NAILS!!!

Please tell me what is wrong with nails? If there is something wrong.......I better hang up the detector? Seriously at least you can get age reference. Give me an old hand forged nail any day!

 

[mastereagle22]

Oh no I think you misunderstood that part, I was trying to be funny. You are talking to a guy who loves Zipper Pulls and keeps every pencil top I have EVER dug and one or two that BB has tossed into my bag to be mean!

I LOVE the old square nails. I only have about twelve good ones but each one I find goes in my keeper box. To me you can look at that nail, knowing that the nail possibly was handled by a CW soldier or settler and it just makes me think WOW what must that have been like. NO Metal Detectors!! I shudder to think....

I was just trying to say that when I FINALLY figured out how to put the Beast into all metal mode (the little AM never showed up) it was constantly chattering. But when you hit a good signal you knew it. By good I mean something that was really there.

 

[tsgman]

Better luck next time guy's. I am sure Missouri John is a pretty good relic hunter. Invite him to hunt one of your sites and he might reciprocate. Good luck.