OutdoorAdv
Bronze Member
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2013
- Messages
- 2,457
- Reaction score
- 3,351
- Golden Thread
- 1
- Location
- East Coast - USA
- 🥇 Banner finds
- 1
- Detector(s) used
- XP Deus,
GPX 4500,
Equinox 800,
AT Max
- Primary Interest:
- Metal Detecting
This was hands down the best weekend I ever had detecting, and it had little to do with the finds. I was able to combine a few of my favorite things, hiking, paddling, detecting and hanging out with a good buddy. Somehow the moons aligned between Ahab8's (Abe) and my schedules, so I piggybacked a work trip to CT with a weekend in Maine. I threw together one of my graphite anode electrolysis tanks for Abe and loaded up my car... 10 hours later I was in Abe's driveway. There is a reason Abe finds the incredible stuff he does and it's because he is amazing at all aspects of this hobby, from research, to reading the terrain and locating sites, and using his machine to work the iron. Many times he said we arrived at a site and I see nothing, turn on the machine and there's iron in the middle of no where. I learned a TON from him this weekend about what to look for. I thought the places I went and amount of work I put into recovering stuff was pretty intense, but Abe takes it to a whole new level. Abe's appreciation of the history of his area and the stuff he finds is inspiring and an asset to our hobby. One of my favorite things is to hit a site that has been pounded in the past and dig the horrible signals. Its a lot of work, but its so much more rewarding to unmask a non-ferrous target. With the exception of one spot, the rest had been hit pretty hard.
Check out Abe's Post: http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/t...1653-copper-war-1812-buttons-shoe-buckle.html
The group shot of my weekend hunt with Abe
Hunt 1: I don't have hot rocks back home where I hunt... I get the occasional piece of coke, but no hot rocks. So I wasn't used to them and the Deus enjoyed them in Maine. After wasting some time on some hot rocks, I came out of the gates with a sweet cufflink! Its been a cufflink year for me, so I was thrilled to see another one turn up. A few musket balls and buttons later we move on and my finds quiet down. We get to a site that Abe has been trying to locate and thinks he finally found it. I turn on my machine and instantly find an 1870 IHP, as I'm explaining to Abe that this might be a more modern site he pulls out an incredible rat tail spoon, followed by a complete pair of cufflinks, an incredible pewter shoe buckle frame.... and then a complete shoe buckle. While I couldn't get my coil over anything good at this site (I zigged when I should have zagged) this was my favorite part of the weekend. Seeing that stuff come out of the dirt is just awesome. Sun was going down so we started home, but stopped by one more site on the way. I pulled a sweet hoe blade and Abe found an INSANE copper (check out his post). We each dug a fragment to the same shoe buckle and Abe remembered he had another piece at home. When we get there, he grabs it and all three pieces completed the frame. So I left that buckle fragment, and a tombac button from his ancestors property rightfully with Abe!
Hunt 2: We head to a site with War of 1812 history to sift a pit that Abe thinks he found there. He's pulled some incredible buttons from here that you can see in some of his past posts. My oldest military button's are Civil War and I desperately wanted an 1812 button. We get there and I start digging some test pits and quickly verify he has indeed located a very large pit area. I start emptying a section out and pick a flat button, melted lead, brass tack and various other bits from between the iron. Abe comes and joins me and he locates a nice mid tone, which turned out to be a pewter. We got another broken pewter from the pit and decide to take a break from the pit and detect. This place is hammered! After 30 min and a bunch of .22 shell casing (everywhere) I get a whisper and pull out a small brass cuff button. I decided to dig everything in that area and see what happened.... what happened was unbelievable. My next "target" was more of a click or blip on the Deus and one I would not dig unless in a special area. I cut a plug, flip it over and its a SLAMMING mid tone in the bottom of the plug. brush off some dirt and there is a pewter "10" staring at me. Beyond excited I call Abe over to see it. Two minutes later I have a similar signal, flip the plug, same deal.... there is a pewter "5" staring at me. A couple more minutes later a "US" pewter comes out feet away. I insistent that Abe come and join me in this 20x20 foot section. We spend the rest of the day working this area and digging everything. Pewters and brass buttons are turning up all over the place. Abe.... that was awesome man! That was a total blast working that area with you buddy
The group shot of the 1812 Pewters I dug in that small section.
Abe literally rolled out his red carpet, the t-net famous backdrop for all his finds and he took these incredible photos of the buttons. These buttons look better in the photos than they do in person
1808-11 4th Regt. U.S. Infantry - Cuff Button
Each of these said "United States" around the border. Together, you can see how the lettering was laid out.
1798-1802 10th Regt. U.S. Infantry AND 1798-1802 5th Regt. U.S. Infantry (All cuff buttons)
1808-30 U.S. Army General Service - Cuff Buttons
And the rolled up pewter taco... every pewter from this location has been a marked military, so if I can figure out how to unroll this safely, perhaps there is something salvageable on the inside.
Hunt 3: This was a quick one and we only lasted for a couple hours. After Hunt 1 and Hunt 2 we were physically exhausted and had no gas in the tank. My favorite from this group is the lead fishing weight.
Thank you once again Abe! You're going to kill it in that pit and I cant wait to see what you dig up out there. That iron turned out incredible and that was the nicest ax I've seen come out of a tank. When you wear those anodes down, let me know and I'll whip up a new set for you and send them off.
Check out Abe's Post: http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/t...1653-copper-war-1812-buttons-shoe-buckle.html
The group shot of my weekend hunt with Abe
Hunt 1: I don't have hot rocks back home where I hunt... I get the occasional piece of coke, but no hot rocks. So I wasn't used to them and the Deus enjoyed them in Maine. After wasting some time on some hot rocks, I came out of the gates with a sweet cufflink! Its been a cufflink year for me, so I was thrilled to see another one turn up. A few musket balls and buttons later we move on and my finds quiet down. We get to a site that Abe has been trying to locate and thinks he finally found it. I turn on my machine and instantly find an 1870 IHP, as I'm explaining to Abe that this might be a more modern site he pulls out an incredible rat tail spoon, followed by a complete pair of cufflinks, an incredible pewter shoe buckle frame.... and then a complete shoe buckle. While I couldn't get my coil over anything good at this site (I zigged when I should have zagged) this was my favorite part of the weekend. Seeing that stuff come out of the dirt is just awesome. Sun was going down so we started home, but stopped by one more site on the way. I pulled a sweet hoe blade and Abe found an INSANE copper (check out his post). We each dug a fragment to the same shoe buckle and Abe remembered he had another piece at home. When we get there, he grabs it and all three pieces completed the frame. So I left that buckle fragment, and a tombac button from his ancestors property rightfully with Abe!
Hunt 2: We head to a site with War of 1812 history to sift a pit that Abe thinks he found there. He's pulled some incredible buttons from here that you can see in some of his past posts. My oldest military button's are Civil War and I desperately wanted an 1812 button. We get there and I start digging some test pits and quickly verify he has indeed located a very large pit area. I start emptying a section out and pick a flat button, melted lead, brass tack and various other bits from between the iron. Abe comes and joins me and he locates a nice mid tone, which turned out to be a pewter. We got another broken pewter from the pit and decide to take a break from the pit and detect. This place is hammered! After 30 min and a bunch of .22 shell casing (everywhere) I get a whisper and pull out a small brass cuff button. I decided to dig everything in that area and see what happened.... what happened was unbelievable. My next "target" was more of a click or blip on the Deus and one I would not dig unless in a special area. I cut a plug, flip it over and its a SLAMMING mid tone in the bottom of the plug. brush off some dirt and there is a pewter "10" staring at me. Beyond excited I call Abe over to see it. Two minutes later I have a similar signal, flip the plug, same deal.... there is a pewter "5" staring at me. A couple more minutes later a "US" pewter comes out feet away. I insistent that Abe come and join me in this 20x20 foot section. We spend the rest of the day working this area and digging everything. Pewters and brass buttons are turning up all over the place. Abe.... that was awesome man! That was a total blast working that area with you buddy
The group shot of the 1812 Pewters I dug in that small section.
Abe literally rolled out his red carpet, the t-net famous backdrop for all his finds and he took these incredible photos of the buttons. These buttons look better in the photos than they do in person
1808-11 4th Regt. U.S. Infantry - Cuff Button
Each of these said "United States" around the border. Together, you can see how the lettering was laid out.
1798-1802 10th Regt. U.S. Infantry AND 1798-1802 5th Regt. U.S. Infantry (All cuff buttons)
1808-30 U.S. Army General Service - Cuff Buttons
And the rolled up pewter taco... every pewter from this location has been a marked military, so if I can figure out how to unroll this safely, perhaps there is something salvageable on the inside.
Hunt 3: This was a quick one and we only lasted for a couple hours. After Hunt 1 and Hunt 2 we were physically exhausted and had no gas in the tank. My favorite from this group is the lead fishing weight.
Thank you once again Abe! You're going to kill it in that pit and I cant wait to see what you dig up out there. That iron turned out incredible and that was the nicest ax I've seen come out of a tank. When you wear those anodes down, let me know and I'll whip up a new set for you and send them off.
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