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 from Sticky, Humid, Sweltering Southern Louisiana!
Let's start this story with the hunt before this one. Shanegalang was busy working, and I wanted to hit the straggler field as much as possible before it gets plowed on Monday. When the field is plowed, all of our 30,000 acres of permissions will have crop growing in them, and the hunt is officially "off" until December.
But, this has been an incredible year for us, so I certainly can't complain.
I got up at dawn for the first of two solo hunts and got out in the muddy mucky mess. I took a photo to give you a sense of what I was hunting in. (Not as bad as I've seen it by far, but still a mess!) I took a deep breath and fastened my seatbelt for a morning of sinking to my ankles, digging in standing water, and having finds sticking to the searchcoil, the shovel, my boots, and gloves.
I started hitting da rows with dat volume turned slow and began ta draw off da iron so doze farmers don't catch a flat, dem.
Finds were a little on the lazy side in finding their way to my pouch. I got a couple of bits, picked up some marbles laying in the mud, and then got a shield nickel that looked like it had some detail left (most of the ones we find down here are trashed).
I stuck the shield in my pouch and kept swinging as long as I could take the heat. Once my Camelbak ran dry, I started the long slow trek to the car. On the way back, I picked up an interesting piece of blue china that looked like it was from a figurine. Then I saw an ornate piece of what I thought was white china. I stuck it in my pouch too. With the mud down here, there is no hope of identifying much of anything in the field. Best to just keep digging in those precious morning hours before the heat and humidity take their toll.
When I got home, the Shield nickel turned out quite well, and even had a date--but the best find was the white clay piece, which turned out to be one of those large, Belgian or French-made figural clay pipes! First one of those for me. I've seen them dug in trash pits and privies, but this was a rare find in a plowed field. It is broken, but still deserves a place of honor in the collection. Here are the total finds from the first solo hunt:
The figural clay tobacoo pipe:
The Shield Nickel (1867):
And a cool lantern knob (can't quite tell what it says):
Well, this morning I got up early and tore through the swamps to get back to the straggler field in the hopes of pulling a few more targets before the plow comes through. The timing was good, and I got there about 45 minutes before sunrise. Enough time to throw on the muck boots, gloves, and check the gear before walking out in the great expanse of cane fields. When I got to the area I wanted to hunt, the sun was peeking up over the horizon.
Now that's a Louisiana Sunrise.
I fought the mud again, tossing items in my pouch, often with minimal inspection and a quick judgement call about whether they should go in a safe place or in with the general riff raff. I dug a big brass pipe fitting which weighed a couple pounds. "Recycle bin" was the immediate thought, but I didn't want to carry the piece around, since I already had 10 lbs of mud on each boot. As I got toward the end of a row, I got another big chunk of brass that was heavy. I thought it was a wall sconce for gas lighting that had been bent up by the plow (it was kind of asymmetrical). I decided to place the two pieces by a brick at the end of a row. I picked up a few marbles, some sort of a finial, some flat buttons, a nice portion of a clay pipe bowl, and half of a lens from a pair of spectacles. By that time, the heat was oppressive and I started to walk back. When I got to the turn row, it took me 20 minutes to figure out where the heck I'd laid those two pieces of brass.
Glad I got them, though! One of them turned out to be something very special...
I got home and started to investigate all the stuck-together chunks of mud in my pouch, separated the trash from the treasure, and took this photo:
Then I decided to wash up the two big brass items to add to my recycle bin (took that in today, by the way--30lbs of brass and 10lbs of copper from this spring season = nice gas rebate)
P.S.--I encourage folks to keep their junk brass bins for a while and go through them periodically to see if there are any "keepers" that they have missed.
Anyhow, so I cleaned the pipe fitting and tossed it into the brass bin with a satisfying "clunk."
Then as I started to clean the asymmetrical piece I couldn't believe what I was seeing! As it turns out, this piece of "junk brass" ended up being a small Bronze Statue! The figure is wearing a tunic gathered at the waist by a large belt. Note the ruff around his neck and billowed sleeves. He holds flowers in both hands and his hat is either a turban of cloth or a large stylized rose. Folks, this is honestly one of my favorite items I have dug in 20 years.
Top view (The holes in his head and feet are not very deep. They do not go all the way through the statue. The top hole is threaded; the ones in his feet are not.)
Bottom view:
I have no idea what this character represents, but his attire looks similar to mardi gras costumes I have seen from the mid-1800s. If anyone has a clue about this figure, please reply! It is astonishing how something like this could dodge the plow for over a century. To me, this one qualifies as an Olympic find, and it goes to show that no matter how much, or how long you dig, there is always something waiting in the ground that will totally surprise you.
Laisser les bons temps rouler!
-Buckles
Let's start this story with the hunt before this one. Shanegalang was busy working, and I wanted to hit the straggler field as much as possible before it gets plowed on Monday. When the field is plowed, all of our 30,000 acres of permissions will have crop growing in them, and the hunt is officially "off" until December.
But, this has been an incredible year for us, so I certainly can't complain. I got up at dawn for the first of two solo hunts and got out in the muddy mucky mess. I took a photo to give you a sense of what I was hunting in. (Not as bad as I've seen it by far, but still a mess!) I took a deep breath and fastened my seatbelt for a morning of sinking to my ankles, digging in standing water, and having finds sticking to the searchcoil, the shovel, my boots, and gloves.
I started hitting da rows with dat volume turned slow and began ta draw off da iron so doze farmers don't catch a flat, dem.
Finds were a little on the lazy side in finding their way to my pouch. I got a couple of bits, picked up some marbles laying in the mud, and then got a shield nickel that looked like it had some detail left (most of the ones we find down here are trashed).
I stuck the shield in my pouch and kept swinging as long as I could take the heat. Once my Camelbak ran dry, I started the long slow trek to the car. On the way back, I picked up an interesting piece of blue china that looked like it was from a figurine. Then I saw an ornate piece of what I thought was white china. I stuck it in my pouch too. With the mud down here, there is no hope of identifying much of anything in the field. Best to just keep digging in those precious morning hours before the heat and humidity take their toll.
When I got home, the Shield nickel turned out quite well, and even had a date--but the best find was the white clay piece, which turned out to be one of those large, Belgian or French-made figural clay pipes! First one of those for me. I've seen them dug in trash pits and privies, but this was a rare find in a plowed field. It is broken, but still deserves a place of honor in the collection. Here are the total finds from the first solo hunt:
The figural clay tobacoo pipe:
The Shield Nickel (1867):
And a cool lantern knob (can't quite tell what it says):
Well, this morning I got up early and tore through the swamps to get back to the straggler field in the hopes of pulling a few more targets before the plow comes through. The timing was good, and I got there about 45 minutes before sunrise. Enough time to throw on the muck boots, gloves, and check the gear before walking out in the great expanse of cane fields. When I got to the area I wanted to hunt, the sun was peeking up over the horizon.
Now that's a Louisiana Sunrise.
I fought the mud again, tossing items in my pouch, often with minimal inspection and a quick judgement call about whether they should go in a safe place or in with the general riff raff. I dug a big brass pipe fitting which weighed a couple pounds. "Recycle bin" was the immediate thought, but I didn't want to carry the piece around, since I already had 10 lbs of mud on each boot. As I got toward the end of a row, I got another big chunk of brass that was heavy. I thought it was a wall sconce for gas lighting that had been bent up by the plow (it was kind of asymmetrical). I decided to place the two pieces by a brick at the end of a row. I picked up a few marbles, some sort of a finial, some flat buttons, a nice portion of a clay pipe bowl, and half of a lens from a pair of spectacles. By that time, the heat was oppressive and I started to walk back. When I got to the turn row, it took me 20 minutes to figure out where the heck I'd laid those two pieces of brass.
Glad I got them, though! One of them turned out to be something very special...I got home and started to investigate all the stuck-together chunks of mud in my pouch, separated the trash from the treasure, and took this photo:
Then I decided to wash up the two big brass items to add to my recycle bin (took that in today, by the way--30lbs of brass and 10lbs of copper from this spring season = nice gas rebate)
P.S.--I encourage folks to keep their junk brass bins for a while and go through them periodically to see if there are any "keepers" that they have missed. Anyhow, so I cleaned the pipe fitting and tossed it into the brass bin with a satisfying "clunk."
Then as I started to clean the asymmetrical piece I couldn't believe what I was seeing! As it turns out, this piece of "junk brass" ended up being a small Bronze Statue! The figure is wearing a tunic gathered at the waist by a large belt. Note the ruff around his neck and billowed sleeves. He holds flowers in both hands and his hat is either a turban of cloth or a large stylized rose. Folks, this is honestly one of my favorite items I have dug in 20 years.
Top view (The holes in his head and feet are not very deep. They do not go all the way through the statue. The top hole is threaded; the ones in his feet are not.)
Bottom view:
I have no idea what this character represents, but his attire looks similar to mardi gras costumes I have seen from the mid-1800s. If anyone has a clue about this figure, please reply! It is astonishing how something like this could dodge the plow for over a century. To me, this one qualifies as an Olympic find, and it goes to show that no matter how much, or how long you dig, there is always something waiting in the ground that will totally surprise you.
Laisser les bons temps rouler!
-Buckles
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Upvote
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Great finds my friend............that field is really producing and i hope we are as lucky Saturday!! Cheers, Shanegalang
I agree, the figure looks early.. I also agree that its amazing how larger pieces of brass avoid the plow when small buttons and coins come out taco'ed and mangled
