Ever detect a cellar hole with no finds.

[MadTom]

Ever detect a cellar hole with no finds?

I know virgin cellar holes are getting harder to come by, that’s why I’ve been putting in some hiking time to get to some. Recently I went to one and didn’t even get a button. Found rifle shells, small bits of copper and other non ferrous items. Figure if it was hunted before these items would of been pulled up. This is the second hole this year with nothing to take home. Usually if I pull something worthless out I set it on a nearby rock or on top of the foundation to let folks know that it has been at least halfway scanned. I see no sign of any digging. Maybe these folks were so poor they couldn’t even put buttons on their clothes?

 

[Rookster]

My guess it's been hunted probably hard but I would expand my radius. Maybe then you'll hit some good targets. Good luck.

 

[pa-dirt_nc-sand]

I watch Green Mountain Metal Detecting on YouTube. He hikes quite a bit into the woods for cellar holes and seems to often find nothing but bullets. But he obviously finds some cool relics and coins when he hits a virgin cellar. He is in Vermont and it seems like a lot of his cellars are early, like 1700’s or early 1800’s. In W PA most of the cellar holes are mid 1800’s. They are littered with brass and iron. Even the pounded ones will have lots of trash targets. I’m thinking the older the cellar holes the fewer the high tone targets. Keep at it.

 

[FreeBirdTim]

Maybe the original owners weren't there for long. Conditions were too tough, soil was lousy, etc., so they left a year or two after they settled there.

 

[CASPER-2]

like rook says - try expanding - when I was a kid in the 70s and we hit cellar holes - most guys I know - we only hit around the holes
got to remember back then that those people owned probably a plot about football field and up in size - one day in an area that had multiple
cellar holes in the area - like you - I hit one that was clean - instead of walking to the dirt road to get to the next one - I walked the woods between
about a 100 yrds+ to the next one and about the half way point - I had been wildly swinging aand got a signal - ended up with a pocket spill
with barbers, IHs and Mexican coins. Started to grid the area and got other coins and flat buttons. Now when I hit old holes in areas I know have
been hammered - I work far out from the holes - it can pay off. Other place to hit that I found out early hunters at these "cleaned out" spots
passed up - the dirt road right in front of them (and inbetween too). For the heck of it one day I decided to swing along the front of a couple
when younger - I never remembered any of us in small groups or club hunts swinging in the roads - mainly because they can be full of gun shells and other hiker trash - so I decided to give it a swing - one spot I got bunch of Lg cents, His, and older wheats - I was shocked - since then I have
done okay swinging in the roads. got a nice silver trade bracelet way out in the middle of no where in the road. Friend of mine was on a trip
to some holes out in the middle of no where with 3 other guys - it was to some holes they had gotten some goodies before and they wanted to
see if they missed anything - swung for hrs with not much to show - my buddy has to take a crap and doesn't want to be anywhere near the other guys and sees a huge 300+ yr old tree a ways away from the hole and decides that's where he will head - to me any huge old tree that was probably
around in colonial times is worth a hit anyways - so he goes behind the tree - sets his machine down and does his business - when done he pics his
machine up - it was still on and gets a huge zap - he digs it and pulls up a King George indian peace medal - after that he was convinced that there
is stuff way away from the holes to be found - remember if it area is full of woods now - back then they cleared cut everything to build or burn and then
farmed it - so even if now its not field - back then it probably was

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Rook3434 has the right idea, by increasing the radius (IMO: 50 ft - 100 ft) from the foundation you may find a few keepers. You could grid or if the terrain dictates use a tight spiral technique.

Good Luck!

 

[Mudflap]

I watch Green Mountain Metal Detecting on YouTube. He hikes quite a bit into the woods for cellar holes and seems to often find nothing but bullets. But he obviously finds some cool relics and coins when he hits a virgin cellar. He is in Vermont and it seems like a lot of his cellars are early, like 1700’s or early 1800’s. In W PA most of the cellar holes are mid 1800’s. They are littered with brass and iron. Even the pounded ones will have lots of trash targets. I’m thinking the older the cellar holes the fewer the high tone targets. Keep at it.

I once walked a mile up the railroad tracks from Brownsville in Fayette Co. PA.Then another couple hundred yards up the mountain to an old 1790s ship captain's home. We got a good reading in close to the 2nd fl fireplace. Took turns standing on each others shoulders to dig it out. Major effort...... Wound up being a tin pie pan!!