Farm fields

[Spidey]

From time to time I've seen comments on here from people that say they hunt in farm fields.

I live in Nebraska. There are at least a dozen fields within 2 miles of my front door. I'm sure if I started knocking on doors, or calling the realty company leasing the land I could probably find someone that would be willing to let me hunt it. Not to mention all my farm folk family living within an hour that I could just drive out to their farms.

Do you really get much from a farm field? Just your average corn field? What part of the field am I looking to hunt? Do I want to concentrate on the areas where things might be washed to? Do I wait until after it's plowed? After harvest this fall?

What can I expect to find?

 

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[John (Ma)]

Well, you never know for sure. You can find anything from farm equipment pieces to relics of wars, pending on the area and past activity. If you can get some history of the area and find that there was an old fort, battle and anything in the past, the fields in the area would be worth checking out. It's different now a days with all of the lazy people, but back in the day, people travelled all over the land working and exploring. It doesn't hurt forr something different either, sometimes the signals a far and few between, but think of the excitement of that signal, that moment of wonder. Good luck.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

there has to have been something there before hand. Ie.: just going out to any field is not going to cut it. Ie.: like if there was a fort, or stage stop, old homestead, picnic site, battle, or something there that merits hunting it. Also field right adjacent to a historic site, where overflow pedestrian traffic was coming and going.

 

[BioProfessor]

I would think that in a cornfield in Nebraska all you are going to find will be parts that fell or broke off a tractor, shotgun shell brass, the occasional pheasant band, and any hot rocks in the area. Just too much land and not enough people. There are a couple of things you can do to try and find a place that is now a field that may hold promise. First look at the area on Google Earth, if the flyovers were at the right time, you can get a lot of detail. Look for strange square areas in the soil - that could be an old foundation. Look for lines that extend across fields and forests - this could be an old road or stagecoach trail. Look for other "odd" shapes - these could be depressions from something done there at an earlier time. You can get GPS coordinates as well to help you find it on the ground. Just make sure you do it right or you will wind up hunting the wrong farm (personal experience, not good).

Also, freshly plowed ground is really a soil air mix and detectors don't "like" that very much. you will do much better when the ground settles with a few rains and some time. Just do it before the ground freezes (more personal experience my first time in Minnesota, not good either).

If you can't find places that look like there has been activity there, you can surely hunt the cornfields but all you'll get is exercise and an estimate of the pheasant population.

Daryl

 

[Bridge End Farm]

I once found a gold 18 k wedding band in a field. My dad was amazed as he grew up out there. He knew there had never been anything structure wise there. It had been in the ground a while, never know what those cow pastures, farmers fields might yield. I figure maybe it came from someone wiping his hands with a rag etc and falling out.

 

[BioProfessor]

Or a ticked off wife who threw it as far away as she could.

Daryl

 

[RON (PA)]

When I have time, I hunt a cousin's old dairy farm. The front yard has been pretty productive (a few old coins and old tools). In my research, I have found that there was an old house across the street from where the house stands now. It was torn down several years ago and the field has been plowed for years, so I am expecting a big debris field. I plan to go back and hunt across the street to see what I have found. Hope it helps.