One of my best hunts, sofar

[Leon]

Hello all,,,
I headed back out to the bottle dump I found awhile back and had a blast. I took my detector and was going to hunt around the woods some, but I just couldn't stay away from all the old glass at this site. There has to be a few truck loads of old broken bottles and dinner ware. The first big bottle is just a screwtop Listerine bottle that reads, " LISTERINE / LAMBERT / PHARMACAL COMPANY ", but it's in good shape and still has the lid, so I grabbed it. The second small bottle is a full bottle of fingernail polish, (dried up) and the small bottle beside it is an old cork top. The small compact case with the red plastic center still has all the powder (dried up), and the mirror is still intact. It was pretty heavy, so I was hoping it had a few gold coins in it when I opened it. The next item is also a small compact lid. Also found a few white glass containers, one with an almost new looking lid, and a few of the old porcelain canning lid tops. The metal object on the far right is an old salt, or pepper shaker which I have a larger picture of farther down the post.

The pic below shows an old bowl with some gold leaf on it. There are several of these laying around, but this is the only piece I saw with any kind of markings. Anyone recognize the mark? Maybe give me a estimate on adate? Also pictured is the salt, or pepper shaker, too bad it's not silver... , but it's still a nice piece for one of my display cases...

The next item pictured is one that freaked me out and was totally unexpected. I guess us city boys ought to stay out of the woods... I seen a small loop shining in the sun, I thought it was the handle to an old jug or something, but when I grabbed it, it was solft. I immediately let it go. Probably a good thing because it was attached to a little 14" long snake... Any snake guys / ladies out here to give me an ID on this one... I think it's just a garden snake from what I looked up on the web, but the only thing I know about snakes is to stay away from them.

After finding the snake I couldn't even brush up against a tree limb without getting a chill running up my spine, so I called it quits and got out of Dodge... Talk about having the " Hebe Jebe's " <spellcheck... I have to tell ya, although I put my detector on the ground to dig through the bottle dump, this has to be one of the best hunts I have been on. In every scoop of the knife blade was a piece of glass that I wish wasn't broken. It was like taking a trip through time. I was there for about 2 hours and didn't even think about smoking a cigarette.

Although I didn't find too many keepers on this hunt I am definitely going back to dig around. I think this site has some real potential for a nice bottle find. I dug down to a depth of about two feet and was still pulling glass out of the ground. I'm hinking there has to be some older stuff below the surface...

The forum is really rock'n and I haven't had the time to keep up. I have looked at several post and it looks like a lot of ya's have been finding some great stuff, so...
Congrats to all,

Ooops,,,, here's a closeup of the snake. If anyone could give me a positive ID on it, I would greatly appreciate it...

Good luck & Happy hunting~
Leon

 

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[Gribnitz]

Re: One of ny best hunts, sofar

I have to agree, looks like a copperhead to me to. Athough Im not used to these northern snakes yet.

That is not a copperhead. Copperheads are copper color, hehe. They also have a pit viper head with the pits near the eyes, and the pupils are not round on a pit viper. This is a copperhead http://www.snakesandfrogs.com/scra/snakes/images/copperhead2.jpg

What you have there is a Diamondback Water Snake. Not poisonous. Eats frogs and fish.

 

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[Digginman]

Re: One of ny best hunts, sofar

Cool finds, even the snake. It's a common snake, and a pretty example of one. I see something like it all the time. It's pretty.

DM

 

[trevmma]

Re: One of ny best hunts, sofar

it is a DECAY snake very small and not poisinous.

 

[Skrimpy]

Re: One of ny best hunts, sofar

No expert here but the only poisonous snakes I know of in North America (besides stupid people's pets) are pit vipers (rattlers, cotton mouths, and copperheads in North America) and coral snakes. It definately ain't a coral, rattler, or moccasin. Rattlers you would see the rattle, corals are banded with three colors (red, yellow, and black...dont ask me the order, I don't know it), and a moccasin would have bit you if you hung around long enough to take a picture (they can be aggresive). That leaves copperhead...I don't think the pattern looks like the pics on the internet I found, and the head is too dark brown...thus the name copperhead. I'd stick with trevmma. Brown snake.

 

[texan connection]

Re: One of ny best hunts, sofar

I HOPE ITS A DEAD SNAKE

 

[Postalrevnant]

Re: One of ny best hunts, sofar

Thats a pretty cool snake

 

[debistogs]

Re: One of ny best hunts, sofar

What I remember about coral snakes is "Red & Yellow will kill a fellow" meaning if the red & yellow colors are touching on the snake.....that means it is a coral snake.

http://www.pestproducts.com/coral_snakes.htm

HH
Debi

 

[Shamus]

Re: One of ny best hunts, sofar

It looks kind of like the coachwhip pictured here: http://www.pitt.edu/~mcs2/herp/snake.pics/coachwhip.jpg

Garter snakes are dark with light stripes running lengthwise, like garter ribbons used to look like. They're the most common snake in western WA but I once saw what I think was a gopher snake.
http://www.californiaherps.com/noncal/northwest/nwsnakes/pages/t.s.pickeringii.html

Poisonous or not, accidentally grabbing anything alive when I wasn't expecting it would give me the willies.

 

[Leon]

Re: One of ny best hunts, sofar

Wow!,,, Thanks for all the great comments, and info on snakes.
I'm glad to hear all the opinions that think that it's not poisonous. If I'd gotten reports of it being poisonous I'd probably just let him have all the bottles he wanted and not went back. One things for sure, when I'm out in the woods, I need to be a little more careful. If this would have been an aggressive snake he would have had me for sure. This snake didn't even poke his head out from under the pile of leaves after touching him. I had to use my knife to uncover him and he just kinda sit there looking at me. I took several pics knowing some would probably be out of focus and he only lunge towards me once when the camera got a little too close, opening his mouth a little when he did... He was very co-operative as he posed for the mug shots...

If you goto this site,

http://images.google.com/imgres?img...en+snake&start=2&sa=X&oi=images&ct=image&cd=2

and look at the last picture towards the bottom of the page they show a brown snake. I think it's a pretty good match... It's on a bird & garden site. I guess thats why I thought it was a garden snake. Must not have read the caption for the pic in all the excitement...

Again, Thanks to all.
Be careful out there, Good luck, & Happy hunting~

 

[dave-enc]

nice finds leon, wtg we will pass on the snake
hh
dave+bobbie

 

[damz68]

I did not feel like reading all, but unless someone said Brown Snake (Storeria dekayi) they were wrong. Brown snakes are also called dekays snake in the northern states. Brown snakes are small, they rarely get over 18" long. They feed on earthworms and soft bodied insects. They give birth to live young and they are totally harmless. They will not bite. I have made some mad enough to open there mouths, but never enough to bite. They are pretty common in a lot of areas in the eastern US. They like wooded areas, especially hardwood forest and will frequantly be found under surface cover.

Can you tell me what state and county you found it in? If you dont want to give away your location maybe you can pm me. I keep records of all my finds and others, herpetology finds, not MDing finds. As much as I like MDing it will never come before my favorite hobby, herpetology.

I hope you did not kill it, if so maybe next time you will let it go now that you know what it is.

 

[Leon]

Thanks Dave/ Bobbie...

damz68,,,
Thankyou for the info... I was hoping someone out here had some knowledge about snakes and it sounds like your the one. I had to look up " herpetology " to make sure exactly what it was. I live on the westside of Indianapolis, IN. and the snake was in a small wooded area close by. ( in town) As for harming it, no sir, I would never harm any animals, bugs, insects, etc... Well, except for those pesky mosquitoes, who usually pick on me first... I leave them be. Other than bug'n him for a few while taking his picture we both just kinda looked at each other for a few and by the time I came back by the spot he was in, he was already gone...

Good luck, & Happy hunting~

 

[renegade_7]

Nice finds there. As for the snake--not a copperhead, they have hour glass shapes on their shins. Not poisonous I don't think. Take care...

 

[snorton750]

Nice finds. Even the non-legged one. Came across one of that type this weekend while checking out a new site to hunt, on the Green River. It has been used as a fishing hole for many years. The snake crossed my pass, hope thats not bad luck. Let him go about his business, probably just looking for lunch. A simple word, though, even a non-poisonus snake will bite if picked up. I learned this at Boy Scout camp 50 years ago. It proved the snake non-poisonus because there were no fang marks, just a solid row of teeth. HH Stan...

 

[pgill]

Leon, those are excellent finds that you have..... that is one very good site..... As for that snake, I am not the biggest friend of them. Here in South Africa, we also get some not very nice specimens....

Keep up the great work,

God bless
Peter

 

[Silverseeker]

So how deep was the snake and what did it ID at? hehe

Great finds, and thanks for posting a pic of that snake. I've run into a few of them while detecting, but never had a camera on me at the times.

 

[SoMdRelicHunter]

I have to agree with most peoples oppinion on the snake.Not a copperhead.Ive seen my share of here in Maryland....looks like a rat snake to me.In fact, 2 weeks ago i came across a copperhead while metal detecting in the woods.hope there's no animal enthusiasts in here because i ended up killing it....i almost stepped on it before i saw it and it was in the area i was mding and was pretty PO'ed i had to kill it.....i apologize but it had to be done.

 

[JerV3]

Nice finds Leon. Looks like some old china there.

Looking for that kind of treasure is alot of fun also. I'm pretty certain the snake is a northern brown. Just like a garner snake. Not harmfull at all.

It's a snake that I have caught alot in my childhood. There really friendly and don't bite at all. Looked like it was a good size one to. Or maybe it's just the photo.

HH Jer

 

[Relic Rick]

It is no fun when you run across something like that, I was hunting a couple of years ago and as I pushed the leaves away, a little bat rolled over, spread it's wings and gave me a big hiss. I guess it was hibernating, as it was very cold. I used a stick to clear away the leaves before digging every hole after that. Gave me nightmares for a week.

 

[EDDE]

northern brown snake