Saturday’s hunt in the frozen colonial tundra

[Bill D. (VA)]

My good buddy Dan and I decided to brave the elements Saturday afternoon and give our colonial site a little spin in the snow. In addition to the 2” of snow and temps in the upper 20s we also had to deal with frozen ground which was 1-2” thick in spots. And when we first got to the site I got a sinking feeling when I realized I had left my big digging shovel at home. Fortunately I had recently just put my lesche shovel back in my tool box or I would have been Dan’s target spotter for the day. We did quite a bit of wandering again, mostly searching through areas where we had made at least a few finds on previous trips to the site. Neither of us was having a particularly productive day, and we started heading back toward the trucks after 3-4 hours in the field. We were hunting parallel to each other about 25-30 ft apart, and when we got about ¾ the way across the field Dan finally stopped to dig a target. I continued on without any hits, and a short time later I looked back and Dan was still digging in that same area. Not long afterwards he struck his increasingly common “arms-above-the-head” pose, and I knew he had just unearthed something really nice. He walks over and plops a beautiful cut piece - ½ of an early 1700s 1 reale - into my hands, and we were both relieved that our colonial coin streak had been preserved at the 11[SUP]th[/SUP] hour. I headed back over and hunted that same area with Dan, and it wasn’t long before he digs down into an early trash pit which looks very promising. Due to time constraints we had to save that for later, but about 10 ft away after digging a large and deep brass target he recovers a beautiful 1773 Va halfpenny from at least 15” when he rechecked the bottom of the hole. After I dug a couple keepers in the area we had to call it a day as darkness was approaching. Even though I had a pedestrian day with my finds (only a few buttons and no coins!!), I still had a great time again as usual and am itching to get back and do some serious pit digging soon.

 

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[flyinryan2]

Still looks like a nice hunt, i cant believe you dug through the frozen ground just with a lesche! Hope you can find some more on a return visit!.

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

Still looks like a nice hunt, i cant believe you dug through the frozen ground just with a lesche! Hope you can find some more on a return visit!.

I wasn't using the lesche knife, but the relic shovel similar to the one shown below.

 

[CRUSADER]

An average (or maybe below for you) day, but a lead on a new pit is not a wasted day!

 

[Valley Ranger]

Nice! What machines were y'all using?

 

[matt092079]

Still looks like a good hunt to me, Bill! Congrats.

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

Nice! What machines were y'all using?

I use an F75 and Dan uses either an AT Pro or Gold.

 

[joeyfresh]

That site is still giving it up! I can't wait to see what you pull out of that pit. Did you probe it? How large an area is it and is it close to the house?

 

[Steve in PA]

Bill, at least with 2" of snow you can tell exactly where you've hunted!! Looking forward to see what comes out of that pit.

 

[John Boy]

Very nice finds man.keep up the great work.