Scouted a new 1600s site today

[Bill D. (VA)]

Finally got to talk with the owner and got a green light to hunt his large 150 acre field. This is a site I recently researched and determined was part of a 600 acre land patent from 1641. This is the only high land in the entire patent so I was confident it would contain an early house site. Unfortunately, the owner mentioned someone had detected there before and he didn't know what was found other that a single CS button. I asked the owner as I always do about any brick, pottery or glass that he'd seen in the field. He told me there was some old brick near the pond, so I made a beeline for that area first. Thanks to the bare dirt in this cut cotton field I was able to see a few small pieces of brick, but I could not find an iron patch. I slowly started making a few finds, and some of them were indeed 17th century. Almost all the tones were low which is typical when someone else has already cherry-picked a site. My best find was very deep (about 12"), and was a questionable signal, but I dug anyway and was rewarded with a complete 1600's trapezoidal buckle. A few buttons were also recovered including what appears to be a very small nipple button. I was also able to eyeball a couple of pipe stems, and they had huge bores that date them to about 1650-1675. There are several other high spots in this large field, but after 2 hours I was wore out after finishing that massive pit dig yesterday. But I'll be back there again soon.

 

[Westfront]

Sweet! You are in the right area! It will take some time, but you'll find that iron patch! Nice buckle!

 

[joeyfresh]

Looks like your research was correct Bill, now you just have to find the iron patch. Those are all old (relatively speaking) finds. Did you dig any modern trash?

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

Looks like your research was correct Bill, now you just have to find the iron patch. Those are all old (relatively speaking) finds. Did you dig any modern trash?

Very little Joey. Just a few pieces of can slaw and some buckshot.

 

[HomeGuardDan]

WTG Bill - always nice to know you are out digging while the rest of us slave away... gives me retirement to look forward to ha ha. Will give you a call today - have an update on a site.

Dan

 

[CRUSADER]

Well they didn't get it all & there must be a few more digg-able options left.

 

[Ahab8]

Looks like great potential there Bill! You know they didn't cover it all, you'll make some great finds there. Can't wait to see, Abe

 

[terpfan]

Another strong research effort is well rewarded, congrats Bill. Since you found this field using the proprietary "Bill D method" of land grant research, were you surprised to learn that someone had previously detected there? Since you did not find any newer finds, the site wouldn't seem to have any other noteworthy history that would lead one to detect there.

 

[N.J.THer]

Always enjoy your posts Bill. Good luck on your next hunt.

Some people may not know about using pipe stems to date a site so I include a link below to a site that tells you how it works. Gives the bore range to date range chart. Need to scroll past the button info. I hope it is informative to others.

BRAVO: Artifact Info

Thanks
NJ

 

[Burdie]

Nice write up and some good finds. Thanks for sharing.

 

[CASPER-2]

 

[metalev4]

Nice buckle Bill. I want to find one of those when I come out this spring. Good luck this weekend.
-Evan

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

Another strong research effort is well rewarded, congrats Bill. Since you found this field using the proprietary "Bill D method" of land grant research, were you surprised to learn that someone had previously detected there? Since you did not find any newer finds, the site wouldn't seem to have any other noteworthy history that would lead one to detect there.

Steve - regardless of what kind of innovative research you do, it seems like someone always beats you to the site. I have to admit its actually quite rare to find an early, virgin site. But with a lot of patience and time (which I have a lot of) you can always find stuff left behind. And usually nobody is interested or knows how to find the trash pits. To answer your question - this new site is in an area that saw some CW activity, and that generally brings the relic hunters out of the woodwork. The owner told me that someone had found a CS button in the field, and I bet that got a lot of attention. I went back again today and dug 10 more buttons, but they were all small and/or broken and read very low on the scale. That just confirms again that the site has been picked over already. The only higher tone targets I came across were very deep which also makes sense. Anyway, I'm pretty much done with this place and will be hitting a new one on Fri. Good luck to you.

 

[Dug]

Please educate me about the "iron patch". I guess I have always taken into account that there will be iron signals mixed in with the good as a result of the structure's nails etc, but the way you discuss it indicates to me that it is either the "G" spot or close to it? Can someone please elaborate for me?

I'm sure I'm not the only inquiring mind on this.

 

[CRUSADER]

Please educate me about the "iron patch". I guess I have always taken into account that there will be iron signals mixed in with the good as a result of the structure's nails etc, but the way you discuss it indicates to me that it is either the "G" spot or close to it? Can someone please elaborate for me?

I'm sure I'm not the only inquiring mind on this.

Over here, you don't have a site without lead & iron. So when you find the heaviest concentration, you know your near the centre of the site. Simple, then its time to clear it.

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

Over here, you don't have a site without lead & iron. So when you find the heaviest concentration, you know your near the centre of the site. Simple, then its time to clear it.

Cru hit the rusty nail on the head. You know you're near or within the footprint of an old structure when you get into the heavy iron, i.e., hundreds of broken pieces of rusty nails leftover from where a structure burned or was destroyed in another manner. As you approach the iron patch, you'll be hearing an increasing amount of iron, but there will be no doubt when you get to the actual house site. My buddy Dan and I like to refer to the sounds we hear at that point as "machine gun" iron as the sounds are firing off as fast as you can hear them. That's when you have to slow way down and listen carefully for those high beeps hiding between or under the iron. You might also need to turn down the sensitivity or switch to a smaller coil, but with the machine I've been using I usually only resort to those practices in the worst cases. Having a quality machine with good target separation is key for hunting house sites, but experience is the most important factor. Also, don't limit yourself to the iron patch as many nice random finds can be made well away from that area. Hope this helps.

 

[Dug]

Ok thanks for taking the time to explain. I kind of use the reverse in deep woods huntings for where I run wide open hoping for the iron signals to tell me I'm near something.

 

[mangum]

Nice find Bill. That would be a good day for me. I can't wait to do some colonial hunting this weekend (3 days!) Hopefully I'll find something to post!