Frodov
Bronze Member
- Joined
- May 24, 2007
- Messages
- 1,021
- Reaction score
- 34
- Golden Thread
- 0
- Location
- Lexington, KY
- Detector(s) used
- Whites Prism IV / Bullseye II pinpointer
The Last Hunt of '07, and the first !
Hi gang... sorry, just a short story this evening, relating to my last hunt for this year.. and a first.
After talking about it for quite some time, my brother and I actually got together to detect around an old chimney on the back of our parents' farm. This chimney is all that remains of an early homestead that was well over 100 years old. We know this from oral history and some research into local county records and maps. The house that now stands on my parents' farm is itself well over a 100 years old, predating the Civil war by 30 to 40 years, or so the records and histories have it, the old homestead, said to be a log cabin by early settlers in the county that would later become Scott County Kentucky, had completely disappeared save for the hearth and the base of the original stone chimney. More on that in a moment however.
The first, besides the search around this old chimney, was my brother, younger brother, actually using a metal detector. I presently use a White's Prizm IV, and love it, but I had in my possession previous to that a Bounty Hunter Pioneer. While a good detector, I never really got the hang of the BH and it sat unused for nearly two years, especially after I fell in love with my Whites. Anyway, so as not to leave my brother out of the fun,so to speak, I dusted off the BH and put new batteries in it and let him have a crack at detecting. I gave him a short tutorial of what I knew about the machine and how to operate it, SHORT being the operative word as I still don't claim to know much about it even now. With just that little primer and me as his backup (I had the only pin pointer between us) we made a pit stop at a local elementary school on our way to the farm. I figured a tot lot with wood chips would be a good practice run for my brother and getting to know the Bounty Hunter a little better.. not to mention the likelyhood of finding some pocket change.. <grin> Ain't I a Stinker?
At the grade school, perched high up on a hill in the outer reaches of the county, the wood chips and swing sets sat silently awaiting the chaos that would ensue. Still damp from previous rains, even on top of the hill as it was, we both ended up with wet knees and gloves. It may have taken my brother all of about fifteen minutes to start getting the hang of picking up targets by tweaking the sensitivity and the discrimination on the BH. Before I knew it, he was finding more targets than I was and I had the convenience of knowing pretty much what my targets were and how deep they probably were, thanks to my Prizm. Still though, as a primer for the real hunt later at the chimney it was great. My 41 year old brother was like a kid again with a new toy. I think he had fun. <smile> I know I did.
After sweeping the grade school tot lot woodchips, then the other side of the school in another tot lot with pea gravel, we loaded back up into his pick up truck and headed to the farm for the main event. We were in my brother's truck today because he has four wheel drive and my truck doesn't.. it's a long walk from the front of the farm, down a long wet and muddy hill/tractor road, along a hilly overgrown bottom to reach the homestead site. The difficulty getting there is one of the main reasons that I've not detected this site before now. In the summer the grass, weeds and brush grows very thick and tall making getting there a battle to start with, not mentioning trying to swing a detector through it once you get there. This time of year however, barring the wet and mud, the weeds and brush have died down and a lot of it has been Mowed to sew winter wheat cover crop throughout the bottom "patches" or fields. Imagine smallish half acre to a little over one acre plots broken and separated by gullies, a stream, and tree lines. Definitely NOT one long field or "bottom" It *IS* hill country after all.
Once we got to the "bottom" where the stone chimney is located, we parked and broke out the detectors again. I with my trusty Prizm, and my brother with the Bounty Hunter. We both set our detectors to low discrimination and high sensitivity.. I KNEW there wouldn't be much in the way of trash here, if any at all. We started hitting targets as soon as we started sweeping around the chimney and where we imagined the smallish cabin walls might have been long ago. My first find was half of a hand forged wrought iron door hinge, my brother tuned in on a hand forged iron piece of single tree (horse tack) A single piece of iron pounded into a circular sleeve with two apposing slightly separated hooks that wrap around to make a "ring" or box. This box would have been slipped over or fitted over a wooden tree or shaft and the harnesses with rings at their ends would have been slipped between the opposing "hooks" and turned so that they were secured by both sides. Cool. A few minutes later I hit a HUGE target that turned out to be a splitting wedge.. an OLD OLD OLD hand forged wrought iron tapering wedge that was used to split logs to make rail fences and or firewood.
The next target turned out to be a little more modern, it was a spent casing from some careless hunter. A rifle cartridge for a 25 06. Coming around full circle of the chimney site, my brother hit on another BIG target. This target turned out to be a bit of cast iron, from looks of it it was probably also from a bit later date, though not by much. The cast iron appears to be a part of a base or leg for an old pot bellied stove or something along those lines. Still pretty interesting. Fanning out a bit further from the site we came across several newer bits of metal, spent slugs from more modern deer hunters embedded into the soil, and one other piece of OLD iron. We're not entirely sure what it may have been from though, perhaps a piece of farm equipment, it has a curve to it like it may have been part of a plow sheer or it may have been part of that pot bellied stove I spoke of. We may never know, but it is a fact that we had a blast "re finding" all these treasures from the past.
After getting back to the truck and peeling off several layers of mud from our boots, we headed back out of the bottom land and up up up the hills to the main road and back to town. I knew that my brother had been bitten HARD by the detector bug when on our way home, he suggested and I readily agreed to make a detour at yet another grade school playground that was on our way. <smiling> Oh yeah.. he's hooked! <chuckle> While I didn't get skunked, my brother did manage to find as much as myself, if not a few coins MORE than me. And that was without the aid of a pinpointer! We finally had to call it quits when the sunlight was completely gone and both of our wives had made several phone calls asking about our wherebouts. On the drive back to my brother's house he commented, more than once, that we should do this again some time.. and even had a few suggestions of some places to detect at. Ahhh.. you got to love this hobby! And to have a brotherly bonding kind of outing at the same time.. hey, that's just a bonus!
Alas, I didn't get any pictures of the goodies from this hunt.. my brother kept the majority of the iron relic finds from the old homestead, and I only the wedge and a few other odd bits. I may yet get some pictures of them, but that's not too terribly important. To me it was a memorable hunt with which to end a fantastic year of enjoying this hobby that we all share and love. I got to share that joy and excitement with my younger brother as well. In the eyes of many TNet members here I'm still very much a neophyte in this hobby. The fact that I didn't even get started in the hobby till late this past spring is evidence in itself.. well.. didn't SERIOUSLY get started that is. I may have dabbled a bit a few years ago, but not knowing my equipment, and not having any mentors to teach me the techniques and tips, I was pretty much just stumbling around in the dark. Now however, not only to I have better equipment, and a better working knowledge and more skills.. I've got a wonderful resource of experience and knowledge to draw from with all my friends and acquaintances here at Treasure Net. It's been a Fantastic Year! I want to thank you all for your encouragement and enthusiasm and the tips that have led me to better enjoy this hobby. I hope each and everyone of you has a wonderful new year's celebration and here's wishing you a very happy NEW YEAR to come.
Thanks for Everything.. and as always..
Happy Hunting Everyone !!!
Frodov
Hi gang... sorry, just a short story this evening, relating to my last hunt for this year.. and a first.
After talking about it for quite some time, my brother and I actually got together to detect around an old chimney on the back of our parents' farm. This chimney is all that remains of an early homestead that was well over 100 years old. We know this from oral history and some research into local county records and maps. The house that now stands on my parents' farm is itself well over a 100 years old, predating the Civil war by 30 to 40 years, or so the records and histories have it, the old homestead, said to be a log cabin by early settlers in the county that would later become Scott County Kentucky, had completely disappeared save for the hearth and the base of the original stone chimney. More on that in a moment however.
The first, besides the search around this old chimney, was my brother, younger brother, actually using a metal detector. I presently use a White's Prizm IV, and love it, but I had in my possession previous to that a Bounty Hunter Pioneer. While a good detector, I never really got the hang of the BH and it sat unused for nearly two years, especially after I fell in love with my Whites. Anyway, so as not to leave my brother out of the fun,so to speak, I dusted off the BH and put new batteries in it and let him have a crack at detecting. I gave him a short tutorial of what I knew about the machine and how to operate it, SHORT being the operative word as I still don't claim to know much about it even now. With just that little primer and me as his backup (I had the only pin pointer between us) we made a pit stop at a local elementary school on our way to the farm. I figured a tot lot with wood chips would be a good practice run for my brother and getting to know the Bounty Hunter a little better.. not to mention the likelyhood of finding some pocket change.. <grin> Ain't I a Stinker?
At the grade school, perched high up on a hill in the outer reaches of the county, the wood chips and swing sets sat silently awaiting the chaos that would ensue. Still damp from previous rains, even on top of the hill as it was, we both ended up with wet knees and gloves. It may have taken my brother all of about fifteen minutes to start getting the hang of picking up targets by tweaking the sensitivity and the discrimination on the BH. Before I knew it, he was finding more targets than I was and I had the convenience of knowing pretty much what my targets were and how deep they probably were, thanks to my Prizm. Still though, as a primer for the real hunt later at the chimney it was great. My 41 year old brother was like a kid again with a new toy. I think he had fun. <smile> I know I did.
After sweeping the grade school tot lot woodchips, then the other side of the school in another tot lot with pea gravel, we loaded back up into his pick up truck and headed to the farm for the main event. We were in my brother's truck today because he has four wheel drive and my truck doesn't.. it's a long walk from the front of the farm, down a long wet and muddy hill/tractor road, along a hilly overgrown bottom to reach the homestead site. The difficulty getting there is one of the main reasons that I've not detected this site before now. In the summer the grass, weeds and brush grows very thick and tall making getting there a battle to start with, not mentioning trying to swing a detector through it once you get there. This time of year however, barring the wet and mud, the weeds and brush have died down and a lot of it has been Mowed to sew winter wheat cover crop throughout the bottom "patches" or fields. Imagine smallish half acre to a little over one acre plots broken and separated by gullies, a stream, and tree lines. Definitely NOT one long field or "bottom" It *IS* hill country after all.
Once we got to the "bottom" where the stone chimney is located, we parked and broke out the detectors again. I with my trusty Prizm, and my brother with the Bounty Hunter. We both set our detectors to low discrimination and high sensitivity.. I KNEW there wouldn't be much in the way of trash here, if any at all. We started hitting targets as soon as we started sweeping around the chimney and where we imagined the smallish cabin walls might have been long ago. My first find was half of a hand forged wrought iron door hinge, my brother tuned in on a hand forged iron piece of single tree (horse tack) A single piece of iron pounded into a circular sleeve with two apposing slightly separated hooks that wrap around to make a "ring" or box. This box would have been slipped over or fitted over a wooden tree or shaft and the harnesses with rings at their ends would have been slipped between the opposing "hooks" and turned so that they were secured by both sides. Cool. A few minutes later I hit a HUGE target that turned out to be a splitting wedge.. an OLD OLD OLD hand forged wrought iron tapering wedge that was used to split logs to make rail fences and or firewood.
The next target turned out to be a little more modern, it was a spent casing from some careless hunter. A rifle cartridge for a 25 06. Coming around full circle of the chimney site, my brother hit on another BIG target. This target turned out to be a bit of cast iron, from looks of it it was probably also from a bit later date, though not by much. The cast iron appears to be a part of a base or leg for an old pot bellied stove or something along those lines. Still pretty interesting. Fanning out a bit further from the site we came across several newer bits of metal, spent slugs from more modern deer hunters embedded into the soil, and one other piece of OLD iron. We're not entirely sure what it may have been from though, perhaps a piece of farm equipment, it has a curve to it like it may have been part of a plow sheer or it may have been part of that pot bellied stove I spoke of. We may never know, but it is a fact that we had a blast "re finding" all these treasures from the past.
After getting back to the truck and peeling off several layers of mud from our boots, we headed back out of the bottom land and up up up the hills to the main road and back to town. I knew that my brother had been bitten HARD by the detector bug when on our way home, he suggested and I readily agreed to make a detour at yet another grade school playground that was on our way. <smiling> Oh yeah.. he's hooked! <chuckle> While I didn't get skunked, my brother did manage to find as much as myself, if not a few coins MORE than me. And that was without the aid of a pinpointer! We finally had to call it quits when the sunlight was completely gone and both of our wives had made several phone calls asking about our wherebouts. On the drive back to my brother's house he commented, more than once, that we should do this again some time.. and even had a few suggestions of some places to detect at. Ahhh.. you got to love this hobby! And to have a brotherly bonding kind of outing at the same time.. hey, that's just a bonus!
Alas, I didn't get any pictures of the goodies from this hunt.. my brother kept the majority of the iron relic finds from the old homestead, and I only the wedge and a few other odd bits. I may yet get some pictures of them, but that's not too terribly important. To me it was a memorable hunt with which to end a fantastic year of enjoying this hobby that we all share and love. I got to share that joy and excitement with my younger brother as well. In the eyes of many TNet members here I'm still very much a neophyte in this hobby. The fact that I didn't even get started in the hobby till late this past spring is evidence in itself.. well.. didn't SERIOUSLY get started that is. I may have dabbled a bit a few years ago, but not knowing my equipment, and not having any mentors to teach me the techniques and tips, I was pretty much just stumbling around in the dark. Now however, not only to I have better equipment, and a better working knowledge and more skills.. I've got a wonderful resource of experience and knowledge to draw from with all my friends and acquaintances here at Treasure Net. It's been a Fantastic Year! I want to thank you all for your encouragement and enthusiasm and the tips that have led me to better enjoy this hobby. I hope each and everyone of you has a wonderful new year's celebration and here's wishing you a very happy NEW YEAR to come.
Thanks for Everything.. and as always..
Happy Hunting Everyone !!!
Frodov
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