tips to approaching an old farm dump

[DaneD28]

Well when i was a kid behind my dads house was a corn field then woods. At the beginning of this wood line was an old dump and we would dig for bottles and just milk jugs and coke bottles and what nots, but now that I am older and realize there is value with some of the stuff we found I am not really sure where to start in approaching such a large dump spot. Just figured I would ask for tips from people who have dug these and if there are indicators for caches and other things. If not ill probably end up just digging everything. I have a metal detector so ill keep that on to pinpoint only silver and higher end metals but any advice would help.

 

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[redbeardrelics]

If it is on a hill or slope, just start at the bottom, and push your tailings behind you as you work up the slope. If it is a flat surface dump without much depth, you can have small pockets of trash scattered across a large area. It may help to make a probe out of an old broom handle, with a roughly 1/8" diameter spring steel rod, about 18" long inserted into one end. You can walk along inserting the rod into the ground/leaves and easily identify intact isolated bottles, and areas with shards that can be dug through thoroughly. Good luck!

 

[DaneD28]

thanks i thought about the pole idea if the snow melts here prob will go sun or next wed. any way of identifying caches or likely hotspots

 

[DaneD28]

and is it even worth metal detecting maybe put the discrimination high or should i dig through and then detect for any misses

 

[DigIron2]

I would get as close to the "Trash" as possible without my machine driving me 2 crazy and search slowly all around it and away from it.Usually good places to find old coins here and there.Keep an eye out for old roads and or try to determine the route they might have traveled to dump the trash. good luck!

 

[DaneD28]

well what it is, is a corn field and a right angle of woods the dump is immediately in that wood line.

 

[DigIron2]

Is there any signs of a old foundation or home site near by?maybe in the field?

 

[DaneD28]

not sure have to look some old access roads

 

[DigIron2]

sometimes there are different generations of trash,piled on top of each other.I know it is allot of work,but could be a really old layer of 19th or even 18th century deeper underneath.

 

[DaneD28]

i know the farm owners have been there over a hundred years I do not know if anyone owned it before them.

 

[DigIron2]

sounds like a good place to dig.you make sound exciting just talkin about it

 

[DaneD28]

well one the ground unfreezes we will start

 

[DigIron2]

Yeah,I am getting tires of this freeze .Well good luck to you!Keep us posted on any finds.

 

[DaneD28]

wed or thurs this week will be spending the day up there do some samples and probing and prob detect the edges first then when the ground warms up get to the real fun.

 

[DaneD28]

officially going sunday to probe the area will have pictures of initial finds.

 

[DaneD28]

well went to the dump its massive unfortunately ground it rock hard and not worth it to me to break anything hopefully in a few days it will warm up

 

[MissIron.Maiden]

I look forward to seeing . I was chipping away with a screwdriver yesterday n using hot water ... Pathetic... Lol... I got the fever n rock hard ground with 10 inches of snow I. It.. Uuhhgggg

 

[DaneD28]

yeah im up in northwest nj and im in the valley so when it snows it takes for ever to go away we got about six seven right now but it hasnt got above freezing in about two weeks i have no problem being out in the cold maybe ill just plug around the trees because its in the woods maybe find some coins in the mean time.

 

[DaneD28]

and more snow and snow and snow. o well. I have the 14 to the 17 at the rents house so maybe ill get up there, this weather is annoying at best.

 

[DaneD28]

just an update i am going tom i know the ground is hard but at least detect the perimiter for possible caches so we will see