I would have basically been skunked if it weren't for the CS buckle. But, there were some tremendous finds like a 1600's metal trade arrowhead in perfect condition, a militia plate that was whole but crinkled quite a bit, an English sword guard with wings of some sort (didn't see it), a British regiment "B" shield of some sort that was in pretty good shape but bent in a few places, lots of halves - early 1900's mostly it seemed, Large Cents, a Reale and various cut pieces, 1700/1800 coins - US and foreign, a copper Indian bracelet, many buttons, cannon balls, arrowheads ... and a bunch more - the display of non-iron artifacts was three or four tables long, iron another three. And, many chose to not give their finds up for a few days. This was my first Digstock and it can be great or you may just not have found the small areas that produced finds, sometimes a lot of them - one person found like 20 buttons in a small area. Outside of these areas it was mostly iron desert, although random coins and buttons were found solo. The woods were mainly shotgun shells and pellets, rifle and pistol cartridges, pistol ball rounds and buttons, but not a lot of the old stuff - the fields seemed to produce more overall.
Vendor presence was large and there were a million raffles, including three winners of "Golden Tickets" that get free admission to every Digstock event for life. The people running the show were excellent - their staff and the other hunters were so friendly, met a lot of great people and may go hunting with a couple of guys on their permission with 8500 year old copper indian artifacts, a great place to network. BigWaveDave and I hunted together almost the whole time which was great. The hotels after hours were full of detectorists talking about all our finds, past and present - the hobby provides so much that we have in common that we could talk forever. Lots of looking at finds on phones, etc.
Overall, I'd go again. An opportunity to hunt RW/CW property you'd never get permission to hunt on your own - for me, being in Houston, it is kind of the only way to get the opportunity with zero effort or hassle. Community - meeting everyone in real life is a fantastic experience. Potential - as they say, you never know with every sweep of the coil what might be found, but when on property like this it goes up a notch or two.
My only notable finds were the buckle and a gold/diamond necklace I found in the hotel hallway the night I got there, plus some pistol ball rounds. Lots of shotgun shells and various types of slaw. Slaw and iron were prevalent, but not in the woods. I found four barrel hoops deep in the woods, very old, but nothing around them accept iron stuff, like I found an old "S" hook, etc.
It beat the crap out of me in terms of hours spent detecting - on Friday and Saturday BigWaveDave and I hunted 10 hours straight, Sunday a bit less. I can now hunt pretty well with my off hand. My feet don't want to talk about it. I'd do it again.
Digstock Talk on FB has many posts about what was found.
