1888 General Store Hunt

[Duffala]

Built in 1888 as a general store and used as such until 191?.. It was abandoned for a bit and then turned into a catholic church. I wrote the church and asked for permission to hunt the grounds. I was nervous I have always hunted public property.. permission was granted. I was extremely excited to hunt this with the kids.


We hunted this for several hours this evening and all we found was garbage (so much old broken glass).. bullet casings, pull tabs.. and nails.. Im having better luck hunting in my car.. in the ash tray alone i found two Wheaties (1944,1959) yesterday.

 

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[favored papa]

Keep hunting it once you get all the junk out of the way you might find something good.

 

[Argentium]

I agree with fp , take out the trash first - also, widen your search radius - (if the existing property allows you to)
people may well have had to park their vehicles (including horses) off on a different side area - also previous
detectorists , may not have gone too far out from the structure .

 

[RelicMedic]

You know, trash or treasure, the main thing is you got out and had fun with the kids. In the end, that's more valuable than anything you can haul out of the ground. Totally agree with getting all of the junk out of the way in order to get to the good stuff.
HH & Great digs ahead

 

[poorman15]

Take it from someone who has hunted trashy places (ME!). As mentioned before above, once the trash is gone, you will find some better stuff. Likely your detector is picking up on the shallower trash signals now. Once those are removed and after a good rain, hunt it again. You will probably be very happy with the results. You will be digging deeper for the good stuff but I am very certain that there is some good finds waiting there for you! Good luck!

 

[granthansen]

Agree with all the previous comments. Getting rid of the trash will open up good targets. By the looks of the location -- next to a road and wide open -- seems susceptible to winds and debris. So you just have to get through it unfortunately.

 

[hamiddetecting]

Very nice Congratulations

 

[Sawyer]

Old shell casings--$2.50 per pound, general metal scrap---$3.00 per ton, having fun with kids---Priceless! They will remember the hunt for a long time, maybe forever. Other kids will talk about getting dropped off at the mall, your kids will talk about spending time with MOM! Tomorrow.your kids will look back on today as "the good old days"' don't we all miss and treasure the good old days? Congratulations on time well spent. I would give all I own to spend an afternoon hunting with Dad, or an afternoon picking blackberries with Mom!

 

[Duffala]

Yea, I think I'm going to get a giant magnet and that would help pick up the top layer anyways. I'm pretty sure some people in the area drive by and chuck glass bottles at the side of the building and dump around the place .. It is unbelievable how much trash was around. On the upside we did leave the area cleaner than when we arrived. As for the kids my younger one loves going out now to hunt because I let her use the pin pointer.. My stepson is at the age where he is to cool for anything but call of duty and metal detecting is embarrassing to him. I hope they are learning a few things as I always point out the history of places. Its way better than having them glued to video games or hanging out at a mall.

 

[mical66]

100% right on for all the posts above . and like you said your self, look at the history of the store/church you have already found out , and have not even started digging

 

[Argentium]

The previous reply was spot on - Do a fly over with Google Earth - also there ought to be some early images of the place as a
general store- (If you find some early photo's please post them )