BuckleBoy
Gold Member
Hello All,
Thought I'd get out in a field or two today and enjoy the wet, rainy, muddy muck.
Went up to a farmer that whose fields I had targeted earlier and got my "Yes." (4 Yes's and 0 No's this week for Buckles. ) Grabbed my gear and got out in the rainy mess.
I realized that it takes a little longer to find a good iron patch when there is only one machine doing the swinging. But within an hour I'd found the site. I took this video right before the "real" hunting began (this will be the first of Many videos to come, fellow Tnetters ).
Things started out slowly. With no cellar hole, and little in the way of signs except for an occasional small piece of brick, I was trying to figure out the orientation of the house in the field. (As it turns out, the reason the finds were slow for a while was that I'd started at the back of the house evidently--, since I started finding tiny pieces of pewter spoon handles and not much else.) Slowly I gridded off the iron, walking in each direction until I stopped getting any iron blips (all the while using "reverse discrimination" on the uMax). Here's a photo of the scenery I enjoyed today. Action photos will have to wait until next time.
Pretty soon a few flat buttons came up--then a two-piece button that I suspected was an eagle button. Couldn't tell much about it, but gave it a little gentle cleaning in the field. Sure enough, it was one. The backmark on it is HORSTMANN BROS & CO. / PHILA
Then a few more flat buttons... Here's a nice large flattie "frozen in time."
Following the iron patch, I got a crusty IH cent--1888:
Then I popped out ANOTHER eagle button. This one I did take photos of--since I could tell what it was immediately. The backmark is
SCOVILL. MFG. CO / WATERBURY
I was rounding off the day with twisted pieces of brass, lead and pewter bits, and a clock pendulum (without its brass "skin"), when I flipped a flat-button-sized object out of the hole. I didn't see a shank on it--because there was none! It was a SHIELD NICKEL. Here's a photo of this one in the dirt. (It cleaned up REALLY nicely.):
After an hour without a single dig-able target, I decided to go ahead and secure a spot for Kindafoundabuckle and I to detect tomorrow afternoon. So I drove around the corner to a house I'd scoped out and asked the farmer. He recognized me from detecting in the area, and granted me permission to hit his fields all I liked. (Permission Stats: 5 Yes's and 0 No's )
I wanted to scope out the spot and find it so that KFB and I didn't waste any time tomorrow. My plan was to only dig until I felt positive that I knew I was on the right spot--be it a suspender clip, harmonica reed plate, or whatever, and then stop detecting and save the rest of the targets for tomorrow's hunt.
So I left my camera, cell phone, and everything in the car--grabbed my trusty 1266-X, GPS unit, and shovel, and walked a quarter mile out into the middle of the field. It was a good thing that I took a little time to find the spot in advance, because I got to the spot, turned on the detector, and started widening out--and there was NO IRON! No pottery. No brick. Nada.
So I looked around, and decided to follow some Good Old-Fashioned Buckleboy Intuition and head up on top of a knoll.
As I started up the knoll, I began getting iron chatter. But there were still no signs of habitation. I got a signal and dug out a big piece of nondescript iron. (Still no confirmation of the site being there.) The second signal I got, I flipped open the hole and a LARGE CENT flopped out! I started giggling like a 10-year-old GIRL because I knew that I'd found it--AND I knew that I'd be walking back to the car to save the site for tomorrow.
Let me tell you, Never--and I mean NEVER in my life have I been on a new spot, dug two holes (the second one being a Large Cent) and immediately left. And I don't have to tell y'all how hard it was. (KFB, you owe me one!)
Anyhow, I was giggling for a quarter of a mile back across that second bean field today. When I got to my car, I grabbed my camera and took a photo:
So here are some photos of the finds from today...
The crumpled up piece of brass in the photo of all the finds above actually turned out to be a shield-shaped buckle with elaborate designs on the front:
Thought I'd get out in a field or two today and enjoy the wet, rainy, muddy muck.
Went up to a farmer that whose fields I had targeted earlier and got my "Yes." (4 Yes's and 0 No's this week for Buckles. ) Grabbed my gear and got out in the rainy mess.
I realized that it takes a little longer to find a good iron patch when there is only one machine doing the swinging. But within an hour I'd found the site. I took this video right before the "real" hunting began (this will be the first of Many videos to come, fellow Tnetters ).
Things started out slowly. With no cellar hole, and little in the way of signs except for an occasional small piece of brick, I was trying to figure out the orientation of the house in the field. (As it turns out, the reason the finds were slow for a while was that I'd started at the back of the house evidently--, since I started finding tiny pieces of pewter spoon handles and not much else.) Slowly I gridded off the iron, walking in each direction until I stopped getting any iron blips (all the while using "reverse discrimination" on the uMax). Here's a photo of the scenery I enjoyed today. Action photos will have to wait until next time.
Pretty soon a few flat buttons came up--then a two-piece button that I suspected was an eagle button. Couldn't tell much about it, but gave it a little gentle cleaning in the field. Sure enough, it was one. The backmark on it is HORSTMANN BROS & CO. / PHILA
Then a few more flat buttons... Here's a nice large flattie "frozen in time."
Following the iron patch, I got a crusty IH cent--1888:
Then I popped out ANOTHER eagle button. This one I did take photos of--since I could tell what it was immediately. The backmark is
SCOVILL. MFG. CO / WATERBURY
I was rounding off the day with twisted pieces of brass, lead and pewter bits, and a clock pendulum (without its brass "skin"), when I flipped a flat-button-sized object out of the hole. I didn't see a shank on it--because there was none! It was a SHIELD NICKEL. Here's a photo of this one in the dirt. (It cleaned up REALLY nicely.):
After an hour without a single dig-able target, I decided to go ahead and secure a spot for Kindafoundabuckle and I to detect tomorrow afternoon. So I drove around the corner to a house I'd scoped out and asked the farmer. He recognized me from detecting in the area, and granted me permission to hit his fields all I liked. (Permission Stats: 5 Yes's and 0 No's )
I wanted to scope out the spot and find it so that KFB and I didn't waste any time tomorrow. My plan was to only dig until I felt positive that I knew I was on the right spot--be it a suspender clip, harmonica reed plate, or whatever, and then stop detecting and save the rest of the targets for tomorrow's hunt.
So I left my camera, cell phone, and everything in the car--grabbed my trusty 1266-X, GPS unit, and shovel, and walked a quarter mile out into the middle of the field. It was a good thing that I took a little time to find the spot in advance, because I got to the spot, turned on the detector, and started widening out--and there was NO IRON! No pottery. No brick. Nada.
So I looked around, and decided to follow some Good Old-Fashioned Buckleboy Intuition and head up on top of a knoll.
As I started up the knoll, I began getting iron chatter. But there were still no signs of habitation. I got a signal and dug out a big piece of nondescript iron. (Still no confirmation of the site being there.) The second signal I got, I flipped open the hole and a LARGE CENT flopped out! I started giggling like a 10-year-old GIRL because I knew that I'd found it--AND I knew that I'd be walking back to the car to save the site for tomorrow.
Let me tell you, Never--and I mean NEVER in my life have I been on a new spot, dug two holes (the second one being a Large Cent) and immediately left. And I don't have to tell y'all how hard it was. (KFB, you owe me one!)
Anyhow, I was giggling for a quarter of a mile back across that second bean field today. When I got to my car, I grabbed my camera and took a photo:
So here are some photos of the finds from today...
The crumpled up piece of brass in the photo of all the finds above actually turned out to be a shield-shaped buckle with elaborate designs on the front:
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