Finally got out for some field hunting yesterday.

[PhilB]

This has been a terrible year for detecting because of the dry weather we've had here in East central Indiana. The ground has been so dry the last couple months I haven't been able to detect any yards or even the local parks for old coins. I've been anxiously awaiting for the farmers to get crops off the fields so I can hunt some old home sites. Yesterday I threw my Minelab Musketeer in the car and went to check on some fields. Sure was tickled when I saw the corn was finally picked on the field I had in mind. According to my 1865 plat map this field has a school site and several home sites on it. The old maps aren't that accurate so it took me a while to locate the closest home site to where I parked my car. I only had 45 minutes to hunt before I had to head home. Managed to get 2 cents and some other non-ferrous targets before leaving. I love field hunting with the Musketeer, it's so easy to tell ferrous from non-ferrous and you can cover a lot of ground. Here's the pennies I found yesterday. I hope I find a couple more today when I go back. It's always a good sign to me when the first two coins you find are large pennies.

 

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[birdman]

Congrats on some nice saves.

 

[Rogerm069]

Nice finds!

 

[cntrydncr1]

good finds! congrats

 

[teleman 2525]

excellent old finds

 

[Goes4ever]

do you know how to overlay maps on google earth? I used to think the old plat maps weren't that accurate either until a friend taught me how to overlay the maps on google earth. And now it is amazing just how accurate the plat maps are. I can literally walk right to the front door of the old sites in the fields now. And if you use a GPS google earth will even give you GPS coorindinates

 

[PhilB]

do you know how to overlay maps on google earth? I used to think the old plat maps weren't that accurate either until a friend taught me how to overlay the maps on google earth. And now it is amazing just how accurate the plat maps are. I can literally walk right to the front door of the old sites in the fields now. And if you use a GPS google earth will even give you GPS coorindinates

The other map sets I have are pretty accurate but the 1865 set is not. The plat atlas I have even states in it that the earlier maps are not as accurate as later ones. Using the other maps sets I can get within spitting distance of most sites. The 1865 set can be off as much as a couple hundred yards. It doesn't matter really because if I know a site was in a field I can find it pretty easily. Overlaying maps with Google earth isn't something I use often. Not because it isn't a good tool but because most of my sites are in open fields. If I had sites in wooded areas it would be a different story. In an open field, it is easy to spot high areas where home sites would be located. Once I find the high ground, it is just a matter of hunting in all metal to determine the debris field of the home site. It may not be the same everywhere but around here unless you are close to the road most fields have few ferrous targets until you hit the debris field of a home site or other building. Of course you also look for non-metal debris on top of the ground like broken glass, broken dishware and brick or stone from a chimney. I have used Google earth views and plat map overlays to find locations in town and it works great.

 

[Goes4ever]

don't ya hate it when a farmer cuts his corn and leaves the stubble 3 ft high and there is some much stuff left over you can't even see the ground to look for bricks and broken glass!

 

[crazyjarhead]

don't ya hate it when a farmer cuts his corn and leaves the stubble 3 ft high and there is some much stuff left over you can't even see the ground to look for bricks and broken glass!

Isn't that the truth. Only time there are good to hunt if the farmer bush-hogs the stubble down. That doesen't happen too often

 

[HISPAN]

NICE COINS !

 

[Mr Tuff]

nice keepers!!!!!! MR TUFF

 

[Bavaria Mike]

Nice finds Phil! The outhouses might be interesting to dig if you can find them, and some trash pits, if you can find them. I think we need affordable GPR. Would be interesting here in Germany. HH, Mike