Got out for an hour today

jadocs

Bronze Member
Jun 8, 2016
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It's been forever since I have been able to get out, so this morning I made a point to go even though it was for a short time.

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Decided to hit the woods where I've found some three ringers before.

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The area has very little trash. It was fairly quiet until I got a questionable hit. About 6 inches down I dug up this bottle. I thought it was strange that a bottle would give me a hit. I'm just glad I didn't drive my shovel into it.

Anyway after checking the hole again I found two D-rings. One of them had a good sized root that grew right through the middle of it. After cutting it free I found the other one. Thought it was just a chain link at first until I busted one up with my digger to knock the buildup off.

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Still not sure what it is, but it has been suggested that it may be a D-ring off a girth strap....or it could just be iron junk.

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I was thinking there must be something in the bottle that was giving me the hit. Turns out it's the spring stopper. I know nothing about bottles so it did not occur to me that that's what it was. Further showing my ignorance on the subject, I used some pliers to try and pull it out so I could clean it inside. Needless to say I broke it.

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Anyway after some research I found out the bottle's age was between 1880-1900. Pretty cool. I don't know if it's an indicator on what those D-rings could be since they were in the same hole?

Here's the only info I could find on the bottle.

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Thanks buddy
 

Thanks it was a very short hunt, but I'm definitely going back again soon.
 

Nice finds. Great story. I never tire of pulling period lead out of the ground and being able to pull old, unbroken glass out of the ground always amazes me.
 

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Thanks fellas. I was able to "fix" the spring stopper. The wife really likes it...looks like I may have to go back and find some more lol

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Yeah they weren't made to come out. See how small it is though. They must have had a shot on a special occasion. Great save.
 

Consensus is that those D-rings (heavy duty) are not from a girth strap due to the shape not being "round" enough...but more possibly from a footlocker or chest of some sort.

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Maybe there's a hoard of gold coins just waiting for me lol (kidding).
 

jadocs - what general region do you detect?
 

Hey V...I'm in the Hampton Roads area.
 

Uh, I'm going to need your exact location, yeah. Seriously, was just wondering how far that old bottle traveled from Newport News. Answer: not far. Cool that you actually found it was made near you. Thanks.
 

I could have said North America lol.
 

Duplicate post. Sorry, y'all.
 

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I like the Hampton Roads area, good combination of rich history, good soil, and MD friendly laws for public lands. Northern Virginia at least has the history part, but MD laws are very restrictive even in tot lots, so a quick nearby relic or coin shooting run is not happening. Appreciate what you have down there, and I know you do. Will let you know next time I make it down that way so you can take me to your best spot, lol!
 

.... Northern Virginia at least has the history part, but MD laws are very restrictive even in tot lots, so a quick nearby relic or coin shooting run is not happening. ...

I'm betting northern Virginia has no shortage of relic hunters. And (gasp) tot-lot hunters. What link do you have "restrictive laws" that are even for tot-lots ? I can not imagine a single locale or city in the entire USA, that would have an issue with detecting a sandbox. If you have a link, I would love to see it.

Protected historic monuments, or some state park with an obvious historic sensitive theme , perhaps. But beyond that, I have no doubt that northern Virginia md'rs are not lacking places to hunt (so long as they're not making a nuisance of themselves, parading themselves in front of bored archies).
 

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Fairfax County Parks Authority actually puts up signs at even small neighborhood parks (i.e, tot lots) expressly prohibiting metal detecting primarily because they restrict relic hunting throughout the county. I'll take a pic when able if you don't believe me. Property owned by neighborhood housing associations are less restrictive and provide limited opportunities to scan a ball field for instance (managed to do a little coin shooting today for example). Those are not technically, public lands, however. Not sure why you think I would not be truthful about this, I have nothing to gain and a lot of credibility to lose.

Here's the link. Note paragraph 1.13. Getting permission from the PA is practically impossible 1) because you can't find the person who will sign off and 2) because of the other provision that makes it illegal to disturb anything (paragraph 1.08, again which requires written permission from the PA-fat chance). They are very explicit about it and post signage. Other counties and municipalities in No VA have similar restrictions. Fairfax County appears to be one of the most restrictive. Most public land in Fairfax is considered Park Authority administered. You can split hairs about permissions from the PA and such, but it really is a no win situation because of the history of heavy relic hunting in the area. In any event, I know that such restrictions do not exist in many of the municipalities of the Hampton Roads area and that was my point.

http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/parkpolicy/app7regs.pdf
 

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..... Not sure why you think I would not be truthful about this,...

No, no need to send pix of the sign. And thanx for answering me on this.

The reason why I sometimes doubt, when I see someone post dire things like this (even to the point of tot-lots), is that often time it's not like the situation you cite. Where, yes, you have an actual rule and sign, etc.... Instead, when someone posts to this effect, it's because of variations of the following:

a) they're confusing something they read about state parks, to think it subrogrates down to all county and city lands too.

b) they're confusing verbiage about "alter" "deface" "dig" to automatically mean "no detecting" (we dig afterall :))

c) they waltzed into city hall somewhere, asked, and got a "no". So they interpret that to mean gospel law . Even though, in fact, no where does it say no detecting. And they merely got someone's "safe" answer to a "pressing question" sort of psychology.

d) they got booted by an irate gardener, or a cop who was merely responding to a call from "miss-lookie-lou". So they interpret isolated flukes like this to mean it's a law. (sometimes in cases like that, you give lip service, give it a rest, and go back and lower traffic times when said lookie-lou or said gardener isn't there).
 

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