Ok you field hunters, I musta missed something!

[WHADIFIND]

I could have sworn, that I read on here last year that when the crops are in and the the field is cultivated. That there would be all sorts of Gold and Silver coins all over the place being turned up by the plow. That all one has to do is just walk around "gathering nuggets in May" (or October).

Well, I know that there might've been some exaggeration in that but I didn't figure a goose egg! Zero! Nada! Zilch!

Admittedly, even though I have many, many, many years of experience in hunting, I am a relative newbie when it comes to clumping around in a cornfield. (About a year). Around here the fields I hunt are taken care of by a minimum cultivation technique, whatever that means. I remember my first cornfield last year and the nightmare of getting around ALL those cornstalks! But, I was willing to give it a try again. BOY! Was I surprised when I got there and saw that the entire valley had not only been harvested but the ground had been tilled!! The field was FLAT!! YAY! I was soooooo ready! The farmer said it was just time to disk the fields they were long overdue. I had visions of sugarplums and just knew that the fields HAD to have had all those new targets just waiting for me!!

As I walked out and saw I didn't have to trip every other step this year I was so happy! But, alas and alack! Where are the targets!!!

Too late to make this short, but after 2 and a half hours this was all I found!




Where are all the doubloons, silver, gold, copper, heck! I woulda taken a piece of lead at this point!

Davy Crockett or Daniel Boone must've lived here! They must have hit whatever they aimed at and then took the bullet back from it to recycle!! NOT EVEN A STRAY BULLET!?!?!?

Man! I'm mortified!



LOL

Maybe next time?
Oh that slab that Blingie is riding? Is some sort of broken off piece of an old farm implement of some sort. Iron and very heavy for it's size. The other thing? I dunno it says 522 on it, maybe a pole tag.

Sorry for long winded post. Just had to tell somebody!

 

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[Vonclemen29]

The peice of iron is an oxplow point, I still run them in my fields. It's a replaceable tip so it won't wear the actual plow out so fast.

 

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[fyrffytr1]

I was taught to hit the field early, just after the sun gets up, and look for the glint from glass and pottery laying on the surface. It is a sure sign that a structure once stood there.

 

[Vonclemen29]

Yea fyr, I found a gold plated New York officers button that way. Saw that thing from about a hundred yards, just kept my eyes trained on that spot till I got to it. Pretty cool button

 

[Flathead25]

Some of my best finds have been random farm drops but they are rare. What kind of research are you doing? If you're just going to pick a random field to check then do what others here have stated and look for brick, pottery and glass. If I am trying to find the homesite I usually will check the high spots first and if they don't pan out I will cross cross a field listening for the iron. Once I find the iron, I walk around mentally mapping out the perimeter then grid the snot out of it REALLY slow.

Do your research. If I just picked random fields, I would have probably moved on to another hobby.

Great point joeyfresh! There is a guy on here named Ironpatch. I couldnt figure out what his name meant until recentley. Look for the iron patches in your field! If you're hunting an old crop field, you may only find broken plow points and horseshoes. If you get your ears rattled by iron nails, you should be around an old homesite or barn. But, in a big field, you may only find a few or maybe only one good heavy target spot. If not, move on. Good luck!

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

Some of my best finds have been random farm drops but they are rare. What kind of research are you doing? If you're just going to pick a random field to check then do what others here have stated and look for brick, pottery and glass. If I am trying to find the homesite I usually will check the high spots first and if they don't pan out I will cross cross a field listening for the iron. Once I find the iron, I walk around mentally mapping out the perimeter then grid the snot out of it REALLY slow.

Do your research. If I just picked random fields, I would have probably moved on to another hobby.

I totally agree with Joey. I never hunt any site without having done research first. There are countless documented sites out there, and they're easy to find if you do a little homework. And knowing how to read the "lay of the land" can put you onto some awesome undocumented sites which are always best as there's a good chance they haven't been hit before. Hunting random sites is a crapshoot at best, and is likely to be a very unproductive method. Good luck!

 

[WHADIFIND]

Wow! Now just look at all of those responses! All because I had one slightly less than a good day! LOL

I think it is GREAT! All the wealth of information on how's and why's of field hunting. This could turn into a thread to point newbies to in the future.

I appreciate all the wonderful folks here who are so willing to help!

The only piece that didn't particularly help in my case is the aspect of research. Not on this field, anyway. For you see, I did considerable research last year and hunted this for almost all of last winter. If you check back you'll see some wonderful finds. A silver pocket watch, many buttons, a cache of modern coins, and even a barrel from a boot pistol.

This time it just surprised me. I was SURE that tilling the ground would turn up SOMETHING! Not bury everything. LOL ( and it probably has, I just walked in the wrong places this time that's all)

In any case, it's a really great thing to see all these folks coming together to help a relative newbie and there's a LOT of GOOD info in there!

Thanks for making my bad day have a purpose!

 

[CRUSADER]

Research mostly & landscape archaeology - look at the lie of the land, if you have no research or old maps to go by.

 

[Silver Searcher]

It's quite simple really, the fist thing you should be looking for is pottery shards, unless you just want random losses, then you could be walking and swinging for hours. Don't waist time, because fields always look good when they are ploughed, not every field has occupation, these are the sites you want.

SS