OutdoorAdv
Bronze Member
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2013
- Messages
- 2,457
- Reaction score
- 3,350
- Golden Thread
- 1
- Location
- East Coast - USA
- 🥇 Banner finds
- 1
- Detector(s) used
- XP Deus,
GPX 4500,
Equinox 800,
AT Max
- Primary Interest:
- Metal Detecting
For quite some time now, tnet "Isaac" and I have been trying to get together for a hunt. He had a spot that he had completely cleaned out, but he really wanted to get into sifting and he thought he knew where the trash pit was. I have a pretty crazy schedule with work and life, and I typically don't know until the day before if I can detect, but we managed to find a day that worked for both of us and I locked it into the calendar.
So on Saturday, I loaded up all my sifting gear, and brought along my T2 for Isaac to try out, and I met Isaac at his site at sunrise. We started off detecting the pit area. I generally like to dig some iron to see where to begin based on whats in the plug. I was hearing a ton of iron, but no real tell tale signs of a pit in the plugs. After 30 min or so detecting, I had a small brass ring and a pouch full of iron. Isaac did a really good job clearing out the signals from this area. So we decided to open up a pit section based on where Isaac had dug some good targets in the past. I gave him a quick run down of how I set up the tarp, cut and removed the sod, and began to break up the dirt. Turned out we were spot on with the first section we opened. This was awesome because working a productive pit is some of the most fun you can have in the field. We were quickly picking out pipe stems, buttons, pottery, glass and... LOTS of iron. In all we sifted about 6 sections and we amassed a huge pile of relics from the pit. We split up the finds at the end and here are the pieces I took home.
I will let Isaac share his stuff and I will try not to put any spoilers in this post!
This half cent came from deep in the side of a pit section.
Neither of us knew it was a special date and I didn't find out it was a key date half cent until later in the day. Sadly there is some verdigris spots on the front and back. Only 63,140 were minted in 1811
Not to long after the half cent, a colonial find surfaced that had me smiling for at least an hour... that one will be in Isaac's post.
These scissors came out looking nice and I could tell from the oxidation that some solid iron was under there. They came out of electrolysis this morning.
I brought home more than 100 nails. A rough guess of the nail type ratios are about 10% rose head, 70% square, and 20% wire nails. Based on that, the majority of this pit would date early to mid 1800's, with some use in the later part of the 1700's and some use in the late 1800's/early 1900's when wire nails came into use.
A pewter button and a black glass button turned up along with a handful of tombac and flat buttons.
Unsure about the iron pendant piece, but it looked like it had something inside it at one point.
Isaac didn't know this going in, but I had planned on giving him my sifter. Isaac is a great guy and his passion for detecting reminds me of myself when I was his age and I started detecting. Its great to see young guys like Isaac so passionate about history and our hobby. He's going to make many many more incredible finds throughout the years. So he got the one and only.... way-over-engineered-with-ball-bearing-legs-sifter... and its even painted! I know he will put it to good use as we only scratched the surface of the trash pit at his site. Now he can return and sift on his own schedule and pull out some more amazing history from a site that has been pounded to death with a detector.
Yesterday I began construction of my new sifter... yes, it will also have ball bearing legs... and yes, I will be painting it
That was a lot of fun Isaac and I can't wait to see what else you pull from that pit. It's an insane amount of work to properly excavate a section, pick out the nails, unmask the targets, sort and separate all the finds... but its totally worth it in a good pit. Keep at it and sift down to the last bit as you know some of the best stuff we missed many times with our eyes and machines. Looking forward to your post from the sifting trip! Thanks a ton Isaac and glad you are now addicted to sifting
So on Saturday, I loaded up all my sifting gear, and brought along my T2 for Isaac to try out, and I met Isaac at his site at sunrise. We started off detecting the pit area. I generally like to dig some iron to see where to begin based on whats in the plug. I was hearing a ton of iron, but no real tell tale signs of a pit in the plugs. After 30 min or so detecting, I had a small brass ring and a pouch full of iron. Isaac did a really good job clearing out the signals from this area. So we decided to open up a pit section based on where Isaac had dug some good targets in the past. I gave him a quick run down of how I set up the tarp, cut and removed the sod, and began to break up the dirt. Turned out we were spot on with the first section we opened. This was awesome because working a productive pit is some of the most fun you can have in the field. We were quickly picking out pipe stems, buttons, pottery, glass and... LOTS of iron. In all we sifted about 6 sections and we amassed a huge pile of relics from the pit. We split up the finds at the end and here are the pieces I took home.
I will let Isaac share his stuff and I will try not to put any spoilers in this post!
This half cent came from deep in the side of a pit section.
Neither of us knew it was a special date and I didn't find out it was a key date half cent until later in the day. Sadly there is some verdigris spots on the front and back. Only 63,140 were minted in 1811
Not to long after the half cent, a colonial find surfaced that had me smiling for at least an hour... that one will be in Isaac's post.These scissors came out looking nice and I could tell from the oxidation that some solid iron was under there. They came out of electrolysis this morning.
I brought home more than 100 nails. A rough guess of the nail type ratios are about 10% rose head, 70% square, and 20% wire nails. Based on that, the majority of this pit would date early to mid 1800's, with some use in the later part of the 1700's and some use in the late 1800's/early 1900's when wire nails came into use.
A pewter button and a black glass button turned up along with a handful of tombac and flat buttons.
Unsure about the iron pendant piece, but it looked like it had something inside it at one point.
Isaac didn't know this going in, but I had planned on giving him my sifter. Isaac is a great guy and his passion for detecting reminds me of myself when I was his age and I started detecting. Its great to see young guys like Isaac so passionate about history and our hobby. He's going to make many many more incredible finds throughout the years. So he got the one and only.... way-over-engineered-with-ball-bearing-legs-sifter... and its even painted! I know he will put it to good use as we only scratched the surface of the trash pit at his site. Now he can return and sift on his own schedule and pull out some more amazing history from a site that has been pounded to death with a detector.
Yesterday I began construction of my new sifter... yes, it will also have ball bearing legs... and yes, I will be painting it
That was a lot of fun Isaac and I can't wait to see what else you pull from that pit. It's an insane amount of work to properly excavate a section, pick out the nails, unmask the targets, sort and separate all the finds... but its totally worth it in a good pit. Keep at it and sift down to the last bit as you know some of the best stuff we missed many times with our eyes and machines. Looking forward to your post from the sifting trip! Thanks a ton Isaac and glad you are now addicted to sifting
Last edited:
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The half cent is astounding, I can't believe how rare that one is. The scissors turned out to be in great shape as well, you really have a knack for iron, which is always a good thing. I'll post my finds tonight. Its insane the amount of signals which couldn't have been found, even the famous XP Deus iron capabilities can't handle these types of sites, and that's when you know it's time to break out the sifter and move some dirt! It really does bring the site back to life. Thanks for showing me your process and I hope we can do it again real soon.
