Today's Civil War hunt

smokeythecat

Gold Member
Nov 22, 2012
20,807
41,071
Maryland
🥇 Banner finds
10
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
XP Deus II
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
First the good news. Everybody found something. Now the bad. The field got planted looks like yesterday.

Anyway, a couple tnetters and I went to my favorite *cat box* to dig today. This is the site that produced the Confederate Buckle in the mid winter. We don't go every week, that would be overkill.

Anyway, Whatdidifind, vferrari, my friend Bob, who is a local digger and I hit it for about 3-4 hours this morning. Thankfully everyone got something. Whatdidifind already posted his. Bob got a minie and a belt keeper to a US buckle. That was his first belt keeper, he has never been able to dig much Civil War in the past.

Here are my goodies. View attachment IMG_0900.jpg I haven't even had the time to wash anything off yet, but that is a belt buckle! Hooks are intact but there is all around damage to it, but not horrible. We went to another site about 25 miles from here that had some colonial activity. I did probably the best there with the Deus, a 1956 Washington quarter (why couldn't it have been Spanish?), a small round ball, two pieces of camp lead and the little brass buckle than managed to make it inside the house as shown in the photo. (Plus two shotshell bases.) Hugh will post his. He was so excited! The finds were very scattered. His "best" find was in an area polluted with melted aluminum from a burned out farm tractor. My buckle was found on top of a huge underground natural gas pipeline and I almost didn't get the double burp on the Deus. But I dug it anyway, the signal was just odd. Sometimes it pays off. We had to really "think out of the box" but it paid off.

It was a lot of fun. I really don't like going by myself anymore. Finds here are getting scarce. Woods are off limits now due to poisonous snakes, and with the fresh plantings, I suppose that's it till Thanksgiving.
 

Upvote 30
I hate to tell you but they didn't make Spanish 1956 Washington Quarters.....lol Very nice!!!!:thumbsup:
 

Lairmo, surely you jest!
 

No, what we did was I *suggested* to everyone places I knew we hadn't hit hard in the past. Beside just stuff we just plain missed, on a 55 acre farm there are sections no one has been in before. You know - That small stretch of grass, the one corner, another stretch of grass, the "swayle" at the bottom of the hill. Places that had a lot of garbage in them or over time I knew no one had really hammered before. That one big piece of camp lead and the two minies I found were in places just the opposite- I must have walked over these three targets 5 times each, at least. In these cases is was "miss it by an inch, miss it by a mile". I know there is more in the site. In the fall. At least I hope so.
 

Thank you all. It's getting harder and harder and harder. We will be looking for new permissions this year. One looks VERY promising. Three other new permissions didn't work out too well. Two had almost no targets there but aluminum foil and the other is an aluminum factory.
 

Thanks again!

I've never even "seen" a US plate in a field before! Not by anyone!
 

This site has produced I think eight buckles. One Confederate, two US belt buckles, two cartridge box plates, and three eagle breastplates. Now that took about 12 different folks a year and a half! It's kind of like hiding 8 Easter eggs in 55 acres! Takes a lot of time and persistence.
 

This site has produced I think eight buckles. One Confederate, two US belt buckles, two cartridge box plates, and three eagle breastplates. Now that took about 12 different folks a year and a half! It's kind of like hiding 8 Easter eggs in 55 acres! Takes a lot of time and persistence.

I refer to it as the Relic Hunter's Amusement Park. Today I got an "E" ticket. Thanks for giving me the opportunity, Smokey!
 

Funny part is there are maybe 10 acres no one has been on before. One of the main reasons is a former owner used it as a trash dump!
 

Man congrats on the US Buckle! Does it have the puppy paws or arrows? Sure glad you dug that weird signal.
 

It is the puppy paw type. I found the only other belt buckle there a few months ago and it has the arrow back, so now I have one of each kind. There is a huge patch of iron nails on one hill there. One guy pulled out three plates from that area and an Eagle "D" button, plus some other stuff. That spot hates me however, and all I get is early nails. There is a lot more to explore but knowing where the *hot spots* are is very tempting, so we haven't gone some places yet. The plate is sitting over a HUGE natural gas pipeline. I have been fooled more than once digging a very good "signal" only to realize the signal extends 20 or more feet in either direction! And of course every time I take someone new there I forget to mention the pipeline!

Our best guess is still that it was a picket post, guarding a junction of 5 roads and a rail line in the Gettysburg Campaign. It is not on any known CW map.

(I want to go digging south of here tomorrow and it's going to RAIN.)
 

Well y'all have an excellent site for sure! Can't wait to see what else comes from there. Good luck to ya!
 

Wow! Nice job.

All the best,

Lanny
 

Congrats on the nice relics and the US buckle! Best of luck on your next hunts on the rest of property!
 

Those damn snakes! Happy you had a great hunt!
 

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