🥇 BANNER Unreal day!! Relics, and a 13 projectile point cache!!!

Jon Phillips

Hero Member
Mar 10, 2009
535
326
Riverview Florida
🥇 Banner finds
1
Detector(s) used
F-75, MXT, 6000di sl
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I'm still amped up from this, even though I'm exhausted!

Me, my father, and a good friend went relic hunting today at a site that my friend had hunted for years. It's been a good spot for him in the past, but isn't producing a whole lot these days. He had found a few musket balls recently, and invited us to hunt with him. We gladly took him up on it, as it was a beautiful day, and had rained yesterday, so the ground was conductive, and easy to dig in the sand. (not so much in the wet clay).

Not long into it, I found some melted camp lead, and then a nice .69 cal. musket ball.

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After a while, we had all found some musket balls, some buck shot from buck and ball loads, and some fired pistol shots, more camp lead, some iron relics, and some glass from an 1800's wine bottle, common to these sites.

Towards the end of the hunt, we decided to try another area at the site.

After a few more musket balls and buckshot, I got a signal that indicated another piece of buckshot.

As I was digging it, I heard a scrape that sounded like glass or ceramic, and saw what I thought was the side of a milkglass medicine bottle, and assumed I had detected the metal lid of it......As I put my fingers under it, and popped it out.....I almost had a heart attack, when out popped this.......

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Not only was it the first complete point I had ever found....It is one of the nicest ones I have ever seen in person!

I was in shock, and called my dad over to look....I told him I hadn't dug the target yet, but he needed to come look! I was shaking!!

I dug the target, and it was a tiny piece of buckshot....

I calmed down, and we went back to hunting...but my mind wasn't really into it after that!

After about 30 or 40 minutes, I came to an area about 50 yards away that was covered in flakes...I picked up a handful to see if they matched the material of the point.

When we had about all we could take for the day, my dad said he had once found a nice point in a wash while bird hunting, and then found another on in the same spot a few weeks later...so I should go back and check that hole again......

I found the spot, and used his relic shovel to loosen the dirt (very carefully).....I heard a scrape, then pulled it out....and heard another scrape.

I stuck my hands in there and pulled this out.....

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I was freaking out, but managed to remember that other scrape....and reached back in and pulled out two broken tips.....I was about to be sick, then I noticed they had already been broken by the looks of them....so I decided to see if the rest of them were in the hole. They weren't, but the next handful brought these up....

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Of course at this point I am like a dog digging for a bone, and the next handful is a stack of about FIVE of them in one stack....I guess they were burried in a leather sack maybe, the way they were stacked up. They were all obviously made by the same man....then I guess stashed and he either died, was run off, or forgot about them or something...who knows....but they sat there for what thousands?? of years until I dug them up?

I imagine they represented some kind of wealth at the time.

It ended up being 13 points in all, counting the 3 broken tips.

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I calmed down enough to get my buddy to come over...I showed him the first point, which I had put in my wallet, and he about freaked at how big, and nice it was....then I said: "Hey....look at this", and opened out my pockets with them stuffed in there!!! He perked up even more, and said: "What have you got there???" I said "thirteen in all....come over and see if you can find any more."

He dug up all around and finally popped out these two chunks that never got worked, about two feet away.....

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We called a couple of people on the way home...My buddy thinks they are Hillsborough Points. The consensus was a cached stash, and a hunting camp or villiage because of the abundance of flakes. I haven't cleaned them yet, but most seem to be coral. I've heard it's a one in a million deal to find a cache of points...let alone ones like these.

It's definately a once in a lifetime deal for me...and I'm thankful for my dad and my buddy being there to witness, and share it with me!!!

A very nice start for my point finding career!!! :laughing7:

We talked about how hard it would be to believe, if we didn't see it with our own eyes...


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Everything together except some big iron...mostly railroad stuff...and one item that might be a section of musket barrel....I'll have to get a better look tomorrow.....

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Those are camera phone shots...and that's a quarter in those last few shots.....

I'm extremely happy with the way today turned out!!!


Edit: Added some new pics to the thread in the North American Artifacts forum...

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/n...-found-point-cache-today-help-i-d-please.html



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And what I think is a rifle barrel that my dad found...

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Upvote 54
I can see that you are very proud of your find. The pieces are spectacular. I hope you realize that you have probably ruined a chunk of history. Finding arrowheads in a field that has been plowed is one thing. Intentionally destroying a site is criminal. I hope you can get over the find and do some good with it. Call local tribes, universities and museums to help you undo a little of what you have destroyed.
 

I can see that you are very proud of your find. The pieces are spectacular. I hope you realize that you have probably ruined a chunk of history. Finding arrowheads in a field that has been plowed is one thing. Intentionally destroying a site is criminal. I hope you can get over the find and do some good with it. Call local tribes, universities and museums to help you undo a little of what you have destroyed.

That was very uncalled for!
 

I can see that you are very proud of your find. The pieces are spectacular. I hope you realize that you have probably ruined a chunk of history. Finding arrowheads in a field that has been plowed is one thing. Intentionally destroying a site is criminal. I hope you can get over the find and do some good with it. Call local tribes, universities and museums to help you undo a little of what you have destroyed.


Guess what genius? It WAS a plowed field.......

They were just inches from being plowed up and ACTUALLY destroyed. The next plowing could have been the end for them.

No "site" was destroyed. I could go into further detail exactly how endangered the site really is, but in case you are just fishing for clues, i won't add any details.

Intentionally destroying a site....give me a break.....

There are no local tribes in Florida that had ANYTHING to do with the people that made those points. Our "local tribes" have been here a shorter amount of time than the Spanish were.

Universities? If you think they care, you are naive. The most they would do is make a note of the site, and assign a number, then forget about it...but since it is private property...I doubt they could do anything even if they cared.

Museums? If I want them stolen, I'll leave them on a park bench somewhere....

Where did you even come from...jeesh!

Did you just sign up to shoot your mouth off at me?
 

Jon Phillips said:
Guess what genius? It WAS a plowed field.......

They were just inches from being plowed up and ACTUALLY destroyed. The next plowing could have been the end for them.

No "site" was destroyed. I could go into further detail exactly how endangered the site really is, but in case you are just fishing for clues, i won't add any details.

Intentionally destroying a site....give me a break.....

There are no local tribes in Florida that had ANYTHING to do with the people that made those points. Our "local tribes" have been here a shorter amount of time than the Spanish were.

Universities? If you think they care, you are naive. The most they would do is make a note of the site, and assign a number, then forget about it...but since it is private property...I doubt they could do anything even if they cared.

Museums? If I want them stolen, I'll leave them on a park bench somewhere....

Where did you even come from...jeesh!

Did you just sign up to shoot your mouth off at me?

You don't have to listen to me. But maybe listen to the other back patters here that are suggesting having them looked at.
 

you always have someone new come in and give his 2 cents...to bad its very seldom worth the full 2 cents
Jonesy
 

You don't have to listen to me. But maybe listen to the other back patters here that are suggesting having them looked at.


The "having them looked at" was to have them authenticated. They are not for sale, and I pulled them out of the ground myself, so I know they are real.

The only other suggestions of having an "official" look at them were met with me saying if some "official" wanted information other than the exact location they were found, I would be glad to help out. I added in one of the threads that most "officials" aren't as much of an "expert" as some of the amatures that do it for the love of history, instead of a paycheck.

You do realize this is a treasure hunting and collecting site don't you?

That means that anyone here for legitimate reasons, will have an interest in treasure hunting, collecting, history, etc., and I would say about 0% of them would have found those points and then decided to rebury them and call the state in... especially here in Florida.

The fact that your first few posts on here is accusing me of "criminally destroying a site" for taking home some points from a plowed field, places you squarely into the "troll" category for message forums. Its like when someone goes onto a Ford Mustang forum, and talks about how bad Mustangs suck. They are just there to stir up trouble and get a reaction. They are usually young, or at least immature.

Maybe you are young, or naive, or just haven't experienced the real world enough yet. Maybe you are a student taking archeological courses, and you just "drank the koolaid" and believe whatever you are told without question. Maybe you don't mean to be so insulting with your posts. Maybe one day you will grow out of it.....
 

That's the truth, teachers are some of the biggest influences in a young college students life. My wife is an anthropologist, and when she finished school she was misinformed as well, until she lived life a little and found out that the truth isn't always what comes out of a teachers mouth. A couple years after she graduated we found out that one of her professors had one of the largest private collections of artifacts in Texas that he had stolen off of digs over the years!
 

Jon Phillips said:
The "having them looked at" was to have them authenticated. They are not for sale, and I pulled them out of the ground myself, so I know they are real.

The only other suggestions of having an "official" look at them were met with me saying if some "official" wanted information other than the exact location they were found, I would be glad to help out. I added in one of the threads that most "officials" aren't as much of an "expert" as some of the amatures that do it for the love of history, instead of a paycheck.

You do realize this is a treasure hunting and collecting site don't you?

That means that anyone here for legitimate reasons, will have an interest in treasure hunting, collecting, history, etc., and I would say about 0% of them would have found those points and then decided to rebury them and call the state in... especially here in Florida.

The fact that your first few posts on here is accusing me of "criminally destroying a site" for taking home some points from a plowed field, places you squarely into the "troll" category for message forums. Its like when someone goes onto a Ford Mustang forum, and talks about how bad Mustangs suck. They are just there to stir up trouble and get a reaction. They are usually young, or at least immature.

Maybe you are young, or naive, or just haven't experienced the real world enough yet. Maybe you are a student taking archeological courses, and you just "drank the koolaid" and believe whatever you are told without question. Maybe you don't mean to be so insulting with your posts. Maybe one day you will grow out of it.....

Hey Jon. The more I've thought about my initial contact the worse I feel. I think I'm still carrying around guilt from over 20 years ago. Early in my hunting days I unknowingly unearthed som artifacts at a small site in MO. After unrealized what I had done I went back again. About a year later the guilt began so I emailed a local university but got no response. I was ready to give everything back. Anyway. When I saw your beautiful artifacts and the way you describe them I just knew they were from a virgin site. Leather pouch, buried below an ball etc. I shouldn't have assumed that's what it was. Please accept my apology for coming across as such a dick. I too look for things but these days I don't dig. All surface finds Today and a couple days ago i found a white bird point and what looks like a hammer of some sort. Ill post KHIB the next few days. Scott.
 

Thanks Scott. I accept your apology, and I am very impressed that you offered it! Most people these days don't have the guts to do that, and I respect you for it.

I love history, and I would never knowingly destroy any remmnant of it. I have even bought local, historical, items off of ebay to keep them in Florida, and made donations to privately funded historical preservation societies.

This site has signs of previous digging besides the agriculture that is going on there, so it is by no means a virgin site.

Your previous experience with getting no response from the local university is common....most of those people REALLY don't care...unless they are getting paid to dig, or trying to write a paper to get some promotion, or position. Believe me...the second the money runs out, the digging stops! That's not love of history or trying to gain knowledge of the past...that's a job.

I wish it were different here in Florida, and that they didn't look down at anyone who is not considered their "peers". I wish we had the Isolated Finds Program back so we could collect in the water again, and save these pieces of history from loss or destruction...but that's not going to happen until someone with common sense and no chip on their shoulder slides into the jobs currently occupied by the "elite".

Thanks again for the apology, I really do respect that!

-Jon
 

WOW! I can only hope to do so well. My parents have some land in in North Texas and we have found a lot of artifact in one of their wheat fields. I hope to try my new detector out there this spring after harvest.
:occasion18:
 

If I only found one of those points I'd be a very happy camper. All of those together - awesome! Congrats!
 

Awesome hunt! I love to fish but give me a metal detector and a day hunting with my dad and thats about as good as it gets the points are just a bonus. A VERY NICE BONUS!
 

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BANNER FOR SURE. Such prestine condition, such a great cleaning ability you have as well!!!! Just THINK about how hard somebody worked on those. They look so amazing and quite symetrical.
 

Congratulations,nice points and I would have fainted.:hello2:
 

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