Isaac
Hero Member
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2013
- Messages
- 773
- Reaction score
- 1,335
- Golden Thread
- 3
- Location
- Fairfax, Virginia
- 🥇 Banner finds
- 3
- Detector(s) used
- Whites MXT All Pro, Garrett AT Pro
- Primary Interest:
- Relic Hunting
I went to Connecticut last week with my family and was able to get out every single day except the day I arrived and left. What a week it was for finds, especially for the summer time in the woods. I only got two ticks the whole time, but was chased around by horse flies and mosquitos non-stop, but that doesn't bother me as much as ticks. I had a blast hiking, metal detecting, and discovering new sites with friends. I couldn't ask for anymore.
On Thursday me and my friends Jim and Rob set out to hunt a few sites. We first went to some sites which had a lot of potential. Unfortunately for us, we hiked in briars, up steep hills, and through swamp to find sites that were hunted very hard. For me, it seems when ever I go with someone, I always get very unlucky in the morning, but as we get tired and are about to give up, we land on a good site. About 3 miles south, I researched two other sites that looked promising. It turned out that these were hunted very recently, within the last few weeks maximum. I have never seen such a mess left by detectorists in my lifetime. Thankfully this atrocity was deep into the woods rather than out in the open. They left iron piled up on rocks, and massive craters all around the cellar holes. It's sad how people are so lazy, they wouldn't even kick the plug back with their foot. They also left their water bottle and flavoring wrappers here. How can people be such pigs? As it turned out, this would be a good site. A minute in, I get a deep faint signal, from one way it's iron and the other it's high. Surprisingly I find a CT copper as my first signal! That made my day seeing *******s miss this beauty! My friend Rob gets one of the nicest dandy buttons I have ever seen right next to a crater. Jim is starting to get impatient and finally gets on a copper. It's a 1757 KGII farthing. Rather unusual considering 1749 is the most common year seen dug. We each get a couple more buttons and then I get another high signal pretty far away from the foundation, it turned out to be a super slick KGII half penny. Jim wanted to get something to eat so we headed down to the next site. Unfortunately it was the same thing, except worse, they dug out the chimney pile so much, that it was basically destroyed. We spent 15 minutes there with nothing for our efforts, so we decided to try another area of the state we researched. We got to the first site in that area and it produced a LOT for me. It seems this site was only active in the 1860s. All we found were 1860s coins here. Unfortunately, Jim and Rob didn't find much, but I got an 1861 Fatty, an 1864 Bronze, and a 1869 Bronze Indian head, all with great details. Next to one of Jims dig holes I get a shotgun shell type reading and out popped a shield nickel! The best part about it is that it has the date, 1867. I've found 3 shield nickels before this, and none had dates. We then hike another half mile to a site Jim has hit before. Unfortunately the only thing that got under our coils were a couple buttons... until I get a nice high VDI on a knoll in front of the cellar hole. I was really hoping for another Colonial coin, but it turned out to be a freaking Merc. Lameeeeeeeeee. Well, not lame, but this site was gone by the 1840s, so I was hoping for something a little older! We hiked back to the car, but it was a very slight uphill angle the whole way, making it a challenge. By the time we got to the car, we were almost ready to pass out, so we decided to call it a day.
The next day, me and Rob decided to go out again to a few new sites. My dad also tagged along with us. The first site we went to was absolutely disgusting. Poor, pounded, and littered with bullets and shells. There was only like 20 iron signals around the foundation too. The next site faired us better, even though the cellar hole foundation was destroyed by a bulldozer. The former fields payed off though. I got an ox knob, a suspender clip, and a super slick copper. I think it could be a William III, but it's hard to tell. Rob got the best find out from there, a General Service eagle button. We headed off to the next site and it was another sad one. 90% of the site was covered in logs. Loggers came through a few years ago and left all their scraps around the cellar hole. This will be one we will go back to in the winter, when it'll be easier to swing and move logs. I got 5 buttons out of here and Rob got a dandy. We hit a couple sites that should've been sites but weren't and had one more place in mind. Even though it was deep in the woods and 80% covered in briars, it had been done before and very well at that. This is another site we will hunt in the winter. Dad got an ox knob and an oxen shoe right off the bat. Then in the briars he got a beautiful 78 signal and tells me to dig it up for him. It turned out to be a complete shoe buckle! Wow! After that, the site died out completely, only coughing up a couple buttons.
The next two days were spent digging around an older permission of mine, one of my first I had gotten! It was built in 1740, and I cherry picked the place to death. I found the trash dump directly behind the foundation on the last 5 minutes of Saturday's hunt. Before that I went into the side yard a little and pulled out a few dandy buttons and a beautiful barrel tap I missed with my AT PRO before. In the 5 minutes I found the pit, I pulled up a nice barrel tap key! Not sure on the age of it though. It's crazy how a little bit of experience can go such a long way! The next day I went back to the pit and scoured a pair of scissors, a couple pipe stems, a few suspender clips, and more! Surprisingly, no buttons from this area. I went back into the yard and found another tombac button with design, a buffalo nickel, a V nickel, a dandy button with PAPER on it (the paper was glued to the face of the button and has a basket weave design, very cool find!) and a couple other odds and ends. Over-all it was great to spend a total of 5 hours cleaning that place out! There's still a couple more areas I have yet to hit, so I'll save those for another time.
On Monday, a well known detectorist, Todd Hiltz (Thiltzy1), and I went to scout out a few sites. The first site was hammered to death, and the second site was another one of those "should've been a site here but there wasn't, only an animal pen, and the third site was so overgrown, we couldn't even locate the cellar hole. It was a miserable hike back to the car! The fourth one, however, paid off. Persistence always pays off! Todd gets a phone call from Dave (HEAVYMETALNUT) asking if we wouldn't mind if he and his GF join us. We obliged and got a head start at the cellar hole. Todd had a good feeling about this site. When we got to the site, we saw NO dig holes, no iron, and no trash around the cellar hole, so we knew people haven't been here in a few years. About a minute in, Todd is already heading on an orbit and I stick around the "lip". I immediately get a flat button, and I knew this was gonna be a good one. I went down the side of the lip to the road and get a very weird signal, a wobbly 77 signal on my MXT all pro. It almost sounded like flat iron but I went ahead and dug it. When I saw a brass pipe fitting, in my head, I said "dammit!" but when I took it out of the hole and saw that it was a woodwind musical instrument, I went "Woah"... it turned out to be one of my favorite finds I have ever found!!! It turned out to be a flute from the mid-1800s! This is one of my most unique finds for certain, and I have never seen one like it found! It's amazing to think that The piece on the end of the flute is actually a tuner and still has a wood cork inside it. I'm afraid to clean it, but when I get the dirt out from the holes, I would imagine it'd still play a fine tune!! After that, I find an old brass bangle, a few lantern pieces, and some odds and ends brass. I get into a little hot spot just in front of the cellar hole when I hear Todd yell out he has a copper. He ran up to get his camera to record the extraction live. It was an 1847 Braided Hair large cent! About 30 seconds later, while he's still recording his coin, I get an 82 VDI. Todd live digs the signal, which I couldn't pinpoint for some reason. I finally got it out and it was nice to have a copper of my own! I haven't cleaned it up yet but it's a Matron Head large cent. A little while later, I get another higher VDI next to the lip, and it turned out to be a stunning 1865 two cent piece! I was due for another one of those, and it's in outstanding condition! I couldn't be happier. Dave and Lynne walk up to the site and as Dave walks towards the lip, he gets a screaming 80 signal. I can't believe me and Todd both missed that signal. My dig hole was just 5 feet away! He pulls out a draped bust large cent. He rescans it and pulls two more out from the same hole! Right from our noses! They were another draped bust and a matron head large cent. Dave goes on a rampage and gets a beautiful Civil War Eagle "I" button and a large tombac crotal bell. I get my first complete designed crotal bell during his little hot streak. The site kinda died after that, nobody got anything except shotgun shells for the next hour. We were getting tired from all the hiking we did earlier, so we decided to call it a day. Todd and I both went several days in a row, so we needed some rest... but not before Tods got an 1863 fatty Indian Head and a ramrod guide.
The next day was crazy! My friend Sam and I detected most of the day, and every site we went to panned out for me. Sam got a huge "bucket lister" after he was having a super rough day while I was finding all the goodies. The first site we went to was an 1834 house which has yielded tons of old coins. We spent over 2 hours there, and I got the brunt of the finds. I got a 1918 buffalo nickel, several early wheats, a 1920 Mercury dime, 1897 and 1879 Indian head cents, a 1912 dog tag, and a 1898 V-nickel and 1907 Indian Head penny coin spill. Unfortunately, Sam didn't find much here other than some wheat pennies. After that, we tried to get a couple permissions at other old homes in the area, but we didn't have much luck. The next stop was a farm field which is where a homestead used to sit, but it was planted. Luckily for us, the back corner of the property didn't have anything growing, so it was free-to-swing. The only things we got there in 20 minutes was a flat button for Sam and an 1864 fatty Indian for me. Our last spot was two cellar holes we knew of. The only problem with that was we couldn't find a place to park. Luckily, my Dad picked us up from the farm field and dropped us off on the side of the road. About a 1/3 mile in the woods, we find the first cellar hole foundation. This site was probably hit long ago, and needs another hunt in the winter due to overgrowth. The targets were abundant. Sam first pulled out a beautiful escutcheon plate, I got a few buttons right off the bat. As quick as they came, they stopped. We stayed about two hours. We were contemplating leaving in 15 minutes, and in the last 5 minutes before we left, I move a log and get a beautiful 78 signal about 2" deep. Hmmm... sounds bigger than a large cent, but smaller than a can. I go down 3" and pop out a gorgeous early complete shoe buckle. I'm thinking 1725-1750 on this one due to its small size. We move on after that and head to the next site. We were not positive it was a site, but hopeful. It was another 1/3 up the road, then we bushwhacked for another 1/4 mile. When we got there, we noticed a knoll right where we punched in our coordinates on our GPS. Up on the knoll, we found a hole. At first, we weren't positive it was a site. When I saw a wide open, deep well, I knew this was a site, and a good one at that. Little did I know we were the first to discover this lost homestead in over 200 years. We head to the front of the foundation and the signals were freaking everywhere. VIRGIN!!! What a feeling! Everything happened so fast here! I get a dandy, dandy, tombac, dandy, ca.1770 iron serving spoon... targets just kept on popping! I accidentally forgot my pinpointer at the last hole and go and retrieve it. Sam swoops in and gets an 81 signal with his MXT all pro about 2 feet from my complete iron spoon! He pulls it out and it's a copper. He studies it and he doesn't know exactly what it is. I look for a second and see the chain links around the edge and say "dude... holy ****, that's a freaking fugio!!!" and then he said "ARE YOU KIDDING
Oh my god!!!" He started doing a happy dance! He was super discouraged this whole year, and kinda gave up on metal detecting for a few months. To get him back "up and running" was so awesome! Man that was a great feeling! Brass flat button, two piece designed button, tombac, tombac... buttons of all shapes and sizes flew out of the ground! We were getting cut up from the excessive prickers, but we didn't care! This was surreal! Discovering an untouched home site with friends is about the best thing that can happen while metal detecting. After all the buttons, I get a 72 signal on the lip between the briars and it turned out to be a copper. Not as cool as a fugio, but a worn KGII. Still, a 1700s coin is nothing to complain about. Sam went off a little from the hot spot we were in and dug a group of buttons and even a complete shoe buckle from the 1770s. We only had an hour to hunt this so we will be back!!!
Thanks for reading everyone! Hope the relic Gods shine on you this month!
On Thursday me and my friends Jim and Rob set out to hunt a few sites. We first went to some sites which had a lot of potential. Unfortunately for us, we hiked in briars, up steep hills, and through swamp to find sites that were hunted very hard. For me, it seems when ever I go with someone, I always get very unlucky in the morning, but as we get tired and are about to give up, we land on a good site. About 3 miles south, I researched two other sites that looked promising. It turned out that these were hunted very recently, within the last few weeks maximum. I have never seen such a mess left by detectorists in my lifetime. Thankfully this atrocity was deep into the woods rather than out in the open. They left iron piled up on rocks, and massive craters all around the cellar holes. It's sad how people are so lazy, they wouldn't even kick the plug back with their foot. They also left their water bottle and flavoring wrappers here. How can people be such pigs? As it turned out, this would be a good site. A minute in, I get a deep faint signal, from one way it's iron and the other it's high. Surprisingly I find a CT copper as my first signal! That made my day seeing *******s miss this beauty! My friend Rob gets one of the nicest dandy buttons I have ever seen right next to a crater. Jim is starting to get impatient and finally gets on a copper. It's a 1757 KGII farthing. Rather unusual considering 1749 is the most common year seen dug. We each get a couple more buttons and then I get another high signal pretty far away from the foundation, it turned out to be a super slick KGII half penny. Jim wanted to get something to eat so we headed down to the next site. Unfortunately it was the same thing, except worse, they dug out the chimney pile so much, that it was basically destroyed. We spent 15 minutes there with nothing for our efforts, so we decided to try another area of the state we researched. We got to the first site in that area and it produced a LOT for me. It seems this site was only active in the 1860s. All we found were 1860s coins here. Unfortunately, Jim and Rob didn't find much, but I got an 1861 Fatty, an 1864 Bronze, and a 1869 Bronze Indian head, all with great details. Next to one of Jims dig holes I get a shotgun shell type reading and out popped a shield nickel! The best part about it is that it has the date, 1867. I've found 3 shield nickels before this, and none had dates. We then hike another half mile to a site Jim has hit before. Unfortunately the only thing that got under our coils were a couple buttons... until I get a nice high VDI on a knoll in front of the cellar hole. I was really hoping for another Colonial coin, but it turned out to be a freaking Merc. Lameeeeeeeeee. Well, not lame, but this site was gone by the 1840s, so I was hoping for something a little older! We hiked back to the car, but it was a very slight uphill angle the whole way, making it a challenge. By the time we got to the car, we were almost ready to pass out, so we decided to call it a day.
The next day, me and Rob decided to go out again to a few new sites. My dad also tagged along with us. The first site we went to was absolutely disgusting. Poor, pounded, and littered with bullets and shells. There was only like 20 iron signals around the foundation too. The next site faired us better, even though the cellar hole foundation was destroyed by a bulldozer. The former fields payed off though. I got an ox knob, a suspender clip, and a super slick copper. I think it could be a William III, but it's hard to tell. Rob got the best find out from there, a General Service eagle button. We headed off to the next site and it was another sad one. 90% of the site was covered in logs. Loggers came through a few years ago and left all their scraps around the cellar hole. This will be one we will go back to in the winter, when it'll be easier to swing and move logs. I got 5 buttons out of here and Rob got a dandy. We hit a couple sites that should've been sites but weren't and had one more place in mind. Even though it was deep in the woods and 80% covered in briars, it had been done before and very well at that. This is another site we will hunt in the winter. Dad got an ox knob and an oxen shoe right off the bat. Then in the briars he got a beautiful 78 signal and tells me to dig it up for him. It turned out to be a complete shoe buckle! Wow! After that, the site died out completely, only coughing up a couple buttons.
The next two days were spent digging around an older permission of mine, one of my first I had gotten! It was built in 1740, and I cherry picked the place to death. I found the trash dump directly behind the foundation on the last 5 minutes of Saturday's hunt. Before that I went into the side yard a little and pulled out a few dandy buttons and a beautiful barrel tap I missed with my AT PRO before. In the 5 minutes I found the pit, I pulled up a nice barrel tap key! Not sure on the age of it though. It's crazy how a little bit of experience can go such a long way! The next day I went back to the pit and scoured a pair of scissors, a couple pipe stems, a few suspender clips, and more! Surprisingly, no buttons from this area. I went back into the yard and found another tombac button with design, a buffalo nickel, a V nickel, a dandy button with PAPER on it (the paper was glued to the face of the button and has a basket weave design, very cool find!) and a couple other odds and ends. Over-all it was great to spend a total of 5 hours cleaning that place out! There's still a couple more areas I have yet to hit, so I'll save those for another time.
On Monday, a well known detectorist, Todd Hiltz (Thiltzy1), and I went to scout out a few sites. The first site was hammered to death, and the second site was another one of those "should've been a site here but there wasn't, only an animal pen, and the third site was so overgrown, we couldn't even locate the cellar hole. It was a miserable hike back to the car! The fourth one, however, paid off. Persistence always pays off! Todd gets a phone call from Dave (HEAVYMETALNUT) asking if we wouldn't mind if he and his GF join us. We obliged and got a head start at the cellar hole. Todd had a good feeling about this site. When we got to the site, we saw NO dig holes, no iron, and no trash around the cellar hole, so we knew people haven't been here in a few years. About a minute in, Todd is already heading on an orbit and I stick around the "lip". I immediately get a flat button, and I knew this was gonna be a good one. I went down the side of the lip to the road and get a very weird signal, a wobbly 77 signal on my MXT all pro. It almost sounded like flat iron but I went ahead and dug it. When I saw a brass pipe fitting, in my head, I said "dammit!" but when I took it out of the hole and saw that it was a woodwind musical instrument, I went "Woah"... it turned out to be one of my favorite finds I have ever found!!! It turned out to be a flute from the mid-1800s! This is one of my most unique finds for certain, and I have never seen one like it found! It's amazing to think that The piece on the end of the flute is actually a tuner and still has a wood cork inside it. I'm afraid to clean it, but when I get the dirt out from the holes, I would imagine it'd still play a fine tune!! After that, I find an old brass bangle, a few lantern pieces, and some odds and ends brass. I get into a little hot spot just in front of the cellar hole when I hear Todd yell out he has a copper. He ran up to get his camera to record the extraction live. It was an 1847 Braided Hair large cent! About 30 seconds later, while he's still recording his coin, I get an 82 VDI. Todd live digs the signal, which I couldn't pinpoint for some reason. I finally got it out and it was nice to have a copper of my own! I haven't cleaned it up yet but it's a Matron Head large cent. A little while later, I get another higher VDI next to the lip, and it turned out to be a stunning 1865 two cent piece! I was due for another one of those, and it's in outstanding condition! I couldn't be happier. Dave and Lynne walk up to the site and as Dave walks towards the lip, he gets a screaming 80 signal. I can't believe me and Todd both missed that signal. My dig hole was just 5 feet away! He pulls out a draped bust large cent. He rescans it and pulls two more out from the same hole! Right from our noses! They were another draped bust and a matron head large cent. Dave goes on a rampage and gets a beautiful Civil War Eagle "I" button and a large tombac crotal bell. I get my first complete designed crotal bell during his little hot streak. The site kinda died after that, nobody got anything except shotgun shells for the next hour. We were getting tired from all the hiking we did earlier, so we decided to call it a day. Todd and I both went several days in a row, so we needed some rest... but not before Tods got an 1863 fatty Indian Head and a ramrod guide.
The next day was crazy! My friend Sam and I detected most of the day, and every site we went to panned out for me. Sam got a huge "bucket lister" after he was having a super rough day while I was finding all the goodies. The first site we went to was an 1834 house which has yielded tons of old coins. We spent over 2 hours there, and I got the brunt of the finds. I got a 1918 buffalo nickel, several early wheats, a 1920 Mercury dime, 1897 and 1879 Indian head cents, a 1912 dog tag, and a 1898 V-nickel and 1907 Indian Head penny coin spill. Unfortunately, Sam didn't find much here other than some wheat pennies. After that, we tried to get a couple permissions at other old homes in the area, but we didn't have much luck. The next stop was a farm field which is where a homestead used to sit, but it was planted. Luckily for us, the back corner of the property didn't have anything growing, so it was free-to-swing. The only things we got there in 20 minutes was a flat button for Sam and an 1864 fatty Indian for me. Our last spot was two cellar holes we knew of. The only problem with that was we couldn't find a place to park. Luckily, my Dad picked us up from the farm field and dropped us off on the side of the road. About a 1/3 mile in the woods, we find the first cellar hole foundation. This site was probably hit long ago, and needs another hunt in the winter due to overgrowth. The targets were abundant. Sam first pulled out a beautiful escutcheon plate, I got a few buttons right off the bat. As quick as they came, they stopped. We stayed about two hours. We were contemplating leaving in 15 minutes, and in the last 5 minutes before we left, I move a log and get a beautiful 78 signal about 2" deep. Hmmm... sounds bigger than a large cent, but smaller than a can. I go down 3" and pop out a gorgeous early complete shoe buckle. I'm thinking 1725-1750 on this one due to its small size. We move on after that and head to the next site. We were not positive it was a site, but hopeful. It was another 1/3 up the road, then we bushwhacked for another 1/4 mile. When we got there, we noticed a knoll right where we punched in our coordinates on our GPS. Up on the knoll, we found a hole. At first, we weren't positive it was a site. When I saw a wide open, deep well, I knew this was a site, and a good one at that. Little did I know we were the first to discover this lost homestead in over 200 years. We head to the front of the foundation and the signals were freaking everywhere. VIRGIN!!! What a feeling! Everything happened so fast here! I get a dandy, dandy, tombac, dandy, ca.1770 iron serving spoon... targets just kept on popping! I accidentally forgot my pinpointer at the last hole and go and retrieve it. Sam swoops in and gets an 81 signal with his MXT all pro about 2 feet from my complete iron spoon! He pulls it out and it's a copper. He studies it and he doesn't know exactly what it is. I look for a second and see the chain links around the edge and say "dude... holy ****, that's a freaking fugio!!!" and then he said "ARE YOU KIDDING
Oh my god!!!" He started doing a happy dance! He was super discouraged this whole year, and kinda gave up on metal detecting for a few months. To get him back "up and running" was so awesome! Man that was a great feeling! Brass flat button, two piece designed button, tombac, tombac... buttons of all shapes and sizes flew out of the ground! We were getting cut up from the excessive prickers, but we didn't care! This was surreal! Discovering an untouched home site with friends is about the best thing that can happen while metal detecting. After all the buttons, I get a 72 signal on the lip between the briars and it turned out to be a copper. Not as cool as a fugio, but a worn KGII. Still, a 1700s coin is nothing to complain about. Sam went off a little from the hot spot we were in and dug a group of buttons and even a complete shoe buckle from the 1770s. We only had an hour to hunt this so we will be back!!! Thanks for reading everyone! Hope the relic Gods shine on you this month!
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