Advice - farm field hunting

[Jaichim24]

There's a 350 acre farm I pass on the way to and from work which I stopped by after work today. There were some hunters with geese decoy's out that morning. I talked to the owner explaining to him briefly about my hunting hobby. He gave me the thumbs up to hunt the corn fields during October. (he doesn't want me there during hunting season) The farm borders a fairly old turnpike that dates back at least to the late 1600's which connected Boston and New York. The town it resides in had it's first house built in 1707. The farm itself was purchased in the 1940's. I have yet to have success to see what if anything existed there prior to the purchase in 1940. However, since it borders an old colonial road, I'm assuming at the very least people camped out along it during their travels.

Any advice on how to hunt corn fields? My only thought would be to hunt closer to the road than farther away. I have no idea if old houses, barns, or other structures were located anywhere on the corn fields I have permission to detect. Am I on a wild good chase? (no pun intended)

Any advice on finding out more information about what might have been on it prior to 1940?

Any and all advice would be welcome. I'm going to post this on a couple forums here to try and get some feedback.

Thanks,

Jai'

 

[Craig in Alabama]

n/t

 

[Fred (S. Indiana)]

n/t

 

[General Ray]

The farm borders a fairly old turnpike that dates back at least to the late 1600's which connected Boston and New York and the town it resides in had it's first house built in 1707, that is your answer Jai, what are you waiting for and thinking about, get out there and detect it , you know all the history on it that you need to

 

[Ev from somewhere]

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[General Ray]

n/t

 

[Jaichim24]

I'll be getting out there just as soon as the wife lets me!! But seriously, I'm covered head to toe with poison ivy, one of the reasons I was out pounding the pavement looking for a new spot. My other relic site has kept me out of business for 4 weeks total now because of poison ivy. I hit it early spring before the leaves were out and was out for 2+ weeks. I just started going back "avoiding" the poison ivy, apparently I was lucky my first few times. This time around I'm working on another 2 weeks down time.

I'll probably be there this Saturday, I get home too late from work for week day hunts.

I thought I'd start this thread to see if I could get some thoughts on how to hunt it. I mean, the whole farm is 350 acres! (plus they have more land across town he said I could hunt) I've only have permission to hit the corn fields that have been harvested, so that cuts down on some of the ground I can hit. However, it is a HUGE amount of area to detect.

What are these farm fields like in terms of targets? I'm used to smaller properties where it seems like they are trying to grow a harvest of nails. Will I get few targets, and then a cluster? I was thinking of hitting one field and cutting swaths like a grid. If I hit a good target I would circle around it for 25 yards or so. I even thought about marking where the targets were to get an idea where to go back. Any tips would be appreciated.

 

[General Ray]

350 acre farm hunt where they plow every year and turn the soil, it's a 350 acre farm, just hit it and learn and dig because it won't be the same next year, trust me, they plow it and turn the soil

I just hope you hit it and stop thinking about it, your spending to much time thinking about what you should do when you should just hit it and see what you find then go from there

Man, I only wish I could find a site like this because I wouldn't need to ask what to do because I would just hit it, all 350 acre's

 

[Brandy[Ma.]]

n/t

 

[jeff & Maria]

looking for will be iron signals which may be nails, etc. indicating a structure once stood there. Eyeball the ground looking for tiny pieces of clay pottery or broken oyster shells. These are all suggestions that you are near what was once a home site. Many farm fields once had a home on them. good luck!

 

[Lawrence in Alabama]

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[Ed SW Fla]

.... don't overstudy / overplan your hunt on the 350 acres. Just go out and hunt and enjoy the hunt.

When I go to England or here in another state of the USA to hunt huge fields I've never hunted before, is to "walk the dog" ... walk / swing the machine rather quickly, until a good target is found. Then more slowly begin working some sort of pattern from the location of the first good find.

Where roads / fields /woods are today may not be even close to where they were in the 1700's or earlier. High ground near water is always the best place to start a hunt or work toward if it's evident and available to you.

When all else fails, hunt patterns near the old turnpike working away from that to the high ground or down to the water.

I have friends who will always work the field edges first, friends that will always search a field using an X pattern corner to corner, and friends that will always start with a zig zag pattern .... all of them find good stuff.

Others have mentioned that plows will drag stuff all over a field from it's original dropped / lost location.

Sounds like if you treat the farmer and his land right, you'll have many chances to return for more hunting. Go out and enjoy it and post up photos of all the good finds. Good luck.

 

[General Ray]

n/t

 

[Jaichim24]

yes, I will hit it this weekend and let you all know how it goes... hopefully. Depends, it is my wedding anniversary, so I suppose the wife and I will have to spend some time together!

 

[Ev from somewhere]

an un posted very historic site. The field that was by a tnpk only gave up a flat button I believe. Ev

 

[General Ray]

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[Ed SW Fla]

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[Bobbie]

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[Jaichim24]

Ok, here's an overhead shot of the fields I have permission to hunt. They yellow line up top is the old turnpike road. The land is fairly level in fields 1 & 2, as well as where the farm buildings are. The land slopes slightly up towards the farm buildings. So field #1 is the "lowest" land, but it is all pretty much flat. The land slopes down ward fairly steeply starting at field #3. The road just past field #3 is an old road that leads to another old farm dating back to the 1700's that is still in used today, so I'm thinking that corner might be a hot spot. It is only partially harvested right now, so hitting it will have to wait.

The top left corner of field #1, just where there is a small rectangle that is "indented" into the corn field, there are two old houses 50 yards away. They are currently residential, but I'm willing to bet that at one point they were involved with farming some portion of field #1. So I think I may start over there.

Field #2 is pretty small, but it is pretty close to where they original farm house is. Not sure about this field, so close to the cow shed. BTW, that dark brown area, just south of that building adjacent to this field (the cow shed), is the pee and poop pond. So, I'm not too keen on detecting near it.

The rest of the property is farm buildings, or fields that didn't have corn on them this year, which I don't have permission to hunt.

 

[Jaichim24]

I'm finally going to get to detect one of the above fields tomorrow AM and all day long! The wife and in-laws are taking the kid to an air show!! I can't wait, it's almost like the day before X-mas feeling!

I just spent the last hour cleaning down my Explorer, search coils, and digging tools. (with Tec-Nu) The detecting clothes are in the washing machine! I'm hoping I got rid of all of the poison ivy oils.

Gatorade is mixed and in the fridge, snacks are made and in a lunch bag!!

Car is fueled and ready to go!

Looking forward to a long, hot, sweaty day, burnt out arms, and a ruck sack full of relics and hopefully a few tasty coins!

Wish me luck!

Jai

P.S. And yes, this is how spastic I get when I haven't detected for a few weeks!