MK_(MO-snakedigger)
New member
It was 10 degrees this morning but the sun came out and it warmed up into the 20s. I know a lot of you live north so I'll bet your REAL cold. This is damn near killing me but I'm glad I'm not where it gets colder. I'm goin hunting anyway...
Want to go???
I decided to take the shadow up the hill to a shack that is behind my property. The owner thinks it was built in the late 1800s but I think it is more like post depression 1930s. It is built on large flat rocks for a foundation, with pretty rough lumber, no insulation and just wallpaper scraps glued to the wood. It's not safe to go into anymore and I doubt Vernon would use it in one of his paintings. From the junk lying around we figure it was lived in until the early 1960s by some poor sap. Electricity and plumbing had been scabbed in over the years and it had a small porch at one time but it fell off.
[attachment 12410 shack.jpg]
This place is a real trash dump but I know I'll find something fun here even if it isn't very old. I always loved detecting in the junk and this will be a good chance to hone my skills with the shadow since I haven't used it in over a year. I love the shadow and it has found me a lot of great stuff over the years ... here is a little of it in a display from Oregon sites I've found. I posted this pic so nobody would call me a copperhead. (ha ha that's just a joke copperhead)
[attachment 12411 display.jpg]
The area around this shack is loaded with old farming parts, scrap metal and misc junk of every kind. I also failed to mention that the site is heavily guarded by 150 of these guys and they stomp the crap out of everything.
This guy had my number !!
[attachment 12412 cows.jpg]
If you don't detect with cattle a lot you might not be aware that cow urine makes most metal detectors very unstable so you have to scrape the ground with your foot on every target to make sure its a good signal. Sometimes the signal is gone afterwards which means it was the minerals in the urine that set it off. I found a lot of flat buttons and some buckles of misc types and other assorted junk. Nothing worth getting very excited about, but I still have a great time finding this stuff.
[attachment 12413 misc_junk.jpg]
I love relic hunting because as you dig one target you clean up the ground for whatever might be under it. There is sort of a road / trail that enters the area where the house is and I was working along it finding lots of 44 shell casings. I can't wait for it to rain and settle the ground where I was digging. It will be like I was never there. The great thing about this site is that when it isn't giving good targets anymore I can take my tractor up there and scrape a foot or so off and start all over again. The best stuff is gong to be real deep here because of all the trees and cattle.
[attachment 12414 road.jpg]
Some of those buckles and flat buttons came from along the road. I dug a pretty good signal and was surprized to pop a button. Not super old but a pretty cool find. A while later I got another small one. The big surprize came when I dug a signal right in the middle of the road and at 8" I pulled something out of the rocks about the size of a half dollar. When I first saw it caked with dirt I was thinking it was a big washer. I wiped off the dirt and here it was a big eagle. It has a screw back and had a piece of rotton leather still attached to it. Don't know what it was from but I'm thinking it was on a horses bridle. Maybe some of you know what it is. It's made of copper and is very fragile so I'm a bit shocked it is in such great shape considering where it was. A little later I dug another nice button.
Waterbury Button Co backmarks show 1848-1965 so I'd bet these are not much older than 1965 but that's still 40+ years ago. Better than a kick in the arse I'd say !!! Did you have fun ??? I did !!!!
We'll do it again someday,
HH
Mike
[attachment 12415 buttons1.jpg]
Want to go???
I decided to take the shadow up the hill to a shack that is behind my property. The owner thinks it was built in the late 1800s but I think it is more like post depression 1930s. It is built on large flat rocks for a foundation, with pretty rough lumber, no insulation and just wallpaper scraps glued to the wood. It's not safe to go into anymore and I doubt Vernon would use it in one of his paintings. From the junk lying around we figure it was lived in until the early 1960s by some poor sap. Electricity and plumbing had been scabbed in over the years and it had a small porch at one time but it fell off.
[attachment 12410 shack.jpg]
This place is a real trash dump but I know I'll find something fun here even if it isn't very old. I always loved detecting in the junk and this will be a good chance to hone my skills with the shadow since I haven't used it in over a year. I love the shadow and it has found me a lot of great stuff over the years ... here is a little of it in a display from Oregon sites I've found. I posted this pic so nobody would call me a copperhead. (ha ha that's just a joke copperhead)
[attachment 12411 display.jpg]
The area around this shack is loaded with old farming parts, scrap metal and misc junk of every kind. I also failed to mention that the site is heavily guarded by 150 of these guys and they stomp the crap out of everything.
This guy had my number !!
[attachment 12412 cows.jpg]
If you don't detect with cattle a lot you might not be aware that cow urine makes most metal detectors very unstable so you have to scrape the ground with your foot on every target to make sure its a good signal. Sometimes the signal is gone afterwards which means it was the minerals in the urine that set it off. I found a lot of flat buttons and some buckles of misc types and other assorted junk. Nothing worth getting very excited about, but I still have a great time finding this stuff.
[attachment 12413 misc_junk.jpg]
I love relic hunting because as you dig one target you clean up the ground for whatever might be under it. There is sort of a road / trail that enters the area where the house is and I was working along it finding lots of 44 shell casings. I can't wait for it to rain and settle the ground where I was digging. It will be like I was never there. The great thing about this site is that when it isn't giving good targets anymore I can take my tractor up there and scrape a foot or so off and start all over again. The best stuff is gong to be real deep here because of all the trees and cattle.
[attachment 12414 road.jpg]
Some of those buckles and flat buttons came from along the road. I dug a pretty good signal and was surprized to pop a button. Not super old but a pretty cool find. A while later I got another small one. The big surprize came when I dug a signal right in the middle of the road and at 8" I pulled something out of the rocks about the size of a half dollar. When I first saw it caked with dirt I was thinking it was a big washer. I wiped off the dirt and here it was a big eagle. It has a screw back and had a piece of rotton leather still attached to it. Don't know what it was from but I'm thinking it was on a horses bridle. Maybe some of you know what it is. It's made of copper and is very fragile so I'm a bit shocked it is in such great shape considering where it was. A little later I dug another nice button.
Waterbury Button Co backmarks show 1848-1965 so I'd bet these are not much older than 1965 but that's still 40+ years ago. Better than a kick in the arse I'd say !!! Did you have fun ??? I did !!!!
We'll do it again someday,
HH
Mike
[attachment 12415 buttons1.jpg]