Monte, Sr. & Jr., got 'Lost' yesterday.

[Monte]

Rather, we took a beautiful day to relax and get away to a ghost town we refer to as 'Lost' for a few hours. A very tough old gold mining town to hunt due to all of the shards of rusty tin mixed in with the abundance of square nails and other debris in the main part of that site.

'Lost' is rather stingy, but that kind of adds to all the fun of hunting it, dealing with a lot of trash while hoping to unmask a decent keeper. Yesterday Monte Jr. used his FORS CoRe w/'OOR' coil, and I used my FORS Relic, initially, with the 5½" round coil mounted. After a break I switched to my own FORS CoRe w/'OOR' coil and continued through the end of our hunt, just short of five hours.

We both recovered a half-dozen or more .44 Henry rimfire cartridge cases, several other cases, many older, and the normal square nails, a buckle or to, fired bullets, harmonica parts, and kept hoping for a choice find.

The only nice find I made was a button. Enough to satisfy my efforts as I like old stuff and this early Carhartt will do.

This was found in a moderately iron littered site with mostly tin scraps and square nails all over and, like these types of conditions require, it called for a slow and methodical coverage, and was at about 1½-2 inch depth on an angle. Note that the back w/loop is ferrous and mixed-metals of this type, ferrous and non-ferrous won't always produce a solid lock-on TID.

At the time I was using my Relic in Di3/3-Tone mode, Sensitivity '99', Iron Mask/Discrimination '5', and Iron Volume '2' which is my saved 'turn-on' start-up. I hunt at those settings unless I am compelled to reduce the Sensitivity, or possibly increase the ID Mask just to knock out iron nails. Due to all the debris at that site I only used the 5½" DD on the Relic.

Monte

[size=small]PS: I was going to post the photos as I have on AHRPS Relic & Old Site but they are too large for Findmall and I'm not up on how to resize them. Any help on that? Just e-mail me.[/size]

 

[3RINGER]

Glad you two got out Monte. Thought for a minute I was going to see where you two slept out under the stars lol.

Any Relic hunting is better than no Relic hunting.

 

[Monte]

Glad you two got out Monte. Thought for a minute I was going to see where you two slept out under the stars lol.

Any Relic hunting is better than no Relic Hunting.

It was clear and sunny, with above average temperatures that we have been enjoying here. About 5° to 10° above normal for a week or so, but the nighttime temperatures, even up in the hills, was still dropping above normal but close to freezing. If I had a trailer I would have maybe spent a night or two up there. I'd considered a trip back up there today, but have to make a run to a part of a ghost town today before the gal signs her property off tomorrow. This site in down here on rangeland elevation and I have recovered some good stuff on other parts of the property she owns, but she put out the invitation to hunt this piece before she sells.

The location the button came from, the one I named 'Lost, is up in the hills at a gold mining era townsite from 1967 to about 1873 or so, and the weather forecaster's best guess looks like it might be right. It's going to get showery and cooler, and next Wednesday the lows will be in the 20's and a 40% chance of snow. I guess winter will finally be arriving and it won't be huntable until next spring. No camping under the stars for a while, to be sure.

This is one of the names for three of the gold mining town sites we are planning to hunt on our 5th Welcome-to-Hunt Outing in April of next year, the 20th, 21st, 22nd and 23rd. The three towns are called 'Lone Tree’, 'Lonesome Arch’ and ‘Lost.’ Folks will want to "sleep under the stars" or tuck away inside a trailer or motorhome to enjoy the most hunting at these three locations. There are accommodates in two towns, motels or RV parks, but it would take about an hour's drive one-way to get to the bigger towns location where there is room, and access, for camping rigs.

These are not highly-productive sites because two of the three were short lived, and all of them have an abundance of rusty tin and other iron debris mixed with non-ferrous discards as well. Abundant is a kind word to describe the conditions, but that said, any desired find you make it likely to be in exceptional condition and a period object. If you would like to make a journey to Eastern Oregon for a 'welcome' hunt with a group of people who enjoy working older, iron infested sites, just shoot me an e-mail and I'll add you to the Contact List.

Okay, it is 5:21 AM and I head off in 30 minutes to fuel up and treat myself to a Veteran's Day hunting trip.

Monte

 

[woodchiphustler]

Man strap on a transponder! You may go Missing 411!

 

[Monte]

I will start by giving credit to Mark Parker at W&E Treasures magazine for his assistance with this, so 'Thank You' Mark.

His reply follows:

The Hamilton Carrhartt Co. began manufacturing bib overalls and other work clothing in Detroit, Michigan in 1889, and reportedly used their rebus ( "car" + "heart") trademark as early as 1905, although it was not officially registered until 1915. Other varieties based on the trademark included a button displaying a trolley or rail car superimposed upon a heart, and heart-shaped buttons with cars on them. Non-dug buttons like the one that you found often bring $7-12+ in bright, problem-free condition. As is, it's still a neat find which would add interest to any display of items of the period.

I believe my button [size=small](and I will try to figure out how to down-size the photo to post here)[/size] was one of the two earlier designs they used, but Mark said they started making bib overalls in 1889, and maybe no trademark until 1905, so that gets me wondering about the activity at this old gold mining townsite during that 1889 to maybe twenty to thirty years since then. The town was small, likely no more than ± 150 resident males mining at the peak period, and existed from about 1867.

Makes me wonder who lost it [size=small](miner, hunter, ??)[/size], when [size=small](sometime after the town was gone and maybe during the Depression Era)[/size], what they were doing there and all sorts of possibilities.

Monte

 

[John in Nawth Carolina]

Do you always hunt trashy areas with the Sensitivity turned up to 99?

 

[Monte]

[size=large]Do you always hunt trashy areas with the Sensitivity turned up to 99?[/size]

And Monte's answer is ... 'No, not always.'

My personal choice of Sensitivity or Gain settings is dependent upon:

> the particular Make or Model detector I am using

> the Search Mode I am using

> the Search Coil [size=small](size and type)[/size] that I am using

> the amount of Trash, and Type of Trash [size=small](ferrous or non-ferrous)[/size] I expect to deal with

> the amount, if any, of EMI at the site

> and finally, how I consider my abilities/skills to best handle trash and non-trash where I plan to hunt.


By the mid-to-latter '70s I had pretty much settled on starting out with a high Sensitivity or Gain setting and adjust from there ... if I felt it beneficial ... rather than start out with a reduced setting and waste a lot of time tinkering around to slowly increase, and then increase ,and then increase again from a lower setting to find the maximum huntable setting. A lot will depend upon the particular detector and search coil used, but I like to start off higher and adjust as desired.

With my Nokta FORS CoRe and three FORS Relics, as well as my Makro Racer 2 and Gold Racer, I have all my Gain/Sensitivity and other settings saved for the particular search mode I will use, and also for the most often used search coil. With the smallest coil on the CoRe, Relics and Racer 2 in the 3-Tone Discriminate mode, my start-up gain/Sensitivity setting is '99'. With all those models mentioned plus the Gold Racer, in 2-Tone Discrimination my start-up saved setting is '90.'

Then, if there is EMI, too much trash that it impedes performance, or possibly some ground mineral conditions, then I will consider reducing the Gain/Sensitivity to gain stability or, if possible, improve performance. Keep in mind that I hunt trashy sites most often, both for urban Coin & Jewelry Hunting as well as Relic Hunting, and I always use the best coil choice I can make [size=small](smaller if the trash level is high/dense)[/size] and I search with a slow, methodical sweep speed. Going slower and patiently can also let me use a higher Gain setting than if I was over-pacing the sweep going too briskly, especially in challenging ground conditions.

Monte