Need help.

[Tufunuf]

I am going to get to hunt on a half acre of land where an OLD house used to be. You can barely make out where the house used to stand. But, it is pretty obvious when you look at the big trees around the land. There are 4 or 5 HUGE oak and pecan trees (probably 100 years old or more) approximately 75 feet apart on all four corners where the house must have set.

Here's my problem. I am a newbie to hunting and the Ace 250. Having said that, what settings would you recommend me usingon the 250 machine; being a newbie and having the chance to hunt an old
homestead like this one?

I would appreciate any advice you could give me.

Thanks in advance.

Tuf

 

[Uncle Willy]

I would hunt in all metal if you're interested in all the old relics one could find. Be sure to check around all the trees out to the edge of the shade line.

Bill

 

[Tufunuf]

Thanks Bill. You're probably right. I'll give it a try. You never know what you might find at an old house place

 

[NM5K]

I agree. I think I would go all metal. I often do
anyway... I guess it's all what you want, but at
an old site like that, you never know what kind
of interesting stuff you might find. Myself, my
plan of attack would be to sweep the place quick
for shallow easy stuff, and then keep going back
over it, getting deeper and deeper. This is the
way I've been doing my yard here. The reason I like
to do that is it gradually clears the shallow stuff,
which will include trash. That will make it easier
to see the deep stuff. I divide the yard up into
sections, so I can keep track of where I've been.
I'll often crisscross the same area, except from a
different direction to find hits you miss from the
first sweeep. I've done my backyard this way, and
I'm slowly but surely stripping it clean of metal.
There are still a few coins lurking, but they are
getting much fewer and farther apart. One of the
reasons I decided to get the big coil, was I think
I'm just about to the limits of the stock coil
in that area. I'm really curious to see if that big
coil will find any deeper coins that the stock coil
missed.
If you run in "coin" mode, you could be missing some
pretty good stuff. IE: small metal toys, containers,
etc..Lots of that stuff could be worth more than the
coins you find. The only time I would switch to "coin",
would be if I'm snooping likely coins, and I want to
reduce the "junk" chatter.
I also have a torn down house to do, but it's 430 miles
away and I haven't been up there yet. I plan to hit it
before too long. I'm paranoid some tecter head in AR
will beat me to my goodies if I wait too long...
It's private property, but highway frontage, and anyone
could hop on there and look around if they got the urge.
I *should* be able to find some silver coins at that place.
But I'm just as interested in relics. Maybe more so.
My grandfather lived in that house since about WW2 ended,
and it went back to at least the 20's or earlier..
On that same road frontage, he once had a Texaco gas station,
which is also long gone, and there may be a few lost
coins in that area too. That whole property is about
2 acres, and would take a good while to go through it
all. Supposably over 100 years ago, it was once some kind of
dairy farm.
MK

 

[gregl01]

I agree with MK. If this is an unlimited hunt site then take your time and dig it all. If this is a one shot deal then cherry pick the shallow stuff first and then go back over to see if you missed anything easy. Good luck to you!!!!!
HH
Greg

 

[Uncle Willy]

Yeah if it's a 100 years or more old the possibilities are endless. Don't forget to locate the old outhouse pit and probe it. Many a goodie was dumped in these, plus coins that were dropped.

Bill

 

[NM5K]

I've wondered if that house up in AR ever had a
outhouse. Of course, it always had an indoor bath,
plumbing ever since I was born, but I have wondered
if it might have ever had an outhouse. Maybe my aunt
would know..She's about the oldest one still alive
that might know.. I've read a few articles about
privie digging. Lots of goodies are often found in
those. I saw one article where the guy dug up a bunch
of fancy plates, dishes, etc, that someone broke and
threw down the hole. He managed to glue most of them
back together. The plates were really fancy looking,
and had neat designs painted on them. I guess from the
early 1800's or so... I'm thinking maybe the outhouse/
indoor bath switch was I guess around 1900-1910 range??
in general. Does that sound about right? Could vary a
bit of course to the house and area. I guess I need to
try to find out when that house was planted on the site.
MK

 

[Uncle Willy]

Outhouses were around a lot longer than that. When I was a kid in the forties many people in town still had outhouses. We used to tump them over on Halloween. In rural areas they were around a lot longer - but any home that is 100 years or older is guaranteed to have had an outhouse. My house was built in 1907 and it has an outhouse pit as do most of the homes in the area.

Some pit diggers came through here years ago and got permission from home owners to probe the pits in their back yards. They made out pretty good and went away with some prize bottles plus other items.

Bill

 

[NM5K]

Not sure exactly when that old house was built.
But it had to be at least 1930 or earlier I think.
One thing that makes me unsure about an outhouse, is
that the house had a bathroom designed in between
the two back bedrooms. And the bathtub was one of
those old tiger paw above ground jobs..pretty old..
But I guess it could have been added to the house
at some point. I wish I had census papers for the
turn of the century+ period in that area to see how
long the house had been there. I'd have to do some
pondering about where a possible pit might be..
Naturally, most were not too awful far from the
house... I'm sure people didn't want to travel half
an acre to take a whiz in the middle of the night..
So most were kinda close to the back door paths, etc..
I'd love to find something like that. I think more fun
than just plunkin coins.. I find old personal objects more
interesting than coins in general. Being as thats in
Hot Springs AR, I guess they would call me an Arkieologist... The thought of digging a hole where
about 17,895 dumps have been taken doesn't turn me on too
much, but I assume all the "droppings" have long since turn
to quality fertilizer... uke:
MK

 

[Uncle Willy]

Yeah the poop has all turned to dirt. Those bath tubs ain't that old. I got one in my bathroom. Wouldn't trade it for a dozen of the Yuppie tubs. If that house is as old as you say it is, it's guaranteed to have had an outhouse before indoor plumbing was installed. Check for a cellar hole also. Watch out for wells and cisterns that might not have been covered up well or filled.

Bill