Is it just me or is it getting near impossible to find new spots. The old spots still produce sometimes but I'm ready for a fresh new spot. I got permission to hunt a field behind an old chuch that goes down to the river where a lot of CW activity occured throughout the area. To my surprise there was a small wooded plot in the middle with a cross and sign reading 18th century slave cemetery. Boy was I excited... Slave tag, old coins maybe,....hell 4 hours of hunting = 1 and half flat buttons. I'm itching for a good new spot!!!
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New spot are hard to come by
- Thread starter JMorgan
- Start date
J, you are so right. I have been fortunate enough to find 4 virgin CW sites in my 13 years of detecting but that was early on. Like bass fisherman who go back to a spot where they caught fish, we tend to go back where we have found relics. New spots are hard to locate but the thought that your next trip will yield one keeps us going to check it out. HH.
Man, that is so true. I've been checking out leads over the last two years and not one of over two dozen has panned out (developed land, bulldozed land, or landscaped in every case). I put alot of that down to the fact that most areas that were camps were on land that everyone considered desirable and what made it desirable then made it ideal today for putting houses or shopping centers on. I still have a couple of leads to check out, but their on some tough spots and will take some advance prep to get to, let alone check out. I'm beginning to expand my approach to including looking for period ghost towns and homesites north of the Alabama border, as it seems the land in TN is so much hillier and rockier, that some of the land up there is still as it was 150 years ago. If it keeps going like this I'll just have to give up relic hunting.
GRAY GHOST
New member
one thing that i've found to be very helpful to me is to go by word of mouth. a lot of people research just one or two small areas and set all their hopes in getting permission to hunt those areas. when permission is denied, some of them seem to fall to pieces. living in central virginia, there's still large tracts of land available to hunt. it doesn't matter one bit to me if it's been detected before - no one man or machine gets it all anyway. i've rarely lacked for a place to go in my nearly thirty years of detecting. i know there's a lot more no trespassing signs going up. that doesn't deter me in the least. most are up for a good reason. there's still plenty of land out there to hunt - so let me offer you some tips.
everyone [and i mean everyone!] that i know or meet within the first two minutes of our conversation will know for certain that i like to detect and would be interested in any land they might have or would know about. i've gotten so many good spots like that. people i know at work, the cashier ringing up my purchases, people in line with me, cops, family members, etc. are all given the "gg spiel". i'm quick to add that i'll probably never get rich detecting [true] and enjoy doing it to uncover and preserve history, and that i don't leave open holes. try saying all that in one breath! it works well for me. i always have a pen and small notebook handy and follow up on as many leads as i can. it stays in the dash of the car too.
as long as you come across as interested, respectful and genuine, you shouldn't have much problem getting permission. people talk, don't forget, so i know if i do a lousy job of covering my holes, letting the cows out, or some other dumb mistake, my chances of going back to that new spot are slim to none. doing a good job on one piece of land can often lead to other places to go. word of mouth is the most powerful tool in my arsenal, and it has to be cultivated and groomed. sure, i get rejected once in a while, but that doesn't deter me in the least either. there's plenty of other places to go to.
those who don't cover their holes, let the man's cows out, conceal their finds from the owner, and generally disrespect the landowner - and consequently, the hobby itself - are in for a long, bumpy ride. like i said, word gets around, and people talk. word of mouth is the way to go, my friend. we often don't know if the place has been detected before or not, so instead of targeting an area or two, and pinning all my hopes on those, i get permission for as many acres as possible. it works out better that way. good luck, fellas, i hope this helps you. hh,
everyone [and i mean everyone!] that i know or meet within the first two minutes of our conversation will know for certain that i like to detect and would be interested in any land they might have or would know about. i've gotten so many good spots like that. people i know at work, the cashier ringing up my purchases, people in line with me, cops, family members, etc. are all given the "gg spiel". i'm quick to add that i'll probably never get rich detecting [true] and enjoy doing it to uncover and preserve history, and that i don't leave open holes. try saying all that in one breath! it works well for me. i always have a pen and small notebook handy and follow up on as many leads as i can. it stays in the dash of the car too.
as long as you come across as interested, respectful and genuine, you shouldn't have much problem getting permission. people talk, don't forget, so i know if i do a lousy job of covering my holes, letting the cows out, or some other dumb mistake, my chances of going back to that new spot are slim to none. doing a good job on one piece of land can often lead to other places to go. word of mouth is the most powerful tool in my arsenal, and it has to be cultivated and groomed. sure, i get rejected once in a while, but that doesn't deter me in the least either. there's plenty of other places to go to.
those who don't cover their holes, let the man's cows out, conceal their finds from the owner, and generally disrespect the landowner - and consequently, the hobby itself - are in for a long, bumpy ride. like i said, word gets around, and people talk. word of mouth is the way to go, my friend. we often don't know if the place has been detected before or not, so instead of targeting an area or two, and pinning all my hopes on those, i get permission for as many acres as possible. it works out better that way. good luck, fellas, i hope this helps you. hh,
RelicDigger1
New member
Couldn't of said it better myself, Ghost. Thirty-two years of digging here. And in that time, I've found that the places I thought would be easy to obtain permission turned out to be the least, and vice-versa.
We can all read terrain eventually. But some of the most unlikely spots will turn up relics. I'm in South Carolina's Lowcountry and I see more areas to hunt just on a drive to the next town over than I will be able to get to in a lifetime. And I'm not including the schoolyards or house sites from 1900 on. If I'm hitting a site and I see it's post-war, I'm loading up my gear if silver's not pouring out.
Here's a basic tip. Figure out a rural road that was in your area in the time frame of 1830 and back to the origins of your state (1670 for South Carolina). Find a map, go to the library, buy a book somewhere. But find that one road (more roads the merrier) and start knocking on doors asking if you can walk the fields beside your new found road. Explain what you're doing, tell them who you are, compliment them on their ....find something.....pansies, cows, windmill, etc.
Good Hunting,
Richard
We can all read terrain eventually. But some of the most unlikely spots will turn up relics. I'm in South Carolina's Lowcountry and I see more areas to hunt just on a drive to the next town over than I will be able to get to in a lifetime. And I'm not including the schoolyards or house sites from 1900 on. If I'm hitting a site and I see it's post-war, I'm loading up my gear if silver's not pouring out.
Here's a basic tip. Figure out a rural road that was in your area in the time frame of 1830 and back to the origins of your state (1670 for South Carolina). Find a map, go to the library, buy a book somewhere. But find that one road (more roads the merrier) and start knocking on doors asking if you can walk the fields beside your new found road. Explain what you're doing, tell them who you are, compliment them on their ....find something.....pansies, cows, windmill, etc.
Good Hunting,
Richard
My problem has never been getting permission. I have 95% success with that. Its like I said before, I keep hunting sites that turn out to have been seriously modified or destroyed and I can't find anything, but trash. It doesn't help that I seem to be living in the middle of an area that saw no activity and I have to travel an hour or more in any direction to check out sites. I really appreciate the suggestions that have been made on here and checking out an original road and suggestive terrain may be the only way I'll ever find a site, but I don't get to get out but maybe 5 or 6 times during our season, which makes it tough. I've been trying to narrow it down with research, but its those sites that are turning out as dry holes, for one reason or another. Wish I lived in VA, but I'll make do with where I am.
RelicDigger1
New member
What state are you in, Cane?
One rule of thumb to keep in mind about trash. If no one's dug it before, no one's dug in that area. (And as a rule, haul out any trash whether or not it's yours or not). I've dug shotgun shells only to find a button below that once the shotgun shell was out.
Try the local library. Find out what regiment was formed in your area. Most cities or counties sent regiments to war and before that had a local home guard. Read about them, learn where they trained, who was its leadership, etc.
Point being, when the government was changed they changed the structure of the military as well. Find these troops. They were somewhere near to every community.
Hope this helps.
Richard
One rule of thumb to keep in mind about trash. If no one's dug it before, no one's dug in that area. (And as a rule, haul out any trash whether or not it's yours or not). I've dug shotgun shells only to find a button below that once the shotgun shell was out.
Try the local library. Find out what regiment was formed in your area. Most cities or counties sent regiments to war and before that had a local home guard. Read about them, learn where they trained, who was its leadership, etc.
Point being, when the government was changed they changed the structure of the military as well. Find these troops. They were somewhere near to every community.
Hope this helps.
Richard
RelicDigger1
New member
I know how that goes. I'd pinpointed a SC cavalry unit's winter camp to within a couple hundred yards. The site today, however, is a street full of soon-to-be million dollar homes over looking the hilltop on the river.
To save a step or two, check with your Alabama Highway Patrol home office. You're looking for their streets maps of each county. In SC these have the individual houses, businesses -- any type of structure is shown. Ours are from 1976, I think, so they're a bit outdated. But it beats driving to each site to find a strip mall or another "much-needed" Wal-Mart every time.
Some topos show these structures as well. Or, shoot, Google maps may help. I've not used these yet but some friends say they're super.
Research a site, pinpoint it on a current map and go dig it. It sounds simple. But we probably discover 10-15 have been built over or scraped away for every one we find. Get out in the country. Less chance for a Wal-Mart, though I wouldn't rule it out.
Good Hunting
Richard
To save a step or two, check with your Alabama Highway Patrol home office. You're looking for their streets maps of each county. In SC these have the individual houses, businesses -- any type of structure is shown. Ours are from 1976, I think, so they're a bit outdated. But it beats driving to each site to find a strip mall or another "much-needed" Wal-Mart every time.
Some topos show these structures as well. Or, shoot, Google maps may help. I've not used these yet but some friends say they're super.
Research a site, pinpoint it on a current map and go dig it. It sounds simple. But we probably discover 10-15 have been built over or scraped away for every one we find. Get out in the country. Less chance for a Wal-Mart, though I wouldn't rule it out.
Good Hunting
Richard
The biggest heartbreak happened last year when I had pinpointed the location of a fort that nobody even knew existed. When I got up on the ridge where it was supposed to be, it became clear that the area had been bulldozed some time in the past. And, sure enough when I talked to the lady that owned the place she confirmed that her, now deceased husband, had bulldozed that area back in the 1950s. I'll bet stuff is still there, but its out of reach.
I don't get the good CW grounds here in my area (Calif.), so the gold mining camps are my usual relics - but I remember years ago digging up silver coins was like, well, normal. Just kept throwing them in the pouch and moving on, not giving a lot of thought except, more than penny, and wheat's were more common.
Nowadays, just pulling silver gets a second look and cracks a smile, and finding spots are not like years ago. Sure there are grounds waiting to be detected, and sure there are more grounds off limits, and private properties/developments are eating away available areas, even schools here are getting fenced in, I saw one last year that actually have posted "No Metal Detecting" signs. Now instead of just throwing pennies in the pouch, I look first to see if it may be a wheat, and silver is a bonus. They are still out there, just less of them and less spots to go to.
Nowadays, just pulling silver gets a second look and cracks a smile, and finding spots are not like years ago. Sure there are grounds waiting to be detected, and sure there are more grounds off limits, and private properties/developments are eating away available areas, even schools here are getting fenced in, I saw one last year that actually have posted "No Metal Detecting" signs. Now instead of just throwing pennies in the pouch, I look first to see if it may be a wheat, and silver is a bonus. They are still out there, just less of them and less spots to go to.
JCJEXPLORER
New member
Canewrap said:
If you think it's still there, get some heavy equip in there and get it out. You can rent a backhoe pretty cheap.
david bull
Well-known member
After years of finding bullets in this area while coin shooting I finally stumbled upon an old cw map showing campsites for military units.Many camped in this area for months at a time.I now have a renewed intrest in locating these sites.Don't give up they're still out there!!(7 or 8 in this area alone!)DBULL