permission to hunt intire town

[pointer80]

Hey everyone, I just talked to a land owner that owns the field where a whole town once stood. The town was founded around 1870's. It had a post office, roller mill, and even a park. At one time it had a population of around 900 residence. I do not believe it has ever been hunted as the current owners family has owned the property ever. The field is about 40+ acres. The only thing the owner said is he would just like to meet me first. Unfortunately the corn is still in the field because of all the rain we have had. Hopefully it will be picked real soon. I will keep you all updated when we start hunting. HH.

 

[sprchng]

Dayton , Ohio?

 

[Goes4ever]

Pointer please do NOT give out the loacation where this is, a lot of times people lurk on forums attempting to get info on other peoples sites, keep it to yourself unless you want to run to risk of someones poaching on your site

 

[pointer80]

Thanks Goes4ever, No I think I will keep this under wraps LOL. I was hoping you would respond. How would you say the best way to hunt this would be? I am thinking with my 13" ultimate coil to start. I know there will be a lot of trash and iron. Also do you know how to edit a post once posted? I misspelled some words. Guess I am just excited LOL.

 

[north1]

Not goes4ever, but hopefully have a few helpful hints. Should be able to find a layout of the town from several sources. I find mine usually from old county atlas'. They also sometimes have historic pictures of the town which might help pinpoint certain areas. I like to establish a game plan before I start wandering about. Once you start to wander, you don't cover the ground well and mentally concentrate less when rechecking because you think you have covered it. I like to work on a grid. Now this doesn't always mean laying out a grid myself, but using a preestablished grid laid out by the farmer. Say for instance drill or planter rows. I also take along flags. They are fluorescent orange and I use them to mark valuable finds which helps me visualize where buildings, trails, streets may have been. This will help you really focus on high traffic areas. Would recommend making at least a rudimentery map so that in the future you will have some idea of where you have been and have not been and where you may want to try searching in a different direction or using a different coil. I have the 8"x6" SEF coil that has never been off my etrac since I started using it. I find that in my soil coins aren't real deep and farming tends to eliminate some of the depth of coins(don't have 2-3" of grass and root mass to work through. Heck I find small copper rivets from horse harnesses at 6+" and they are three times smaller than a penny and have a hole in the middle. Guess it depends on how much iron and if you need smaller coil to work around it. Above all have patience. I worked an old homesite this summer which had no trace of where the buildings stood. Took me a total of 40 detecting hours to grid detect it. The bulk of my finds came in the last 8 hours when I finally hit where the house structure was. I was able to determing that from the majority of the finds coming from the south side of an almost unprecivable shallow depression(subsidence from a buried basement). However you could follow a trail of coins which showed where the driveway leading to the house used to be. Alot of work but it was in a small way like doing historical archaeology and I loved ever minute of it. SO WILL YOU!! Have a great time and good luck.

 

[pointer80]

north1, Thank you. That is some awesome advice and tips you posted! I also have a 8x6 coil and will be bringing that along. You are very right with it being a plowed field everything is probably not that deep for the most part. My hunting partner actually lives in the same township that this town is located and at the town hall where he pays his taxes there is a actual map of the town showing streets, businesses, the park etc. The township clerk said she would meet us there Sunday and let us look at the map and take pictures of it. Thanks again for the sound advice. HH.

 

[NebTrac]

This is many years worth of opportunity hunting. Corn stalks are going to be hard to detect in for sure, the 6x8 will help here. I have the exact same type of hunting ground myself and it has produced for me multiple old coins for my area. 2 seated, V's, IH's, barbers and other relics. I don't seem to get the amount of relics that Terry does, but I belive it is because of the lack of people in my area of Nebr. for the longevity of the town.

I believe you already know this...but. If I were in your shoes, I'd hunt in TTF and you're going to want to dig "every" non-ferrous target. You'll get tired of the .22 short and shotgun headstamps, but you can't let those signals go. I'll give an example.

My buddy and I'd been hunting about 5 hours at this place. My last signal was a 12-06. classic .22 short number and I'd already dug a dozen of 'em. I thought, "oh, I'll let it go". Then I changed my mind. Ended up being a gold (not gold filled) FOE eagle pin with a ruby eye. So I don't let any signals go there.

When/if the farmer rotates it to soybeans, then you'll have an easier time of swinging. Enjoy that spot, they're rare for many detectorists.

We're looking forward to the finds!

NebTrac

 

[Goes4ever]

not a whole lot to add after the previous advice, I also use the 6x8 in fields, I look for the iron patch (where a structure stood) and start gridding back and forth and I dig everything above iron. Its simple, but takes patience!!!! You will find it much easier to hunt next yr when it is beans. Good luck, and post lots of pictures!

 

[moonshine]

just want to say good luck out there hope you find some cool stuff.

 

[pointer80]

Thanks everyone for the replies.

 

[looknforgold]

Sounds like you have a Honey Hole there.. If you can give me the GPS Coordinates I can have them deleted from Goodle Earth, it won't cost you anything... just PM them too me, Thanks

 

[pointer80]

looknforgold, would you do that for me? Gee thanks. LOL.

 

[Mark in S.E. IA]

Something that you can do to help you do a grid pattern in a corn field is to get 2 marker flags and put them at each end of your grid pattern. when you get to the end of your grid you move it down to where you will be making your return pass. it helps to keep you from wondering all over the place in a corn field. When I'm doing bean fields I just drag my toe and I use that to to keep me going in a streight line when doing my return pass.

Good luck and let use know how you do.

 

[utahshovelhead]

Ill add one more thing. On large sites that you will search over many times for years, from many directions you will start with a basic grid pattern then I suggest you find some way to start marking your finds with gps type technology. I use a garmin 760 which is not supper accurate but on a large site I can still see the basic outlines of groupings over time. I like to do this as It gives me a bit more visual idea of the whole site and tends to make me concentrate better in the ANTICIPATION of hot spots and potential hot spots.
I wouldn't normally go out and buy a gps for that but have one for lots of other reasons as well.

Good luck.

 

[Tenspeed]

Good luck! Sounds like a great opportunity.

This type of hunting is where a CTX3030 with its GPS tracking would be nice. The guys in England track their hunts and mark where good targets come from so they can go home and analyze the track to figure out where to go next.