Steve(Can)
Well-known member
A while ago, I happened to go by a fairly large vacant lot where they'd just dumped a considerable amount of fill to level it off for a parking area. On investigation, I was astonished by the amount of stuff scattered on the ground and throughout the fill---lots of burnt char, hunks of melted lead, bits of broken china and bottles, buttons, pieces of clay smoking pipes, square nails, horse teeth, rusted chunks of metal everywhere... Hokey smoke! It was junky as anything, but I knew there just had to be some good stuff scattered around in there.
I've been working it pretty steady, an couple hours here and there, whenever I get a chance. That's about all ya can take at a time--an hour or so--there's so much junk in the soil, you get a hit in almost every square inch and the bings and bongs are about enough to make a person go bonkers after anything more than that. I've got a small 4" coil on and sensitivity cranked way, way down and have been picking through it slowly, inch by inch, kicking the dirt around to clear up signals from all the bits of rusted iron. Way back when, there was quite a fire that destroyed a big section of town, and I suspect that is where this fill has been dug out of.
This is definitely not your typical detecting where ya mosey around with your head in the clouds til ya get a good signal at 6"--most everything you can get a bead on here is less than a couple of inches before it's masked by something else or right up on the surface. I've made a quite a few surface finds that I saw out of the corner of my eye even before I had a chance to get a coil over them.
Nice stuff too. Sure, I've got a bushel basket half full of stuff that rang high that I've cleared, but the thing is everything is old and there is none of the usual junk, no pulltabs, no foil, no bottlecaps. And among it, old military and police buttons, interesting ornamental metal pieces (including a minature homemade lead horseshoe charm), a railway baggage check, buckles and snaps... and coins. So far, three large cents, an American 1894 5
I've been working it pretty steady, an couple hours here and there, whenever I get a chance. That's about all ya can take at a time--an hour or so--there's so much junk in the soil, you get a hit in almost every square inch and the bings and bongs are about enough to make a person go bonkers after anything more than that. I've got a small 4" coil on and sensitivity cranked way, way down and have been picking through it slowly, inch by inch, kicking the dirt around to clear up signals from all the bits of rusted iron. Way back when, there was quite a fire that destroyed a big section of town, and I suspect that is where this fill has been dug out of.
This is definitely not your typical detecting where ya mosey around with your head in the clouds til ya get a good signal at 6"--most everything you can get a bead on here is less than a couple of inches before it's masked by something else or right up on the surface. I've made a quite a few surface finds that I saw out of the corner of my eye even before I had a chance to get a coil over them.
Nice stuff too. Sure, I've got a bushel basket half full of stuff that rang high that I've cleared, but the thing is everything is old and there is none of the usual junk, no pulltabs, no foil, no bottlecaps. And among it, old military and police buttons, interesting ornamental metal pieces (including a minature homemade lead horseshoe charm), a railway baggage check, buckles and snaps... and coins. So far, three large cents, an American 1894 5