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Went to an area inside a real big area that I haven't touched yet and did some snooping around. About an hour in I run across a wheat with a 57 Jeff next to it. Then I start finding foil and headstamps like crazy. Then a campfire ring. Start doing the circle the wagon thing and turn up 3 more wheats, a 40 Jeff, a pocket knife and a 60 memorial. Also found a midden about 14 inches down, 100 feet from the fire ring, full of tin foil plates and cans and later, nearer the campfire ring an aluminum soup bowl. All of that is not shown for a reason. This area is loaded with every sized shotgun headstamp. The whole forest is over 1000 acres. I had a hunch to walk through what I know was at one time farmers field and hit the tree line and the border forested areas, looking specifically for flat open ground with big trees. And I found several in my small probe today. Oh, I also found three tarp or tent brass grommets or eyelets. I've been through this forest in other areas before and turned up a 1912 S Barber and an IH last year. It's real big and I almost got lost in it 2 years ago on a misty, cloudy day. That was scary and I don't scare easily. I now have tracking set up on my phone so if I get silly and start going in deeper I can just retrace my steps, but it's a real battery killer! I'll have to start carrying an extra charged battery for my phone if I want to get really silly and wander off further than known landmarks I eyeball.

Weather here wasn't too bad. Got up to a crystal clear 85F but there was a nice breeze so that made a helluva difference even though I wore shorts and was bug sprayed to the max. Tomorrow they're saying 89F and about the same wind factor so it'll be a two water bottle and wet towel trip. I gotta get a bigger pouch. I might be looking into a small backpack. Seems the skeeters just love my back, sprayed or not!

Have fun out there guys and gals and HAPPY HUNTING!!!

Ed/ODF

Hey Ed: I always like to see what you bring out of the woods. You've had some great finds since I started following your hunts after joining TC. Couple of questions--how will you cover such a big area and do suspect something special is there or are you just looking at what turns up in your samples?

(06-19-2016 09:16 AM)shadeseeker Wrote: [ -> ]Hey Ed: I always like to see what you bring out of the woods. You've had some great finds since I started following your hunts after joining TC. Couple of questions--how will you cover such a big area and do suspect something special is there or are you just looking at what turns up in your samples?

I've actually had a great deal of luck when I put my thinking cap on and start looking for where I might set up a camp. Now it doesn't work all the time but enough so that I am somewhat successful at it. Believe me, I have spent "days" in the woods with not so much as even a headstamp. But in a way that's good, because it tells me where "not" to look again. A process of elimination I'd say. I also use the old photographs from Historic Aerials to see where woods have existed since the date of the photo. 1952 is the oldest set for our region. That helps a lot because you can narrow down "forest vs. farm field" pretty quickly. Also, if you have an eye for it, you can see the age of the trees and the cut of the ground (furrows and rows) to make a determination of where the borders to the original forest were. Another good clue is barbed wire. Yesterday I found a whole loop of it sinking into the ground such that it made a perfect circle of a rut about 30" in diameter. And the clues eventually start to add up. Bits of foil here, some nails, concentrations of headstamps and shell casings, bullets; occasionally a fire ring that is still sticking out of the ground. A lot of fire rings I find are buried under the soil and leaves because over the years they've sunk, but, and this is important, when the iron squeeks start up and the foil starts to appear in bunches, look around for any rocks still sticking out of the ground. I've found 4 buried fire rings that way to include the wood charcoal remaining in the center. In my thinking I'm like a Sherlock Holmes of the woods. The fun I get out of it is the investigative work. And honestly, when I hit a site like that, I turn into a bloodhound with a detector!

Ed/ODF

Ed your on fire man. Awesome post great reading 

HAPPY HUNTING MYFRIEND STAY COOL

1000 acres? You're gonna be busy for awhile Ed. Keep on finding those sweet spots and I'm predicting some silver soon!
Best of luck out there and happy hunting

Ed, you are something else, good luck with this spot.

Way to think outside the box! It worked very well for you. Kepp up the great work!