12-03-2017, 08:59 PM
This is a new area I've researched for a while and thought I'd give it a whirl even though it's a half hour trek through the woods and river to get there. It is entirely vacant and old farmland where there are some old homesites, 2 separate ones but because of the daylight constrictions I was only able to get to one. I found the two rather toasted wheats along what looked like it was probably the drive way to get to the place. But that one homestead is unfortunately completely overgrown and now mostly marsh. So I did my best at the tops of the deep ravines and through the bigger tree areas mixed through those spots. Lot of iron wire fencing sound near the edges of the old farm fields although no posts or wrapped trees were evident.
I was finding a number of headstamps and while walking along a slight slope near the top of one of the higher ravines I got a pretty good 68/69 bumping occasionally to 75 and 77. To my surprise it turned out to be a crucifix. I really checked the area well and about a foot away got another loud midtone signal but more in the mid 60's. It turned out to be a paper thin religious pendant of St. Alphonsus of Liguori (Thank God for Wikipedia).
During the trip I dug a number of modern rifle slugs but also 2 round balls or buckeyballs. Whether pistol or buckshot I don't know but there was a lot of high brass headstamps found. (not shown)
And on the way out through the younger trees of the abandoned farm fields I stopped to dig a rather larger iron signal among the many there and it popped out an oxen shoe, my first ever.
So today was just an exploratory trip to get a feeling for the area. I only spent about 2.5 hours actually hunting. The other hour was getting in and then out of the area. I really like the spot in that it's fairly remote and large enough that I can spend some time there when real daylight returns. If I can get over the river. And that second spot of the other homestead is about another 20 minutes or so, I'm guessing. With what I know now I'm going to study the topo maps a little more carefully and see if I can get there a little faster.
Have fun out there and Happy Hunting!
Ed
I was finding a number of headstamps and while walking along a slight slope near the top of one of the higher ravines I got a pretty good 68/69 bumping occasionally to 75 and 77. To my surprise it turned out to be a crucifix. I really checked the area well and about a foot away got another loud midtone signal but more in the mid 60's. It turned out to be a paper thin religious pendant of St. Alphonsus of Liguori (Thank God for Wikipedia).
During the trip I dug a number of modern rifle slugs but also 2 round balls or buckeyballs. Whether pistol or buckshot I don't know but there was a lot of high brass headstamps found. (not shown)
And on the way out through the younger trees of the abandoned farm fields I stopped to dig a rather larger iron signal among the many there and it popped out an oxen shoe, my first ever.
So today was just an exploratory trip to get a feeling for the area. I only spent about 2.5 hours actually hunting. The other hour was getting in and then out of the area. I really like the spot in that it's fairly remote and large enough that I can spend some time there when real daylight returns. If I can get over the river. And that second spot of the other homestead is about another 20 minutes or so, I'm guessing. With what I know now I'm going to study the topo maps a little more carefully and see if I can get there a little faster.
Have fun out there and Happy Hunting!
Ed
