Hillcrest Park with VT Mining

Met up with Mike of VT Mining, who is a friend of a friend, for a little after work hunt of Hillcrest Park. Apparently he doesn't know that metal detecting is for old people.  Like me, Mike is kind of new to the Minelab E-Trac.  So, it was good to talk and compare notes about the E-Trac. We both had been using White's detectors before switching to Minelabs.  We both picked the Lesche digging tool and both had the Garrett Pro Pointer.  I told Mike I was thinking of get a larger coil and he told me that he already had one on order.  I will definitely be interested to see how well that works.

The ground at the park was dry and hard.  Not a ton of targets, but enough to keep us busy.  Turned over a plug with a 12-42 signal to see this gold tone ring.  I knew it wasn't gold because of the signal, but it still looked a little like it.

End of the evening Mike had dug twice as many coins as I did.  He also managed to find a silver Roosevelt.

I.S.O.A. Coin and Scout Belt Buckle

Dad and I hit the local high school soccer field.  Not many good target to be found.  All the coins were modern clad.  The interesting finds were a boy scout belt buckle, and a I.S.O.A. (international soccer officials association) token/coin.

Dad at Old Camp Floyd

Instead of our normal trip to a local park, I took Dad to Old Camp Floyd where Johnston's army camped for a couple months.  I was not sure that this was a trip that an 85 year old should be making, but Dad wanted to give it a try.  We crossed a narrow bridge with a big step at the end, walk across a plank that spanned a canal, climbed over a barbed wire fence, and hiked up a hill.  I thought this would be enough of an adventure, and left the metal detectors in the car.

We just walked around and look for artifacts laying on the surface.  We didn't find any metal but we did find pieces of glass and porcelain.  One piece had a "42" on it.  I wonder if it was from 1842?

 After that little hiking adventure, we drove to Fairfield and metal detected in a field near the permanent home of Camp Floyd.  Dad was pretty busy digging away.

He dug up lots of artifacts, but I think they were all modern.  Except for maybe the musket ball.

While Dad was busy digging up his treasures, I spent most of my time talking with a couple other detectorists, Marcus and Terry.  Terry showed me a couple 3 ring mini balls that he had just dug up.  It was cool to know that there were still some things like that to be found.

Johnston's Army Relics

Yesterday I took the day off work.  I planted a tree in my front yard, and headed out to Old Camp Floyd to see if I could find some more relics.  The area has been hunted heavily over the years, so I was excited to find a silver coin.  Not is the best condition, but it was a three cent piece from 1853. Amazing to think it was dropped there 154 years ago.

Here is another picture of it just to show how small it is.

Some other things in this area of significance.  The "5" insignia indicate what type of soldier was there.   The small 4 hole button was an eye ball find.  I believe the lead ball to be a .31 caliber from a black powder pistol.  The item on the top left we were guess was nailed into furniture and used as a drawer pull.

A few pieces of china and some old glass.

I collected a few more nails.  The 3 objects at the top are lead.

Some of the rocks I picked up.

This rock appears to have a notch carved in it.  There are Native American artifacts in the area and perhaps this rock could be one.  Any experts out there?

CTR Ring and Wheat Penny from Lion's Park

Friday evening, Dad and I, skipped the family dinner and went metal detecting.  I choose Lion's park for our outing.  We have hunted it numerous times and it is becoming more difficult to find good target, especially for Dad, since his metal detector will not detect deeper than about 5 inches.  Of course Dad doesn't was to go that deep anyway.  He prefers his targets to be within the top 3 inches.  On the other hand, I prefer to find deep targets because they are generally older.  However, I have dug up zinc pennies 7 inches deep, they are everywhere.

Well, for this out I set a goal to at least find 1 wheat penny.  It was funny because the very first good target I found was a wheat penny.  The next good target was a silver CTR ring.

I think I may have a hard time talking Dad into going back to Lion's Park again.  Besides the normal garbage, he only found 1 quarter, 9 zinc pennies, and one dime.  He did have an audience for a while.  I guess he looks like a friendly old grandpa.  They didn't bother me. :)

The rest of the targets where modern clad coins and some other little junk pieces.

Back to the School Grounds

I was backing metal detecting the same old soccer field at Bonneville Elementary school this past week.

I continue to be surprised on how much stuff I can still find.  The foot pendant was interesting.  I found the first piece about 4 inches deep and then found the toes 4 inches deep about 5 feet away from the first part.

One of my favorite finds was this little battleship monopoly game piece.

 After looking more closely at the coins, I noticed that I had also found a 1944 wheat penny

Dad Finds a Ring

My Dad was out metal detecting while I was working this past week.  He was getting a head start on getting the good stuff.  When he found this ring he thought he was on his way.  Even though the ring looks nice, it turns out the ring in not silver and has no hallmark.  Sorry, it can't go in the silver jar.

Here are some more of his finds.