Saga of an MD newbie

This "hobby" is a bit addicting.  Well, really addicting.  I keep not doing things I should be doing to scan some more and keep thinking about it even when I'm not doing it.  Just took a break (I shouldn't have) from cleaning up before the GF gets here for a visit--I'm a pack rat and she's pretty neat--as a reward for kicking a bunch out.  Figured I'd just dig up a few things and get back to work.  An hour and a half and many rusty objects later--I found a 1914 wheat.    Then I could quit.

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we are on our way to be lifers..lol..gregg

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Spent days radically cleaning the house but managed to get out one day for a few hours.  Headed to the site of a canal built in the late 1700s.  Figured out after I was there for a while that there was likely a lot of forest detrius built up since it closed about 1840 and that I would probably have to start digging those very faint signals.  Plan to do that next time.  In lieu of that, I started scoping areas which I thought might not have been built up as much such as the sides of banks where soil cascaded down.  Not long before I left--since my GF's hip was bothering her during the damp day--I got a fairly strong signal in the sandy bank and dug angling in about 9" or so to find my first musket ball!    A .50 caliber.  It's not deformed so it was either unfired or shot into something soft (like the sand).  But I think I can see a land and groove mark in one spot, so I suspect it was fired.  I imagined someone trying to shoot some dinner from one of the canal boats and missing.  Another possibly interesting find from earlier in the session I think is a knife blade.  But, from what I've read, I'll have to set up some electrolysis to find out for sure.  (Any other recommendations on cleaning rusty iron?)  Found a lot of bottlecaps and old-style pulltabs, which isn't surprising since this has obviously been a party site for teenagers for years.  (Carried out some modern partying trash while I was at it.)   A fishing weight, an odd nail, and a couple of clads finished it off.  After I got home I noticed on the old topo maps that there was a building out there around the turn of the century that was gone by the mid-40s.  Can't wait to go back.

Managed to sneak a bit of time off to hunt the yard as well.  Found an extremely worn 1916 wheat and a newer one along w/ some strange odds and ends such as a 5(?) pound sash weight (I think--it's shaped like a common sex toy).  Some of the time I'm just digging up everything I can in the yard figuring I'll both learn what things sound like as well clear out the trash and hopefully find better things.  Found a clad dime tonight that cuts out almost exactly where a lot of pull tabs seem to cut out for me.

Also been researching old mill sites around here, some of the earliest in the U.S.  I'll try to get permission for one extremely close to my apartment--that I often walk by--so is quite convenient but, since it's a registered historic landmark, I suspect I won't be able to get permission.  Still have my fingers crossed though.  In the process of researching that one, found another older site that I think is town land.    The first owner of that mill went back to England to fight for Cromwell and then to butcher Irish folk.  Sounds like he was a very nasty guy.

  _Rich_



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The river:

Took lunch Friday during a break in the rain and crossed the river to hit the spot that I'd tried the week before.  Headed over to under a sycamore tree this time figuring a lot of folks had used it for shade while picnicing or necking.  Hit a coin right off and continued to hit coins pretty consistently for about a half an hour until I started to find just junk, which continued for the rest of my lunch hour, except for the quarter I found on the bank.  Last find was a tab about 11-12" down so I'm guessing landfill--again.    Think I might concentrate on the shoreline where original soil might be more accessible from now on--except for after major events like this weekend (thousands of people! ) where there's probably a lot of clad laying around and perhaps a better goodie or two.

The mill:

As could probably be expected, the old mill site didn't turn out to be as good as I'd hoped for.  My daughter and I went out yesterday for a few hours and checked it out.  Walked around first to find that the area was bigger than expected but that it had also been obviously lanscaped.    Went back to the car and got started.

First find, something I couldn't get to.  Dug down about 10" only to find a smooth surface that I couldn't get around w/o tearing up the ground completely.  Finally gave up on it (for now at least).  Next find, a car thermostat. To try and scope out different areas, went down to the creek bank.  Found another car thermostat.  Then I was starting to wonder.  Yup, next find is a brake shoe.  First thought was fill from a junkyard or some such but then thought there might have been an auto repair place there at one point.  Continued to scan along the shoreline and shallow water and found an '80s Hot Wheel.  Moved on to scan some other areas.

Just below the falls--I think where the original mill might have been--I tried to find a spot that hadn't been obviously landscaped.  Down near the water was a spot that had probably been landscaped but that storm water had washed away most of it.  Started scanning in the lowest part of the depression.  Over against a boulder I had a good hit and dug up a big chunk of iron(?).  Rescanned the hole and dug down to find my first square nail!  I'd found a square nail or two in my backyard but thought they were probably masonry nails.  Given the size of this one--about 16 penny--there wasn't much doubt (in my ignorance) that this was probably the square nails that I'd been reading about.

Went to the other side of the falls to where it hadn't been obviously landscaped and found a lot of garbage before it was time to go.  Left a good load in the trash can on the way out.  Given the serious landscaping and fill, I'm not sure if I'll be heading back there again or not.  Certainly not at least until I learn more.

The canal again:

Took my kids and headed for the canal in the afternoon until dark.  Started hitting clad--but at least one wheat this time--on or near the canal bank top near the more populated areas for a while but then, again, just managed to find junk after that.  This seems to be a pattern.  I'm not sure if it's something I'm doing or just chance.  If it's something I'm doing, I need to figure out what and stop doing it.   

In trashy areas where I don't dig everything, I also need to figure out how to determine modern, surface junk signals better than older, presumably deeper good signals.  Since I'm mainly looking for coins, I've been setting my discrimination pretty high a lot of the time, though I know I'll miss nickles that way.  I'm getting decent at recognizing surface clad signals--though they'll too often turn out to be a tab or bottle cap--but other than that setting it seems pretty random.  With the disc set high, I'll get a lot of quiet beeps but, when I switch to all metal the signal gets really loud.  If I thumb down the disc they also seem to be junk.  When I dig those signals, they've turned out to be junk every time which tends to be discouraging and makes me not feel like digging as much.  Think I'll post a separate topic about this issue....

  _Rich_



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[Given the increasing time lapse, this thread is likely to be coming to an end and I'll likely just start new threads and ****.  Given that I'm now now finding clad pretty consistently when I want, I guess I'm no longer quite a newbie.  (What's the next step up from that?    ]

Not sure where I left off but....

I've been detecting every chance I get, even times I shouldn't.  Probably been doing 4-5 hours a day.  My job is suffering.  Didn't help that I just realized that the ground will start freezing soon for the next 4 months or so.    (#*(%#)_(_#()*%(#(&%*^&*#&^($&*#*&$#*&*#(*#&$it!)  I couldn't make a living at this at this rate.

Found my first serious silver ring--PING!  Seriously thick.

Sue, why did you say wait a while to search for newly dropped coins?

Found a thick silver(?) evil demon god skull necklace thing.

Finding clad left and right when I want to but wanted to start getting silver so have whacked the disc way up.  After going through last night and packaging a ton of different items in cardstock to test what they sound like--including listing the on the back side the percentage of what elements and their atomic weight--I found out that silver items will peg my disc scale.  Not much else that I tested does.  Big-*** iron items will sound but are blippy in comparison.  The only other items I tested that will max out the disc scale are Sacagawea dollars.  Need to get some S.B. Anthony dollars to test on that scale too.

End result of that silver conclusion:   I found my first silver coin tonight!  Yea, me!    Thought it was a '50 Roosevelt dime in the dark with bad eyesight but a portable magnifying glass I'm carrying but, on returning home and examing in better light, it's a '59.  Which is actually better psychoogically as it's my birth year.  I'm not a superstitious man but that is kind of auspicious in a way.  It was at the local town hall.  I knew that the area between the town hall and the library had been filled after finding that '84 Red Sox Pespi can down about 10 inches so went to the opposite side of the library and looked for spots that might not have been landscaped. Didn't find any, even against the walls, but found the dime in a wide open space that I'm pretty sure had been landscaped.  I'm guessing in the early '80s from the dates of the coins I found tonight.  I think the '59 dime was a fluke in that it had been dropped much later or somehow made it into the fill.  (I'd gotten off work at 7:00, went to meet a few friends for brews that didn't show up, had a beer, then headed to Home Dept to return the trowels I'd just purchased (new thread in a minte) and ended up prospecting that area from about 8:45-12:45.  Like I said earlier, I think I'm addicted.

Let's see, what else...  Found a small brass ring tonight.  And a doohickey that would have fit on the end of a wooden rod that just has a thick loop of wire coming out of the ferule.  What the heck is that?

This morning went back to the park w/ a local historian type guy to dig out what I thought was going to be a massive object but it turned out to be, I think, a cap for a post that would then hold a horizontal pipe.  I have hopes for that location but its been landscaped pretty heavily.

Found out today that a local landmark house form the 1600's is being worked on and that the yard has been scraped bare.  Being remodeled by a local realtor.  But....he apparently is a strong supporter of the local historical society and has a good reputation for remodeling historical houses so I have some hopes of being able to check out the yard soon.  But it doesn't help that there's a massive storm moving in tomorrow.  (Was going to take the kids to the Cape for a blockbuster horror-movie-watching Halloween party from Sat. to Sun. but forecast 35-40 mph winds along w/ rain and 55 mph gusts had me blow that off.)

Blanking on what else but I'll take a pic of the finds of the previous first 2 (3?) weeks of detecting and post it in a minute.

  _Rich_









 


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