Big Boys Hobbies

What is the best Tons of Treasure site you have ever detected?

Since 2015 I've had several spots give up 40 to 60 gold rings a year. All have stories ... I've heard from oldtimers how they hammered that location and several had been dredged. But time moves along and the places were forgotten, tides and winds moved the sand around and Then... I came along.

My best spot was in 2019, found it June 29th. From that date till the end of July I got 36 or 37 gold rings out of there.. that month. The affair continued till the end of the year and I scored over 125 gold rings that year (most from that location). Into 2020 things were rolling still, Until... March 15th. I'm not sure what happened but what ever it was.. The Gold field was gone.. or covered. In less than a years time over 150 gold rings from a spot that just happened to be covered for many years, with sand. And now is the same.. Sanded in.. I go back every few months to keep a eye on it, I do believe In my life time I will never see it open again. :(

After my first week there I realized after seeing the same pattern I bought a Go Pro for I knew this was going to be good. I would say I have about 75% of the gold rings I found from that spot on video.. Great Memories, Saved.


Picture is the best year I've ever had as far as gold weight.. 125 gold rings with a few misc pieces. 21 ounces...Most were from the Honey Hole..
 

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I got permission to detect a ranch. The owner told me when he was young (he is in his 80's now) they used to find all kinds of rusty old relics down by a spring that fed into the creek. Turns out this was a very busy camp site on an old wagon road. The first day I went down there (it is a very long drive and hike) I did not have much time, yet I found an 1843 seated half dime and a pistol ball in about an hour. Plus, lots of camp lead, iron bits and pieces, lead bag seals, etc. Needless to say, I was pretty stoked. I had never found anything so old. The next time I went out there I found a seated half dollar, and a large cent as well as more sweet relics. Most recently I found an 1831 capped bust dime. I will be posting pictures of the finds from this camp in the near future in the relics and coin shooting thread.
The site is incredible. The only modern(ish) items I have found there are turn of the century items I assume are left by hunters and cowboys, and there is not much of that. Most of the stuff I find dates to the 1850's and before.
I only get to go out there 2 or 3 times in a year, due to weather, fires and distance, but when I do it is amazing.
 
HiDesertHunting said:
.....
The site is incredible. The only modern(ish) items I have found there are turn of the century items I assume are left by hunters and cowboys, and there is not much of that. .....
Click to expand...

Great story. Those are the pinnacle spots. When EVERY beep is an old target. Ie.: No man has set foot at the spot since the 1890s or whatever. So that there's zero aluminum, zero clad, etc..... In those cases, even the junk is "fun" junk. Eg.: lantern parts, harmonica reeds, toe-taps, camp-lead, etc.... And only occasionally a modern bullet, at the utmost newest.

I can think of sites like that , which by the time we're done cleaning out the site, we might only have 25 or 30 coins. But the NEWEST coin would be a nuisance later 1800s IH. The rest are seateds, etc... And the relicky things look like a "who's who" of early wild-west Americana museum set.. Fun fun fun.
 
Yeah, you know what I am talking about.
Hardly a day goes by that I am not thinking about that site. It is inaccessible in the winter months, there is only a few short weeks in the spring and fall when the weather is perfect for accessing and digging due to mud. The summer months are oppressive as hell.
One thing that baffles me is the amount of unfired projectiles I find there. Round balls of various calibers and Picket bullets. It is like they scattered handfuls of them around the site. Also, pounds of melted lead. Literally pounds. They must have been manufacturing projectiles there, as I have found a huge 5lb chunk of lead with knife and hatchet marks in it and seals from bags of lead shot. It is strange, but extremely fun.
 
I think my favorite honey hole sites have been old park scrapes (bagged tons of silver including a 1916D key date merc and some semi key coins of various types, tokens, buttons, jewelry, etc) and virgin western frontier sites (late 1700's to late 1800's). Nothing like seeing reales, seateds and gold coins come alive. Great relics that sometimes tell quite a historic story.
 
Cal_Cobra said:
I think my favorite honey hole sites have been old park scrapes (bagged tons of silver including a 1916D key date merc and some semi key coins of various types, tokens, buttons, jewelry, etc) and virgin western frontier sites (late 1700's to late 1800's). Nothing like seeing reales, seateds and gold coins come alive. Great relics that sometimes tell quite a historic story.
Click to expand...

I'd trade a big gold ring to find a 1916d merc any day... gold rings are easy to find and common not the 1916d merc.. congrats on it.
 
OBN said:
Since 2015 I've had several spots give up 40 to 60 gold rings a year. All have stories ... I've heard from oldtimers how they hammered that location and several had been dredged. But time moves along and the places were forgotten, tides and winds moved the sand around and Then... I came along.

My best spot was in 2019, found it June 29th. From that date till the end of July I got 36 or 37 gold rings out of there.. that month. The affair continued till the end of the year and I scored over 125 gold rings that year (most from that location). Into 2020 things were rolling still, Until... March 15th. I'm not sure what happened but what ever it was.. The Gold field was gone.. or covered. In less than a years time over 150 gold rings from a spot that just happened to be covered for many years, with sand. And now is the same.. Sanded in.. I go back every few months to keep a eye on it, I do believe In my life time I will never see it open again. :(

After my first week there I realized after seeing the same pattern I bought a Go Pro for I knew this was going to be good. I would say I have about 75% of the gold rings I found from that spot on video.. Great Memories, Saved.


Picture is the best year I've ever had as far as gold weight.. 125 gold rings with a few misc pieces. 21 ounces...Most were from the Honey Hole..
Click to expand...

That was an incredible site of finds!

So it had been hit heavily by detectors before and people thought everything worthwhile had been found? That so proves the case that a site is seldom even
hunted out of items completely. Thanks for the inspiration to keep on keeping on.
 
Last edited:
HiDesertHunting said:
I got permission to detect a ranch. The owner told me when he was young (he is in his 80's now) they used to find all kinds of rusty old relics down by a spring that fed into the creek. Turns out this was a very busy camp site on an old wagon road. The first day I went down there (it is a very long drive and hike) I did not have much time, yet I found an 1843 seated half dime and a pistol ball in about an hour. Plus, lots of camp lead, iron bits and pieces, lead bag seals, etc. Needless to say, I was pretty stoked. I had never found anything so old. The next time I went out there I found a seated half dollar, and a large cent as well as more sweet relics. Most recently I found an 1831 capped bust dime. I will be posting pictures of the finds from this camp in the near future in the relics and coin shooting thread.
The site is incredible. The only modern(ish) items I have found there are turn of the century items I assume are left by hunters and cowboys, and there is not much of that. Most of the stuff I find dates to the 1850's and before.
I only get to go out there 2 or 3 times in a year, due to weather, fires and distance, but when I do it is amazing.
Click to expand...

That is awesome that you have a favorite spot that you know will keep producing great finds for years to come. And it sounds like a peaceful area away from prying eyes so you can really enjoy the experience of detecting out there.
 
OBN said:
Since 2015 I've had several spots give up 40 to 60 gold rings a year. All have stories ... I've heard from oldtimers how they hammered that location and several had been dredged. But time moves along and the places were forgotten, tides and winds moved the sand around and Then... I came along.

My best spot was in 2019, found it June 29th. From that date till the end of July I got 36 or 37 gold rings out of there.. that month. The affair continued till the end of the year and I scored over 125 gold rings that year (most from that location). Into 2020 things were rolling still, Until... March 15th. I'm not sure what happened but what ever it was.. The Gold field was gone.. or covered. In less than a years time over 150 gold rings from a spot that just happened to be covered for many years, with sand. And now is the same.. Sanded in.. I go back every few months to keep a eye on it, I do believe In my life time I will never see it open again. :(

After my first week there I realized after seeing the same pattern I bought a Go Pro for I knew this was going to be good. I would say I have about 75% of the gold rings I found from that spot on video.. Great Memories, Saved.


Picture is the best year I've ever had as far as gold weight.. 125 gold rings with a few misc pieces. 21 ounces...Most were from the Honey Hole..
Click to expand...

I hope this convinces people to their research and believe the impossible.
Once you start finding silver and uncover that first gold ring the motivation to keep detecting increases exponentially.
 
kamogawa said:
That was an incredible site find. The picture is nothing less than fabulous.

So it had been hit heavily by detectors before and people thought everything worthwhile had been found? That so proves the case that a site is seldom even
hunted out of items completely. Thanks for the inspiration to keep on keeping on.
Click to expand...

Where Joe hunts was amusement parks and other activities that had thousands of visitors for decades....

 
yes a spot I try to hit every year. An old horsetrack/fairgrounds. All coins minus one have been pre 1910. 100-150 indians, well over 50 seated, bunch of barbers, plenty of v nicks and shield nicks, and some two cent pieces. Still coughs up something almost every time I go. Very little modern trash in comparison to most places. Problem is its wet and grows thick. only able to be hunted in spring. Really want to get a pi machine to go over it a few times and just dig it all.
 
OBN said:
Since 2015 I've had several spots give up 40 to 60 gold rings a year. All have stories ... I've heard from oldtimers how they hammered that location and several had been dredged. But time moves along and the places were forgotten, tides and winds moved the sand around and Then... I came along.

My best spot was in 2019, found it June 29th. From that date till the end of July I got 36 or 37 gold rings out of there.. that month. The affair continued till the end of the year and I scored over 125 gold rings that year (most from that location). Into 2020 things were rolling still, Until... March 15th. I'm not sure what happened but what ever it was.. The Gold field was gone.. or covered. In less than a years time over 150 gold rings from a spot that just happened to be covered for many years, with sand. And now is the same.. Sanded in.. I go back every few months to keep a eye on it, I do believe In my life time I will never see it open again. :(

After my first week there I realized after seeing the same pattern I bought a Go Pro for I knew this was going to be good. I would say I have about 75% of the gold rings I found from that spot on video.. Great Memories, Saved.


Picture is the best year I've ever had as far as gold weight.. 125 gold rings with a few misc pieces. 21 ounces...Most were from the Honey Hole..
Click to expand...

Love hearing these stories. Hoping that the spot will open up as it did some 25+ years ago. A little under 30 rings , 13 of them gold in a 2.5 hour hunt after work. None of the woke metals at all. Where the cut was double overhead. And some big concrete firepits not 60' from the parking lot , were falling into the sea. I still hunt there on occasion and everytime , all I do is flashback to that one EPIC hunt.
 
The one I call "The Honey Hole" which I discovered in 2012 was easily the best I've ever had. I posted details about that one here on this forum. I've had other really good sites too. Back in the 1990s I got on a virgin Civil War camp that was pretty dang awesome. No modern trash whatsoever. Every signal was something from the Civil War. We walked away with pockets full of minie balls, buttons and other relics every time we detected there. The most recent really good site we detected is what I call "The Hill". Lots of old coins on that one. Everything from Seated coins to more modern silver.
 
Rattlehead said:
The one I call "The Honey Hole" which I discovered in 2012 was easily the best I've ever had. I posted details about that one here on this forum. I've had other really good sites too. Back in the 1990s I got on a virgin Civil War camp that was pretty dang awesome. No modern trash whatsoever. Every signal was something from the Civil War. We walked away with pockets full of minie balls, buttons and other relics every time we detected there. The most recent really good site we detected is what I call "The Hill". Lots of old coins on that one. Everything from Seated coins to more modern silver.
Click to expand...

Sick sick sick !
 
kamogawa said:
That was an incredible site find. The picture is nothing less than fabulous.

So it had been hit heavily by detectors before and people thought everything worthwhile had been found? That so proves the case that a site is seldom even
hunted out of items completely. Thanks for the inspiration to keep on keeping on.
Click to expand...
Thank you!

I think time passed, things moved around and most that hunted these spots were hunting them in the 80's and 90's. With detectors that were ok but the advancements on water machines from the 80/90's to now made a big difference. But I do think the big reason is, sand moves and you just have to be there when a spot opens up.
 
I had been doing my research and found a hacienda that was way out in the sticks, hit it with canadianguy on the first day i upgraded from my xterra to my etrac and we were both hitting tokens like crazy. For the first 20 minutes we were yelling back and forth, "got one" and he would respond the same, it was nuts! The craziest part was after about 3 hours when we were done we both sat down and counted up and realized that we had dug exactly 32 tokens each! Went on to sell those for about 100 bucks each...
 
OBN said:
Since 2015 I've had several spots give up 40 to 60 gold rings a year. All have stories ... I've heard from oldtimers how they hammered that location and several had been dredged. But time moves along and the places were forgotten, tides and winds moved the sand around and Then... I came along.

My best spot was in 2019, found it June 29th. From that date till the end of July I got 36 or 37 gold rings out of there.. that month. The affair continued till the end of the year and I scored over 125 gold rings that year (most from that location). Into 2020 things were rolling still, Until... March 15th. I'm not sure what happened but what ever it was.. The Gold field was gone.. or covered. In less than a years time over 150 gold rings from a spot that just happened to be covered for many years, with sand. And now is the same.. Sanded in.. I go back every few months to keep a eye on it, I do believe In my life time I will never see it open again. :(

After my first week there I realized after seeing the same pattern I bought a Go Pro for I knew this was going to be good. I would say I have about 75% of the gold rings I found from that spot on video.. Great Memories, Saved.


Picture is the best year I've ever had as far as gold weight.. 125 gold rings with a few misc pieces. 21 ounces...Most were from the Honey Hole..
Click to expand...

That's the stuff of dreams right there!
 
Horsetrack/fairgrounds

Tpmetal said:
yes a spot I try to hit every year. An old horsetrack/fairgrounds. All coins minus one have been pre 1910. 100-150 indians, well over 50 seated, bunch of barbers, plenty of v nicks and shield nicks, and some two cent pieces. Still coughs up something almost every time I go. Very little modern trash in comparison to most places. Problem is its wet and grows thick. only able to be hunted in spring. Really want to get a pi machine to go over it a few times and just dig it all.
Click to expand...

That sounds like a great repeat place that will make you smile every time.

There is a residential neighborhood near where I lived in Kentucky that was built right on top of a popular old race track. All those delicious coins sitting under the foundations of the home built in 40s.
 
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