Had a bit of luck today...

[Jim in Idaho]

Chris and i were out in the Birch Ck valley in southeastern Idaho doing a little detecting on old two-tracks. Didn't find any coins, but did turn up a button that said "Fincks" and under that "Detroit", and on the other edge "Special". Looked it up when we got back to camp and found out Fincks was a work clothes manufacturer back in the early 1900's. Kinda neat. Found one cartridge with no headstamp, and one of a larger caliber that was a rimfire...obviously old. But the best two I found were .219 Zippers from Rem/UMC. I've found 100's of cartridges over the years, but had never seen a Zipper cartridge. Winchester only made and sold 861 of the model 64 rifles in that caliber, so not alot of fired cartridges out there to be found. The Zipper was based on a shortened and necked-down 30-30 rimmed case. Both cartridges I found were in excellent condition, too.
Jim

 

[stetam]

It's nice every time its a New find. Good going!

 

[gismapper]

What amazes me is that, regardless of how remote a place is, and no matter how sure I am that "nobody has ever been here before" - metal detecting or otherwise - I'm wrong. Every square inch of this country has had human feet on it at one point.

 

[hoser]

Oh I agree. I have found some good things in the most unusual places. You just never know what is in the ground.

 

[Jim in Idaho]

So, we went back out yesterday, and finally scored a couple of coins. Both, along with a loaded .22rf round, came from the same spot. Obviously the guy, way back in the day, reached in his pocket for some shells and pulled the coins out along with them, and also dropped a loaded round. First coin I found was a 1927 Mercury dime, and then a few inches away a 1919 Lincoln penny, and the unfired round. That's a pretty good two-track we were on. You want to detect one that is worn into the ground several inches, but not one that gets lots of current traffic, You also want one that has a moderate amount of old can slaw. In the 3 days we also found 2 or 3 dozen cartridges Ranging from no headstamps to old Henry double firing pin marked large caliber rimfires. Also one unfired 30-06. lots of old rimmed cartridges from the late 1800's to early 1900's. Best cartridges, for me, were the 3 .219 Zippers I found in nearly perfect condition. Two close together, and the last about a mile away. Not super-old, but (1930's or 40's), but pretty rare.
Jim