Where do you search?

[bottlecap4u]

State land all around me with 1800s ruined homesites everywhere, any place with old ground suits me fine.

 

[Reelfoot Relics]

Farm fields where houses once stood mostly. The older the better of course. Better if torn down by hand or burned. Every farmer now has an excavator and they dig a hole and bury everything and disturb the old dirt in the yard.

 

[robby4570]

Anywhere I can get access and permission, I look at old maps and use Maprika Map Designer to put the old maps on a satellite image to see where structures used to be but are open lots or fields now.

In this image you see the old map (1935) on the left and a satellite image on the right. There's a crosshair in the left panel and a pointer (that doesn't show up in a screen capture) in the right. The black box in the left panel was a structure (likely a home) that is not in the right panel. So I will try to get permission here someday... so many sites, so little time!

 

[RgnFn]

...Anyway, they dug out an area about 80' wide, by about 500' long, to a depth of around 10". I came out of that site with over 30 silvers and about a dozen LC's....

@Diga: are you saying that you detected and found those coins after they dug it down 10", or before? I would have guessed that by scraping 10" off, they would have scooped up all the good finds with that dirt. But I think you're saying that those items were originally >10" deep, and they made those accessible by scraping off the top...? I'm just curious if I interpreted what you said correctly. Thanks in advance

 

[RgnFn]

...Beach reading books and articles are essential to the newbie beach hunter if you want to increase your good finds on the beach.

@maxkatt, thanks for the info. I have found a couple sites that have helped me learn how to read a beach, but I'm still a newbie. You mentioned books - I'm curious if you could recommend a couple that you think might be helpful. Thanks in advance

 

[maxxkatt]

Hardcore Beach Hunting Paperback – January 1, 2012​

by Gary T. Drayton (Author) on amazon. Never read this, but Drayton has quite a bit of MD experiences. $21 used copy of 96 page book. Don't worry about the small number of pages, learning beach hunting from a serious beach hunter does not take 400 pages. Hope this works for you.

 

[RgnFn]

Thanks, Maxxkatt, I'll check it out

 

[Diga]

@Diga: are you saying that you detected and found those coins after they dug it down 10", or before? I would have guessed that by scraping 10" off, they would have scooped up all the good finds with that dirt. But I think you're saying that those items were originally >10" deep, and they made those accessible by scraping off the top...? I'm just curious if I interpreted what you said correctly. Thanks in advance

The site was still in use as a yearly fairgrounds when they scraped up about 10" deep of turf and dirt. That cleared out all the modern trash and whatever else. The old coins were just under the surface to around 4" deep.

 

[RgnFn]

The site was still in use as a yearly fairgrounds when they scraped up about 10" deep of turf and dirt. That cleared out all the modern trash and whatever else. The old coins were just under the surface to around 4" deep.

Thanks, Diga. I have seen a couple of construction sites where I thought, "Dang, I should have hit that place before they scraped that dirt off." Now, based on what you've said, I'll hit those afterwards (as well, if I can).

 

[Diga]

Thanks, Diga. I have seen a couple of construction sites where I thought, "Dang, I should have hit that place before they scraped that dirt off." Now, based on what you've said, I'll hit those afterwards (as well, if I can).

You're welcome.

The site was kind of a blessing and a curse. "Curse" being all other turf sites weren't looking so good after that site

The blessing and a curse thing was similar to a swimming area I hunted. It was a private beach that has never been hunted. The water was lowered, and about half the swimming area was now bare ground. I came out with over 20 pieces of jewelry, and like the fairgrounds site, there was almost no nonferrous trash. Almost every target was a type of jewelry.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Thanks, Diga. I have seen a couple of construction sites where I thought, "Dang, I should have hit that place before they scraped that dirt off." Now, based on what you've said, I'll hit those afterwards (as well, if I can).

I've been at some old-town park turf scrapes, of parks that dated to the 1870s, for example. And renovation remodeling plans called for tractor blades to tear out varying depths of just a few inches, to perhaps a foot or more deep elsewhere. Like for example when they're getting ready to install artificial turf, then there's a deep sub-compaction base level/strata that has to go in first. So those scrapes might be 8" to a foot or whatever. Contrast to a cement sidewalk going in, might only require a scrape to be 3 or 4" deep (barely deep enough to rid the clad !!)


And in a couple of these classic scrapes, there's always a "sweet spot", that will depend on the depths of the old coins there. So, for example, if the silver tended to start at 6" deep, then presto : You hope they scrape 6" deep. Or if the barbers and seateds tended to start at 10" deep, then you're in heaven if they scraped to 9" deep.


HOWEVER : There's a point of diminishing returns. There's a point at which coins have not sunk down below. So I've seen old town park scrapes where ...... when we get down into the low spots, that it was UTTERLY STERILE !! In those cases we "chase the trucks" to see where they're dumping the dirt at. Doh !

 

[BeardedRelicHunter]

abandoned old farm sites turned into parks ,parks that were once farm fields from the old days , woods because logging in my area was once the big industry here so no telling what guys dropped and lost back in the 1800's , civil war history is big near me ......but getting permissions seems to be my down fall , no matter how polite i try to be ,offer landowners the finds cleaned and displayed at no charge to them . ..... i get told no , guess i'm just to ugly and scary looking .

 

[Benchthis2]

abandoned old farm sites turned into parks ,parks that were once farm fields from the old days , woods because logging in my area was once the big industry here so no telling what guys dropped and lost back in the 1800's , civil war history is big near me ......but getting permissions seems to be my down fall , no matter how polite i try to be ,offer landowners the finds cleaned and displayed at no charge to them . ..... i get told no , guess i'm just to ugly and scary looking .

Maybe show them finds of what is potential there, found it helps

 

[BeardedRelicHunter]

Maybe show them finds of what is potential there, found it helps

i've tried all the tricks , seems nothing helps so it must be my appearance but i'm not shaving or changing how i dress everyday just to make other people feel comfortable . i miss the days when people didn't judge everyone at first glance

 

[Benchthis2]

i've tried all the tricks , seems nothing helps so it must be my appearance but i'm not shaving or changing how i dress everyday just to make other people feel comfortable . i miss the days when people didn't judge everyone at first glance

Give it time, what I found that helped me was not even talking about search, but did a history search, printed, met for coffee, it help loosen the grip

 

[GTimberMT]

I love finding places that have been abandoned and gone for a long time.
Even better if no one knows about it and it’s not on any maps.

That's the hard part for me! No idea how to find such places!

 

[Benchthis2]

That's the hard part for me! No idea how to find such places!

GTimberMT Find on line old map of your area, do a overlay onto google earth, it’s a starting point, I search old BLM land maps, talk to peeps online if I can join interest group, for me, searching is have the fun

 

[MasonDixonMding]

That's the hard part for me! No idea how to find such places!

I’ve found four sites not on any maps. Witch for me means gone before mid 1800s. One I found deer hunting I saw some foundation stone that had been push off a hill so I new there was something around there some where. The others where just some random searching. There a lot of swinging and missing but when I find one it feels like a bases loaded homerun! I’ve been striking out a lot lately. I’ll keep trying. They say even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while.