silversweeper
New member
I recently got permission to detect a couple of houses I'd been eyeing. One of the homes was built in 1900 and the other is older (and a 3rd across the road is older still but I havn't contacted the owners there yet, saving that one for last). They are both on a hill which is within sight of known civil war encampment areas. I thought that just maybe there might be Civil War relics laying about here waiting for me to find them! Of course I was also hoping to add more silvers to this year's total. The first property I detected for a few hours on Monday. The yard is absolutely full of modern pennies! I dug a few but mostly fished around them for the dimes and quarters (I imagined kids doing cartwheels in the yard or something because there were a lot of little pocket spills). There are also a truck-load of nails and other trash spread over the property so I had to use the 6x8 SEF coil. After a few hours of frustration I had a bit over a dollar in change, a pouch full of rusty nails, and other assorted trash. Just when I was about to give up I got a steady 1-38, 1-40 signal (settings are deep and fast on, medium/high gain and manual sensitivity at 28/30). To be honest I wasn't excited at all and just figured it was more trash. Even when I dug the plug and saw the large silver-gray disc inside I was thinking aluminum token...until I saw the eagle and some letters from "Half Dollar". I know I said OMG a few times and then thanked Him profusely! My very first silver half and it's a 1941s Walker, not ancient but still big silver. I swung the etrac for another half hour and then headed home.
Tuesday I got permission to hunt the other house and went to check it out for a few hours. I had/have high hopes for this yard as it is fenced in and the last occupants lived there for many, many years. Not much to post about though but it may have been the drizzle and wet ground affecting my detecting. I ended up with a '44D merc and some more modern coinage. I'll try that yard again in the near future.
Back to the first yard again this afternoon and 1st signal was a large flattened coin that may have been a large cent, with a couple of holes punched thru it. Later, and largely by mistake, I dug a 44 cal. CW pistol bullet. So...I opened up my discrimination pattern a bit more to allow bullets in. Close by and 8 to 9 inches deep was an ancient and gnarled man's sterling silver ring with some remains of 14K Rolled gold plated decorations on the sides (not much left of those). It's marked Sterl. 14K R.G. inside. Not sure but doubt if it's as old as Civil War, could be. Within a few feet was another little pistol bullet, this one a .36 cal St. Louis Arsenal bullet if I'm not mistaken, and within about 7 inches of that was a nice big toe tap. Started feeling pretty darned good about this yard, a silver half the first day and now this! Started circling that area and found a 1919 merc and then a small buckle probably from a bridle and most likely Civil War era. Not long after that I get another 44 cal bullet. As my search area got wider I started getting back into the modern coinage again and hit a 12/46 signal, figured I may as well dig that quarter since it wasn't too deep. Out pops my first dug Sacagawea dollar coin. And that was about it for the day. Needless to say I am very excited about getting back there. I didn't dig a lot of lower conductive signals because I was trying to cherry pick but now that I know there was at least a small CW camp there I'll be looking for buttons and other relics next time.
Tuesday I got permission to hunt the other house and went to check it out for a few hours. I had/have high hopes for this yard as it is fenced in and the last occupants lived there for many, many years. Not much to post about though but it may have been the drizzle and wet ground affecting my detecting. I ended up with a '44D merc and some more modern coinage. I'll try that yard again in the near future.
Back to the first yard again this afternoon and 1st signal was a large flattened coin that may have been a large cent, with a couple of holes punched thru it. Later, and largely by mistake, I dug a 44 cal. CW pistol bullet. So...I opened up my discrimination pattern a bit more to allow bullets in. Close by and 8 to 9 inches deep was an ancient and gnarled man's sterling silver ring with some remains of 14K Rolled gold plated decorations on the sides (not much left of those). It's marked Sterl. 14K R.G. inside. Not sure but doubt if it's as old as Civil War, could be. Within a few feet was another little pistol bullet, this one a .36 cal St. Louis Arsenal bullet if I'm not mistaken, and within about 7 inches of that was a nice big toe tap. Started feeling pretty darned good about this yard, a silver half the first day and now this! Started circling that area and found a 1919 merc and then a small buckle probably from a bridle and most likely Civil War era. Not long after that I get another 44 cal bullet. As my search area got wider I started getting back into the modern coinage again and hit a 12/46 signal, figured I may as well dig that quarter since it wasn't too deep. Out pops my first dug Sacagawea dollar coin. And that was about it for the day. Needless to say I am very excited about getting back there. I didn't dig a lot of lower conductive signals because I was trying to cherry pick but now that I know there was at least a small CW camp there I'll be looking for buttons and other relics next time.
Also on the relics!
