Searched a VA plantation area on private land last weekend.

[Ron from Michigan]

Tall grass was surrounding a chimney with trees growing out of the rocks was all that was left of the slaves quarters..My brother searched on side and the land owner used a 1235X we lent him.JR said there were lots copperheads in the area.We found lots of bullets but none were old.Lots of ticks here unlike Michigan.Very big disappointment,,but still nice to be out in the field.

 

[xwyokid]

I know exactly how you felt. I have access to 10 old homesites on some very private land. These old homesites are in plain view of 5 currently occuped homes and the ranch owner tells me they have never been detected. I believe him because of how overzealous landowners in New Mexico are. Long story on how I got permission. I have detected 3 of the sites. Walking up to them so would bet the house that coins are just going to jump at you. I have yet to find a single coin. But, you are right ...It's still fun and a fellow can dream.

 

[deepdiger60]

That does not surprise me one bit depending on the age of the farm steads or plantations especially back in the late 1700,s most coinage was from Spain England France what ever ships made it to port and did not wreak in Sea the few ships that did come before the 1700,s did not carry silver and gold coins in bulk then in New England and a few Gulf states most people used the barter system to purchase what ever they needed especially in the South West banks did not even exist until the mid 1800,s , so if any coinage is to be found it most likely would be Spanish Reale,s in early sites unless the farm or plantation was used a few 100 years the United States did,nt start minting there own coins until the late 1790,s, check for slave tags with numbers most where copper with the slave owners name on it they bring BIG !!! bucks . Only about 6 or 8 % of all Spanish ships laden with silver or gold made it to port the rest lay at the bottom of the Sea million's of coins . Jim

 

[Ron from Michigan]

XWYO,you are correct its nice to just be on these old sites.Thanks Ron

 

[Ron from Michigan]

Jim, there was an old cabin intact we didn't have a chance to search,but there was a lot of thrash around the yard.If I lived close to this area attempts would be made to do a better search.Thanks Ron

 

[Critterhunter]

Sounds like a great place to hunt. As he said, watch for slave tags. I would guess they were brass or copper (?) so key in on whatever they are made of in terms of target conductivity. Those tags are worth big money. I remember seeing one metal detected on the antique roadshow and it was appraised at thousands.

Be careful about those ticks. Use some good bug spray like Deep Woods Off or Repel, and not the regular Off as I find it doesn't work as well. Spray your shoes and ankles and pants legs for sure, but also up under your shirt at the waist line and around your kneck and arm pits, so they can't find a way onto your skin without crossing the bug spray.

Deer ticks are the only ones that carry lime, and those are tiny little guys about the size of a mustard seed. The bigger ones are wood ticks, and while they don't carry lime, they can carry other nasty bacteria or diseases such as Rocky Mountain fever. I've never got a deer tick on me, but I have got wood ticks on me and one was embedded on my thigh. That was before I started using bug spray. They like to hang around water for some reason. Probably to wait for an animal getting a drink, but they can be anywhere. Luckily in north east ohio I've never got a tick on me, but 100 miles south where I fish and hunt they are as thick as blades of grass from about April to the end of August, so I try hard not to walk through even grass down there during the summer fishing and stuff, even if I've sprayed up.

 

[deepdiger60]

Jim, there was an old cabin intact we didn't have a chance to search,but there was a lot of thrash around the yard.If I lived close to this area attempts would be made to do a better search.Thanks Ron

I know the feeling on a local farm here there is 4 small slave huts in total disrepair the owner told me i could search around the buildings built in the early 1800,s but there was so much trash it was impossible to lock on a good target .like you said its still good to get out and search you never know what is in the ground . Jim

 

[deepdiger60]

Sounds like a great place to hunt. As he said, watch for slave tags. I would guess they were brass or copper (?) so key in on whatever they are made of in terms of target conductivity. Those tags are worth big money. I remember seeing one metal detected on the antique roadshow and it was appraised at thousands.

Be careful about those ticks. Use some good bug spray like Deep Woods Off or Repel, and not the regular Off as I find it doesn't work as well. Spray your shoes and ankles and pants legs for sure, but also up under your shirt at the waist line and around your kneck and arm pits, so they can't find a way onto your skin without crossing the bug spray.

Deer ticks are the only ones that carry lime, and those are tiny little guys about the size of a mustard seed. The bigger ones are wood ticks, and while they don't carry lime, they can carry other nasty bacteria or diseases such as Rocky Mountain fever. I've never got a deer tick on me, but I have got wood ticks on me and one was embedded on my thigh. That was before I started using bug spray. They like to hang around water for some reason. Probably to wait for an animal getting a drink, but they can be anywhere. Luckily in north east ohio I've never got a tick on me, but 100 miles south where I fish and hunt they are as thick as blades of grass from about April to the end of August, so I try hard not to walk through even grass down there during the summer fishing and stuff, even if I've sprayed up.

Critter that deep woods off is good stuff so far i have had only one tick on me this year and it was very small in my eye lid freaked me out . This year they say the ticks n fleas are going to be notorious !!!! be careful of the pets to . Jim

 

[Critterhunter]

Yep, too mild of a winter to kill the bugs off so expect them to be bad. Here's what's odd about the only one that ever dug into me. I waded around knee deep in a pond down in central Ohio fishing. Never walked through a blade of grass, and yet when I got home and took a shower there was a tick embedded in my thigh. Only thing I can figure is it was floating on top of the water and got on me. Then another time I drove down there with the sunroof off my truck and never even got out of the truck yet and one was sitting on the seat next to me! Must have fell from a tree. If that doesn't make you paranoid enough about ticks then listen to this...I fished around a pond on April 15th (I remember it was tax day) down there and that was before I knew better and sprayed up or just plain stayed out of the woods at that time of year. Anyway, I get to my truck and get in and I see a few on my thigh crawling around. Long story short I had to strip completely naked to get them all off my back and such. Must have been about 15 of them on me. None were feeding yet. It takes a few hours usually for them to crawl around and find the right spot where they want to feed. Usually your arm pitts, groin, upper thighs, and especially behind the ears or in your hair line. Even if it's a deer tick, they usually won't give you lime until they fill their belly up and start re-gurgitating back into you, and that can take several hours for them to fill up.

Whatever you do DO NOT use the old trick of lighting a match and shocking them out of you. It scares them and they'll barf into you. Don't use the old nail polish remover trick for the same reason. You need to grab them with tweezers by the head (NOT the stomach) and try to gentle pull them straight back out the way they went it at the same angle. If you don't know what kind of tick it is put it in a jar with some grass and poke a few tiny holes into it then take it to a local vet animal clinic as they see ticks all the time and they will ID it for you. If it's not a deer tick then no risk of lime, but you can still get other nasty viruses or bacteria infections from other ticks like Rocky Mountain Fever. Watch the area of the bite over a few months and if you get a bullseye or a red spot or rash there or anywhere on your body get to a doctor. Even lime can be easily cured with antibiotics. The trick is to identify it and treat it before it does a bunch of damage to your body.

 

[Critterhunter]

Sorry, but I forgot the punch line to the day I had like 15 ticks on me and stripped naked. I was on an old dirt road that I was lucky to see 5 cars come down all day long, as there are not even houses on this road and it's pretty remote. Anyway, I was all naked and using the side mirror outside my truck to look for those buggers on any parts of my body I couldn't easily see. This road twists and turns and has thick woods around it so you can't see very far away. So I'm doing my body check and suddenly I hear a car coming by the gravel being road over on the road. In the back of my truck, where I threw all my clothes as I was going to put on fresh clothes so no ticks got in my truck, I had a rain jacket laying there. I quickly threw on the rain jacket and hopped in my truck. Just my luck, I thought. Not a car all day on this road any time I'm hunting or fishing by it and now I'm naked and sitting here in my truck. Often the locals around there like to stop and chat with people, so I was worried as heck that that might happen. If these guys saw me sitting naked in a rain coat I might be strung up on a tree or something, or worse have a flash back to that movie Deliverance. Luckily they just drove right by and waved to me as they did. Wow, that's just the way my luck goes. No wonder why I'm a bit paranoid. When you've had the kind of luck I've had you have good reason to think the world is against you.

 

[Ron from Michigan]

Critter,LOL you get yourself into some awkward situations.Thanks Ron

 

[JimmyCT]

Ron,
nice that you were able to get out and do a little plantation hunting. Sounds like a dream hunt...but a nightmare with the ticks & copperheads. Stay safe - Jim

 

[Ron from Michigan]

Jim,LOL there's always a down side.I stopped by my Uncles farm in WV,ticks weren't bad there at his place.He wanted me to walk with him in his favorite section.Lowell told me to look around in the woods and said Ronnie at this point you can see all around, we were on a knoll.This is an excellent hunting area and was even back when the Indian's were here.He told me he found arrow points in this area we stood.He also showed me two grave markers on his place one had a date of 1853 very hard to read and broken in half,the other grave stone was in some brush laying flat.LOL Lowell did tell me the place I lived as a kid didn't give away toward being any different where the Hatfields lived.I guess we had relatives in the feuding bunch.Anyway had a very good visit.Thanks Ron