The Girls Metal Detect the Property of a “Hunted Out” c.1719 Home

My fellow Detectorista Stacey has a friend who lives in a home built in 1719, and who graciously gave us permission to hunt the property.

We both knew this was not a virgin property, and had been detected frequently in the past, although not in the past few years.  My interest always gets peaked when someone says a site is “hunted out”, or “there’s nothing there”.  I want to see for myself, because

in the past, some of these hunted out properties have produced some great finds.

Technically, I would be considered a coinshooter; however, I get just as excited over a Colonial flat button as an old coin. It’s a good thing too, because buttons seemed to be the universes find of choice for us yesterday.

The house was on a couple of acres of land.  Way too much for us to thoroughly hunt in one afternoon,
but the opportunity to hunt it was thrilling in itself.

After gearing up, Stacey went off to the back of the property, and I decided to begin my detecting around
the perimeter of the house.  I was greeted by dead silence, and more dead silence, proof of previous hunting validated. Wanting to find a hot spot, I moseyed about the property looking for good signals.  I immediately came upon a button, and made a mental note to return to that area.  I then detected to the back and hit upon an old enamel pot about 12” down, further on a fork, shiny, unfortunately stainless yet very well-preserved, looking brand new at about 6”.

I went back to where I found the button and began my patient and methodical habit of gridding an area.  I was not disappointed.  The area produced 4 more buttons, 3 of them large flat buttons, a 1943 nickel and a couple other odds and ends whose purpose is yet to be determined.

As time was short, I moved on for one more roundabout the house, when I spied a bush in the corner that was a hard reach, but sometimes those pay off, as not everyone wants to get down low into the bushes.  I got an odd signal, bouncing back and forth, not repeating, with erratic tones. But I felt the signal was good anyway, so I dug.  Oh how disappointing to find a large piece of rusty junk.  Experience has taught me to always check the hole, and with that signal, I would be an idiot to walk away. Yup, there was another target further down in the hole and on its side.  I pulled out what looked like the ring from a rotted aluminum can, but I thought I saw a design on it, and put it in my pouch to check later when I had my glasses.

It was almost time to go, so I quickly ventured to the back to check out an area I had thought about earlier.  I got a great signal, and popped out an 1897 Indian head. Not bad for the final target of the day.

Upon reviewing our finds, my soda can ring with the design turned out to be a nice antique baby/childs bracelet, and Stacey did pretty good herself, finding her first flat button, and a nice old Girl Scout pocket knife in decent condition. Pretty soon I’m going to have to change the name of the site to Detecting Diva’s, as Stacey, despite being new to detecting, already has a great understand of her machines, and is finding targets much better as a beginner than I even came close to.  Add to that the fact that she’s already got the fever, and guys, you better watch out…she’s good.

We didn’t do so badly at this hunted out property, and we barely put a dent in the area. I’m hoping Stacey’s friend will invite us back again soon.

As an ending to our day, we later attended the talk I mentioned in a previous post, which was at the New Canaan, CT Historical Society and given by Bill Kaufman, the screenwriter of the soon to be released Civil War Movie, Copperhead.

It was a nice evening, with some entertainment, a large screen preview of the movie trailer, and of course the talk, in which Mr. Kaufman defined in greater detail the term Copperhead, which was the name given Northern folk who were against the war, and likened to snakes.

I believe this movie is going to be a good one.  It’s not only about the Civil War, but about the effect of the war on the home front as well.

In closing, it was a perfect day.  Detecting & Civil War history…what more could women ask for?

www.copperheadthemovie.com