Anyone into metal detecting ?

[gamekeeper]

I do a little bit but never find much BUT this guy really makes some interesting and entertaining videos. If you're interested in Colonial history or Civil War history this is for you.
Here's a link to a short trailer, as you can see Brad packs a sidearm as do some of his buddies when out in the sticks. My favourite YouTube channel, quite addictive..
https://youtu.be/g49Zxum32Rg

Green Mountain Metal Detecting.

[JimT]

I have done metal detecting for a long time.
Not with metal detectors though.
I first used my feet.
When I was about 10 I discovered a metal pitchfork prong in my grandpa's barn.
I was barefoot at the time.
Since the pitchfork was used to clean manure from the cow stalls I ended up getting a tetanus shot!
Later I used car tires to detect metal.
Usually these are screws or nails people have carelessly discarded.
Car tires are excellent at picking this up.
The latest was baling wire, detected by the whirling blades of the lawn mower and deposited into the front tire with enough force to penetrate the sidewall and let the air out!
I am sure using a proper metal detector is much cheaper and more rewarding.
Oh .... I carry a gun also, not only when detecting.

[3leggedturtle]

Ah Jim you always offer good useful insight and memories. Your clean humor is always educational and brings back how "experience" is a great teacher ! todd/3leg

G-K I stick to finding birch bark and fatwood, cheap easy and no equipment to haul around. Well except for knives, saw, hatchet, and week's worth of food and camping gear.

[Mike Armstrong]

I use a metal detector only when I've found a site that looks promising. So I don't spend a lot of time walking up and down the beach hoping for a diamond ring!

What I do is hike up into the side canyons in areas of the national forest or BLM land that are accessible by old roads (not necessarily by car, tho) and look for old mine sites, foundations of buildings long gone, remains of power lines or pipelines, etc. When I find a prospect, I mark it for attention later and come back with a metal detector, digging and cutting tools, and a little bike-wheeled cart that I use to transport tools and finds.

What I'm mainly looking for is non-ferrous metals like copper and brass and bronze to re-sell to a salvage yard. But of course I'll take antiques, old tools and bottles, coins, rusty guns, and old ctg. cases, recyclables, etc. Since I've been doing this for the last 72 years (since I was five), I've found all of this stuff at one time or another, in the six states I've lived in.

I have a setup in my garage to strip the insulation off copper wire which speeds that up, although I did find an "armored" cable once in NYS that had a steel casing, insulation, a lead casing, more insulation, and then a 3/8" braided copper cable, about 70' of it. Real fun getting that busted down, but interesting and since I waited for the NYS winter to process it, I had plenty of time. What was that doing in the woods in upstate NYS? Darned if I know, but it looked like something that had been swiped from a GE facility and dumped because it was so hard to make into $$$. (BTW. it WASN'T radioactive--my dad's old scintillometer told me that).

I think I caught this disease from my father, who nearly starved to death in South Dakota during the Great Depression, and just couldn't walk past any trash that was salable, even for a nickel. I also caught my love of junkyards from him, and remember my cultural anthropology prof saying: "By their trash, ye shall know them!" I like history, especially local history, too. And while scouting for junk, I often figure out where the quail, chukars, deer, pigs, and trout are.... And I do clean up after myself when I'm done "investigating."

[Pitchy]

As ya have seen pictures Norma and I like to look for stuff along the old RR grades.

[Bill in Oregon]

It's fun, GK. I have had several machines over the years. Since I moved down here I have not fired up my Tesoro De Leon -- best coin machine I have tried. But Tesoro, White's and other brands are going out of business.
That looks like a great Youtube channel. I have also been greatly thrilled by videos of the detecting and finds on your lovely island!

[Alan in Vermont]

When I saw the opening scene of that video I thought looks like somewhere, anywhere in Vermont at this time of year, then the videographer let on that it IS in Vermont! our foliage colors are a bit brighter than that right now, but not much longer and the dreary grays of November will take over.

I wish I knew what town he's working in, probably one of the four southern-most counties as that is where the majority of Revolutionary War action took place. No matter where it is it couldn't be much more than 2 1/2 hours, by car from where I live, because there is nothing within the boundaries of Vermont further away than that. It has been claimed that Vermont would be bigger than Texas,,,,,,,, if you could flatten it out!

There is a lot of acreage covered with the sort of scrub second & third growth trash timber like what he is prospecting in. I would say that area was cleared land 50-75 years ago, nothing there looks to be much more than 8-10" at the ground. A lot of small, hill country farms were abandoned in the 1960s when small scale farming took a dive the stony ground wasn't readily tillable and it was quick to revert to forest once it didn't have critters keeping the young growth clipped short.

[Mike Armstrong]

In upstate NYS and southern VT where I lived for many years, one great place for a metal detector was under "boundary trees" in the woods. These were trees that had marked the corners or edges of fields back when the land was under cultivation or pasture and the forest had been cleared. When the land wore out and/or the farmers moved to factory jobs or otherwise into town or went West (or got killed in WWII or Korea), the land was often seized for back taxes or otherwise taken over by the state or feds and made into state forest or USFS. But the boundary trees remained and you can tell them because they are BIG, old and usually dying, and because they have a very different form--trees that grew "out" instead of "up" in competition with other trees.

Back in the day when the area was farmed and after, as the deer came back and the new forest grew, those trees had deer stands in them. People drop stuff when they climb up into stands. A metal detector will find the metallic "stuff"!

I found many different calibers of cartridges and fired cases, some pretty weird for deer hunting (like .38 Super Auto). A rusted relic H&R 732, still loaded. Many largely rusted away pocket knives. One little silver hip flask made by "Tiffany, NY." A couple of pocket watches, one gold-cased. And a lot of coins, mainly chickenfeed, but some silver (all US except two silver Deutschmarks minted in 1890!). Lots of patent medicine bottles, but most so old I couldn't figure out what they were. I suspect that many contained alcohol, or some "formerly legal" drugs--it gets COLD up there!

Also learned to scout the very ends of any long "tote road" that went deep into the new forest and dead-ended. Some of those were the sites of stills during WWII when booze was in great demand and not much supply. When the 'leggers left, they sometimes left their rigs, so besides some 1940's coins and misc. junk, I found four condenser coils or "worms" made of copper tubing. One, suitably shined and lacquered, was on the wall of a Newbury Street bar/restaurant in Boston for some years until it closed down.

[gamekeeper]

In upstate NYS and southern VT where I lived for many years, one great place for a metal detector was under "boundary trees" in the woods. These were trees that had marked the corners or edges of fields back when the land was under cultivation or pasture and the forest had been cleared. When the land wore out and/or the farmers moved to factory jobs or otherwise into town or went West (or got killed in WWII or Korea), the land was often seized for back taxes or otherwise taken over by the state or feds and made into state forest or USFS. But the boundary trees remained and you can tell them because they are BIG, old and usually dying, and because they have a very different form--trees that grew "out" instead of "up" in competition with other trees.

Back in the day when the area was farmed and after, as the deer came back and the new forest grew, those trees had deer stands in them. People drop stuff when they climb up into stands. A metal detector will find the metallic "stuff"!

I found many different calibers of cartridges and fired cases, some pretty weird for deer hunting (like .38 Super Auto). A rusted relic H&R 732, still loaded. Many largely rusted away pocket knives. One little silver hip flask made by "Tiffany, NY." A couple of pocket watches, one gold-cased. And a lot of coins, mainly chickenfeed, but some silver (all US except two silver Deutschmarks minted in 1890!). Lots of patent medicine bottles, but most so old I couldn't figure out what they were. I suspect that many contained alcohol, or some "formerly legal" drugs--it gets COLD up there!

Also learned to scout the very ends of any long "tote road" that went deep into the new forest and dead-ended. Some of those were the sites of stills during WWII when booze was in great demand and not much supply. When the 'leggers left, they sometimes left their rigs, so besides some 1940's coins and misc. junk, I found four condenser coils or "worms" made of copper tubing. One, suitably shined and lacquered, was on the wall of a Newbury Street bar/restaurant in Boston for some years until it closed down.

Thanks Mike, that's interesting, I'm new to metal detecting and always happy to pick up tips from experienced metal detectors. The area I currently metal detect is agricultural and not of any historical interest that my research has turned up. There is an area nearer the village church where some Roman stuff was supposably found but that area has been repeatedly dug by another guy. I have watched a heck of a lot of Green Mountain videos and find them fascinating, beautiful country too.

[piller]

Not far from me, a place which was used during the War Between the States to manufacture firearms was found. Seems it had been forgotten and went back to nature until someone found some metal there.

[mickbr]

Where I go I might pick up some old pennies or shirt buttons. I tried my first one in my yard and was excitied to be finding a lot of old nails and lead washers but the novelty wore off once I realised my lawn didnt look so good and still no secret stashes of gold dubloons. The UK would be interesting, you guys got coins going back 2000+ years.

[gamekeeper]

Where I go I might pick up some old pennies or shirt buttons. I tried my first one in my yard and was excitied to be finding a lot of old nails and lead washers but the novelty wore off once I realised my lawn didnt look so good and still no secret stashes of gold dubloons. The UK would be interesting, you guys got coins going back 2000+ years.

You might think I'm strange but I have very little interest in British history except maybe our Civil War 1642- 1651 and of course the Gunpowder Plot. Early American history has always fascinated me since childhood. I guess that I must have a little bit of pioneer spirit in my genes...if I could go back in time I would be a stowaway on the Mayflower...