Always answer the phone when it rings...Always be persistent too..

I know weird title..

But leads can come to you by taking a phone call late at night..

I was sitting at work one night and phone rang and it was a Hunting buddy..He just called to shoot the breeze and talk shop...

Then the conversation turned to what have you dug???AND WHERE ...By both parties...LOL

He said nothing much did dig an Enfield last week in a yard...I said what else?? he said that's it Enfield....I said dropped or fired..he said it was dropped...I then said lot fo rion int he yard or clean..he said lots of nails ..and told me the house was about 100 years old but was torn down.I said so no ones living there..he said nope developer bought it and I work with him on the side and he said I could hunt it.

Now I don't like to hunt yards much because of modern trash I usually only hunt House sites in the woods with chimneys left but since it was a construction site and I could free dig I said lets go hutn it tomorrow..He said nah nothing there..I said come on dropped enfield in the area your talking about lets go...he said I don't know...then said OK I owe you a spot anyways..

So we meet down at the site and sure enough house gone ..but yard still untouched and natural..I fired up the Musky and proceeded to hear the spits of nails all around the yard as I warmed up and got a feel for things...I said where did you dig that enfield??...He pointed over tot spot about 15 feet away..I could see the dirt depression as I walked over..but before I got there I got a clean hit...Cut a plug and presto a beautiful Gold wax seal watch fob..I said man that's 1850s...Covered hole moved over and saw his old dig spot...ran coil across the hole and detector went bonkers..so i dig down in his pile and as I'm digging and pulling the spoil pile there's bullets coming up check hle more bullets..I said man your playing games with me..He said what ...I Said you put these here..then I checked and they were .58 Gardiners ..I said no way you left these here to expensive...There was about 18 gardiners which are pure confederate made bullets in that hole..I said why did you leave those...He said I don't know.I said I'm glad you did..


I said we have to hunt his yard hard ..well over the next few hours I pulled a King George Copper and Bust dime and a handful of enfields..

I was thinking Gotta be a plate I here and there was a lot of iron even plow points and kettle iron and such...well there was an old barb wire fence lying on the ground actually partially buried in places..that when I got a the weird hit..a splatter report...I removed the barb wire then swung hole again and nice and clean but still weird sounding..Not round but almost like a hot rock swampy elongated washed out..

and pops this beautiful spur..




Now I knew why it was so weird...anyone who has ever dug spurs know those things sound awful. especially in iron ..and I'm glad they do!!

Well my buddy had to leave after that and I had to also since it wasn't my place to hunt...

I came home and scanned the books and old maps..and sure enough there was an old house that sat right there in the war and a trench line rand through the property.

I asked my buddy and he said go ahead and hunt the guy wont mind...he didn't want to so I rode down and low and behold the whole place was graded even next door too and guys were swinging everywhere...talked to one and he said he was from another town and was a coin hunter who saw the work and pulled in hoping for some coins..he said come over to truck and check this out..he had dug a C.S.A. rectangle buckle..and his buddy had a S.C.Oval buckle..My jaw just dropped..I said where was it at he said in this yard..which was the newest one to be graded...Then a guy stands up and says man check this out and we look over and he has a 20 pound parrott shell.Looked like he was holding anew born baby...If I would of had cigar I would of gave it to him..LOL..anyhow more bullets and buttons and period items...

Anyhow make sure yall answer the phone when it rings..Don't take no for an answer..you may miss out on some fun digging..

Keith

“I don't care that they stole my idea . . I care that they don't have any of their own”
-Nikola Tesla

Good story Keith, shame the place was swooped down on when you could of had it mostly for yourself. Damn nice spur though.

Thanks..Ozzie..

well the loaders got in there so I'm glad everyone got SOME..one man cant keep up with a loader..Still no telling what was lost..

Keith

“I don't care that they stole my idea . . I care that they don't have any of their own”
-Nikola Tesla

Nice finds.
Me,,I would have probably destroyed spur when digging.

Just my luck.

Similar story but not as good as yours.

When I first started trying to dig, a fella said he would take me to a spot to dig some bullets. One day he calls and asks if I am ready to dig and of course I say yes. We meet up and on the way, he says "been a change of plans...we'll go to the bullet place another day. Today we are going to a place that just opened up and is going to be gone in a few weeks". We pull up to a small field and to my surprise, people with detectors were all over it. My buddy explained it was a site everybody had been wanting to hunt but the landowner was not friendly and wouldn't give anybody permission. He had passed away and the land had been turned over, sold at auction, and was getting ready to be developed for a subdivision. Big round hay bales and detectorists were here and there in the field. We took our places and my first signal was a drop Enfield bullet followed by a few more and some 3 ringers. I was having a ball. Through the morning, more hunters would show and some that had been there a while were leaving. After about noon, this guy shows up and comes to talk to us taking a short break. We show him our finds and I by far, had the most bullets and j hooks, etc. He asks what part of the field I had been in and then gets his detector and heads off in that vicinity. I watched him as he hunted but he never dug anything. Then I heard my buddy chuckle and looked up. Dude was out there pushing with everything he had to move round hay bales to the side so he could swing his coil where they had been sitting. He did this once and no good. The second one, you could tell he had a signal. Then he starts digging and war hoops. We go to check it out and he meets us halfway running. In his hand was a breastplate...that much I could tell but I had never seen one like he had. Looked like a river boat, a wreatch, and sun rays. My buddy that took me asked if I knew what it was....and that's when I learned it was an Ohio sunray breastplate and worth a considerably more amount than normal eagle breastplates. After that, I'm not ashamed to say we were all rolling round bales to the side. Haha.

Enjoyed the read, like those type post other than hear is what I got lol.

Beautiful save right there bud

Great stories!!

Sounds good on the Ohio for sure...

yeah do what ya gotta do on a site...do something different ...Think outside the box so to speak..

Good read..

Thanks fellas!!

Keith

“I don't care that they stole my idea . . I care that they don't have any of their own”
-Nikola Tesla

Another great story Keith, I'm always amazed and jealous of all the great places you hunt and relics you find!

Aaron

Another nice dig there Keith

I sure wish we had relics like that around these parts! If I lived in the south (Ga, Tn, Nc/Sc, Etc) I'd spend every minute I had diggin sites with the potential to produce stuff like that. Guess you kinda gotta know how/when/where too though cuz without that = you don't get much of anything!

Congrats



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/11/2017 05:53AM by MichiganRelicHunter.