Thread: Metal Detecting

Originally Posted by John

Yep. I did a multi-day beach search and then put it up for "just in case".

It was about 8yrs ago I visited a guy that brought out his old coins and I freaked out. After that it was a matter of when, not "if".

First day scanning the yard. Basically learning the beeps, depth indicator etc. quite interesting. What it says is down there, usually is. Dug 4 holes, mostly toning iron so went to dig and quickly found the nails. One was small enough to amaze me how the detector picked it up at 6". Found a cool looking marble probably lost when the boy growing up here lost it. Finding molten brick chunks and coal giving more credence to my guess our home was situated on Morgan's brick factory. Morgan was a founder of our town immediately following the Civil War. He was born a free black man and moved here to found a brick factory that used blonde/beach sand for brick production which was a big hit in Europe 1880-1900's. Our home is built on historic property and I'm having fun.

Here is the marble, my guess late 50's or so...

Originally Posted by Nikos

Does anyone ever find any thing of value? I never heard of it!

Absolutely! I've only found one gold ring so far (possibly 2 gold necklaces, haven't verified yet) but usually find a few sterling rings. I keep a tally of the clad coins I find and even if I don't metal detect much in a year I usually hit $100 in those altho one year I was real gung-ho in hunting and got about $300 worth, plus you usually find old silver coins too.

Originally Posted by FireBrand

First day scanning the yard. Basically learning the beeps, depth indicator etc. quite interesting. What it says is down there, usually is. Dug 4 holes, mostly toning iron so went to dig and quickly found the nails. One was small enough to amaze me how the detector picked it up at 6". Found a cool looking marble probably lost when the boy growing up here lost it. Finding molten brick chunks and coal giving more credence to my guess our home was situated on Morgan's brick factory. Morgan was a founder of our town immediately following the Civil War. He was born a free black man and moved here to found a brick factory that used blonde/beach sand for brick production which was a big hit in Europe 1880-1900's. Our home is built on historic property and I'm having fun.

Here is the marble, my guess late 50's or so...

Cool. Looking forward to more show and tells.

Godspeed...swing low and slow.

That marble is cool. I remember when we lived in Inkster. My brother (mostly him) dug holes behind the garage. It had been where the garbage was buried, but it was a treasure trove of broken dishes, marbles and other things.

I did some digging for a garden on our current property and found lots of broken brown bottle glass... thick glass, not like the thin glass of today.

In a previous property, we jackhammered part of a concrete patio and dug behind the garage there and just buried the pieces.

Originally Posted by Highly Favoured

That marble is cool. I remember when we lived in Inkster. My brother (mostly him) dug holes behind the garage. It had been where the garbage was buried, but it was a treasure trove of broken dishes, marbles and other things.

I did some digging for a garden on our current property and found lots of broken brown bottle glass... thick glass, not like the thin glass of today.

In a previous property, we jackhammered part of a concrete patio and dug behind the garage there and just buried the pieces.

Old homestead finds. When a love for history and archaeology come together you will find a metal detectorist nearby. Cool stuff!

Originally Posted by Highly Favoured

I did some digging for a garden on our current property and found lots of broken brown bottle glass... thick glass, not like the thin glass of today.

Sounds like you found an old homestead dump, could be lots of interesting things that were tossed there.

Originally Posted by FireBrand

Old homestead finds. When a love for history and archaeology come together you will find a metal detectorist nearby.

True! You and Muriel are in more rural areas, you should try to locate where the old privies were, people find lots of cool relics in them.

Originally Posted by krystian

Sounds like you found an old homestead dump, could be lots of interesting things that were tossed there.



True! You and Muriel are in more rural areas, you should try to locate where the old privies were, people find lots of cool relics in them.

There is a small low area in our back yard and is about the right distance off the back door. I can't probe deeper than a couple feet until it thaws. Detector is showing a lot of hits in that small area. It's worth the dig. So much history on our city lot.

Originally Posted by krystian

Sounds like you found an old homestead dump, could be lots of interesting things that were tossed there.



True! You and Muriel are in more rural areas, you should try to locate where the old privies were, people find lots of cool relics in them.

On our city website I once found aerial photos of the area. Our subdivision was a farmer's field in the 1940s. The house was built in 1972. One of the neighbors was built in 1979, so it could well be a dump area.

Took my 13yr old grandson to our backyard for a demonstration of how we metal detect and dig. My unit toned 2 different tones. One showed a nail and the other a non-ferrous. So I start digging and here is a short segment of copper wire used for speakers/auto 12vdc. Then we dig a bit further and found the nail. Bingo.