Metal detector

[pines4equines]

Hay!

I received a metal detector for Christmas. We have an old farm, built in 1810. The barn was built in 1950 but we know that there were several other barns on the property that have since been demolished. As far as I know, it's never been metal detected before.

Does anyone else have an old place that they metal detected before? What did you find? I suspect the usual horse shoe, but what else?

Any suggestions? (I can not wait until the ground is unfrozen!!!)

Thanks!

[Hazelnut]

May find artifacts of war and commerce, as well as life on the farm. What else happened in your neck of the woods?

[pines4equines]

We might find some Revolutionary War relics as we are near where the Battle of Minisink happened. But who knows? We've got 200 years of stuff to find.

Also I was told to try to find the "privy" as that is where coins and things would fall out of pockets!

[andy825]

I grew up in central NJ, and you could find a lot of revolutionary war stuff in the farm fields. Metal buttons, bullets, bits of horse tack, etc.

[Hazelnut]

You are so right. Spend the time looking at old deeds and at the historical society for records so you know the context of what you find.

Sounds like a lot of fun!

[Thomas_1]

My place is on an historically famous site.

It's got a couple of bronze age settlements on it.

Its also the site of the last great battle between the English and Scots which took place in 1513 and where the last King died in battle (James lV of Scotland) alongwith most of Scotland's nobility and about 16,000 troops .

We have pike staff ends, cannon balls, bill hooks, horse shoes, harness and tack buckles, coins all come up to surface. We've also found pottery and even old leather. There's also a heck of a lot of bones under the land.

http://sine.ncl.ac.uk/view_image.asp?digital_doc_id=765

http://sine.ncl.ac.uk/view_image.asp?digital_doc_id=768

http://sine.ncl.ac.uk/view_image.asp?digital_doc_id=767

We've had archeologists here a few times but only when I'm having to do work such as putting in land drains or building footings. I also have a metal detector but that is only for when I lose something off a tractor! I won't otherwise disturb the land. It's probably old fashioned but to me it just seems wrong when things have been undisturbed for nearly 500 years to go prodding to seek them. It is also a war grave... albeit a very ancient one.

Things do just naturally come to surface from time to time though and I usually take them to donate to one of the local museums.

When King James gold comes to surface, that's when I retire ;)

[pines4equines]

Thomas, thank you!

Anyone else?

[ReSomething]

I've picked up the usual debris here, bottle caps and flip tops off of old cans, nails and fasteners that survived the fire and demolition of the old house, intact Coke bottles and lots of glass shards and pottery/porcelain bits (obviously the detector doesn't work on those), assorted scrap metal. It doesn't work so great under the lawn but I have found buried pipe that was most likely part of the cistern plumbing. Have also found a few tools fallen from the tractor.

[Ambrey]

It once took a metal detector to find my keys in the bedding in my big guy's stall after I dropped them!

[whitney159]

Got my hubby a detector for christmas and spent today around the farm detecting for the first time.

What we found was a bunch of junk. bits of barbed wire fence, nails, staples. Old beer cans, old pie plates, and yep, two horse shoes.

Nothing of value at this point, but we'll see. It was pretty neat, but you want to find something besides mostly beer cans.
whitney

[pony4me]

We have a old piece of property that's had a house on it since around 1900, and has been part of a farm long before that. We've found several old horse shoes, and mule shoes. There was an old cabin in the back. It had an old still that the previous owner dismantled after evicting the occupant. Garbage dump sites yielded a variety of old cookware, a make up case, and just lots of junk. I was hoping for buried gold or silver coins, but I guess the bootleggers took them. Or maybe they're still out there?

[Foxtrot's]

Who owns the loot if you find any? Is it yours?

Every year the area under the ski lifts is combed by people with metal detectors looking for whatever falls from people's pockets.

[Thomas_1]

In the UK we've got a mass of legislation relating to "Treasure" and aracheological finds and oh boy oh boy do I have to know it!

Basically anything that's an archeological find whereby the original owner can't be traced belongs to the owner of the land. However we've also got Ancient Monuments and Archeological legislation that states that it is illegal to use a metal detector or remove an archaeological object found with a metal detector on the site of a Scheduled Monument or a designated Area of Archaeological Importance without the written permission of the Secretary of State.

Because my land is on such a site that's why whenever I do any building work, I have to apply for permission and ordinarily there's a flock of archeologists decend with beards, long hair and knitted jumpers from English Heritage or the British Museum whenever foundations are laid or anything of signficant depth is dug.

We've also got something here called "Treasure Trove" which is when something was deliberately buried or hidden, rather than just lost or forgotten. If it's Treasure Trove and if it's gold or silver then it belongs to the Crown or state and can be the subject of an inquest to investigate ownership. Legislation that if that comes along then I've to report the find within 14 days. To qualify as treasure it's got to be over 300 years old and got to have a certain amount of gold or silver in it as well as fall into the "deliberately hidden" category.

There's ordinarily a reward or fee paid to the land owner or to the finder providing he had permission of the land owner.

So if I find a hoard of gold buried where King James hid it prior to burning down his castle and heading to battle then it's the states and I get a big fat reward and get to retire. If I find gold items such as his belt and armour fittings and fixtures on the battle site then it's mine all mine and I get to retire :winkgrin:

Over here metal detecting without the permission of the land owner and keeping goods is theft. So if someone else is on my land with a metal detector - I chase them off, get them put in prison and get to keep any profits of their finds and I get to retire :winkgrin:

[Chardavej]

I would like to get a metal detector, but I need one that detects aluminum.

When we bought this house, the man we bought it from said there is over 10k in cash buried somewhere in the wall or ceiling of the garage. He was terminally ill and on lots of meds and sold his Harley and was paid cash. The garage at that time was under construction (he was building the house) so he wrapped it in aluminum foil and hid it.

He said he wasn't in quite his right mind because of the heavy medications, and now can't rememeber where he put it.

I just can't justify tearing down all the walls and insulation in the office area and garage. Now the ceiling is a drop ceiling but he has all this JUNK in the rafters, wood scraps and such, or so hubby says as he got the ladder one day and stuck his head up there and briefly looked around.

I need to use a metal detector but just can't afford one. But then the money would pay for it. But who's to say I would find it anyway amoung all the wiring and such? And would it be strong enough to pick up alluminum foil anyway?

Would anyone know?

Now I'm going to come home and all of these trucks with horse bumperstickers are going to be in my yard and all these strange people will be in my garage with pickaxes, which will then be full of holes in the walls, LOL!

[Hazelnut]

I would like to get a metal detector, but I need one that detects aluminum.

When we bought this house, the man we bought it from said there is over 10k in cash buried somewhere in the wall or ceiling of the garage. He was terminally ill and on lots of meds and sold his Harley and was paid cash. The garage at that time was under construction (he was building the house) so he wrapped it in aluminum foil and hid it.

He said he wasn't in quite his right mind because of the heavy medications, and now can't rememeber where he put it.

I just can't justify tearing down all the walls and insulation in the office area and garage. Now the ceiling is a drop ceiling but he has all this JUNK in the rafters, wood scraps and such, or so hubby says as he got the ladder one day and stuck his head up there and briefly looked around.

I need to use a metal detector but just can't afford one. But then the money would pay for it. But who's to say I would find it anyway amoung all the wiring and such? And would it be strong enough to pick up alluminum foil anyway?

Would anyone know?

Now I'm going to come home and all of these trucks with horse bumperstickers are going to be in my yard and all these strange people will be in my garage with pickaxes, which will then be full of holes in the walls, LOL!

Well, looking can't hurt. Maintenance workers at the NPS site I work at found $40,000 in a tin in the walls of an old barn when renovating. The family of the last owners were located and after much review by lawyers the $$ went to the heirs of their estate.

Metal detectors do not pick up aluminum as it is a non ferous material and is not magnetic.

[Frank B]

Used properly, a metal detector is one of the best (and entertaining) exercise machines on the market -- especially if the ground is hilly!

And metal detectors do respond to non-ferrous metals. If they couldn't detect gold or silver, the market for them wouldn't be so great. I mean, why do you think so many detector users curse those pop-tops?

[mybeau1999]

When we bought this house, the man we bought it from said there is over 10k in cash buried somewhere in the wall or ceiling of the garage.

I just can't justify tearing down all the walls and insulation in the office area and garage.



I could certainly justify that!!!!!

[Nancy!]

I wonder if it could detect my cell phone that I managed to lose when filling our shavings stall? Hubby was not impressed when I realized that I had lost it during unloading our shavings for the year.

Nancy!

[MistyBlue]

I borrowed a metal detector when my husband lost his wedding band somewhere on the property. I combed every inch of the property where he'd been that day...hubby was frantic over the loss. Me, not so much because I never did like our wedding bands anyways. (I let him choose them, huge mistake on my part LOL) But since he was so heartbroken, I looked for weeks. I found about 100 beer can tab tops and some beer cans (that part of my property must have been beer party central for someone!) and about 60 cents, one 3/4" screw and someone's old class ring. (found the owner and returned it...cute story since it had been lost 20 years earlier when his then girlfriend removed it from her finger during a fight they were having in a car and hurled it out the window. He's now married to her for 17 years and I drove over and dropped the ring off, we all got a laugh out of it) But still haven't found hubby's wedding band. I think it's in that petrified wood pile he was trying to cut up that day...but hubby had already gone out within 48 hours and bought a plain replacement one and then a year later we bought new matching ones that we both like so I;m not overly gung ho about finding the ugly one. If we ever remove that wood pile though I'll borrow one again because it's quite expensive and I could get a crapload of hay with it or a new saddle, LOL!

[greysandbays]

I bought one last fall, hoping I would be able to use it to locate a surveyor's stake, so I'd know where to put my fenceline. Alas, snow and bad weather interfered before I got a chance.

I also figured that after I located that stake, it would be a neat toy to putz around the barnyard with. There's two old barn sites (that I know of). One was our garden several years ago. We dug up several horseshoes and a broken pistol (not sure if it was real or a toy; looked too small to be real...). But there's only been people here for about a hundred years, so I probably won't find anything but bent nails and busted hinges.

[Scaredacoops]

I bought an inexpensive one to check for nails after my barn was built. I found over 100 nails. I figure it paid for itself. I've also used it to locate survey posts.

[Hazelnut]

Used properly, a metal detector is one of the best (and entertaining) exercise machines on the market -- especially if the ground is hilly!

And metal detectors do respond to non-ferrous metals. If they couldn't detect gold or silver, the market for them wouldn't be so great. I mean, why do you think so many detector users curse those pop-tops?

Oh, well...hmmm. I guess I'm just passing bad information here today. Thanks for the correction. We never do know what we don't know. :D

[pines4equines]

chardavej said: "Now I'm going to come home and all of these trucks with horse bumperstickers are going to be in my yard and all these strange people will be in my garage with pickaxes, which will then be full of holes in the walls, LOL!"

Arh, arh!!!! I just spit my Poland Spring water all over my keyboard on this!!! (Drinking water to help loose weight, ugh!)

And, the desperate horse people pick axing holes in your wall will have this bumper sticker on the bumper:

My horse ate my paycheck!!!

Arh, arh!!!!

[Foxtrot's]

Not HR, but the black sheep of my husband's family had a huge bunch of cash (from some kind of gun heist) and there was a hit out for him. So buried the cash and then robbed a drug store next to a police station so he would have to spend a bit of time in the Big House (his second home). When he came out they had built a freeway over his stash.
Beautiful :D

Friends of ours stopped at a wayside stop for their little girl to have a pee. It was only when they got back home after eight hours of driving, that my friend realized her wedding band and engagement ring were not there. They took a metal detector, drove eight hours to the exact spot and found the rings.

[Murphy's Mom]

You might want to make a rough map of your property. Then you can put a grid on it and mark the areas that you find things.

We've got a really nice metal detector at work (for finding survey monuments) and I can borrow it whenever I want. If the metal detector doesn't pick up anything (sometimes monuments are buried too deep) we get out the witching rods. They work, at least for some of us.

[pines4equines]

Monuments? Do you mean graves? Oh my gosh, how interesting! Tell me more.