Got out for a Sunday morning hunt today, weather was gorgeous, at a construction site where they are putting up some McMansions where an old house stood. I generally don’t have all that much luck at these sorts of sites, but I have found a walker, a 2 cent piece, and a handful of bulk silver at similar in the past, so why not? You never know — a big fish could lurk at such a property.
The problem with this site is that the area near the house is overgrown with grass. You can kinda swing in it, but you do lose a couple of inches, and you have to swing faster than I would like. No steady low and slow possible here. I did do some of that with no luck for about a half hour, but then decided to concentrate on shady areas that had little grass, but, unfortunately, were farther from the house.
Eventually, in a treed area I found a clothespin — that’s a good sign, maybe the clothesline was in this area (but who puts a clothesline in the shade?), and all the sudden I was finding plenty of coins: 8 memorial pennies, and one wheatie. Are you kidding me? You won’t even give me a clad quarter? Where’s the loose change from 100 years ago?
I felt like bagging it, but I did want to hit every shady zone where the grass wasn’t an issue, and I eventually got a flat button. It was pretty deep too, and I thought it was a copper at first. I don’t get too excited about these like some folks do, but it least it was a decent tell, and the only old thing I had found. That gave me the will to keep going, and eventually I nailed a ’44 merc. Why wasn’t it a seated or bust? C’mon, I want a big fish. But we’ll take it.
The FE number never read below 20, and it ranged from 20 to 26. This is almost always a bulbous ferrous (like a bolt or something), but you gotta dig ’em, especially an old site, cause sometimes they are see thru silvers. Sure enough, the threshold had a big null after I recovered it, tho I never saw the iron that was affecting it..
Site seems like its been pounded pretty good, but you never know about these sorts of places. Between the grass, construction regrading, equipment, new foundations, and so forth, such a large percentage of the old land is lost. If the grass dies off and withers away, or it is matted down by snow, I might give it another go someday, but the site isn’t high on my priority list going forward.