The other day I got permission to hunt the grounds of a 300 year old farmhouse, and today I did so.  Hunting owner-occupied private property seems such a different experience than hunting parks and institutions; the latter being pounded so hard that all the high tone (and alot of other) trash has been pulled by the competition, the former having more trash (especially ferrous), not only for that reason, but cause its older.  The deep high tone trash really slows me down and frustrates me, and you also seem a bit more self-conscience, especially with the owner watching you dig plugs on a manicured lawn.

But, the hunt went ok.  Started out really poorly, getting nothing but clad, and I mean deep clad, a 1962 memorial penny at 8 inches is one example.  Are you kidding me?  If I dig for that, I expect at least a copper.  That’s the thing, deep high tone trash; generally much less of a problem at public parks.

But, about 3 hours in, I got my first wheatie,  I was wondering if I was gonna get any older coins.  Some zones seemed to have a bit of coins, but some absolutely nothing.  The owner used to own a landscaping company, so I imagine the evil fill and grade twins had spent a good bit of time in the yard, so it was a really hard site to read (usually you look for the greener grass; and it was true, the less green grass was more productive here).

Eventually I got a rosie, and then the owner asked me to find a property marker for him.  I thought this sort of thing would be hard, being a medium-sized ferrous object, which we are trained to reject, but I nailed it within 5 minutes, not bad.

Back to the hunt, pulled a pair of Washingtons and another wheatie after that.  Both Washingtons sounded like clad (the trash or mineralization was not allowing the cleanest signals).  The wheaties were on the older side, a ’16 and a ’28.  While visions of bust silver dance in your head when hitting a site like this, the results looked pretty much like a park hunt.  But it was fun anyway; the prospect of something spectacular keeps you going.

As an aside, the property had a maypole on it.  Are you kidding me?  How cool is that?  I haven’t seen a maypole in years.  When I grew up, we celebrated May Day (Beltane) in grade school.  This maypole was built in 1972, which is when I was in grade school.  The site is also in the same township where I grew up and went to school.  Maybe Beltane was a local thing back in the day where I grew up.  Certainly haven’t heard of anyone celebrating it around here in years.

Finally, I guess I should question my choice of sticking with the big 13 inch unit for a site like this.  I have such confidence in it in trash that it didn’t faze me, but my lack of success with older coins at the site leaves a bit of doubt in my mind.  I guess we’ll never know.