Big Boys Hobbies

How to hunt Civil War sites

HillTopper

HillTopper

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 2, 2012
Messages
352
Location
Southern Michigan
It looks like I may receive permission to hunt a civil war camp site. I have never hunted such a place. I usually notch out iron when I hunt and go for coins, etc.

How do you guys hunt civil war sites? Do you turn off discrimination and dig every target? i would love to get anything from the civil war, even just a bullet (or better yet a button). What do bullets and buttons ring up as?

Thanks for any advice.
 
I'd suggest hunting without any discrimination; digging all readings. I've dug two 18" D guard Bowie knives in a confederate camp years ago which from their signal I knew were steel when I dug them. Had them valued at $500.00 each in my collection. If I'd been hunting in a discrimination mode I would have missed them. The double eagle unit I hunted with back then I could tell by its' signal alone if the item was steel or something better. A coin, button, bullet or anything brass all sounded the same. Good luck and keep us posted.

Acey
 
As long as there aren't hundreds of nails everywhere i would hunt with no discrimination and dig all. if there are a lot of nails, then i would still hunt no discrim but only dig signals higher than nails cause this way you'd probably get the nice iron objects though you might miss smaller iron artifacts. For me, the smaller pieces of buck and ball ring up as foil, tab, or zinc
 
If it were me, I'd use no discrim and dig everything till you get the feel for what the site is holding.
I feel onto a site the was full of iron crud and stopped digging mid iron numbers and later in the day I decided to dig one the numbers that I was passing up. Low and behold it was a shell fragment. :-o
Needless to say I dig all (most) mid iron now untill I have the feeling on what the site is holding. Good luck and recruit help if the site is big enough, there's nothing like seeing a friend uncover a great find.
 
Hey mark1427. Hilltopper another suggestion I'd consider if this is a virgin site not hunted heavy in the past; is to document your hunts to the camp, keeping a journal and a detailed map from the very first hunt. The journal and map will help put together the lay out of the camp and help identify areas within it's boundries. Any/all information you can obtain such as the type unit, size of camp (a company, regiment, brigade) should help you in how to hunt it. Union camps where much more military and engineering laid out and especially early war. An early war Union Camp would typically be laid out in streets with tents or huts in a straight line along the streets. If the location is a field which is being planted with crops then you will probably find the farm equipment has scattered the items out of any organized pattern and will just present a vast area which contain relics. A good rule of thumb which might be useful for you a Union regiment would have it's companies within its' camp area, closely laid out such as streets. If a camp of a brigade then each regiment would have it's own camp area separated from the other regiments. Early war brigade camps would usually have a parade ground which would be used for the regiments within the brigade to drill. Hope some of this helps you.

Acey
 
Acey said:
Hey mark1427. Hilltopper another suggestion I'd consider if this is a virgin site not hunted heavy in the past; is to document your hunts to the camp, keeping a journal and a detailed map from the very first hunt. The journal and map will help put together the lay out of the camp and help identify areas within it's boundries. Any/all information you can obtain such as the type unit, size of camp (a company, regiment, brigade) should help you in how to hunt it. Union camps where much more military and engineering laid out and especially early war. An early war Union Camp would typically be laid out in streets with tents or huts in a straight line along the streets. If the location is a field which is being planted with crops then you will probably find the farm equipment has scattered the items out of any organized pattern and will just present a vast area which contain relics. A good rule of thumb which might be useful for you a Union regiment would have it's companies within its' camp area, closely laid out such as streets. If a camp of a brigade then each regiment would have it's own camp area separated from the other regiments. Early war brigade camps would usually have a parade ground which would be used for the regiments within the brigade to drill. Hope some of this helps you.

Acey
Click to expand...

Acey,

Thank you for the tips and information. This is a great idea. We know a little about the camp and the officers, etc. but I'm pretty sure no one has formally mapped the site. I am a paleobiologist by profession, so I enjoy systematic mapping of things. If I find enough relics, I may be able to publish an article on it. I think the site has been MD'd once, and a "few buttons" were found, but who knows what was really taken.

Thanks again, I'll be sure to post the outcome.
 
QUOTE=Donneybrook;2044888]As long as there aren't hundreds of nails everywhere i would hunt with no discrimination and dig all. if there are a lot of nails, then i would still hunt no discrim but only dig signals higher than nails cause this way you'd probably get the nice iron objects though you might miss smaller iron artifacts. For me, the smaller pieces of buck and ball ring up as foil, tab, or zinc[/QUOTE]

Thanks, Donneybrook. I am hoping there are not a lot of nails or post-camp farm debris there, but I am not holding my breath... :digginahole:
 
mark1427 said:
If it were me, I'd use no discrim and dig everything till you get the feel for what the site is holding.
I feel onto a site the was full of iron crud and stopped digging mid iron numbers and later in the day I decided to dig one the numbers that I was passing up. Low and behold it was a shell fragment. :-o
Needless to say I dig all (most) mid iron now untill I have the feeling on what the site is holding. Good luck and recruit help if the site is big enough, there's nothing like seeing a friend uncover a great find.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the help, Mark.
 
low and slow. dig every hit, grid it and be happy. great spot. HH blev
 
I use MotionGPX on iPhone to log finds. It allows you to set each find as a waypoint and photo it. Those points can be emailed to yourself and then opened in Google Earth. Also bag each artifact with a card w/ cords on it too in case of technical breakdown.

Plotting the camp gives you an idea of the layout and sometimes it doesn't make sense until you see it on a map.

Dig everything in a suspected camp. There's no end to what may be there. One afternoon we got into a location of cans that post-dated a battle site we were working. The signal of the rusting cans were easy to see. Late in the day hit another one and started to not dig it but did anyway and found our first metal arrowpoint.
 
smith693 said:
I use MotionGPX on iPhone to log finds. It allows you to set each find as a waypoint and photo it. Those points can be emailed to yourself and then opened in Google Earth. Also bag each artifact with a card w/ cords on it too in case of technical breakdown.

Plotting the camp gives you an idea of the layout and sometimes it doesn't make sense until you see it on a map.

Dig everything in a suspected camp. There's no end to what may be there. One afternoon we got into a location of cans that post-dated a battle site we were working. The signal of the rusting cans were easy to see. Late in the day hit another one and started to not dig it but did anyway and found our first metal arrowpoint.
Click to expand...
Cool. :cool:
 
Hunting a camp site can be tedious but very rewarding. Dig those iron signals, they could be something awesome like a gun tool or something!


Keep us posted as to what you find! :yes:
 
Curbdog said:
Hunting a camp site can be tedious but very rewarding. Dig those iron signals, they could be something awesome like a gun tool or something!


Keep us posted as to what you find! :yes:
Click to expand...

+1

Or canister shot!

8899DCB6-34BC-4B07-B367-AD72A69F3F37_zpsnjbvv4kd.jpg
 
Hilltopper am just sitting here on Mothers day waiting for the Va. lacrosse game to come this afternoon.:laughing::laughing: I pulled something down off the internet which might help you out. http://www.bing.com/images/search?q...ut&qpvt=early+civil+war+camp+layout&FORM=IGRE

I'm going to take a big guess about your camp. If it is in Michigan I'd guess it is probably early war; camp of instruction and mustarding in. If so it is probably very well laid out. I'm hoping it is not out in a cultivated field. There is also a chance that the camp was log huts or board shacks and not tents. It seemed the troops from the upper states liked a wood roof over their head in cold weather. Anyways, remember you wouldn't know anything until you get out there and find some relics. Good luck with it.

Acey
 
HillTopper what happen? It is now October and we haven't heard anything if you got permission or not to hunt that civil war camp. That getting permission can be a drag if you know what I mean. Know of a field locally that had a picket line of at least 2 companies that came under attack by a Confederate Calvary Regiment. Wanted to check it out this fall but that's a no go. A good friend of mine knows the land owner very well, even has permission to duck hunt on the property but when he asked about walking the field with a metal detector this past weekend, he was told; "Absolutely not."

Acey
 
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