My first big hunt!

Allow me to indulge myself a bit. I'm a writer during the day, so forgive the long post. But during my time off, I've always been a treasure hunter. Father's day was the first time I had seriously gone out to look for treasure in a very long time and also the first time using an MD in such a large scale.

I had a place all picked out. The remains of an old plantation home circa 1800. And there was a ferry point across the river to the next state nearby too. I was excited. I was specifically hoping for some coinage or bottles, but anything old would've been awesome.

My wife was supposed to go with me, but she hurt her leg the previous day. Before she left she told me she was worried about me. Not for my safety, but for the fact that I have no directional sense what so ever. I told her it was only three turns and then going down a dirt road to the site. It should be easy to find, right?

I stopped by the store to grab a cheapy digging tool, some water and some snacks and I was off. It took me a while to actually find the site. I had three turns to take and I missed all three. But I finally found the road and pulled into the parking spot where about a 100 yard walk separated me from the treasures of the past.

There was a small cemetery next to the site, so I stopped in to pay my respects to the previous land owner and his family. I also cleaned up a few tabs. The area was fenced in, so I knew my boundaries. And on three sides was the lake. A plantation home overlooking a lake. Sounded like paradise.

So, being an old bottle guy, the first place I hunted was near the water. Got the large nail. Looked to be modern. Stuffed it in my apron and continued for an hour, more or less just exploring. There were scatted piles of trash, 70's beer cans, modern tin cans. But I was most excited about the old bricks. They were ancient. I decided to work my in, towards a small mound that lie in the center of the site where most of the bricks were.

I got a good iron signal, knelt over to dig it and realized I dropped my digger.. Spent another 40 minutes searching. But not before I grabbed a rock and dug that signal. That was the letter "H" thing in the pictures. I decided to head back to the car, relax a bit and grab my back up digger.

But when I returned, I had the bright idea to check the water to see if I dropped it around there. And sure enough, I did. I snagged it and decided that I was gonna go for broke and actually search that mound I had been orbiting.

I made my way over to to the mound and started just outside where the bricks were. I hit an 07, which is normally trash, but I wanted to see what it really was. It took a while, but I finally unearthed probably the oldest thing I have ever found up until now. A hand forged 4 sided nail. You would've thought I found silver. And there were dozens of signals everywhere. All of them 07 and 08. I got another nail and some weird thing that my wife later told me was a horse bit.

But I couldn't get to all the signals. Some I skipped. Others I couldn't recover. Eventually that tough, dry soil had me beat. I decided to end the day after that and save the treasures for the next hunt.

All in all, I was extremely pleased with the hunt. Nothing of monetary value, but I'll take those nails and that broken horse bit any day. I intend to go back at least once more to try and find the site of the ferry. If it's anything like my imagination, it'll be full of lost coins.

But a few more nails to add to my collection would be nice.

Here's what I found. I'm actually gonna clean these up. All of this stuff was 4 inches down. And that door hinge piece is in extremely good shape for being something so old. The shard seems to be a piece of a stoneware jug. Though I'm not sure. Thanks for reading! And sorry about the fuzzy picture. I'm having trouble with my computer not wanting to read my SD card, so I used my cell.

Thanks again for all the advice here. And here's to the rest of the year!