Big Boys Hobbies

Just needed to vent (if its ok)

bilder said:
Old dump sites are a bottle hunters dream.

Don't discount the bottles you are finding. Some are worth far more than any coin.
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Any idea where you would sell old bottles? I have old collectible bitters, patent medicine and others from around late 1800's to early 1900, tried to sell some in the past and found they practically couldn't be given away for free. I believe they may have to be marketed to the right collector.
 
bilder said:
Old dump sites are a bottle hunters dream.

Don't discount the bottles you are finding. Some are worth far more than any coin.

My house was built in 1914. I dug a lot of trash before I started to get to the good stuff. But I have 2 buffalo nickles, 2 Mercury dimes, 1 Barber dime, 1 Indian Head penny, and about 45 wheat cents to show for it. All out of a yard about 20 feet across by 30 feet wide.

One thing that helps too is if the prior owners had a lot of kids. I think all the stuff in my yard is due to the fact that several large families lived here over the decades.
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Believe me I'm not discouting the bottles but so far they're your garden variety, at least the ones that were intact were. I want to dig out that entire area and regrade it but I can't find the time between work & the never ending HoneyDo list. I'm almost positive there has to be older coins here especially with the amount of previous owners
I was trying to find the lineage of the property and it was previously owned by D&H RR and a colliery prior to becoming residential. Not sure if it's a good thing or not but only time will tell. Oh, according to the topo's i pulled, there was an elevation change but to the hill/mound next to the house, not the foundation layer, or so it seems
 
Don't despair. The good stuff may be masked by trash. I worked a city park a couple of times and found one silver quarter and a lot of clad. Was told that there was nothing left in that park. Later I found four silver dimes in that park.

I have been detecting a piece of property where church meetings have been held since about 1948. So far all I have been able to find is modern clad. I have not even found a wheat penny. I still think that there has to be a couple good targets on that 25 acres.
 
I like old dump sites. You may turn up anything. I know of a recent private dump where the owner sweeps up the sawdust and everything else from his shop and throws it in the dump. I have found tools, money and even a class ring. I always return them to him. He always says "I wondered where that went."
 
I like dumps as much as the next guy but I'd like to find some damn silver too. Bottles and other relics can command a decent price but i also want to get some coins at one point or another. Right now my detector is in pieces otherwise I'd hunt tonight & tomorrow. And no, i didn't throw it against a wall, I'm adding a switch for pinpoint & a backlight but the backlight is proving to be a pain. I have the switch installed but i overheated one of the contacts on the light and fried it off the board. I'll probably get one of those cheap cap lights and rip that apart tomorrow
 
Last year I bought a house built in 1930 , I was excited because I knew there had to be some silver around it but ......that's the cleanest yard I have ever seen and I am pretty sure it hasn't been detected before. Barely even any trash in the ground though I did manage a clad quarter out by the driveway. The more I dig into the history of the house the more I learn why , it was a very old couple who lived there for a very long time , they never had kids as far as I can tell and apparently the only time anyone was in the yard was to cut grass , a very under utilized piece of property......depressing :no:


The age of a property does not always mean anything.
 
ohiochris said:
Last year I bought a house built in 1930 , I was excited because I knew there had to be some silver around it but ......that's the cleanest yard I have ever seen and I am pretty sure it hasn't been detected before. Barely even any trash in the ground though I did manage a clad quarter out by the driveway. The more I dig into the history of the house the more I learn why , it was a very old couple who lived there for a very long time , they never had kids as far as I can tell and apparently the only time anyone was in the yard was to cut grass , a very under utilized piece of property......depressing :no:


The age of a property does not always mean anything.
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This would be considered a great thing by non-detecting folk... to those of us who hunt it's tragic :lol:
 
ohiochris said:
Last year I bought a house built in 1930 , I was excited because I knew there had to be some silver around it but ......that's the cleanest yard I have ever seen and I am pretty sure it hasn't been detected before. Barely even any trash in the ground though I did manage a clad quarter out by the driveway. The more I dig into the history of the house the more I learn why , it was a very old couple who lived there for a very long time , they never had kids as far as I can tell and apparently the only time anyone was in the yard was to cut grass , a very under utilized piece of property......depressing :no:


The age of a property does not always mean anything.
Click to expand...

The family we bought it from had 5 or 6 kids and there were several other owners before them and there was a pool in the back at one point. I tried my luck again on Sunday & came up with more screws, bolts & nails. I really need to find a better spot
 
Same here.. In 2009 I bought an old two story house which was built in 1880. I had visions of digging lots of seated, barbers and injuns but after detecting it for YEARS I've only managed a few wheats, some iron relics and some clad. The problem is the ground is slam full of iron such as horse shoes, square nails and other random stuff.. I think some kind of structure burned down or something. I'm not exaggerating when I say I can randomly dig a small hole in ANY part of the yard and it will have at least 10 to 15 nails and other bits of iron in it. Its everywhere. Even the mighty Deus can't see through it. On top of that, EMI is terrible there.. My solution was to start sifting the yard. My wife wasn't too happy about it but I've been finding a ton of neat stuff! Coins, tokens, clay marbles, bottles, you name it!
 
Rattlehead said:
Same here.. In 2009 I bought an old two story house which was built in 1880. I had visions of digging lots of seated, barbers and injuns but after detecting it for YEARS I've only managed a few wheats, some iron relics and some clad. The problem is the ground is slam full of iron such as horse shoes, square nails and other random stuff.. I think some kind of structure burned down or something. I'm not exaggerating when I say I can randomly dig a small hole in ANY part of the yard and it will have at least 10 to 15 nails and other bits of iron in it. Its everywhere. Even the mighty Deus can't see through it. On top of that, EMI is terrible there.. My solution was to start sifting the yard. My wife wasn't too happy about it but I've been finding a ton of neat stuff! Coins, tokens, clay marbles, bottles, you name it!
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Ive considered sifting but it's a pain and extremely time consuming. Plus my DIY sifter is made to go on a 5 gallon bucket so it would take a considerable amount of time, more time than i have. If i get around to making a sifting table, I'll have a go with it but for right now I'll grab a magnet from HF and run that into the hole before I get too excited that it might actually be something.

Going back to the bottles, if the ground is any indication than I have about a 50×80 section that could produce, I just need to be damn sure of my property line before I go through all of that. I can explain it to the wife that I'm grading the yard for the dogs & future kids so she wouldn't have much to say about that
 
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Barracuda said:
Mikey, I had the same problem as you. My house was built in 1895 i thought for sure I was going to get tons of old coins.

Well I have found a few things that are neat but it was not easy.

The first thing that helped me was to hit the outskirts if possible. Get as far away from the iron and work your way in or around the iron before diving in.

2nd. Just start digging targets in all metal near the original sidewalk area. I found an 1860's Napolean the 3rd digging random holes near my porch and getting rid of iron with a neodymium magnet. I even crawled under my porch :laughing:

Good luck!
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I was mostly staying away from all metal since i was getting a hit every sweep but I'll probably go back to all metal since it's being recommended and it might produce, God willing. Most high tones I dug have been junk so maybe a low tone will pay off
 
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I got out there for a little while after work and found a chunk of rebar, a screw and 1 stinkin lincoln. I will be back at it again in a few days but tomorrow I have training and then Friday I'll be driving half the day so I have no idea when I can get out there again but even dropping Sens to 6 I was still getting heavy iron. It cut some of it out but not a whole lot. I ran minimal disc and was getting iron targets everywhere. I'm going to have to make a larger sifter and check the yard that way. At least then it might be level. And once I fill the sifter and have a decent sized hole I'll wave the detector in there and see if there's anything deeper (hopefully some shy silver)
 
Some of you were right. I took a good look at my neighbors tree which is about 2 1/2 - 3ft diameter and I can't see a root ball, there's a bit of root sticking up in 1 spot but it's looking like there was some fill brought in the past. I'm still going to go through other parts of the yard but it's looking doubtful on that side. There may be good bottles since that was a dump but the detector will be next to useless since everything will be deep. For now, I'll improve my shooting skills at the range and let the woodchucks dig for a while
 
The age of a property does not always mean anything.

Thats for sure! I hunted a early 1900's farmhouse and fairly big front yard. Squat for old coins. Best i can figure is fill dirt, landscaping over the years put anything of value out of reach. I came to this conclusion when i dug a penny coin spill of 18 pennys , all 1970/1980 Lincolns down 7 to 8 inches.. Possible some kid buried them, but was unable to pull any silver out of that farmyard. Used ATPro first several times i hit it, then Etrac with different coils next several times...
 
I guess I fooled myself into thinking it would produce because of the age. Like I said, I'll still tool around back there to better my skills and kill time but until I dig up the porch or pavers in the back I'm not hopeful for much here. I have a feeling that the only areas that would produce are those that I can't reach at the moment
 
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