Big Boys Hobbies

Horse trails?

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BennyV

Junior Member
Joined
Nov 4, 2020
Messages
95
Any thoughts on detecting horse trails? I have 2 that are pretty well traveled nearby.
 
You may not find things dropped by humans but you will surely find horse droppings :laughing::laughing: sorry couldnt resist. Seriously any old place is a place to detect, they must have gotten off the horse at some point along the trail, so hunt the outer edges also. Good luck. ;)
 
No. To detect "random stretches of horse trails" (or foot or wagon paths) is not going to be good places to detect. You must detect where they stopped. Eg.: stage or picnic or camp spots.
 
Tom_in_CA said:
No. To detect "random stretches of horse trails" (or foot or wagon paths) is not going to be good places to detect. You must detect where they stopped. Eg.: stage or picnic or camp spots.
Click to expand...

Thats what some people think. Then the ones who do decide to detect those paths find the good stuff that has been overlooked for years.

Steve
 
stetam said:
Thats what some people think. Then the ones who do decide to detect those paths find the good stuff that has been overlooked for years.

Steve
Click to expand...

....you may find that one coin that someone lost or a horse bell, some horse shoes.....but truly tom is right. You will spend significantly more time per find then you would just doing the research and finding the watering hole, or the rest stop before the big hill, or the flat spot near water where they camped. I have tried the detecting an old road method....lots of swinging for nothing the majority of the time, UNLESS you are in the center of a town.
 
stetam said:
Thats what some people think. Then the ones who do decide to detect those paths find the good stuff that has been overlooked for years.

Steve
Click to expand...

Steve, no one is saying that a horse-rider can never randomly loose an object (when he goes to reach in his pocket to get something as he's riding, etc...) along a random BFE trail. But what we're talking about here is : Wisely spent time.

Example: There was 2 stage stops, within about 2 miles of each other , on the incoming CA emigration trail, here in CA. 1 served as a main intersection-fork-in-road stop, and the other was a dude who hung out his shingle and had a "store" of sorts. Both were stopping spots for the wagon road traffic. And between these 2 spots is still, to this day, the faint line of a dirt road between them (the original "route" of the westward ho emigrants).

And my buddy and I (who have found lots of period coins and targets at each location) have mused the SAME thing you're musing: "Gee, there ought to be some random losses along the wagon road too !" So on a few occasions we start following the old dirt road/path. And as soon as we're 50 or 100 yards from the ground zero stage stops, it goes sterile. And after 30 min. of fanciful wanderings, we "wake up" and realize that we are doing LOTS better to hunt where all the people stopped for the night. Slept, ate, spent $ at the store, etc.... Does that mean if you wander BFE forever that you might eventually find something random ? SURE ! But where is your time better spent ?

Tpmetal said:
....you may find that one coin that someone lost or a horse bell, some horse shoes.....but truly tom is right. .....
Click to expand...
 
Tom_in_CA said:
Steve, no one is saying that a horse-rider can never randomly loose an object (when he goes to reach in his pocket to get something as he's riding, etc...) along a random BFE trail. But what we're talking about here is : Wisely spent time.

Example: There was 2 stage stops, within about 2 miles of each other , on the incoming CA emigration trail, here in CA. 1 served as a main intersection-fork-in-road stop, and the other was a dude who hung out his shingle and had a "store" of sorts. Both were stopping spots for the wagon road traffic. And between these 2 spots is still, to this day, the faint line of a dirt road between them (the original "route" of the westward ho emigrants).

And my buddy and I (who have found lots of period coins and targets at each location) have mused the SAME thing you're musing: "Gee, there ought to be some random losses along the wagon road too !" So on a few occasions we start following the old dirt road/path. And as soon as we're 50 or 100 yards from the ground zero stage stops, it goes sterile. And after 30 min. of fanciful wanderings, we "wake up" and realize that we are doing LOTS better to hunt where all the people stopped for the night. Slept, ate, spent $ at the store, etc.... Does that mean if you wander BFE forever that you might eventually find something random ? SURE ! But where is your time better spent ?
Click to expand...

Like the vast majority of the people who detect, I don't have a quota to meet. I do it because I enjoy it. :lol:
 
The only time I go wander out away from where I believe people gathered is when I'm having no luck and I've seen fresh diggs. Usually I find next to nothing. I'm sure other hunters figure there isn't anything out there and there usually isn't but once I found one of my best finds ever. It was the only thing I found other than some foil and a few pieces of iron.
 
Here's pics of wagon wheel ruts of a well traveled wagon road. I followed this trail a long way. I found square nails, ox shoes, broken bottles, horse shoe nails. All interesting finds but not silver. F65F59B8-0FCD-4A0A-8365-008EA5F71398.jpeg
 
CarsonChris said:
Here's pics of wagon wheel ruts of a well traveled wagon road. I followed this trail a long way. I found square nails, ox shoes, broken bottles, horse shoe nails. All interesting finds but not silver. View attachment 479465
Click to expand...

That's when they were slowed down to begin treacherous sierra nevada crossing/climb, etc.... ? Then if there were reasons for them to "slow down" and "stop" and get jossled around in those stretches, then sure: A bit higher odds of stuff-lost. But still a long-ways from the demographics of the over-night purposed-stopping/camping locations.


I heard that in portions of the great plains states, there are long distances, across the prairies, where the wagon ruts are still visible, to this day, from the west-ward ho era. But I'll bet that if someone were to wander these endless miles of ruts (on flat plains where there was no slowing/stopping), that they'd be hard-pressed to find even a single nail.
 
Motocross

How about motocross trails. We have'em here in north Texas with many years of folks hopping their machines all over.
 
Well the spot I researched was found by someone else very recently as they left their dig holes open and I could still see foot tracks. I might go back. I spent an hour detecting the area and I'm thinking I should spend time checking over the edge of the embankment.
 
CarsonChris said:
Well the spot I researched was found by someone else .....
Click to expand...

To be clear (in-lieu of this post topic), the spot you're talking about was an over-nighter spot. Not a simple linear "trail" or road or whatever. Because I assume you're talking about the spot where you got the ramrod holder ?

Your story was totally sickening to this CA gang here, since we had JUST gone by that area only a couple of months ago, as you recall. If we had ONLY studied and found that spot, perhaps we could have been the first ones there. I almost don't want to know how they did (whoever they are), because it might make me sick to my stomach :roll:
 
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