Metal Detecting An Old Barn

Metal Detecting An Old Barn

Had my eye on this old abandoned barn for a little while. I wanted to metal detect the inside, just to ease my curious mind. Not sure how old the barn is, but it looks fairly dated.

I don't know of any more barns in the area but if I do happen to come accross one I'll try and find out who owns it so I can get in there and have a look around.

The Old Barn

Once I got inside this barn and got the metal detector out there was just none stop "beep" "beep" from the detector. Iron signals..My worst nightmare. They just never stopped, iron was everywhere..And that's all there was, JUNK. Nails and chunks of lead.

Inside The Barn

The ground in this barn was a few inches of sand, more inches of very hard clay, then it changed to a softer soil. The few other signals I did get that weren't iron related, where either lead or nails, there was just no getting away from it. I'd get a decent signal, only to dig it and see a rusty nail..

A Sheet Of Lead

A Rusty Nail For My Efforts

Check out the clay soil in this barn, it was solid to try and dig.

You can see here where the clay stops and a much softer dirt begins.

After this let down I went into the wooded area right next to this barn. It was getting late so I just had about 30 minutes in the woods. Sadly, I didn't find anything but junk. But at least the metal detector wasn't going off non stop like it was in the barn.

I managed to find a Nintendo Candy / Sweet box that looks like a game controller! Lucky me.

Not sure what this last item was. It was about 25 inches long, heavy, with a funny joint at one end. Could be off an old piece of machinery, or even possible an old fence.

Until the next time..

Old Medicine Bottles Find

Old Medicine Bottles Find

Not long ago I went over to a new site on a country lane. I didn't find anything, and the detector was going crazy with all the junk signals so I decided to leave. Before I left I did get a decent signal, so I thought I'd dig it and see what I came accross. After digging a fair way down I unearthed the corner of what the signal was. It looked like a huge square piece of metal. From what I could see it was junk, so I thought, forget digging it anymore, it's junk, it's massive, and not worth it, so that was the end of that.

When I got home the thought hit me..Was it a buried safe! The more I thought about it the more I convinced myself that it had a chance of being a safe because I didn't dig enough of it out the ground to reveal the whole thing, just a corner as it was huge. About the size of a washing machine. I was eager to go back over just to be sure that I didn't leave a safe.

So, after a few days I went back over there, and straight away I was digging. I dug the whole top of this item out the ground. It wasn't a safe, it was a huge square metal drum with a round hole through the middle. Probably worth a bit of money sold as scrap! Ah well, at least I went back and eliminated all doubt from my mind.

In the process of digging though I did find two, old and intact medicine bottles, or they could even be chemical storage bottles?. Not sure how old they are, but there both identical except for the colour. I might go back over this site again and just dig for glass bottles. There was also a very small old lemonade bottle, but sadly it was cracked so I left it.

Old Medicine Bottles

 

 

Both bottles have some numbers and "4 Oz" embossed on the base.

Two Shillings 1938 Coin Find

Two Shillings 1938 Coin Find

Found this Two Shilling coin in another wooded area a few weeks ago. It wasn't very deep down, maybe about 3-4 inches. It gave off a really good signal from the Ace 250. It's also in very good condition.

The coin does still have some dirt / ground in grease on, but it's so ground in that it would take some hard rubbing to get it off and that might damage the coin. I might go back to where I found this coin soon for another look around.

Two Shilling Coin Dated 1938

Metal Detecting Latest Outing

Metal Detecting Latest Outing

Went over and paid a visit to the site I have been looking at recently, equipped with all my tools of the trade. Once over there and set up, strong signals where present instantly. The "You've found something good" sounding signals. Sadly, all these good signals where mostly junk. Big bits of deep junk that gave off really good signals, so I just had to dig them all to see what they were. This made my day quite tiring because of the huge amount of holes I dug, only to be met with huge bits of metal for my efforts. At one point I was digging a signal that was so big I actually thought I had found a buried car! It wasn't a car, just a huge hunk of wrought iron. Such a disappointing day. My back was killing me at the end. Tree roots were also quite a problem, some were very thick. Some of my finds included, cans, lumps of lead, copper, nuts and bolts.

Here is one of my finds. This heavy iron spear / steak was pretty deep down.

Some of the tree roots that I was having to karate chop with my spade.

Phantom signals were driving me crazy too! I dug one hole for so long it was a joke. Every time I re-scanned the hole with the detector the signal was still there. There was just no finding the target. And I didn't find it. In the end I gave up. Still though it was nice to go over and check out this site. Like I said before " If you don't go, You'll never know".


I did manage to find something worth keeping though..A huge bullet shell casing. It has to be from World War II, and looks way too big to be from a handgun. After reading about this shell casing it seems that it's possibly come from a high velocity, long range World War II Sniper Rifle. Though at first I thought it was from an anti-air craft gun because of it's size. The bullet is stamped with "SL 43" at the base.
 

SL-43 World War II Bullet Casing

Until the next time..

http://ground-detector.blogspot.com/

New Metal Detecting Site

New Metal Detecting Site

For a little while now I have had my eye on a place that I would like to go and metal detect. This site is a small piece of left over land in between two very busy Dual Carriage Way roads (Highways). My idea is that this small piece of land is the original land, and has not had a road built on top of it. I would think the surrounding roads where built many years ago, possibly in the 1960's or earlier.

Hopefully, this bit of land could hold some good finds. I was driving past the site today and decided to stop my car and have a look. I was dressed in smart clothes and did not have my metal detector with me, so it just had to be a look. From looking at the site I would say it looks excellent, and the soil there was very very soft. We have had some heavy rain here over the past few days, this has made it ideal for metal detecting. I best get over there.

I know I said the site looks excellent, but if there's one thing I have learnt since I started metal detecting, it's that a site can look excellent but can be totally rubbish. That also works the other way too. So Im not going to expect anything good, I'll just go over there within the next few days and see what it's like.

" If you don't go, You'll never know "

Will keep you posted. Fingers crossed.

Half Penny Find

Half Penny Find

I found this very badly corroded 1922 Half Penny a few days ago. It's so badly corroded that it actually has two holes going straight through it. The site where I found this coin has lots of trash, and some parts of the site make the detector go crazy! The ground there differs so much every few feet.

Some signals were very annoying. I'd get a good signal, dig it for ages, then not be able to find what it was, even though the target had been dug up and is hiding in the soil somewhere..Turns out it's the smallest ball of metal you would ever see, or not see! I had about 7 of these digs. I did also find some up to date coins, 2 Pences, and two smaller half pennys dating from 1970.

I'm gonna go back to this site soon and give it one last look.

Check out the holy Half Penny dated 1922.

Until the next time.