What I Found Metal Detecting In My First Week
My metal detecting journey has been a bumpy ride. I got extremely lucky with the things I found, but I put in the work. Metal detecting is a very fun hobby because of the mystery. When you dig up that hole you have no idea what's on the other side.
Musket Ball
Musket guns were used in the Civil War and The New Zealand Wars. The first musket was made in the Ottoman Empire by 1465! Muskets stopped being used by the 1860–1870 switching to the more modern bolt action rifles. I happened to find the bullet of this gun in my own backyard! Musket bullets are very different from the everyday bullet you are used to seeing. Think of musket bullets like mini canon balls.
1888 Indian Penny
I found this beauty in my front yard. It was in perfect shape and condition. A coin from the 1800s was one of my dream finds when starting this hobby. Its still shocking how I found this in 1 week of detecting. I immediately got a slim casing and put the coin in my safe. Even though this type of coin is not to valuable I still am really happy I found it. Finds don’t always have to be expensive for you to appreciate it.
Old Square Head Wrench
I’m not 100% sure about this find. I can guarantee whatever I found was a tool used long ago, but its very strange. I examined the tool and my guess is that its an old wrench. It has like a spoon type look with a square sized hole. Since the old nails used to have square heads that's why I believe its a wrench. Please let me know in the comments what this is.
1700s-1800s Horseshoe
This find absolutely blew me away. A horseshoe was also one of my dream finds and in under a week I already found it! It was very rusty but I had a plan to restore it. Researching online led me to a product called Evaparust. I decided to buy it and when it came in I got to work. I put the Evaparust liquid in a container along with the horseshoe and waited for around a month. I then took it out and scrubbed that horseshoe for a solid 20 mins. I was amazed with the result. I set it back in there for around another month and kept repeating the process until it was fully restored.
Honorable Mentions
The finds that didn’t make the list (but are still very cool) are: Old Military Pin, early 1900s bullet, 1927 Buffalo Nickel, and dog tag from 1965.
Conclusion
The reason I found all of these amazing finds comes down to 3 things. The area I live, luck, and the hard work I put in. I would be metal detect for around 6–8 hours per day. That's when I realized I really enjoyed detecting. I could find nothing that day and still be happy I went out detecting. If you want to just make money detecting, I personally would not recommend this hobby. Its very boring if your main goal is to make money. I do it because I love it. The best beginner detect in my opinion is the Garret Ace 300. For its price and what’s its capable of is crazy to me. Check it out here>https://amzn.to/3tPHZtG
Thank you so much for reading this blog. If you have any questions, or you know what that mysterious wrench find is make sure to let me know.