Thank you Todd, Dave and Dan! - 7/11

I met up with Dan yesterday morning figuring we were maybe going to meet up with Drew again, but was surprised when he said we were meeting up with Dave and Todd. Very cool! Or maybe trouble, could the somewhat new guy have a prayer around the Three Amigos? :lol:

Surprisingly, I had my best day detecting. Took a while to get going though.
Our first stop was Dan's cabin site. Only find for me here was broken pieces of iron from a shoe buckle. Todd & Dave may have found pieces of it's frame. This spot wasn't coughing up a lot, so we took the long hike to check out a site that turned out to be a bust. So we backtracked, and that's when Todd spotted the rock pile. A cellar hole found.

Set my pack down on a pile of rocks 20ft or so from the hole, turned on the detector, and started swinging for clean ground to balance over. Don't think I got 2 steps before it bangs out an upper 70's at maybe 5". Whoa! Up comes a copper!
It wasn't pretty, and those guys identified it as being a VT or CT copper. Unfortunately what little detail was on the brown layer, flaked itself off leaving me with a mostly blank green disc. I can just make out a bit of Britannia, and the letters INDE. It's a bucket lister regardless, my first state copper!
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I also picked up a few cuff sized buttons in a 20sq ft area, so I beat that spot up more, but that was it. Only other notable find was more iron buckle parts.
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This was the hole of the day, and coughed up some neat finds. We beat it up a bit longer, and moved on to the next spot. It had been hit pretty good too unfortunately, but I wandered a bit and managed a couple of buttons. I thought they were just plain buttons, but Dave immediately ID'd them as Tombacs. He gave them a quick rub with his thumb, and the convex one revealed an engraved pattern!
Something off my personal list since I've already scored a tombac. I love the intricate designs they put on them.
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After this spot we hiked out to try another spot 20 minutes away, and stop to refill the canteens. It had a well and walls, but some of the surrounding area was really grown in, so we were a bit limited. My last 2 finds of the day were deep. 1'st was another plain tombac, somewhere between 8 and 9 inches. A trifecta.
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The other was 8 inches down in the middle of a nest of small trees you have to almost wiggle through and bang your coil off of to navigate through. But it paid off. A low VDI target that got better as I dug. My first knee buckle!
I wondered why there was such a big clot of rust on it until I started cleaning it. There was a square nail running through it. You can see where it was bedded in the pic, and probably why the VDI was so low. I'm afraid to give it more than a real basic cleaning, dunno if this is it or not.
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I'll end the way I started, thank you Dave and Todd for the invite!

Congrats! You did very well. Some nice finds for sure. If you want to improve your detecting skills, I couldn't think of any thing better than spending the day with that trio.

Very nice finds and thanks for taking time to write your narrative. Just love those tombacs and their design patterns. So individualistic.

John

:wow:What a great day you had :clapping: you did very well and hung with the mighty "dynamic duo" of cellar hole hunters my friend :notworthy:Dave and Todd will have a lasting impression and respect of the name Tooper Bri I'm sure :cheering:

In all seriousness though you did great Brian and I'm very happy you knock a few first off your bucket list . The copper screams Connecticut copper all day , a better close up will help but i'm leaning toward some of the 1786 reverses but would need the close up to confirm it . The "machined etched" tombacs are the "ooh-lala" of tombacs and are uncommon to find , nice! lastly the knee buckle some like yours have the iron center pin with iron (anchor shaped) chape and the two small "spike-like" prongs for tongues as yours looks like it did. Again another nice find !

Be on your game in two weeks because HEAVYMETALNUT and Thiltzy will surely show up to play!

Dan

Impressive bunch of finds Brian! It is hard to see in that pic but is that crust on the copper that could come off with a tooth pick?...or is it smooth? Congrats on a memorable day!

Great looking relics there. I love that tombac button, I haven't seen one with that particular pattern on it. Nice buckle fragments and awesome state copper. Fantastic day out there!

Nice Job Bri! Dave & Todd are fun to hunt with. Just watch out for the yellow jackets!

I love the knee buckle!!! That's one on my bucket list!!! Beautiful tombacs too!

Thanks guys!

I'll bring that copper along for the next hunt Dan. I probably took 30 pics to get that detail to show.
I wondered the same thing Drew. It's a bit crusty, maybe from being so deep? I was just happy to get the square nail out of it and keep the iron mostly intact. Maybe I'll poke at it a bit with a toothpick and see if it cleans up, but I'm still new with these finds and would rather hold back.

Wow Trooper those are excellent finds absolutely beautiful buttons and always nice to find a large copper! It must have been exciting hunting great spots wit such a great group of guys!

You are becoming quite the detectorist man. Keep up the good work.

I'm a big fan of buckles and tombacs! Nice day with great company, I'm sure!

Great day for you Bri. I am so glad that you could knock off three bucket list items. Watching others dig great pieces is just as exciting as digging them myself. Was a fun day indeed.

awesome tri-fecta bucketlister! was nice to hunt with you and see ya pull those great colonial items.yep i got my MXT back! loook out!