Civil War relic hunting

[micmccon]

I am interested to learn people's tactics for finding areas to go detecting. I was thinking that doing what everybody else isn't doing might have some merit but I am new at this and have no stats or real finds yet. Just started swinging my detector a few days ago and have a pile of junk items but no good finds. Any suggestions on how to proceed?

[Digger_O'Dell]

In my experience I've found that doing what others are not is usually what they are doing! LOL. First off, check into laws and regulations in your area. Many places of known historical activity are banned from detecting. The next step is to research your area. Look for old maps, historical accounts, newspaper articles, etc for potential sites. Most public areas have likely already been detected hard, but may be a good start. But if you can find something like a possible old encampment or battle site on private land try to get permission to hunt there. That will significantly increase the odds of finding stuff.

[micmccon]

I did just that yesterday. Got land owner's permission and went out for my first excursion. I found what I believe is my first relic! I thought I had just found junk but it turns out that one thing I found is a piece of a cannon ball. Totally stoked now! I had looked at an old civil war map and compared it to Google Earth and narrowed down a place with trees and no house (i.e. not bulldozed). I might have to go back there and try again. I thought it was junk!

[micmccon]

Here is the shell fragment I found. I looked it up online and I believe this is a cannon ball.

[micmccon]

I thought I would post an update to this thread since I returned to the site and found more stuff. I found half of a horse shoe and the metal rim of a wagon wheel also.