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an adventure in metal detecting

Winter Blahs?

Snow-covered field with trees in the distance. An orange and yellow sunset is further in the background.

Winter comes quickly here in Canada.  One day you’re out detecting, the next day your knee high in snow.  So you store your equipment, pull up a chair by the fireplace and dream of the arrival of the “New Spring”.  This is when the Winter Blahs, or Blues if you prefer, will get you.  They’ll […]

Junk or Artifact?

A broken piece of angle bar lying on leaves. On the angle bar it says Eliz N.

To many it’s just a piece of worthless scrap metal, and I get that.  In fact, it was my first thoughts too when I unearthed it in one of my local parks.  But, despite my reservations, I cleaned off the dirt that had encased it for who knows how many years.  In a instant, this […]

When Nature Calls

A picture of a chickadee standing on a feeder. The feeder contains seeds

It’s Sunday, October 17th. The sun is warmly shining, and after two, (or was it three?), days of rain, the ground is nice and damp.  Perfect conditions for metal detecting.  Because as a Detectorist, or a fan of the show, you know that these conditions make for deeper penetration… This in turn can lead to […]

Historical Love Tokens

An image showing the front and back of an old coin, bent in an S shape. Thus, making it a love token.

Despite growing up in Scotland, I had never heard of, let alone seen, any historical love tokens made from coins. But here they were, popping up on most YouTube British detecting channels.  Could it be that these gifts of the heart are confined only to England?  Now that I think about it, I don’t recall […]

Sod Cutter circa mid to late 1800s

An image showing a freshly unearthed sod cutter lying on the ground.

I had little idea what it could be when my detector alerted loud and clear. I had my Bounty Hunter Tracker IV set to more or less ignore ferrous metals,  and for the most part it was doing a great job!  So unless it was a hoard of some description, it had to be a […]

1996 Canadian Toonie

The obverse side of a 1996 Canadian 2-dollar coin, showing wear on it.

I know this goes without saying, but I’m going to say it anyway, there’s history in everything. No matter what we unearth during a hunt, it has a story.  Regardless of age or worth, there could be a tale to tell, if we only take the time to find it.  Why am I writing this? […]

Anglo-Saxon Sword Pyrimid

Image of an Anglo-Saxon sword harness pyramid.

NORFOLK, ENGLAND, 2021 With locations such as Roundham Church, Castle Acre and North Elmham Chapel & Church (to name but a very few), the Breckland Area is certainly not shy in showing-off its historical past. And in August of 2021, a, yet to be identified, metal-detectorist took his find to a National Finds Advisor with […]

.303 Casing

Bullet's headstamp

I unearthed this partial casing in a public park not too far from my home. On cleaning off the dirt, I was happy to see that there was a legible Headstamp located on the bottom which bore the code “DAC 1942 VII” .  This was fortunate, as not all headstamps are able be read due […]

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