August 12, 2025 More Surface Finds This summer has been a real luxury for me as it relates to metal detecting. I have had an open and unseeded portion of a farm field to “Play” on all summer long. The window of opportunity is usually in spring, between, dry enough to walk on, and up until the crop comes up. Then again in the fall after the harvest comes off, hopefully the land has been worked or tilled, and freeze up. These are windows of opportunity whose time allowance can vary wildly. So having about 20 acres of free and available farm land to work on all summer and on a spot where there are two known homesteads…. Well this is a rare treat indeed. River Lots 151 and 152 pay off again. The land owner has first mowed and sprayed the weeds to maintain weed control and just last week, he went at it again, but this time with a disker, also known as a disk harrow. It makes walking around the field a bit more difficult because of the soil clumps it creates but a few good rains will melt the clumps and should expose glass, ceramics, metal and whatever happens to remain sitting on top. We had a good rain a few days ago. Today, I did a casual walk through the area where I know the homesteads were. It paid off nicely. Nothing super special but all nice surface finds nonetheless. The purple glass must have been really nice glassware in its day. NAWAR is part of the word “Chinaware”. I’m waiting for a few more rains and I hope to bring a group out again to comb the area. See: June 21, 2025 - An Exceptional Group Hunt : along with most of the posts for July, 2025 . Roger Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disc_harrow

August 30, 2025 A Second Group Hunt in 2025 (Part 1) A Second Group Hunt In 2025 (Part 1) The call went out again: Group Hunt ! Who’s all in? The first group outing was a lot of fun and very successful. See: June 21, 2025 - An Exceptional Group Hunt. Going two months forward to today, there were 7 detectorists: Steven, Mark, Ray, Randy, Monty, Robin, and I. Mark is missing from the group photo. I believe these to be the core of our most dedicated detectorists. A few others could not make it today, but there will be other hunts and everyone is welcome to join in. I must say that everyone did an incredible job at finding the biggest and the minutest artifacts! One possible pottery sherd was found, and spotting such a small piece in between rows of wheat chaff, is nothing but remarkable!!! I don’t know who took the time to pick it up but well done. The biggest and heaviest single item has to go to Monty with a 5 ½ lb, 9 ½ inch by 1 ½ inch solid metal rod. Now that must have rang up loud on your metal detector. My sympathies Monty… you know our motto: You dig it, you lug it back! In total, approximately 65 lbs. of material came out of the second field that we detected upon. Because of the sheer volume of material found; (Roger, what did you expect with seven detectorist going flat out), I split the post into two parts. The most notable items of the day came out of River lot # 152 were we, as a group, had previously discovered remnants of an otherwise unknown homestead. Here is a partial list of some of the more notable items found from the first set of pictures. Bullet 5.753 grams .8cm across Shotgun shells: - Dominion No. 12 Regal (1920’s) - Eley London No. 12 Gastight (1926 – post WWII) Half round: Meyer Bain The “Ankh” looking item is possibly part of a hinge from a large trunk. It is nonmagnetic, possibly brass. There are harmonica parts as well as a piece of a jack knife. The 1946 Canadian penny was found by Robin. Horseshoe nails were found on both sites. Actually, they are not easy to find. Hand tools were also found. Finally, here is a reminder to all about the Beach Bonanza 3 at Bird’s Hill Provincial Park on Saturday, Sept 20th. Contact Robin at O.K. John Metal Detectors for signing up information and much more… h t t p s : / / w w w . o k j o h n m e t a l d e t e c t o r s . c o m / ? s r s l t i d = A f m B O o p 5 9 y hPArnFad_izhZR_9yhZTBJEQt56b3jNLu-mOsczCibQ2np Roger Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ankh https://cartridge-corner.com/shotgun2.htm

August 30, 2025 A Second Group Hunt In 2025 (Part 2) Welcome to Part 2. In this, the second post, there are 3 separate panels shown of finds. It has also come to my attention that the original farmer that lived on what is today a wheat field, did some blacksmithing and farm machinery repair work on the side. No wonder that there’s metal everywhere. The farm was viable and operating until, and I’m guessing here, the late 50’s or early 60’s then torn down as neighboring farms expanded. Most of the material found here seems to be big iron that covers a wide range of dates, including relatively modern material. The big brass water tap (round handle missing) is definitely more modern. Of particular interest are the two grist mill wheel parts. Oh, and they fit together nicely. Now all we have to do is find the remaining pieces... Right? Good luck with that! The big spike looking thing was a close contender for weight and size to Monty’s solid metal rod. And can anyone tell me, does finding a half a horseshoe equal to half lucky? Those triangular swather cutter teeth are certainly made with a very different alloy in the steel because they ring up so strong with the metal detector. It’s one of those hits that you just can’t pass over. Today, the entire assembly piece showed up with one tooth left on it. These swather teeth show up everywhere on farm fields. I’ve even found them in the old church yard in Letellier. Also found was a large round lead piece with two iron bolts sticking out of it along with quite a few pieces of lead. Lead must have been used extensively in days gone by. I have found lead before, mostly on older sites. Amongst all of this big iron, there were colorful glass and ceramic pieces, a buckle which is probably horse tack and a unique looking grinding wheel part of sorts. Let’s not overlook the radiator cap and some strange looking square rock and the round chert. The pottery shard is the highlight and by far the oldest item. I’ll eventually be bringing it to Sid Kroker to confirm its authenticity. Thanks again to all that participated. I especially like the end of a hunt where we can all sit around and chill and talk metal detecting. It was a good day. Roger