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I guess everybody has been wondering what happened to the updates... well, Saturday was a mighty difficult day. Everywhere that we wanted to hunt, there were crops in. We got permission on a few new spots, but they didn't pan out much... Rick and Randy managed a few minie balls, and Bill found a couple of nice ones and an excellent shell frag, but all I had for the day was one little old fired Sharps bullet.
Furthermore, I walked about 10,000 miles yesterday, and I was slap worn out. Add to this a 16oz Margarita and a couple of beers, and nothing is going to get posted!!!
Sunday was a new day, though, and we had a site reserved for today. When we arrived on site, we found the grass to be very wet with dew. Bill and Rick went right to it, but Randy and I spotted them an advantage and waited for the sun to burn the dew off. Now, this was a good spot - which we had hunted in the Spring and found several .69 minie balls. We were hopeful that a few were left.
When I finished my morning nap, I headed out to see how everyone was doing... Rick had one bullet, but that was about it... not a good sign. I headed off in a different direction to start hunting. It was an awfully long time before I got a decent signal - an 88 on the Fisher. I dug down in the deep top soil - almost a foot deep, and popped out a nice US Belt Buckle!!! First hole I dug. Wow.
Now remember the first rule of Relic Hunting - if you walk right out and dig something good, you're done for the day, go back to the truck. There is, however, one way to negate the effects of this anti-mojo, and that is to quietly put the item in the pickup truck and forget you ever found it - which is what I did.
Eventually, the bullets started popping out. We each got a few bullets, and then the "one-armed bandit" started digging a deep hole. He was having trole finding the target, flailing around helplessly and struggling with the extreme depth of the target - it was a pitiful sight. The three of us plus the property owner were all standing over him, urging him on, but we could see he was growing weary. Just as I sensed that he was about to give up and dump the huge mound of dirt back into the hole, I relieved the poor devil and continued the digging. It wasn't long before I exposed the edge of what I knew to be yet another plate!!! Sure enough, Rick had found a nice Eagle Brest Plate.
Now Rick was certain that he was taking home the $20 at that point, and had it not been for the US Belt plate I had squirreled away in the morning, he most certainly would have! Sandbagging relics is normally considered to be "bad form", but you should have seen his face when I pulled it out from under the seat and handed it up to Bill.
All in all, it was an okay trip, considering the circumstances... we've certainly had better, but it could have been much worse. On the other hand, when the beans are harvested, we'll have plenty of good hunting to do.
I'll post some more pictures tonight!!!