Mudwiggling through 2016 (part 2)

A great yarn and the sort of success story we all love to hear even if it makes us a tad jellyarse!

Going stir-crazy being domestic, so slipped the leash and headed for some new mud this morning.

Was generally pretty slurpy (as expected) but there was the usual sand and shell base about 4" down which was the beach before the land upstream was turned into pasture and it silted :frowning: Saw a report last year which, based on sediment cores, estimates sediments in the Bay are currently building at 2-3kg per square metre each year… Or around 100,000 tonnes of silt annually.

I digress.

Possibly due to the slurp factor, this bay hasn’t seen a lot of coils, and pickings were plenty around the pontoon, although I was getting thoroughly sick of lead and old decimals by the time the silver ring showed up! With the exception of an early 1900’s button and a '56 sixpence, the time machine was stuck solidly at no earlier than 1967. I’d normally expect at least a penny from somewhere like this. Weird.
Just the one (1) ring pull in 3 hours and no flakes of beer can, just one good target after another - This is how detecting should be!
The brass ring is handmade from a large brass nut, the face is one flat of the nut with the rest filed back - It’s one of the nicest home-mades I’ve found, in terms of workmanship and finish.


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Now you have cleaned out the scrap send me the GPS😁

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lots of targets scoop must have been red hot must be a kg of lead.the old gold might just be that bit deeper on the clay

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Smidge over 3kg… Planning on going back with the 15" WOT, more to cover area than anything.

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Looks like a great day out - that chunky silver ring came up nice and the brass one is a really interesting find - I bet it got the heart rate up a bit when you first saw it!!

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Wooo that is a haul of loot!
That brass ring would’ve got me worked up :laughing:
What does the ring weigh?

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Yeah, I had a twitch when it came up. Mud was so thick I only knew it was A) a ring, and B) gold in colour. Was not to be though.
The silver is fairly thin, just clicks over 6.5g

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After the solid NW blow over the last few days, I headed out in search of some cuts.
Resulted in another couple of hundred km’s burnt driving to every sanded in beach in the district - so back into my new-found productive sludge pit.
Much more pleasant this time, having hosed myself with sandfly repellent!
Straight into the small change again, but having cleared out a lot of the surface clutter, the time machine started working again.
Couple of muskies in among the lead, two old soldered shank buttons and possibly a military sling hook? Florin, shilling, sixpences (All cupro though) and a 1921 thruppence. Nice. been a long while since I had this design in the pouch. The mud spirits obviously sensed my delight at the wee silver, and saw fit to hand over a gold. Perfect day.
Picked up an old whiskey(?) bottle base on the way back to the car - biggest piece I’ve had to date. I’ll find a whole bottle one day.

Hope to do some dirt this weekend too.

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Great ring - me likes - the hook is probably a military belt hook.

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some good stuff,gold is always special.

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Damn thats a lot of lead! Nice gold and silver though

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Well done mate you can empty the scrap bin :grin:

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@chris Scrap bin had got to half full - was starting to wonder if I was holding the detector back to front.
@Lammerlaw - Thanks for that. Locks in nicely as WW1 - WW2 BD belt hook.

Great haul Mudwiggle, nice looking gold as it always is !

Been too long away from the mud with various crises demanding time, but made the effort today after the blow and worked the shallows of a pokey little bay. Lotsa buttons (my first two 65th), buoy from a bosuns whistle (cool), couple of muskies and a monster 9" ships nail.
One of interest is the small cal. pistol ball and a rifled bullet of the same cal, both found in the same patch of mudstone. Possibly trying out the new issue guns/ammunition?

Any ideas about the brass plate with two holes? Looks like the thing used to tension tent guy ropes.

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Nice bit of history there MW. It’s great when you can do a bit of research on your finds also. Well done

HH

Wow… nice pokey bay great to see you back hunting

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After being called out to check a possible radioactive WW2 Lancaster Bomber compass being offered for sale in a local second hand shop (it was, very) Just Like The Movies… I decided to carry on south and hit the coast with the coil

Headed out to the flats again with the ATP in hand, taking the big 15" coil for a run to blow the cobwebs out.

850 silver ring was the highlight, what I thought might be a junker, next to it, turned out to be a bundaberg or similar cap that had gone funky. Bit of munitions and a full house of old decimals (50,20,10,5,2,1)
Quickly disregarded the Longchamp 1948 tag when I realised it was alloy.
Interesting hunt, with enough to keep me interested.

Lifted the remains of a very worn Skelton gumdiggers spade - left that in the hole as too big to lug around for several hours.

Bullet slug is 7/16" dia, 1 1/4" long, rifled.

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Well done Mudwigging . Unusual ring at .850. Known as European or Continental Silver and you don;t see a lot in NZ.
HH