I am excited to introduce a new small group (<8 hunters) guided metal detecting service that I will be providing in Virginia and England.  The name of my organization is History Hunts, LLC (website: http://historyhunts.com) I have a small Virginia Civil War hunt on a large piece of historical land planned for the last weekend of this month (Saturday,Sunday).  This hunt will have only 6 hunters and is already booked. 

History Hunts Metal Detecting Tours Information:

Offering fully guided, small group metal detecting relic hunts on large Civil War, Colonial and United Kingdom lands.

These hunts:

• will never include more than 8 hunters
• include all transportation (once you get to the lodging spots or airport)
• include all hunt meals (breakfasts, snacks, and lunch)
• include history of site packet prior to hunt to aid you in your pre-hunt research efforts
• will not guarantee bucket-loads of relics, coins, etc. due to the fact that they are all true hardcore relic hunts
• include documentation of all your finds with exportation processing where needed
• allow you to keep everything you find in the U.S. In the U.K, all finds that qualify as Treasure go through a review prior to export.

Qualifications of your guide:

• 10 years relic hunting
• 2 tours of England (3rd sched for Nov)
• Large land connections in VA, LA and England
• Very passionate about history and research
• Very knowledgeable about artifact identification and site histories

The first Civil War History Hunts Tour is scheduled for September 26-27, 2009 and will be held on a large tract of very historical land (woods,pastures and fields) in Virginia.  

If you are interested or would like more information about future hunts, check out http://historyhunts.com and/or shoot me an email - This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . 

History Hunts, LLC – Historyhunts.com membership is exclusively for current and previous participants of History Hunts. This website is built to provide a private place for current and previous history hunters to look up and discuss specifics regarding our lands, finds, research, etc. It is for that reason that parts of this site is NOT open to the public.

After hunting that first productive spot for a while we usually moved on in search of “greener pastures”.  Nine times out of ten, before the hunt was done, you can guess where we would always wind up.  Right back to that productive spot we had started with!  It is for that reason that my hunting partners and I always repeat the saying, “relics are where you find them”, while out for a day of detecting.  This helps us to keep the right mind set in the field.

The saying also holds true when revisiting old “hunted out” sites.  One great thing about a hunted out site is that you know it held relics and/or coins at some point in time.  As y’all know, time changes things.  New field conditions and new technology alone can make an old field seem new again.  You can bet that if relics were found there in the past that there are still relics waiting to be found there today.

I recently read a book that documented several of the hoards of gold and silver coins that have been recovered in the UK over the past couple of hundred years.  One thing rang true in almost all of the stories.  Any given field or small area that had given up a hoard at some point in time would eventually end up giving up another one down the line.  Even those that didn’t yield another outright hoard would most definitely yield several more coins scattered from the original hoard.  Once again, “Relics are where you find them.” 

One final example takes me back to a recent Civil War relic hunt with my huntin’ buddy, GeoDiggerMike.  This was a three day group hunt and by the afternoon of day 1 we had found a nice little hill top that was giving up some nice camp items, dropped Minie’ balls, buttons, knapsack hooks, tent grommets, etc.  On the following day we decided to leave the productive hill in search of greener pastures. Late in the afternoon of that day we started to remember our old saying and regretting having ever left our first honey hole – that hilltop from day 1. By the third day, you guessed it, we were back on the hilltop.  Upon return to our first little honey hole we were surprised to find that quite a few other relic hunters had made it their honey hole as well.  Well, we hunkered down and wouldn’t you know it, we started finding good relics again.  We hunted till dark that day and found good artifacts up until that point.  Lesson learned once again! 

So next time you find yourself walking away from a productive spot just remember that relics really are where you find them. Happy huntin’!

Just want to let y'all know that if you've got anything for sale or trade, feel free to list it on our Marketplace Forum.  This is open for dealers and individuals alike.  All you've got to do is become a member of this site.  If you're already a member then you're good to go!  I've got to do some closet cleaning soon myself.

A few months ago, my wife and I headed down south to take care of my sweet mama after she had a little back surgery.  While we were down, my old hunting buddies GeoDiggerMike, Keith and RJ invited me to join them for a night hunt at an old plantation site that had also served as a Civil War Union encampment.  A night hunt was in order due to the hot and humid Deep South weather!  Good times and metal detecting with old friends – how could I pass it up? 

So as the sun started to go down, Mike and I set out on our journey to the hunting spot.  Once there we met up with Keith and RJ and headed out into the field.  The ground was pretty dry but the grass had just been cut and was nice and low.  Pretty soon we started finding a Minie’ ball here and a Burnside sharps there.  We kept our walkie talkies handy to alert the rest of the team of our finds.  It gets exciting when you hear that radio come on and someone says, “got a couple of bullets over here” or “just found a button”.  As it grew dark we took a break to re-fuel and grab our head lamps.  By this time our pouches were pretty heavy with Civil War bullets of several different types. 

Once back at the trucks we realized that Mike’s car key was missing!  Now we had a whole new hunt on our hands.  It was pitch dark and the fields we had just crossed were HUGE.  So with our headlamps and detectors we set out on the search for Mike’s lost key.  We retraced our steps back to the main field with no luck.  After that we were walking up and down the field we had been hunting, gridding the area as good as could be expected in the dark.  I had set my detector down and was just hunting with my light and eyes.  After an hour, much to my relief, I spotted it!  At that moment I picked up the key and yelled out, “found it!” The boys thought I was kidding around so I had to say it several times before it really sunk in.  We all knew that with a field of that size, we might be looking for that key all night long.  Mike had been looking for the key with his detector and had just gotten a good surface beep.  He called us over to check it out.  When I walked up and looked down, right there half buried was nice dropped 3-ring Minie’ ball bullet!  Well Mike was generous enough to trade me his newly discovered bullet for 1 car key.  Pretty good trade if you ask me. 

With that out of the way, we could get back to relic hunting.  The rest of our hunt would yield more dropped bullets as well as a couple of other interesting Civil War relics.  Among these were a Maine state seal general staff cuff button, a Connecticut state seal coat button and a few well worn patriotic tokens that slightly resembled Indian head pennies.  All together we found close to 200 artifacts on that fine night.  Very special thanks must go out to Keith.  Without him sharing his site permission, none of this would have been possible.

With great friends, fresh air, and great finds, this was definitely a hunt to remember.

Below are the pictures of my finds from the search.