Recently, I joined the Minelab family of owners. Up until that point last month, I had no thrilling finds.
A couple of trips to some civil war sites yielded a couple of bullets and percussion caps which I thought was excellent.
In the early mornings or evenings when I got bored, I messed around with my new machine around my home property, 9 acres, mostly woods. To my astonishment I started to uncover civil war era musket bullets (3 ringers and cleaners) and small round shots.
About a week into searching my land, I started finding confederate flat buttons...pretty awesome, huh? Wait a minute. At the same time I was digging shotgun shells which was somewhat frustrating. A long-time Minelab owner friend said I MUST dig those brass signals, so instead of becoming frustrated with the prospect of wasting time digging those shells, I made it into a game. I refused to quit detecting on an outing until I dug at least 3 shotgun shells.
Well one late afternoon, it was starting to get dark, I had two shotgun shells in my pocket, and I was tired and hungry. As I was searching for my 3rd shell so I could go eat dinner, I got a screaming solid brass signal which I thought was a shallow shell.
My game paid off with a brass plate which I've been told is a very rare confederate officer's horse decor piece, probably South Carolina. If it is, one veteran relic shop owner claims to have seen one go to auction a few years ago and sold for upwards of $4000, and that one was in terrible shape. My Minelab buddy told me this is a once in a lifetime find. I'm a Minelab owner for life now.
Clay - Virginia, USA