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Rust & Gold

5/15/2016

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I needed a trip to the forest again today so I sped off after having breakfast and coffee. I went towards the mountain and checked a couple of sites I had been told might have good rust,but I found only a "modern" landfill. I did a test dig there but found only garbage from the 70`s and 80`s. A friend of me lives in the area I was, and he had told me about a interesting site so I called him up. He gave me directions and would meet up with me there. Half hour later or so I was busy digging a signal which turned out to be a german karbid lamp when I heard him coming through the forest. 
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On the site had been both a POW camp for Soviets and a WH/Org.Todt camp. The Soviet slaves in this camp had worked on the road and railroad and was probably moved further north to another camp as the work progressed. It was a great site full of signals and dumping pits. These rusted old O.T marked ovens was scattered through the forest, some visible and others overgrown by moss and bushes. For a few hours we kept walking around but didn`t have any great finds. The most interesting ones was a Norwegian coin from 1902 and a small casing with a caliber I have never seen before.
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I emptied a dumping pit but the only "good" stuff there was a few bottles between a ton of food tins. We found other bits prooving German activity here such as small clasps from different equipment, horseshoes, k98 casings and stripper clips. Definately a place to do some more searching.
As we walked out of the forest to the bank of the river we spotted a large brushfire on the other side of the river which we later found out had been put out by the firefighters.
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My friends main interest is not old rust as I like to search for. This guy is looking for much finer metals. Down by the river we stepped into his domain. The detectors and shovels was swapped out for plastic pans. We were going to look for gold. He has been doing this for years and is highly skilled. He knows what to look for and how to separate the gold from rocks and sand. It was really interesting being introduced to this kind of hunting. Ofcourse the river is freezing cold and the boots not so waterproof I would like them to be,but that was quickly forgotten about as I tried to learn how to move the gold pan. It looks very simple but it wasn`t that easy to get it right. For sure a skill that needs to be developed. It was a joy watching my friend do pan after pan finding some tiny pieces of the precious metal each time.The small gold was collected by "vacuuming" the bits up with a small plastic bottle. Very fascinating stuff, and I fear this might steal time from hunting rust this summer. Seeing the first little specks of gold in the pan I was working with really made me think about Klondyke and all the old western movies I watched growing up.
All in all a great day outside.
Happy Hunting my friends:) 
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Gold found over several months:
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Bottle Day

5/11/2016

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Had a weird start on the digging today. When I was digging the first signal of the day,ca a kilometer from where I parked my car I noticed I had lost my pin pointer,a massive crisis! I searched my way back to the car with no luck,and then walked slowly back again,trying to remember the route through the forest and luck was with me,suddenly I spotted the pin pointer in the grass.
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The first signal I dug up was some parts of leather straps of german origin, and when I closed the hole and moved on the detectors display box fell off! I tried getting it in place again using twigs but that did not work at all. Frustrated I thought the relic gods was telling me to go home, but I didnt want that,I wanted to dig. So I had to try find the black little screws that had come loose and fallen off and really,the relic gods sent me to the right spot and incredibly I found one of the screws and could attach the box to the rest of the detector again, how lucky was that!!??
 I strolled around searching for any good signals, dug a few but found nothing but rusted food tins and some k98 casings for a while, but then there was a large signal, ofcourse under some thick roots. I managed to dig around the roots and had found a dumping pit which I spent some hours cleaning out. It was mostly bottles and food tins there, but as I collect bottles the backpack became heavy.
Around the dumping pit was lots of signals and I tried dig them all but it wasn`t really anything good to be found,,maybe tomorrow I ll have more luck.
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Mortar powder charge.
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Destroyed Esbit stove.
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K98 cleaning kit.
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The largest boot heel iron I ve ever found.
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A German Honey jar. "Reichsfachgruppe Imker. Gewähr für echten deutschen honig"
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Wehrmacht McMuffins?
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Lunch in German Positions

5/3/2016

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I woke up this morning when one of the cats snuggled up next to my head,and as I moved a bit to use the kittin as a pillow sharp pains jolted through me. My muscles was all messed up from yesterdays digging,and I know there is only one remedy for that, more digging. I prepared some food and coffee and went to some german positions by the Fjord. 
It is a small fortified position overlooking the village and the harbour. It consists of nothing more than some trenches,two small caliber cannon/mg positions and a few dugouts and it saw no action during the war. There is not much to find in the area either but I like going there. Some of the elders in the village has told me they threw away some helmets and MP40s there when they were kids playing "war" in the positions,so I have a tiny hope to find those :D
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Kilometers of wires and fences is scattered in the area making it a bit frustrating to search there, nails and ammo casings as well. The position seems to have had a small kitchen because in one of the larger dugouts I have found cutlery and several kitchen related items. 
I sat down with my food and coffee in one of the cannon/mg positions before I continued searching a few hours. The first signal after I ate was strong and from some "quality" metal and when I opened the soil and saw the shape of the find my heart raced faster,but only for a second. A toy gun, ofcourse the first weapon I find in the valley is a toy :D It is an old toy though, so I am happy with the find.
Walking back to the car later I noticed the mosquitoes was massing around me so I made sure to do a stop at the pharmacy for some repellent.
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Sunny Monday

5/2/2016

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It is Monday and for many of you that means the start of another week of work. Luckily for me I live in a fantasyworld so I spent the day searching the forests. The weather was just perfect today,all blue sky and sunny. I went to the forest where Org.Todt had a stable during the war, and in the liberation days the area was used as a capitulation/dumping site. In parts of the forest only the top ten centimeters was possible to dig as the ground below is still a solid iceblock, but some parts on the sunnier side of the forest the ice was all gone. I dug out three smaller dumping pits,and one of them was rather deep,ca 2 meter. I didn`t have much luck with the finds but half a dog-tag made my day. In one of the pits 2-3 live detonators and a few not so live detonators saw daylight again between broken bottles and whatnot. I placed them all in the bottom of the hole when I had emptied it and started refilling it to make sure no kids or newbie diggers will ever find them.
I had moved in a semi-circle through the forest and when I got back to the river I turned of the detector,found a sunny and comfortable spot to relax and have some food before I headed back home to clean the finds.


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Here is the EKM after some cleaning, looks like the unit stamp says : " H. W. S and the last letter is  t or  F. "
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