I have spent he last couple of days searching through a dumping pit. It took me ca 10 hours to complete the task. I found this pit by chance the other day. I went to a camp I have searched a few times and was going to check out the western part of the area but began with a stroll in the part I have gone over a few times. It was not many signals there and for some reason I walked to the forest outside of the camp, the complete oposite direction than I had planned. I reached the end of the forest and hadn`t picked up a single signal on the stroll when I spotted a depression in the ground and swept the Fisher across it. Lots of signals! I opened it up and sure enough, German bottles, and three zink buckets lay just below the moss. I dug for ca six hours before I had to leave and was pretty happy with the haul. Of course the amount of broken bottles and porcelain and rusted food tins was enormous but I had found a medical tray which I filled with gaming pieces. I also dug up a brass bottle marked "Spiritus", the catch for a German belt, four rifle cleaning kits, a whole wire spool, a spork, messkit lid and a porcelain ashtray.
Today I went back there early even though it was raining hard, but I kept myself dry with the rain poncho. And every time the rain stopped for a moment the bloodsuckers swarmed me. I had nearly half the pit left so I kept at it until I had reached the bottom and cleared the sides and it took ca four hours before I could refill the hole in the ground. I put all the broken glass on the bottom so no animals would hurt themself. The pile of finds was maybe a bit larger than yesterdays and even if I didn`t find anything awesome I was happy with the loot. The result was two enamel coffee mugs, a couple of tent pegs, several medical- and perfume bottles, a very nice Jägermeister bottle and some partly melted bottles. I also dug up a large saw, a quarter of a EKM ("dog-tag"), 14-15 coins, another ashtray and some cream tubes. The coins was Finnish, a few German and Norwegian ones and one that travelled all the way from Greece up to the North. And more gaming pieces. 83 pieces in total!
The next six or seven days I won`t have much time for any expeditions as me and the Girlfriend is attending a hunters course which will take up most of our spare time. But when I will have time to dig again I have two or three smaller dumping pits next to this one waiting for me.

Today is summer Solstice so I wish all the pagans among you a great celebration. Skål! :)

It is getting late but I am finally having a chance to sit down and write a little something about the last couple of days relic hunting. Yesterday the Girlfriend was busy and began preparing for her field work so I snuk out to the Gebirgsjäger camp for a few hours searching. It was perfect weather, and I was armed with mosquito repellent and some fuel for when my energy burns out. My idea was to go over the area where I found three German helmets late last season, to make sure it wasn`t a whole pit full of them hiding out there under a root or something. Nearly six hours went by before I stumbled out from the forest. Warm and sweaty with twigs and bugs in my beard, loaded with rusted war junk. Like some strange Mad Maxian Lord of the Rings character. Buràrum. Not a single pit full of helmets was found. The finds I brought home this time was the front plate of a Wehrmacht radio transmitter, a Truppenfahrrad (Wehrmacht bike) trunk rack in great condition, a rifle cleaning kit and a spork. I had also found a cigarette case where the front part had survived 99% intact, while the bottom was totally rusted to the point of disintegration when touched, and a spare part holder for a Einheits lanterne.
Today came with an early start as Girlfriend was leaving for her field work. Luckily she won`t be gone too many days so I won`t starve to death or have to do the dishes.. ( I ll get stung for that one :D ). When the "goodbyes" and "be safes" had been said I went to the Gebirgsjäger camp again. This time the plan was to open a dumping ditch, and if time and energy allowed it check out one or two more potential dumping pits. The dumping ditch was very interesting because it gave off several strong and interesting signals, and when I had discovered it earlier I had pulled out an intact bottle and a empty M39 egg grenade. So I had hopes.
The ditch was of the typical construction, lots of rocks, a little sand and plenty of roots, and maaaybe some relics on the bottom. I pulled out some broken civillian porcelain, bottles and the first coin, but lots more rocks had to come out.  Between the rocks a metal sheet appeares and it is difficult if not impossible to move it. I manage to bend a part of it to reach under it but it is clear that the bastard need to be removed if any relics are to be found. So the next couple of hours I am clearing out the entire layer of rocks and roots and can finally  roll the +3 meter long "V" shaped piece of metal to the side of the ditch. My arms were on fire after that job so it was time to lay half an hour under a tree to eat and drink and enjoy life.
When I was back on my feet I began clearing out the rest of the ditch. Interesting little bits of relics piled up on the side as the scrap- and soil heap grew larger on the oposite side. It was a lot of both broken and intact porcelain, but everything civillian and rather uninteresting. Coins from Finland, Norway and Germany got dug up, together with a nice field torch and a Soviet soldiers mug. I removed a crushed bucket and under it was a whole bunch of stuff. A canteen cup made of bakelite, a "Westminster tobacco" ashtray, several ski goggles, one pair even unopened still in its pouch. Gaming pieces melted by fire got rescued and so did a pair of Gebirgsjäger boots in good condition. I removed a food tin and under it was a medal! "The Order of the Frozen Flesh" as it was called, the "Ostmedaille" for surviving the winter in East 1941/42. It was in ok condition too so I was pretty happy with that find. Now I took out a kettle and turned it upside down to empty the soil from it. The bottom was full of coins! I carefully picked them all out and it was 13 in total. Mostly Norwegian but a couple of Danish and Swedish ones as well! Very fun to find! 
When the ditch had been emptied and re-filled I went to check out the next one. It was a lot smaller but it too had been filled with rocks. It took me ca one hour to go through it but the only thing worth saving was a small medical bottle. 
The rest of the day I spent walking around in the forest, probably a few kilometers, picking up signals. I found a few more coins, a fishing lure and some tent pegs but I came to the point where a warm shower and a good dinner was more tempting than another pocket full of relics.
Tomorrow is a new day and prehaps I ll make a trip to the woods again, unless it gets summery and hammock conditions.

Until then,keep smiling :)

One evening before the weekend I went to hang out with two friends in the forest. It is always great to meet up with likeminded weirdos and tell tales about great finds and hidden valleys where you have to wade through the relics. Nothing much was dug up that evening,only a few Notek parts, rifle casings, M39 Eggs and buttons, but something funny happened when we were about to leave. We got close to the parking lot and one of the guys ran up on the walls of a earthen dug-put exclaiming "Just one more sweep. I want a medal before I go home!" "BleepBleep" goes his detector, and he falls to his knees and rips up the moss and just starts laughing as he pulls out a beautifully preserved Wound Badge in Black! 
The next day I went back there hell bent on also bringing home a medal. I spent some hours searching and digging but it did not result in any medals. The closest I got to one was a speedometer plate from a German vehicle. A very cool find so I was not too sad about not finding any awards. The other things I found was a single leg from a MG bipod, a broken Notek lamp, a mystery part that looks like a cover for a bike or motorcycle chain and a dataplate with a scheme about adding something to oil or fuel for vehicles.
During the weekend me and the Girlfriend did some relaxing and we also planted a field of potatoes so naturally my back has been destroyed the last couple of days. That did not stop me from bringing my backpack and detector out to the forest this morning. The only thing to do really was to teach the back a lesson so it will cooperate at least a couple more decades. Fight pain with pain :) I was gonna continue in the Gebirgsjäger camp and found a nice place to set up base for the day and threw down the backpack. The first signal I got from the detector was a bit weak or strange but I dug it anyway. I am so glad I did! I had to use the cutter on a root but when that was out of the way I saw a flowery shape. Finally an Edelweiss!! I think the last time I found one was back in 2015 so I was pretty happy. I put it back on the ground and double checked the signal and went hunting for more steel flowers. An hour later I returned to the backpack and hadn`t found any more Edelweiss badges. I had picked up one more of the small shoulderboard pips, a Finnish coin, some rifle casings and I had dug up half an iron cast oven.
After drinking almost a litre of water I began checking out what I thought could be a dumping ditch which I had discovered on one of the previous trips here. Under the moss and top soil was a layer of rocks that took some effort to clear away. Now I got to a layer of relics. Bottles, food tins, and all the usual junk. But in between was a few gems like gaming pieces, bakelite razors, ashtrays, buttons, porcelain plate, goggles, a few toothbrushes and tent pegs. Having dug down to the bottom in the section I had started with I noticed something in the edge of the ditch. Even if I knew what was in front of me it felt a little bit unreal. It always does when I find these actually. I grabbed it and yanked out a very nice looking German helmet! It was missing the leather liner but was otherwise in great condition. I filled all the small finds into it and turned back to the ditch. I removed a rock from the edge and THERE WAS ANOTHER HELMET!! This one even better looking. Lots of color showing and at least some of the leather liner intact. Unbelievable!
Now I needed a little break. I ate my food while listening to the birds and scouting the treetops for squirrels. For two,three hours more I kept removing rocks, cutting my way through roots while trying not cut myself on all the broken bottles that had been filled into the ditch. In the dark soil I spotted some black bakelite. An item I had wished to find since I began this hobby so many moons ago. A Wehrmacht whistle for NCO or Officer. I couldn`t help imagine and wonder about what battles this item could have taken part in. Super happy with that find. I dug up some more gaming pieces and rifle ammo and a civillian porcelain cup with some cool design on. I had gotten almost half way through the lenght of the ditch when it was time to wrap it up, collect my toys and head home. I did a quick check around the edges and the area around before I filled the ditch and strolled tired and happy towards the car. I couldn`t feel the back pain all day working in the forest, but 5 minutes after sitting down in the car seat it was there, so I hope there will be time for another trip very soon :D

​Stay muddy :)

Today I spent about six hours in the forest. Cloudy weather, around 10 degree Celsius and a little breeze to keep the bloodsuckers away made quite the perfect conditions for metal detecting. It is so good being out there with the complete absence of traffic noise. All one can hear there is birds, the river and a distant waterfall. And the happy beeping from the detector. Actually the Fisher makes more like a quacking sound, so it kinda falls into the bird category then. I began the search outside of the Gebirgjäger camps stable area and had a few signals almost immediately. It was part of a liner band from a German helmet, but I was not lucky enough to find the helmet anywhere around. A few minutes later I dug up a nicely preserved karbid lamp for a bicycle, and together with it was a broken mirror, a razor made of bakelite and a Sprengkapsel No. 8. The next hour I couldn`t find anything else than food tins, big nails, bolts, scrap metal and such but suddenly I knew I had an interesting item when I tried to free a long piece of metal from berry bush roots. The part belonged on a Truppenfahrrad, a military bike, and it was to fasten a MG34 barrel carrier to the bicycle frame. It looked to be in great condition. Having it out of the ground I swung the detector around and a few moments later I had the second part for the rack, and the clamp to attach it to the frame with. The detector picked up another signal around the same place now and under a piece of moss and not even a centimeter of soil was a Heer buckle. It was made from steel , and denazified but still a very nice find for me.
After lunch I walked around digging up garbage and decided after a while to pick up the backpack and move a bit more into the forest. I gave the ground where the backpack had laid a sweep with the detector and there was a nice signal. It was another beltbuckle! This one had the leather tab folded over the front, and I haven`t cleaned it yet as Im writing this so I don`t know if its denazified or not. 
Then I stumbled across a dumping pit that I could not resist opening up. It had lots of junk. A canteen, a whole pile of alloy food tins, bottles and wires. On the very bottom of the pit was two pedals from a vehicle so that I had something to put in the backpack for the work :D  Detecting my way through the forestI saw a hare jumping away from me and I dug up a few more things that could go into the back pack. A nice German tent peg, a gasmask cannister, a spurr and the lid from a bunkerstove. And even if I was now far away from the stables area the last signal I dug on today was a pile of horseshoes.
Back at home now and if it isn`t too late on the evening its time to go outside a plant potatoes and some other goodies in the garden.
​Happy Days! :)
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This last week we had a taste of real summer. Being this far north days with +20 Celsius is few and far between, but when we get them it is a signal to drop all work, throw the woolen underwear into the trees , arrange a cooler with good drinks and put up the hammock. Between the sun induced half-comas I experienced hanging there in the hammock I looked after our tiny vegetable garden and went exploring the creek together with the kitty and the Girlfriend. This bliss went on for a few days before clouds and colder weather drew in, and it was again time to head out to the forests for some treasure hunting.
I spent the rest of the week in the German camp where I had found lots of frozen dumping pits. Most had thawed by now so I could finally open some of them up. The area have the top layer covered by modern garbage from campers and rubbish thrown out from passing cars, and many of the pits were also half full of this crap. Underneath it all is sandy and rocky soil which preserves well, and a few relics from the wartime. So far I haven`t found anything great there. Its been mostly bottles and the usual bits of half-rubbish, but I am sure some good stuff will turn up. I have found some broken porcelain mugs and plates from both Heer and Luftwaffe, German and Norwegian coins, tons of food tins and some mystery bits I suspect might be from some kind of weapon. I also dug up the seasons first Kraftstoff barrell top, a small and quite intact shaving mirror and an empty M39 egg handgrenade. The best find I think was a nice little American 37mm shell casing. I really wonder how that found its way into a German dumping pit, prehaps it came from the Lendlease given to the Red Army and a German soldier brought it back from the front..We ll never know though.
I also had an amazing close-encounter with Nature itself one of the days. I was moving down from a plateau into a ravine when a quite large and almost entirely white owl flew through the ravine and passed just a few meters from me. It was such a stunning moment, and only second or third time in my life I see an owl in the wild. The coming week wont have much vibes of summer according to the weather folks, so I have taken down the hammock and finding my rain poncho and getting ready for some more trips.
I hope you all have a great time :)