Today it was exellent weather, a rare +25 degree Celsius and not a cloud in sight, it was a light breeze so it was no time to waste sitting in the sofa. We drove to the old Gebirgsjäger capitulation site and ended up spending a good few hours there. A storm in December had torn down lots of the trees so the area was almost unrecognisable. We didn`t find much interesting things, but a small patch between some trees and bushes gave lots of nice signals. Spread around was several buttons from a German uniform and a Zeltbahn, some coins and we also found a couple of game pieces from the small games soldiers could get, like chess or backgammon. We also found a "spork", but Im not sure it is German it looks shorter than all the others I ve found.
Further up in the forest near the river we had a massive signal and it was a large object just below the grass but going deeper underground. After some exhausting digging half the item was visible but it was still impossible to get it out from the ground, prehaps because of all the rocks around it or the bottom part of it might still be caught by the ice which goes deep into ground during winter. It might be some kind of oven, or maybe a cabinet. We ll go back in a few days with new energy and when the sun has tawed the ground a bit more and find out whats down there.

Not a second too late spring finally did arrive. It is earlier than the last two years but later than 2015 when I began digging April 14th. It is anyway warm and nice here north now and my favorite relic hunting spot is free for snow and ice. Me and Girlfriend strolled to the Gasmask mountain around lunchtime today and got stuck searching and digging there for hours. The first thing we noticed when we arrived was that someone had been here before us, probably before snowfall last season, and they had made a mess. Instead of refilling their holes they had just thrown all the rust and broken glass around. It didn`t look very nice at all but lucky for me they had left a large pile of the lovely orange Losantine bottles and some nice intact MG drum magazines. 
I spent some time going through the thrown around rust and picked out a few more nice bits and while doing that I heard the breathing sound from the Harbour Porpoises and we were so lucky to get to see 5 of them swimming around close to the shore. 
One of the holes the other diggers had left open looked to still be full of relics so I found the shovel and dug it for a couple of hours. I found lots more Losantine, some MG bolt bodies  magazines and gasmask bits. A few nice medical bottles and bakelite k98 oilers went into the bag and I got a couple of "mystery" bits as well which will be fun to try find what is. Soon both the backpacks I had brought had been filled with goodies and we had grown hungry so we went back home, but I ve had a long winter so tomorrow the day will be spent out there.
It was good to smell the fresh soil again:)

Yesterday morning the world was covered in a few cm thick layer of snow, but the temperature was mild enough to take the detector out for a last stroll. I wanted to check out a forest to see if it might be a place to begin the next season in a few months. After a little stroll and a bit of a climb and a struggle through some shrubbery we reached the forest where it 75 years ago had been some German activity. The forest was wet from the snow so we were soaked even before getting to turn on the detector. We immediately saw rust scattered around the trees. Barrack stoves, buckets, roof sheeting and car tires littered the site. The Fisher gave off good and interesting signals quite often. I only dug two or three signals and they were all food tins, but it looks good for next season for sure. Between a few large pines relics peeked out from the moss. Bottles, metal and porcelain on the surface hints of a large dumping site and a bit further away we could spot a large soup kettle from the camp kitchen. The weather changed rapidly between partly blue and sunny to dark grey with heavy snow, it was very fascinating really. After a few hours strolling around the forest we decided enough was enough and found our way back to the car and headed back home to dry clothes and warm ovens.
Before we got home we drove a little extra and made a stop by a couple of Soviet POW memorials standing by some cabins to make some pics and pay our respects to the memory of the Red Army soldiers who suffered and died in one of the many POW camps that once filled the valley.

The last three nights the temperature have been between 5 and 10 degree below zero and it was extra frosty outside this morning. Me and Girlfriend made a trip to the Gebirgsjäger capitulation site to pick up another one of the metal plates which I think might be from a German vehicle. I brought the detector just in case it was still possible to do some digging. Strolling towards the site the detector picked up a signal here and there and luckily only the top 5 cm of the ground had frozen hard, but still not hard enough to not be able to dig. Halfway to where the metal plate should be I found a very nice and strong signal and after a bit of digging it became clear it was a dumping pit. 
It was a bit chilly at first but after removing all the top soil I had gotten warm and didn`t notice the beginning winter anymore. Out from the soil came nails, barbed wire bits, rusted food tins, a few Fallschirmleucht signal flares and lots of beer bottles. Many of the bottles was nicely marked on the bottom and the pile of them grew steadily. 
After finding the bottom of the pit I began searching the sides and for a while I thought I had found another helmet. I could feel a round shape with the same thickness of helmets, but the more I dug around it, it became clear it was a large bucket or a barrell band and in the end I pulled out a barrell band.
While I had been searching through the pit Girlfriend had kept warm wandering around with the detector picking out some good signals but sadly we found it was only modern rubbish when digging it after we had refilled the now empty dumping pit.
As the days here North is rapidly growing shorter we called it quits as the sun passed behind the mountain and we went to pick up the metal plate and carried it out of the woods.
If we get just a few more nights and days with these kind of cold temperatures the ground will be frozen and impossible to dig so Im hoping for a weather change tonight but I might not be so lucky and this might well have been the last dig of the season, but we ll know for sure the coming days.
Stay warm my Friends :)

It is getting colder and the snow is settling on the mountain tops so there is no time to loose. After morning coffee I headed out to one of the Wehrmacht camps for some rust hunting. The forest was wet and cold but the late autumn sun made it very beautiful. The sun rays made every raindrop and ice crystal sparkle like diamonds and the fog hung low between the trees,,truly spectacular.
As I started checking signals given by the detector my fingers was freezing but after some digging they warmed up and it didnt bother me so much. The first relics I found today was some aluminium food tins and a nice German axe head just below the moss. On the surface under some trees I found a pick-axe and a shovel and the next signals I dug was some buttons from a zeltbahn.
In a small dumping pit I found a large bolt, a K98 stripper clip, some crate parts, a key and some boot heel irons. I found an area with lots of strong signals, and after a few hours digging I was pretty sure it was where the camps kitchen had been. I dug out lots of barrell bands, several cast iron oven parts,bottles, a mess kit, lots of alu food tins and a ton of rusted tins. I also found some enamelled food bowls and some kettles.
The days are getting dark earlier and earlier so around dusk I gathered my stuff and spent a last hour wandering around locating and probing a few dumping pits for later digs, and doing that I found a mess kit lid stamped with some numbers, a piece which I think is the insides of a uniform cap brim and some amo casings.
The last hour it had rained quite a lot and when I drove home I saw that on the mountain tops and ridges the snow had crept further down towards the valley. The weather reports doesn`t look promising so this might have been one of the last days of digging this season, but we ll see, hopefully there will be time for more.
​Stay Happy my friends.

The last days it has been raining heavily and this morning it had finally stopped, but the mountain tops had gotten a white covering so we hurried out to the forest for a little search. I wanted to check out a few potential dumping pits we had spotted last time we were in the Gebirgsjäger capitulation site. The Fisher F5 was sweeping grass on the old forest road we walked on and a few hundred meters before the place I wanted to check out it gave off some good and interesting signals. One by one I checked them all. The first one was a bit funny, I just stuck the shovel in the ground, broke up a piece of the soil and there laid two nice K98 rounds, it was almost like opening a drawer and find some relics. The next signals was more rounds and also a couple of stripper clips.
While digging one signal I heard Girlfriend go "Waaaaooooo!!" I looked up and she pointed towards the treeline and just above the treetops a huge White-tailed eagle soared. It was an amazing sight, and it is not often I ve seen this magnificent creature as close as today. 
Girlfriend went off to see if she could spot where it had landed while I dug some more. When she returned I had dug out a German tent peg, a few more K98 casings, some uniform buttons and a whole bunch of nails and wire bits.
When there were no more signals to check we strolled to what looked like dumping pits. I dug the two where the Fisher gave good signals but other than a large horseshoe it was no interesting bits but rusted trash.
After a little break having some food and tea we went into the bushes to pick up one of the metal plates which I believe is from some German vehicle, which I ll make something from, and we carried it out of the forest and back to the car. By now we was a bit wet and cold so we decided to jump in the car and drive home to make some nice lunch and clean all the rust out of the car.
The weather report claims the winter is approaching fast now but I hope we ll get a few more trips out there before the season close.

Some fun :D :

Friday 13th today  but neither me or Girlfriend is very superstitious so after breakfast we went back out to yesterdays dumping pit. I had hopes of getting the large steel plate out of the way to complete the dumping pit today. I spent half hour removing all the soil and already dug rust to clear the plate and find the edges of it. When that was done I began digging along the pipe laying atop the plate to find its end to make it possible to get it out of the pit. I hit a patch of rusted items, barrell bands, barbed wires and boot heel irons when I suddenly saw a familiar shape I didn`t think I`d ever see in the ground again. I cleared more of the sand away and was overjoyed to be looking at the brim of a German helmet. I dug away some more of the sand around it and could then easily get it loose. It looked a bit rusted but I am sure it will clean up good. 

After this amazing start I continued removing sand and rust from around the plate and the pipe, but the pipe kept stretching further and further. Lots of rust was around it so it looks like the pit is actually a long ditch. I dug out several rotted Petromax lanterns, tons of broken bottles, more boot heel irons and shovel blades. I was very curious what could be under the plate so I started tunnelling under it from one of its corners and after a while I could peek under it and see that it is not just a plate but the top of a kitchen stove. From under it I pulled out some tools, porcelain jars and some more melted bottles. I spotted a small round aluminium part and cleaned the sand away from it and it was a nice little field made ring! A fantastic little find..Not something one would expect on a Friday the 13th!
The hours had passed quickly and seeing that completing this ditch would take many hours if not days we decided to call it quits for the day. Girlfriend grabbed the shovel filling back the sand while I stacked all the dug rust in one of the empty corners so it ll be easier to continue digging this hole another time.
The rest of the weekend wil be spent cleaning rust and relaxing, but hopefully there will be more treasure hunting next week.
​Keep Smiling my Friends:)

Today it was time to clear out a few of the dumping pits I had started earlier this autumn, so around lunchtime me and the girlfriend headed out to one of the old  Wehrmacht camps. The weather was fine, a bit grey but perfect digging temperatures. 
The first pit was a shallow one which I had dug half of so it didn`t take too long to complete. It didn`t hold so many interesting bits but it had to be checked coz last time I had found two EKMs in it. After an hour and a half it was refilled and a few relics found their way into the backpack, a scissor and a tweezer, a large spanner, a beer bottle and two american made spark plugs. A few meter away from the pit we had a interesting but weak signal and when we dug it out we found a Norwegian coin from 1957.
​

We walked to the second half-dug dumping pit, one I had stopped last time I was in this camp. It soon proved to be much bigger and deeper than I had expected. For hours I kept digging it and it was full of rusted tins, enamelled bowls, field batteries, burned cloth, charcoal, a couple of shovels and several melted bottles which was very nice looking, and a field made copper ring! I kept fighting with a large piece of chain stuck in the ground, but in the end I got it loose and found that the pit might in fact be a whole ditch. I tried to find the bottom of the pit but a huge 2-3 mm thick steel plate lay down there and it seems there is stuff under it as well. It started getting dark so we decided to go home and return tomorrow to try get the plate out so we collected the interesting bits and refilled the pit.
While I had been struggling with the chain my girlfriend had wandered around with the detector and found a interesting signal for me to dig, (she appears to be too lazy to dig it herself) so we re-located that signal and removed alittle bit of the forest floor. Ca 15 cm down we found a aluminium food tin, and thought that was all, but ofcourse we double checked it with the pin pointer and it gave off some more signal. This turned out to be another dumping pit and we spent another hour digging it out, and I am so happy she had taken the detector for that stroll coz between some beautiful bottles we found not one but two Stalag tags!! Sadly one of them was too far gone to save, but the other one was beautiful and had a well made field repair. We also found two pocket knives, a POW made knife and a worn down Wellner butter knife. The last item we pulled out here was an awesome 1000 ml brown medical bottle.
 As we strolled back to the car the darkness crept in between the trees so we had completed the dig with perfect timing.
Unless there is snow storm tomorrow we ll be back for more digging:)
Stay muddy my friends, and Keep Smiling:)

The last few mornings the ground was white with frost so the digging season is definately near its end, so after breakfast I brought the detector and my girlfriend the shovel carrier out to the Gebirgsjäger capitulation site for a little dig. I had to complete a dumping pit I had started a few weeks ago and have a look for some more relics. 
On our way towards the dumping pit I checked every signal, but other than a pair of horseshoe bundles we only found a mystery part I suspect might be from a vehicle and some nails and barrell bands.
The dumping pit was a rather quick affair and yielded nothing more but a bottle and a spoon and fork. In the middle of the forest road we checked a great signal, and ca 10 cm below the surface we found a barrack stove. We didn`t dig it out, but will do that one of the next days I think, unless the winter hits hard before we get to it.
We moved further into the forest, a section of it I ve never really searched. We discovered a large civillian post-war garbage fill which might be worth investigating further another day as it might be dumped atop a german fill.
A few hundred meter deeper into the forest we saw some metal scattered around some trees. I got excited and ran over to it, and pulled some of them out from the half frozen grass. I am still not sure what they are from but I believe they might belong to some German vehicles, and some of them had bullet holes!! In the surrounding area it was alot of signals, but the only one we had time to check before heading home for dinner was some rubbish from the 1960s. Definately looking forward to have a closer look at this patch of the forest, hopefully the winter will wait another month :)
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Friday morrning I went to the Wehrmacht camp to search some more. The forest is full of colors and very beautiful these days, so it is wonderful spending time out there. Not very far into the forest the Fisher gave me a signal to dig, a strong clear signal. It was a small dump filled with old branches and when I removed them I  found the reason for the strong signal, a barrack stove. I moved it and checked the dump again with the detector and it gave a new strong signal. I dug out a small dumping pit with mostly food tins, but it was also a very nice porcelain dish down there with a strong and clear stamp. Awesome find! 
After some nails and trash I had another very strong signal. Under the grass was a lot of big rocks and fine sand and after a while I had removed enough of them to see what I had found. A Kraftstoff canister. It was rusted quite badly and had several holes in it, but it was fun to dig it out.
The next few hours I strolled around digging signals and a few small dumping pits but it wasn`t anyting iteresting n the finds departement, but the last signal I dug was a small pocket knife that ll clean up nicely.

Saturday it was no time for digging but Sunday, after morning coffee I heard the shovel and detector calling. I drove to the Gebirgsjäger capitulation site since its been a while since I did any searching there. I spent a few hours searching in the stables area, but that yielded nothing but a bunch of barrell bands and probably 25 kgs of horseshoes. I moved further into the forest and found a dumping pit. This was rather large but held very few interesting bits. A Rosodont toothpowder box still full, a couple of Losantin bottles, a butter dish with broken lid and a couple of cardboard boxes with K98 Mauser rounds.
I refilled the dump and continued up through the forest but had little luck. A uniform button here and a belt support hook there and a very small horseshoe, I think the smallest one I ve found.
On the way back to the car there was a weak and not so good signal but I decided to dig it anyway, I had my bets on it to be a nail or wire bit, but I wanted to be sure. I pulled out some circular piece of metal and thought at first it was a small harness O-ring but when I got it out from the soil I saw it was a German badge, a SA Sportsbadge. Not a bad end to the day at all. Next week will be a bit busy but I hope to get at least one day out there finding some more rusted bits:)
​Stay Happy my friends:)