A Field full of Zunders

Most of the week passed without a chance to go out searching, but thursday morning I packed my gear and was ready to find the forest. I was about to lock the door when the phone rang. Stupidly enough I answered it, and of course it was more work. A long day.

Before leaving in the afternoon I made the boss swear that I had Friday off so I could finally spend a day searching for gebirgsjäger rust.

Now much of the snow had melted away, green shoots and sprouts were popping up in the sunny spots and the trees began to squeeze out leaves from their branches. I bet that within a week it is green all around. Since many of the local diggers are starting their season in this camp it is slim pickings when it comes to finds, so three hours in all I had was a couple of food tins, a signal flare and a german made lamp fixture.

I moved down a slope to where a few barracks had stood and next to them I discovered what might be a large dumping pit under some branches. There it was still deep frozen so I went around the field in front of the barrack foundations with my detector instead. I dug on some signals with the hopes of bayonets or guns, but luck was not with me. I found the handle of a jerry can, parts of an MG ammo box, something that looked like a field made lantern hanger and a part from a Notek lamp.

I opened up another iron signal and got a few tops from M24 Stielhandgranate sticks. The soil was black and wet so it wasn`t easy to spot any parts, but the detector insisted that I should keep digging. Other than the M24 tops I found several porcelain balls for the ignitor cords. And then the first bakelite mine fuze came out from the mud. The ZugZunder 42 that was used on Schu-Minen.

For the next hour I piled up a small mountain of those, at least a couple hundred pieces, all of them spent. Between them was a single ZZ35 and a whole bunch of Brennzunders, both for M24s and the M39 eggs. None of them intact. The aggressive soil had eaten away the thin metal.

After I had depleted the pit I took direction towards the car and on my way I dug up bits of a german backpack and a few rifle casings.

As I put the equipment into the car I saw that the pinpointer had gotten a couple of small holes on the tip, which will let water in and ruin the electronics. Luckily I can fix that.

The rest of the weekend was spent together with the GirlfriendWife, biking to some nice spots, laughing about squirrells trapping themselves in our birdfeeder and celebrating the Norwegian Constitution Day with a super tasty cake we made.

I am crossing fingers for more warm weather to thaw the ground (and days off work) so some real digging can be done soon, but some of my main hunting grounds is still buried in snow, so first I will be back for another hunt around the Zunder field.

Handle from a fuel can.

From a vehicle lamp I think.

For hanging a lantern.

Annoying hot rocks littering the area.

Forest monster.

A crushed MG ammo box.

Notek part.

ZZ42 fuzes.

Backpack bits.

Does anyone know who this maker is?

Rusted water seeping out of the frozen ground..I wonder whats down there.

Jaws.

Holes in the pinpointer..

..Luckily an easy fix.

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