A Heer Buckle & M39 Eggs
- Inka
- Sep 7, 2025
- 4 min read
Updated: Sep 9, 2025
It has been a beautiful autumn week here north. It was sunny and warm and if it hadn`t been for the yellow leaves falling to the ground and the dark evenings one could be led to believe it was still summer.
The autumn tourist rush has begun, so I had a few days of work, but I spent the other days in the woods.
I wanted to do a sweep with the Nokta Legend around a couple of barracks to see if it could pick up anything the Fisher hadn`t shown me.
It took a while before it gave off a beep, and it was a long and strong iron signal. A MG34 barrel. A pretty decent start.
The next hours I combed the site and collected a few small and common things, like a tent peg, a smashed mess kit, a gasmask canister and an artillery gun powder charge box. The best find was a small A+D vitamine tin. I also dug up a small flag frame for a vehicle, some rifle and pistol ammo, a large wrench and a mystery iron ball with a hole through.
As I was searching alongside a pathway going back towards my car the Nokta gave off an iffy signal below a crooked tree. Usually I wouldn`t dig on such a weak and uncertain signal, but I still had time and I hadn`t really found anything interesting, so I decided to try something.
My car was only fifty meters away so I ran over and grabbed the Fisher to sweep that across.
The F5 screamed out loud as if often does when there is a mix of different metal under its coil.
Under the soil was food tins and nails, and rocks, and I could see pioneer wires and rust between sticking out. A dumping pit, and the Nokta had been so quiet about it..
Several hours later I noticed it had become dusk and it was time to head home. I had piled up a good stash of relics next to the crooked tree. Lots of aluminum food tins, cream tubes, and seven of the small primuses the Gebirgsjägers had in their kit. I also had dug up a few coins, several bottles and a nice aluminum box that had contained spare parts for field lanterns.
Two days later I was back in the gebirgsjäger camp, heading towards the dumping pit to finish it.
This time I chose a less travelled route, and I noticed a place which always had been flooded when I had passed it, but now it was dry, so I went over to give it a try.
I never made it to the dumping pit of course.
The dried up pond was full of signals, and then suddenly it was evening again.
I dug up lots of rifle casings, cream tubes and food tins. Half a ton of horseshoes and horsebrushes as well, two gasmask canisters and a few barrell bands.
When my energy was running low I walked towards the backpack to grab something to eat, and two meters before I reached it the detector gave off a typical aluminum signal. Strong and clear.
I opened the ground and saw the claws on a belt buckle! It was a great looking Heer buckle. I had feared it would be eaten by zink pest, but it showed no signs of deterioration. The backside of it even had much of the original green paint. An amazing find.
The rest of the time spent searching there yielded little else of interest, just more of the same old rubbish. But when I looped and began my return to the parking place a last signal caught my attention.
On the surface, covered only by a thin layer of grass and moss, was a beautiful 5 liter oil can that ze Germans had chucked into the forest a long time ago. A really nice piece of relic!
Even if I had been wearing my insect net the whole day, the bastard blackflies had jailbreaked it. A whole bunch of them had snuk in and feasted on me. I counted 28 bloody chew marks from them on my head when I was back home! Itchy!!
The GirlfriendWife had to collect the last of her insect traps, so early morning today we were on route to the foot of a mountain. From maps and landowner tales there should be a small Gebirgsjäger camp there, but on our previous trips we hadn`t been able to locate it, but today we did.
Several barracks or huts were spread out across a sappling covered area, and we spent a few hours searching it. We found lots of cast iron stoves, a few M39 egg grenades and a lot of rubbish, but the good stuff managed to stay hidden.
We will be back at that site at some point, perhaps later this autumn when it is less vegetation..
Thanks for reading and until next time, Keep Smiling :)
Comments