A Shrapnel Sleeve & New Boots
- Inka
- Aug 2
- 3 min read
This week we were lucky enough to get circa two hours of sun here in the North, spread out over several days. The rest of the time it was either windy and grey, raining hard or a combination of the latter together with low temps. We really should have thought twice before all the good weather was spent back in April, and we can only hope for a warm and sunny autumn.
On a recent bike ride the GirlfriendWife and me spotted some ditch next to the trail, and on Wednesday we went to investigate, but sadly the ditch had already been dug years ago by other diggers. A few meters away I found another small ditch, but it only held a rotted sock and a couple of vehicle parts.
We spent many hours walking a large loop around the camp looking for treasures, but the Relic Gods ignored my attempts.
Around lunchtime I was nearly lucky when I dug on a mixed signal and found a handful of melted german coins together with some office equipment such as paperclips, a hole-punch machine and two melted ink pots.
The GirlfriendWife was the lucky one this day, she found a marshy place full of the yummy Cloudberries which she filled a bag with, and when we had almost reached the car and was searching around a dugout she pointed to a bit near a stream and asked if I had checked there. I hadn`t, so I swept the detector across and got the find of the day! A very nice shrapnel sleeve for a M24 stick grenade!
The following day the rain came in sideways but I had to get out there to try find at least one treasure, and I had to test my new boots.
For the last ten years I have been on my second pair of M77 boots from the Norwegian Army, but lately they had been taking in water faster than a torpedoed convoy ship. The last time I wore them on a wet day my feet were soaked within the first ten minutes.
My new footwear was a pair of Haix boots with the fancy name Black Eagle Athletic 2.1 GTX . These gore-tex boots were supposed to be waterproof, but since they were not completely made out of leather or rubber I was a bit sceptic to that claim. They had a perfect fit though, like if they had been painted on my foot. Super comfortable.
I spent the whole day in the dripping wet forest, walking kinda randomly around looking for those interesting signals potentially hiding treasures. I dug two small dumping pits, and opened an unknown number of signals, but I never found anything really good. I got a Heer axe, a Mp 38/40 magazine, some cream tubes and a pair of sun glasses. A few other semi good finds were an MG ammo box, a couple of coins, three K98 ammo pouches and half a blank EKM, and when I had spent 8-9 hours doing this I gave up and went home for a warm shower.
After around seven hours I felt some moisture on my feet, but when I got the shoes off at home I could see on my socks that the water penetration had not been total, so I was kinda happy with that, and I think after preparing them with wax they will keep me completely dry throughout the day.
The rainy days seems to be continuing into the next week, but I will ignore that and get out there to see if any luck can be had or if it will all be nails and rusted food tins again. Crossing the fingers.
Thanks for reading, and remember if you ever see any of my finds that would fit your collection or museum just send me a message.
Keep Smiling :)
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