The Finds Were Few and Far Between
- Inka
- 4 hours ago
- 3 min read
The days when rain haven`t been pouring down by the buckets have been very warm and sunny, and I have spent them in the hammock or chasing bugs around on the land, done a mountain trek in the cooler afternoon and trying to make expositions in a new display cabinet I bought the other day.
I simply don`t like toiling with thick roots and rock filled ditches, being drenched in sweat while getting eaten alive by every insect in the region under a blistering sun.
So the last two weeks I have only been out searching a couple of times.
On these two-three trips I didn`t have the best of luck. The first trip was made to the site where I found the last helmet. There was a small spot where the detector went crazy and there were lots of metals under the moss, which I had missed on my previous searches there.
This time 99% of the metals were junk. The few semi-interesting bits were a pile of horseshoe nails, a Finnish coin, a cigarette case with some nice pattern engraved and a bottle of weapon decontaminant.
I tidied up the place and took a long stroll around the area. The detector tried its best, but for a good while it found me nothing. Then suddenly it screamed out, and a few centimeters below surface red enamel came to view. It was a soldiers canteen, and it still had the plastic screw cork. It laid on top of a small burn pit where I also found a few food tins and a toothbrush.
Another hour went by with nothing to show for before the Fisher again found a good signal. This time it was something under a line of three medium sized birchtrees, so I got to use the saw for a while getting through the horizontal fence made of roots.
Here were the best finds of the day. First I pulled out a Finnish knife, the Pukko. It was in great condition, still sharp even! Toghether with it were a few German coins, a small medical bottle and a Göffel with a name engraved - Engelhart.
Quite satisfied having managed to spend all my energy I moved back to the parking lot, but on the way I discovered a quite large burn pit. It was full of cooked metal. Food tins and bike parts that fell apart by the touch. A couple of melted bottles and on the bottom lay two cooked and crunchy smoke grenades, but they also pulverized when trying to lift them.
Some days later I went back to the same gebirgsjäger camp, to walk a section of the forest I never really had ventured into before. There was the odd chance piles of relics were waiting to be found.
I had no such luck. After a few hours of zig-zagging I had found two bits of chain, three rifle casings, a pile of k98 stripper clips, four horseshoes and a bomb shrapnel. So all I got really was a good training session.
I had a little stroke of luck though. In a clearing in the forest back in the main camp, I found a patch of land with quite a lot of signals spread around. I checked a few signals and got an axe head, some kind of vehicle mud guard and a unfinished shot glass or candle holder made from a signal flare, so when the temps are down a bit I am heading back there to investigate further.
Also two days ago I spent some hours walking a piece of forest and found much of it to be very quiet. The only signals were relatively modern trash and leftovers from old Nato exercises, but in the far end of the area, which I reached when my energy had ran out and I was getting low of blood from all the mosquitoes that were tapping me, was a patch with lots of signals. I checked a few of them and pulled from the ground two German tent pegs, several bottles, some stove parts, and the bottom of an ink tin for handstamps, which were marked "Rechnungführer".
So as soon as the temps are more livable I have two interesting spots to check out, and after writing this and finishing my coffee we have planned a trip to go and check out another forest if it is empty or not. It will be exciting.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a great week.
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