To the north, where the permission ends.

Well we finished detecting the field west of the top road,that runs from the old farmhouse down to the Blue Field. It's by far the biggest field we've swept, but not the most productive. I say finished but I actually left the last 20 to 30 meters on the end near the old farmhouse because that side is Junkville and Junkville saps all your energy. Digging countless holes for the occasional decent find can be extremely exhausting.

Seeing as we are running out of cleared fields near our flat I decided to brave this land of a thousand screaming signals. After a few electrical components, some copper wire and 4 to 5 bottle caps (which would make it about 5 minutes into the hunt) I got nice solid high 50's/low 60's signal. While I was digging the logo's of several whiskey and vodka brands floated through my mind as I tried to predict what I was about to uncover when much to my delight I spotted a disc shaped object in the hole. "Yes!" I screamed in a whisper. My coin drought was over. "Looks like a half-cent" I thought as I dropped it in my moon-bag. On this particular evening I had forgotten my backpack with my finds box in it.

Once I got home I started to brush it with a toothbrush and was surprised to see the Dromedaris start appearing through the layers of dust. "Not a half-cent, a half-penny." I blurted out. A 1940, King George the VI half-penny and my second oldest coin. I still haven't broken through to the 1800's but I'll get there.

"George 6th, King, Emperor" 1940 South African Half-Penny

For the next few days leading up to the weekend we hit Junkville with renewed enthusiasm and...Well this is why I battle to hunt there for more than a few days in a row. We dug a lot of holes, we added a lot of bottle-caps and other junk to our junk pile, but other than a few modern bullet casings, there is nothing worth reporting.

Last week I  wrote about a newly cleared area to the north where we did a little reconnaissance and found a few items that indicated it might be worth a try. Saturday arrived and we decided to head off with a packed lunch and some water, intent to go even further this time, right to northern border of the farm. It's quite a walk, nearly 2 kilometers and I wasn't sure what we would find, if anything, as this field is nowhere near any dwellings and you would need a 4x4 to drive there.

We headed to the top of the field and started sweeping between the rows of new sugarcane that was just starting to sprout. On my 3rd row, about 20 minutes in, a beautiful clean 80's signal  massaged my eardrum. "What could this be all the way out here?" I dug down the 4 inches required to reach the target and proceeded to probe the pile of sand with my pin-pointer. A button, and yes, it's another American Great Seal button which now makes 5, all from different fields.

American Great Seal Button, manufactured from 1902 to 1917.

My growing collection of Great Seal buttons.

The endorphins kicked in and I was now really excited to see what the rest of this field would turn up. Well not much else came out before lunch except a 1965 10c coin and modern 5c my daughter found lying on the surface.

 

We decided to head down the hill to some shade and I told the family I just wanted to make a few random swings over a flat piece of land about half way down. I've read flat areas are good areas to check when looking for old home sites. No sooner had I got there than I got a sweet 70's signal. My wife commented on the size of the plug I was digging but now I knew there was stuff to be found here and I wasn't going to accidentally hit my target with the shovel. I popped the plug and there it was. No need for a pin-ponter on this one.

As the YouTuber "Aquachigger" would say. "Can you see it???" Good thing I went big on the plug, my initial pin-point with the detector was slightly off.

What a beautiful sight, there's nothing like flipping the plug over and seeing your find right there on top of it.  I could immediately tell I hadn't dug one of these before.

A British General Service Button dating back to around 1902 through to WW1.

Finally something other than the Great Seal buttons I have been finding lately. Two buttons in one session, are we getting closer to the area where most the action took place? I couldn't help but wonder how many of these items have been picked up by farm workers over the past 120 years.. The farm owner has lived here for around 50+ years and he wasn't aware of any military action on his land.

We took a break from the scorching sun in the shade of some trees at the bottom of the hill. Hotdogs and water had never tasted so good. A cool breeze and beautiful surroundings, what more could one ask for?

The view from our picnic site. The trees on the right and the sugarcane at the top mark the northern border of the farm.

After lunch we headed back to the flat section to go over it in a little more detail. I got a signal that turned out to be what I believe is a paraffin lamp part, a wick-winder cog.

Wick-winder Cog

A little after that I hit another clean signal in the mid-tone range, this time, a bullet. I had just watched a South African YouTube video about detecting a Boer War site so I immediately recognized the bullet. The video identified it as a Mauser bullet but my research turned up that they look almost identical to the rounds used in a British Lee- Enfield .303 rifle. Both of which were used in the Boer War. Mauser, I read weighs 11.2 grams and the Lee-Enfield 12 grams. My kitchen scale weighed it as 12 grams but I don't think it's accurate enough to be sure.

Mauser or Lee-Enfield bullet

Together with a more modern .303 bullet found in another field.

Two and a half hours of spot checking this field and it does look promising I must say. With the long weekend coming up I think we will definitely be heading back to give it some more attention and see what else we can find.

I think I'm finally starting to get used to the Nokta Makro Simplex. It's very different machine to the Bounty Hunter but slowly and surely I'm starting to feel like I know when to dig and when to just walk on by.

I've signed up to a the forum on angloboerwar.com where people share stories and discuss various topics, relics, memorabilia and other interesting aspects of the war. I'm hoping to get some answers to some of the unanswered questions I have.Maybe we will soon know for sure how all those American buttons ended here and maybe, just maybe, someone knows what went down on this farm all those years ago.