# What’s the strangest or really neat thing you plowed up?



## gosh (Sep 28, 2014)

I stumbled across this thing the other day. I've found many horseshoes before, but this one seemed odd to me. No nail holes. 








Butch Cassidy spent a winter here (what was he thinking?) before he robbed his first bank next door in Montpelier, Idaho. My old timer neighbors tell me he lived in a no longer existing cabin next to our place. I keep telling myself I'm going to head over that way with a metal detector one of these days but never have the time.

Anyway, this made me think that maybe some of you guys had found some cool stuff over the years. Or maybe something that was odd or maybe made you chuckle. Well....have you?


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## NebTrac (Aug 12, 2014)

Metal detecting is my main hobby. I've found some great stuff here in central Nebraska. I hope you make it there and uncover something awesome.

Troy


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## gosh (Sep 28, 2014)

NebTrac said:


> Metal detecting is my main hobby. I've found some great stuff here in central Nebraska. I hope you make it there and uncover something awesome.
> 
> Troy


What's the coolest thing you've found to date?


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## Farmerbrown2 (Sep 25, 2018)

This fall while plowing I found the flat steel plate used to lock up my dads IH 56 corn planter that was lost about 35 years ago I thought that was neat. Also have found a few broken cast iron plow shears over the years.


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

NebTrac said:


> Metal detecting is my main hobby. I've found some great stuff here in central Nebraska. I hope you make it there and uncover something awesome.
> 
> Troy


My baler is the best metal detector on the market. Finds any piece of metal within 100 feet that is big enough to cause a problem.

Ralph


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## luke strawwalker (Jul 31, 2014)

Back in the 50's right after Grandpa bough the Shiner farm, he was plowing the land up for the winter and his wallet fell out and was lost... Grandma gave him h3ll for the rest of his life because it had their last $8 dollars in it. He found it the next fall plowing, with the money, more or less intact. Course that didn't mollify Grandma (much)-- she still gave him crap about it.

I disked down the turn rows where the county had built up berms along the end of the farm when they dug out the bar ditches. I decided to taper the turn rows out to the ditch. I disked the berms down and then used the grader blade to smooth it out and taper it down to the ditch bottom. In the process, I moved quite a bit of dirt up into the end of the field, and shaved the dirt down to the level it was years before... and found one of my great-granddad's wrenches that he dropped decades ago... an open ended wrench that he evidently had broken and brazed back together in his blacksmith shop he had on the farm...

Another time, near where his old blacksmith shop had been, I found a strange metal coin... Well, I THOUGHT it was a coin, until I cleaned it up... Turns out it was some sort of a gambling token, evidently from a local cat house, because it was good for "one free screw" at the aforementioned house of ill repute... That would fit with a lot of what I've heard about my great-granddad... LOL

Later! OL J R


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

That shoe has nail holes in it just plugged by the bits of nail and rust. We have found dozens of horse shoes around here over the years, makes you wonder how many darned shoes they lost. The old timers told me they would look for them too when they lost one. Kinda like getting a flat tire in our world.


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## NebTrac (Aug 12, 2014)

gosh said:


> What's the coolest thing you've found to date?


I found my own wedding ring when I first started detecting in 2009. Lost it in 1993 and didn't know where. When I first started detecting I went to our local football field and within 10 minutes unearthed my own wedding ring. That was a thrill. You'll see in the pictures 2 rings. The worn one is the identical replacement to the one I lost. I can't get either on my finger now. Ha ha.

I've found numerous silver coins, indian heads, buffaloes, V and shield nickels, 3 or 4 half dollars, 3 Morgan dollars, boat load of wheat pennies, jewelry. Oldest coin is an 1842 dime (very old for this area in Nebraska as the settlers hadn't started flocking in until 1874).

Some of the relics that stand out are 1924 Coolidge and Dawes campaign thimble, 1905 Simplex pencil sharpener, Ford Model T hub caps and keys and lots of tokens.

I've been called many times by farmers to find things like cell phones, pagers, combine parts, key to 1924 Dodge the owner's great grandson had buried, wedding rings people have lost. Gun parts, scope caps, ammo, etc.

Used it many times myself to find woodruff keys, connecting link spring clips (a lot of those). Test wood for metal before sawing.

Even used it once on my son when he was about 2 to make sure he'd not swallowed a couple of powerful marble shaped magnets he'd been playing with earlier.

I keep the detector with me most of the time and have met many friends through this hobby.

If any are interested go to Youtube and type in NebTrac and you can watch some of our finds. Haven't made videos in years, but it's still fun. No Gold coins yet though.

Thanks for inquiring.

Troy


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## IH 1586 (Oct 16, 2014)

I would say the strangest thing is the fawn I plowed under. Every time I went by a certain part of the field kept hearing this strange sound like a squeaky ball. First couple time just thought it was the tractor or plows until it kept happening at the same spot. Finally stopped and looked around and had a fawn with it's leg caught under a furrow. Pulled the furrow back and it got up and wandered off. Its twin was not as lucky.

This year I blended a old dry cow pasture into an existing field and estimate it probably had been 100+ years since it was plowed if ever. When I was a kid I remembered the last stump and tree from it's previous life as an orchard. Was hoping to find some thing really neat, lost years ago. Not much luck just odds and ends that make you wonder if there is more out there. Old water cup paddle, large square head bolts, and long curved metal rod that I would like to think is off from an old dump rake. Went out practically everyday just to look hoping for that one neat piece. Everything I did find however were all in one limited area so maybe there was a barn there at one time or a junk pile.


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## Shetland Sheepdog (Mar 31, 2011)

Neatest thing I ever plowed up was the wallet I had plowed under years earlier!


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

Shetland Sheepdog said:


> Neatest thing I ever plowed up was the wallet I had plowed under years earlier!


Was they any money in the wallet? My luck, I woulda had 2 $100 dollar bills (purty far fetched) for one time in my life stuck back in the "mad money" compartment......


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## hillside hay (Feb 4, 2013)

I'm still waiting to plow up two Coulter assemblies I lost a few years back. I just put new radials on the plow tractor so I figure my odds have greatly improved.


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## panhandle9400 (Jan 17, 2010)

Several indian artifacts tomahawk, trade beads, points , a flat stone with hole drilled through top and etching of a butterfly carved on it , guess it was a childs or squaw who wore it as a necklace . The Santa Fe trail and Arizona cutoff runs through here so you never know what might be unearthed .


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## gosh (Sep 28, 2014)

panhandle9400 said:


> Several indian artifacts tomahawk, trade beads, points , a flat stone with hole drilled through top and etching of a butterfly carved on it , guess it was a childs or squaw who wore it as a necklace . The Santa Fe trail and Arizona cutoff runs through here so you never know what might be unearthed .


Cool! Please post pics when time permits!


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

I find lot's of arrowheads and a few spear points....and various rusted pieces of steel occasionally, horse and mule shoes. Last year I found a tedder tine with my MF/Hesston 1839 baler that I lost the previous year :angry: ... and this year with a wheel rake, I found a tedder arm with tine attached. It had been pressed into the ground and had been ran over innumerable times with a disc mower before the wheel rake tine somehow pulled it into the wheel and turned up. It had been missing about 5-6 years.....I searched for days before assuming it was slung into the field edge somewhere.....not so.

Regards, Mike


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## shortrow2 (Sep 25, 2017)

Plowed a few snakes from their home, nothing interesting though.


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