7/18/20 Report - South Hutchinson Island Beaches Somewhat Eroded This Morning. A Product Recommendation.

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

Sunrise This Saturday Morning on the Treasure Coast.

I went to the beach this morning.  It is the first time I went out for a few weeks.  Yesterday I saw the wind change and thought I'd check out some of the beaches.

John Brooks Beach Saturday Morning.

As you can see, John Brooks had some erosion on the beach front.  You can also see the big step behind the erosion.

There were modern coins, sinkers and other items on the slope in front of the cut, both high and low.  I was there way before low tide, and I had already spent a lot of time eye-balling, so I didn't spend a lot of time detecting, even though it looked decent for Treasure Coast summer conditions.  If I didn't have other things to do, I could have easily detected much longer.

Erosion At John Brooks Beach Saturday Morning.

As you can see, the cut ran for along distance in both directions.

A little farther south, people were surfing.

Surfing On The Treasure Coast Saturday Morning

There was erosion to the south too.  Also the remains of some nice shell piles.  The shell piles had some of the bigger shells.  It wasn't just the little pieces, so it was possible there would also be sea glass, and there were some fossils.  In fact that is why I did some eye-balling first.  And once I get my nose to the ground, I'm like a beagle on the trail.  So I ended up doing a lot of that before I ever got my metal detector out.

Treasure Coast Erosion Saturday Morning.

I found a horse tooth fossil and another nice tooth that I need to identify, along with some other fossil bones.  

Which reminds me - I enjoyed watching Dino Hunters last night, and I was hoping to see a tooth or two today.

Here is the largest fossil bone I saw this morning.

Fossil Bone Found on Beach.

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IIn response to my recent blog post, JamminJack spoke of a fellow that used to duck dive at night and also added the following.

...Using my knowledge of when I used to work with some of the salvagers, I would check some of the reefs to see if anything was nearby. Believe it or not, I never removed any shipwreck treasure other then some modern jewelry, fishing gear, and junk. One time, I discovered a reef loaded with shards of onion bottles, olive jars, etc. I told Bill Moore about it, but never got a reply back. Maybe he was protecting me, but will never know. There was no law going out on the reefs, but removing any treasure was...

My grandmother would tell me locks were made for honest people.

Is anyone out detecting with a [virus] mask on? I bet it is difficult with the heat and limited breathing.

Happy Hunting, JamminJack 

I recently bought a Solarguard Faceshield, made by Bimini Bay for $9.95 at WalMart.  A lot of fishermen use them for sun protection.   It is a tube of stretchy material that goes around your neck and can be pulled up to protect your face from the sun.

Well this morning I used the one I recently purchased for the first time.  When I got to the beach there were also a lot of mosquitos and I was glad I had the faceshield because it helped with that too.

Some people  use them as virus masks in stores, but that isn't what they were made for, and I don't know how effective they would be for that purpose.  

Anyhow, I found it helpful and had no problem using it in the early morning hours.  If you start to get hot, you can pull it down.  I also think it could be worn wet and would have a cooling effect.

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There are no storms to watch right now, and the Treasure Coast surf is running two to three feet.

Happy hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

12/14/15 Report - Identifying Gun Flints. Gun Flint Holders. Beach Conditions.

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

Sample of 18th Century Gun Flints

Different Shapes of Gun Flints

I said the other day that you can often tell the nationality of a gun flint from the color and shape. British are usually a dark grey.  The top row in the first picture has some fine examples.


The white ones in the picture are Native American.

And the amber ones on the bottom are French.

If you look at the bottom picture the second flint is the British example and the typical shape.

The last one in that row is French.

The first gun flint that I ever found was a very typical example, and looked just like what the third on in the top row shown in the first picture.  I've mentioned it before, but I can remember that find like it was yesterday.  Along with it was a gun cock.  Also found nearby were British buttons, musket balls and grape shot.

One other thing you'll sometimes find along with a gun flint or gun cock, is a piece of lead.  A piece of lead was often used to hold the fun flint in the gun lock.  Some of those gun flint holders were flat and round (often British) and some were flat and square.

With my first gun flint and gun cock, I didn't find any flat lead that could have been used to hold the flint though.  I didn't know to look for it back then.

The pictures above are taken from Timothy McGuire's An Identification Guide to Recovered Colonial or Revolutionary War Artifacts (first picture) and the Ivor Hume's Guide to Artifacts of Colonial America (second picture).

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South Hutchinson Island Beach This Morning.

I haven't been out to the beach much lately.  I did get out for a short while to take a look this morning.

The above is typical of what I saw.  The beach was accumulating at most places.  There were a few places that were cutting a little.

The surf seemed rougher than the 2 - 4 foot prediction, and the water had been up over the berm at some places.

There were small rocks washing up at some locations, and I also saw a shell pile that was accumulating.

From what I saw, I would say that conditions are poor.  Like I said though, there were some small cuts at places and I didn't see most of the beaches.

The surf will be decreasing for the next few days.

Most of the garbage from the cargo spill was removed where I was.  Somebody picked it up.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net