The Relic Gods Still Deliver

As I had no other projects on the table today I grabbed Girlfriends car, since she was at work and my car is currently at the workshop, and rushed off towards the mountain really early. Here and there the night frost was still covering the road and after a short drive I found out that the forest was also frozen. The weather report says King Winter will make his entry this Friday so the season might sadly come to a halt very soon, but we ll keep searching until the fingertips gets too cold and wanna stay home instead.

I spent most of the day in the edge of the tree line where it some 80 years ago stood a large German Heer camp. One can clearly see barrack and hut foundations and here and there ovens and other bits of metals are peeking out from moss and undergrowth.

The metal detector is giving off signals nearly everywhere so it is a real luxury problem to choose which signal to dig. I haven`t found any Erkennungsmärke this season, and I also would love to find a aluminum belt buckle so I kept digging such signals but I only landed food tins and a canteen screw cork.

Of course I also dug some other good, and some crappy signals, and between a lot of rubbish I got a few very nice finds. One of those was a long, black metal bottle of some sort. The bottle had a screwcork on top, and in the middle it was a joint barely visible, and with some care I managed to drag the parts apart. Inside the bottom half was the firing pin and spring for a K98 rifle.

Two of the crappy signals I dug were surprisingly good finds, two empty M24 hand grenade heads. One of them had one of its sides rotted away but it ll make a nice diorama base I think. Nearby I found the handle for one of the heads, but it was in two pieces and in a sad state. I kept searching around that place and found a handfull of PPSh casings, a few stripper clips and some screwcorks for the M24s. Then I had a bit of a stronger signal I had to check, and the result of that surprised me even more. It was the tube of a Panzerfaust 30, in great condition. Some oxalic acid on that I belive will do wonders!! I swept the detector across the place again and there was still a strong signal. Diagonal to where the Panzerfaust had been was another tube under the moss!! This time the smaller Panzerfaust Klein!! Unbelivable!! This one also in very good condition. The next hour I grid searched the area but I only got a few more PPSh casings, some rifle bullets and rubbish.

I had a small lunchbreak and when moving around again I found a small dumping pit. In it was mostly trash and rotted food tins but I scored two nice thoothbrushes, a coin, and a nice looking gasmask cannister with some color still showing, another candidate for the oxalic bath when winter has set.

I had to be back home before dinnertime so I could prepare something for Girlfriend who was coming back from work soon so I began my stroll back to the car. Not far from the parking place the detector told me to check what laid beneath a small and crooked mountain birch. I located it with the pinpointer and pulled out a trigger part for a Panzerfaust 60/100! Man,what a last find of the day. I did spend another twenty minutes checking around for its tube but it was nowhere to be found..prehaps it ll want to be found next time, which hopefully is tomorrow or Thursday:)

The top part is for weapon oil, and the bottom part holds a spare firing pin and spring for a K98 rifle.

Cap for a canteen.

Two potatomasher heads.

M24 stick.

A bit rusted..

The Sprengkapsel found its way into the depths of the river.

M24 heads popped up as potatoes today.

ammo and toothbrushes.

Two Panzerfaust tubes.

Panzerfaust trigger.

PPSh casings.

Lichens.