Thought could be great topic after Hunting the Gold mention stamp head. Heres is my unusual find story.
My brother & I were detecting an area in maryborough, while detecting on top of what appears to be old dam retaining wall, my brother got a strong signal form his Xterra 70. He dug over a foot deep he sinal was still there I star to help dig, laying on my stomach reaching in hole and lifting dirt out we un cover something in centre. this item from ground level was deeper 30cm (12 inch) deep to top although it apeared metal we decided to dig it out to see what it was we dug & dug with an old hole 3metre to my right that apeared to go straight down but it was block a short way down from top.
After about 30 minutes more digging a vertical hole down one side of our metal object we thought it was an old chisel. Still not out but start to be able to wobble this vertical object now to large to be a chisel (or one like we thought) we dug now with my arm in the hole to nearly full length removing dirt, dig remove dirt, dig remove dirt, this went on for some time. eventualy the item we thought might be a chisel started to loosen.
Digging down one side of this item with both of us laying down on our stomach's reaching in hole at near full arms length we relized it was not a chisel as we thought. Continueing to losen dirt down one side of our vertically buried item, it suddenly dawn on me the loosened dirt was disapearing. As I said this to my brother we grab the top of our object gave it a big wriggle & was able to pull it out. All the loose dirt vanished down a hole about 30cm or 6 inches round. We move back rather quick, we had just dug a hole straight through the top of a covered mine shaft. We could not see inside but were able to refill our hole.
What we now had discovered is known as a old Widow Maker, these were a very large Chisel driven by hydraulic water presure. They were called widow makers for a reason not to many users lived long. So I now have a large soveigneer. Must remove my rubbish.
My brother & I were detecting an area in maryborough, while detecting on top of what appears to be old dam retaining wall, my brother got a strong signal form his Xterra 70. He dug over a foot deep he sinal was still there I star to help dig, laying on my stomach reaching in hole and lifting dirt out we un cover something in centre. this item from ground level was deeper 30cm (12 inch) deep to top although it apeared metal we decided to dig it out to see what it was we dug & dug with an old hole 3metre to my right that apeared to go straight down but it was block a short way down from top.
After about 30 minutes more digging a vertical hole down one side of our metal object we thought it was an old chisel. Still not out but start to be able to wobble this vertical object now to large to be a chisel (or one like we thought) we dug now with my arm in the hole to nearly full length removing dirt, dig remove dirt, dig remove dirt, this went on for some time. eventualy the item we thought might be a chisel started to loosen.
Digging down one side of this item with both of us laying down on our stomach's reaching in hole at near full arms length we relized it was not a chisel as we thought. Continueing to losen dirt down one side of our vertically buried item, it suddenly dawn on me the loosened dirt was disapearing. As I said this to my brother we grab the top of our object gave it a big wriggle & was able to pull it out. All the loose dirt vanished down a hole about 30cm or 6 inches round. We move back rather quick, we had just dug a hole straight through the top of a covered mine shaft. We could not see inside but were able to refill our hole.
What we now had discovered is known as a old Widow Maker, these were a very large Chisel driven by hydraulic water presure. They were called widow makers for a reason not to many users lived long. So I now have a large soveigneer. Must remove my rubbish.
