It's tough stuff out there

[Bone2stone]

This has got to be one of the most dissapointing weekends I have experienced for many years.
Not only did I not find anything worth a s#!t at the end of my metal detector but I wasted a lot of time trying to find some fossils.
I had given up on the metal detecting and decicded to hit some of my favorite local fossil spots.
I got down to the spot and immediately started to find footprints. I scannned the aluvial stuff nothing. I went to the stratafied material nothing. I started down creek when a young man came down the hill from the bridge. He was nice enough and we introduced ouselves. Come to find out he and one other had been there the day before.
That did not stop me from going to two other places only to find more footprints and no fossils.
Being that I have been hunting this area for over 40 years I feel these Johnny come latelys are invading the local areas and raping the sites. Considering both of the fellas that hit these areas are from out of town and out of state, yes I said site rape.
I just may keep to digging arrowheads but even that has it's finite end.
Bone2stone (Jessy)

[rokhedred]

Bummer, I know the feeling. At least those foot prints didn't lead you to a game warden or big foot! Maybe those guys will be gone soon enough. And with a good rain you can start finding the good stuff again. I get touchy about my spot and strangers too.

[tomclark]

I definitely feel your pain.

[rmartin]

I, too, know what you mean. We have to hunt in nasty winter weather because if you wait till warm weather, you almost need reservations to get on a place. I find in a year now what I used to find in a good week years ago.

[painshill]

rmartin wrote:

I, too, know what you mean. We have to hunt in nasty winter weather because if you wait till warm weather, you almost need reservations to get on a place. I find in a year now what I used to find in a good week years ago.

  What? You need a reservation to get on the reservation?
You guys should come on over here. Not much in the way of arrowhead diversity but plenty of other rich pickings if you know where to go. Collecting lithic artefacts is still kinda fringe and eclectic over here. We also have a much more liberal national policy about what you can collect and where. You even get compensated for valuable or important finds that the museum authorities won't allow you to keep.
Painshill

[Makoken]

Man I'm sorry to hear that. I'm a member on the fossil forum. and people were posting up exact locations of where they were finding stuff. I say stick to general locations "central Texas" per say. keep the good spots for those who work to find them.

[rmartin]

No Reservations in Illinois Roger LOL. Ray

[rokhedred]

Painshill...When should I start looking for my airline ticket in the mail!? LOL
Had been to Europe when I was young...looking at architecture and sight seeing. Never even thought about artifact hunting at that time. Wish I could go back with the knowledge I have available to me now.

[Bone2stone]

In my original post I had so much more to say but it was rejected through server error.
I suppose I just had too much to say about those guys.
I can say one thing about both of them them they did not miss anything.
I have nothing else good to say about some new guys I have never met invading my backyard. This creek I speak of is in view of my house. Sure, it does not belong to me but I never the less feel so violated.
At one time I was a charter member of the Dallas Paleo Society but felt that there was just too much friction between me and some of the other members who just could not see what was laying right in front of them. On several occasions we had went on field trips and I alone found more that the entire group put together.
I was labled a site raper. :angry:
Their loss, they no longer have someone to teach the greeners how to find the stuff.
The curator of the local museum, when asked how, told them to get with me!
Bitter grapes to be sure. :sick:
If I do not post any new finds you guys will know why.
Happy hunting to all and hope you find more than dissapointment.
This is an example of the last truly good day I had at this creek I speak of.

The largest @ 11" in diameter
Total for the day 43.

  Bone2stone

[rokhedred]

Those are beautiful! I've got my eye on two that are in the "wall" at the creek near my mothers. Just hoping the creek will make them easier to extract. They are probably about 8 in. in diameter.
Once again...I feel for you. Maybe you should set some boobie traps. LOL

[CliffJ]

Well, Jessy, welcome to the club. More people hunting, more talking about hunting on the internet, more big prices in guide books, and next thing you know there's hunters like ants on an anthill. This same thing has happened all over, slowly over time, moreso closer to higher populations (more hunters). It's ruined hunting opportunities for those of us who have lived and hunted our own backyards all our lives. Most farms around here are now posted, gated, and registered with the sheriff. Landowners are pissed off because people trespass, then next thing you know they will close off their land to everyone. Those places that are not private are so heavily hunted I'm told that the lakes look like the US Army marched there. All these people attract the attention of the law, so tickets are up and cost over $200 plus your finds. Then there is no-till, the bane of arrowhead hunters. No disturbance to the soil except a slit. Oh boy- you get to look the same inch of soil for years, and nothing gets brought up by plows like in the old days.
So any fields here that are actually disturbed in the least, get walked... and walked...and walked...to death. Ten times more hunters than twenty years ago, on 10% of the sites or less. Twenty years ago I recorded 125 individual occupation sites that were huntable and on which I had permission to hunt. Today that number is more like 5.
So, in order for myself and my grandsons to find anything much anymore, we have to be the first there. Sometimes in the rain with raincoats on. With written permission from the landowner, not on deer hunting days, not on public property. It is still some fun, but it's NOT the good old days.

[11KBP]

CliffJ wrote:

  More people hunting, more talking about hunting on the internet, more big prices in guide books, and next thing you know there's hunters like ants on an anthill. This same thing has happened all over,
It's ruined hunting opportunities for those of us who have lived and hunted our own backyards all our lives.
It is still some fun, but it's NOT the good old days.

  Yes Cliff is 100% correct, the internet and the ego-trip publications have destroyed artifact hunting as I once knew it.
However I am very thankful I was able to experience the many years of unrestricted hunting we had and the exciting discoveries we made.
11KBP

[rmartin]

All good and valid points! some years ago I was hunting a field and had an encounter with the owner. This was the first site I ever hunted and hunted it for 10 years or more. I had even given his grandkids some points I had found there and I was the only one that had permission to be there. Anyway, he rode his 4 wheeler out to me and asked me to leave. He said it was nothing I had done but rather several times he had noticed as soon as I had left, cars pulled up and and people jumped out. Now the whole site is planted in Walnut trees, never again to yield its treasures.

[Makoken]

No to mention the urban development that pave over and build houses,malls parking lots on what were once productive sites gone forever. there was an individual who came from fla. to cali and went to a sharktooth site and dug there for months, just to add teeth to his website for sale. That pissed me off.

[gregszybala]

I'm with all of you on the above and trying to find artifacts is getting harder and harder.
But,as hard as it is, it ain't the good old days and it is not gonna get any better and every chance I get to talk a walk and maybe find points is a good day. There is still tons of stuff out there, may we all keep finding some of it.