Serious Question for ALL hunters new and old

[joshuaream]

I don't like to hunt with girls (except my daughter) on my sites, they always seem to find everything.  If it's a creek or group hunt, pay dig, etc girls are fine.

I have a lucky machete that I've worn down to a short probe like tool, but it gets better with age and doesn't give me blisters.  When I forget it, the hunt usually stinks.  I am not faithful to shovels, if I have a bad couple of days (or even a bad morning on a good site) I'll plant the shovel along side a road and let some farmer have a free shovel.  It works.

If I'm in latin america I'll usually buy the kids hanging around Cokes or something like that, good karma.

[Raymond G]

Thanks to everyone who responed to my question.  The information will be useful in my study.  If anyone else would care to reply, please fill free to.  Raymond

[jrd]

I didn't think I was superstitious but thinking about it,,,maybe I am. I like to take my old wooden broom stick that gets a little shorter every year. As soon as I start walking I have to pick up a my first piece of flint, hold and rub it until I pick up another piece or artifact. From there, one in the pocket only when replaced with another. I also (on most sites) will pick up and keep most of the flint chips I find. I'm sure the farther south you go this could mean truck loads but not so much up here. I tell myself that this is a gauge to reflect the rain and wind effect on a field and gives me a sense of vacuuming the site. When field hunting, I discipline myself to fully walk (cover) the site and not "skip" around randomly. Lastly, when hunting rows in a field with others, I always let them walk ahead of me trying to stay back trying not to miss anything.

[sally]

Raymond,

What an interesting topic.  I do find that I have a few quirks when it comes to hunting.  I always leave the "Gods" a gift when I am hunting. If I find/see something that looks like it could be a genuine artifact I always offer them tobacco in "trade".  I once talked to a gentleman who is 100% Indian and he said that is the way to hunt, always offer a trade, and tobacco was a hot commodity back in their day.  I also find that the type of tobacco makes a difference.  I have cherry cigars and I offer this when I find a wonderful point, but just regular cigar tobacco when it is broken/damaged.  I also pick up every piece of pottery that I see, and when picking it up I say the word "P O T T E R Y", there almost always seems to be a good point right around the corner when I do this.  I also find that I can not take a camera, seems my finds are minimal when I have the camera along.  The last thing I do that I see as a quirk is that when I find metal in the fields, I always pick it up to remove it.  The way I see it they did not have metal in their fields and white man has destroyed some of the history by leaving metal objects there.  Sometimes I come home with a great deal of weight, picking up tin cans, screw drivers, disc blades, horseshoes, etc. but my husband gets a kick out of it and takes it to the scrap yard when he takes a load, just my contribution to the household finances and they seem to appreciate me removing items like this.  I almost always find something decent when I pick up metal items.  I do not hunt with a stick, i need to hold the item in my hand just to see if it is an artifact as most of my finds are covered with dirt or mud when I pull them out. 

Those seem to be my biggest quirks when it comes to hunting.  What a fun topic.  Sally Jo

[Chris Peters]

I've developed a new quirk. Never go hunting with Justin Phillips' wife Cindi. She finds all the good points!
 
Sally, leaving tobacco these days is an expensive gift. I hope the ancient ones appreciate it!
Chris

[sally]

Yeah it can be expensive depending on how many we find, but we truly believe it is worth the expense.  I was running low for awhile, before my husband could get to the discount smoke shop across the river where it is so much cheaper, and boy the finds were very scarce. As soon as he made it to the smoke shop and I filled up the pouch, low and behold a hematite plummet was just laying on top of the ground.  Now I had hunted this spot several days previous and although we had a slight snow fall, nothing major in my book, there it was just laying for the find.  You can bet most of my tobacco pouch was emptied with that find, I know there are more out there, the ancient ones love that "backy" and they always seem to come through for me