Bottle Hunting Question

Quick question, what method are you guys using for bottle hunting? I can only assume you don't use a Metal Detector. I know when I was a kid, I would catch the bayou during low tide and rack up on old bottles that were just sitting on top of the mud. How do you guys find your bottles?

Hello, That sounds cool, being able to find them right on the surface Most of the bottles that I have found came from old surface Dumps that Farmers and neighbors used to create back in their woods. Most of those are less than three feet deep, but still hold some nice bottles and other artifacts. They would usually use and old dry washout or depression in the woods and just start dumping there trash and other things there and the other generations followed there practices until the counties started Landfills. Good Luck with your hunts and Happy Thanksgiving Paul

Makes sense, thanx for the reply. Happy Thanks Giving.

We like to use spring steel probes. I know it sounds like they would break the bottles but you get to know the feel of working with them. Where there is glass on the surface, you can probe the ground to get a feel for whats beneath the surface, soft spots or pockets pockets of glass and metal so you know where to dig. good luck.

Metal detectors work great for finding bottle dumps.  After many years, there may be no visible trace of the dump.  A metal detector will find a bottle dump quickly.

Awesome, thanx for the info.

If you are interested in old Soda Pop Bottles, which is my specialty with over 200 in my collection, you might try looking along old two-lane highways where they were thrown out of cars back in the old days.  Look for places with brush along the road where the bottles would have been "cushioned" against the branches before hitting the ground. Take a four-pronged garden rake along for reaching under the brush and digging around in the leaves. Bottles can often be found just lying around on the surface of the ground if no one else has been through the area. Soda bottle collecting is very popular, and many of the rare bottles can be worth hundreds of dollars! I'm attaching a photo of one I found recently, and is the only one of it's kind I have ever seen. It's a "Bum's root beer," and possibly worth as much as $100.00 to the right collector!

Good Luck, and don't hesitate to let me know if you have questions. (PM) Personal Messages is an option for direct contact. I apologize for the huge image, I'm not quite sure how that happened.

I'm also attaching a link if you're interested in seeing a variety of what's out there. Just click on where it says "Soda and Beer Collector's Pad ," and then scroll down to the yellow highlighted place and select "Painted Labels,"  etc. Nobody seems to know for sure how many different varieties there are, but it has been estimated to be over 7000+!

www.gono.com

SODABOTTLEBOB

LaKASkill - I have found some bottle dumps with a metal detector as there was in fact metal dumped in the same spot. In other cases I found some on the surface and just started digging for more.

SODABOTTLEBOB - Pretty cool Bum's Root Beer bottle. Thought I would Google it and learn something new, nothing came up.  But you did say it is the only one you've seen.  I resized it to get a better look.

Flawless, thanx for the GREAT info guys....

DigginThePast : Thanks for the re-size.  

I guess I should have mentioned the Bum bottle is from Los Angeles, Ca., by K.S. Beverage Co. It's dated 1941, which is somewhat early for a painted label example, with the silk screening process first becoming popular in the mid 1930's. Prior to that soda bottles were embossed, some of which had paper labels. Currently I'm trying to amass a collection of the embossed Coca Cola (pre-1965) California only "Hobble Skirt" 6oz. bottles, but have a long way to go with there being about 300 variations of it for California alone, and something like 1500 (differient city) variations nation wide.

My favorite painted label bottles are the "Big Chief's" that depict an Indian motif on the label.

Thanks again,

SodaBob  

We like to use spring steel probes. I know it sounds like they would break the bottles but you get to know the feel of working with them. Where there is glass on the surface, you can probe the ground to get a feel for whats beneath the surface, soft spots or pockets pockets of glass and metal so you know where to dig. good luck.

Do you weld a ball bearing on the tip and how long are the probes?  I'm told that metal pipe handles allow one to feel the vibrations better than wood handles.

taropatch -

Go to Home Depot or a hardware store and find the "heavest gauge" rod they have that is "tempered" and "galvanized" steel and that is just slightly thicker than a coat hanger but still "bendable." I like to bend a loop in one end to make it easier to carry and for something to hold onto when poking into and out of the ground. About three foot in length should do the trick. You can round off the poking tip with a file so there are no sharp edges that will scratch the glass. Buy several of them! They're cheap! That way you will have back up's when you lose or leave one laying on the ground as I've done on a couple of ocassions.

What I do is just slowly poke it into the ground and feel (listen with your hands) for the "klink" sound/feeling, and you will know you've found/hit glass. Then carefully dig down with your shovel and find that rare "already broken before you got there" bottle that, had it not been broken, would have made your day, week, month and year. But don't dispair, keep searching, as there are plenty of unbroken, beautiful, rare, valuable bottles to be found in that sea of broken glass. After you've found your first "keeper" you'll be hooked for life!

Also take along some small digging tools like a garden trowel and a screwdriver for easing out those "Picasso's" that you will eventually stumble upon.

Good luck, and I hope you "dig" it.  

I forgot to mention that my brother uses a certain type of old "Automatic Transmission" dip stick as a bottle probe, and claims it works great. I've never used one, but can see where it would work if it is the tempered steel type that won't bend while using. He said he got it at a junk yard, and to be sure to select one that is strong and stiff. But don't use an "oil" dip stick, as they are obviously too flimsy!  I intend to try it myself someday, but just haven't gotten around to looking for one yet.   

I found this cool web site while researching bottle collecting, check it out:

http://www.sha.org/bottle/typing.htm

Thanks LaKASkill   

    I have dozens of books and numerous websites I visit, but didn't have this one.

    I haven't read through all of it yet, but wonder why it's connected to the BLM ?

                        I guess I'll just have to read it and find out!

Thanks again,

SODABOB

No problem, I'm glad you like it. If I find anything else in my searches I will link it here.