What’s the coolest thing you found in the back country

jpmulk

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For me it's an arrow head found while bowhunting. Found it while walking up a wash. I just think it's cool to think of the person that lost it there hunting in the exact same spot all those years ago.
My dad found one this year stuck in a log he was cutting up for firewood. I forget what head it was but I guess it’s not one in production anymore and was from 30 to 40ish years ago. Pretty cool
 

sndmn11

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Any idea when that would have been left? The Umc marking puts it in the 1920’s or earlier, doesnt it?
The Dr. Googles says the cartridge was created in the 1930s. I picked it up to look at then tossed it down assuming it said 358. Then second guessed myself and went back to find it. Dr. Googles says it's pretty unique.
 

GSPHUNTER

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My friend from Indiana who has been collection artifacts since he was a child doing it with his dad. He literally has tens of thousands of artifact, mostly from Indiana, told me this is a Mano, a stone that was used to grind such things as corn and wheat. I found it in the mountain desert, a place called hole in the wall.Resized_20230905_062701.jpeg
 
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Weldor

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No pics' but when I was a teenager found a old steam engine in northern Michigan. Did some digging in the libary back then. It was used by the logging industry back at the turn of the century. I guess they just abandoned the stuff in place. Did find and keep a bunch of old blades and tools they left. Not far from there I found a old wrecker, looked like early 50's Ford. The rust pile is still there.
 
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A Remington 700, 7mm w/ Leupold scope. Rusty, but functional. Must have fallen out of a saddle scabbard. About 10 miles into wilderness.

my grandfather lost a 700 in 7mag in the throufare in Wyoming in the early 2000s. Fell out of the scabbard he believed. Would be super cool if that is where you found it.
 

Moto_917

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I found a Stihl MS193 chainsaw in the Sierra Nevadas while on a dirt bike riding trip. It was about 50 yards downhill off a fire road. Looked like it wasnt there very long. I tried to locate the owner, but didnt have any luck. I spent about $50 tuning it up and it’s an awesome little saw.
 

Dwnw/theAltitudesickness

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Like this thread, brings back a lot of memories. Bout like most, have found arrowheads, pottery shards, lots of mining stuff. couple different spots where rocks where made into a square outline. One had cans of food and looked like a spot somebody was roughing it at. But the best is a full blown wooden saloon, with tables and a function bar. Liquor on the back shelf... it is probably in the creepy stuff page. Near Flagstaff AZ, will have to see if I can dig up any photos
 

Mt Al

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I've found arrowheads, one really cool one, a few very old cartridge cases and a really rusted out trap. Found a few iron wagon wheel 'tires' on the prairie and shovel so old that the metal was almost all rust-colored dirt as I was trying to free it from some frozen dirt. A very small cast iron wood stove in the middle of nowhere in Eastern MT.

How about "almost" coolest thing? Here's one:
Was about 2 miles off and 1300' above a logging road, no trails in the area, in South Central Montana and came across a small, say 8'x8' with short sides, fallen in and almost flattened, log cabin looking structure placed on a rounded, not 'knife edge', ridge. Moss and grass had grown through most of the logs, all small diameter, and you could see the ridge pole and the poles that framed the very-short door. Some logs were pretty solid, others on their way to compost, all cut with an axe, not a saw blade. This got me thinking that this was made prior to saws being in everyone's backpack! Who makes cabins, even small ones, with an axe?!? I'm like "I found a trapper's cabin!!" and had images of Jeremiah Johnson-ish dude living there, that I'd find a cache and a bunch of cool trapper stuff under the wreck of the cabin, probably some amazing and perfectly preserved journal and obviously his gold dust stored in a tanned bull elk nut sack.

I was carefully moving a few of the poles, amateur archeologist-style, and taking a few pictures and I see some black, shiny material - that turned out to be thick black plastic film of some kind. Like heavy duty garbage bag stuff but a bit thicker. All my dreams faded, no documentary, no gold dust. Then I saw more and more of the black plastic under blow downs and grass humps in the surrounding approx. 50 yard radius. Not sure when plastic film was invented, but not that long ago. It looked like the cabin may have been lined with it from where it was underneath all the logs.

The cabin clearly took a bit of work and was someone's camp and I definitely dug around looking for treasures, but found nothing. I'm always looking and it's fun finding stuff out in the wild.
 

AndrewD

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Aug 25, 2023
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I got thinking of another neat thing I found. While bow hunting elk in 2010 I found a couple trees with my grandpa's name carved in them. I have some other pics but they must be on my old computer. This tree was carved in 1933, when he was 18 years old. He wrote that he was herding sheep and drew a horse head there as well. I thought it was pretty neat.

View attachment 248821


In 2015 on my dads archery elk hunt I found another tree with my great grandpa's initials and last name, carved in 1925 if I remember right. I can't see the last part of the year in this picture. There were a few around there with my great uncles name carved there too. My dad told me that was a camp spot they used when they had the sheep herd up there.

View attachment 248824


That same hunt my dad picked up this arrowhead not far from here.

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Your great grandpa and grandpa Basque? Basque shepherds did this a lot. The lonely ones would even carve naked ladies into Aspens, which is kind of the holy grail of Basque tree carvings to find.
 

CorbLand

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Your great grandpa and grandpa Basque? Basque shepherds did this a lot. The lonely ones would even carve naked ladies into Aspens, which is kind of the holy grail of Basque tree carvings to find.
Didn’t take a picture but I found one of those this weekend looking for deer. Made me laugh.
She was a gifted lady.
 

mcr-85

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Your great grandpa and grandpa Basque? Basque shepherds did this a lot. The lonely ones would even carve naked ladies into Aspens, which is kind of the holy grail of Basque tree carvings to find.
Nope. Just good ol farm boys from Southern Utah who probably didn't have enough money to hire someone to herd sheep at the time.

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk
 

JEck

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Found a buck 119 knife while shed hunting one time as a kid, I’ve used it quite a few times since finding it.

Found an unfired rifle round under a tree once, believe it’s a 303 British, looks to be very old.
 
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