How do I hunt in a creek bed?

[bolen2007]

Im new to the whole creek searching thing. And I wanted to look for points in this creek back off in the woods that feeds a big river. It has a sandy bottom and I know some points have been pulled from there years back. but has not been searched since. I just dont know how to go about the method or where to start my search. The creek varies from about one inch to deeper than three foot in spots. any help would be appreciated.

[buckhunter]

Bolen,

Does the creek have any creek gravels at all? Are there any known native american camps along the banks fo the creek? Is it intermittent or does it constantly flow (I'm assuming it's fairly big if it feeds the river). What part of the country are you in?

First, start with research! Find out if there are any known camps along the river bank. Second, look for a cut bank on the outside edge of the creek where it turns back left or right...just below that cut bank (assuming there was a camp site along the cut bank) is where you should start looking. Look in the shallow water and then look on the sand/rock bars. Sometimes, I'll even snorkel so I can see them underwater and even dive down in the deeper holes 9where most people won't look) if the light is right. Worked flint actually stands out among the other rocks surprisingly. Most people complain of getting double vision and/or going cross eyed but if you'll use a search path of about 5 feet out and scan as you walk working your way back to you it makes it less painful. I even get on my hands and knees or sit down and sift through the gravel if I'm in a hotspot. If your creek is sandy, look for the rocks! Arrowheads will most likely deposit with the rocks unless they have just recently washed out of the bank in which case they will be sitting close to or right on top of the sand...perhaps even sticking out at odd angles...so keep that in mind. Look for them in eroded/washed cattle paths too if any cross the creek.
Here's what I posted on the Pros website:

My advice is to hit the creek and gravel bars immediately below stream from a high bank washout where the bank is being cut on the outside edge of the stream and the property behind it is fairly flat to sloping. That is the most likely place that they would have camped and as the bank continues to erode, the points that are laying in the camp will wash out. Go immediately after a heavy flooding rain to find those near perfect points. Creekcomber hit the nail on the head. I also check the wall of the bank and sometimes you can find one just laying there where it got hung up on a ledge or a larger rock...but they are freshly exposed after hundreds of years. If you carry goggles with you, dive down to the base of the cut bank and check there too. Sometimes you can find them laying at the surface. I have a theory of why most of the creek found artifacts are lying directly on the surface. Artifacts are typically flat and long so they float and roll through the water like a leaf would during a flooding rain rather than rolling on the bottom with the rest of the rocks and they are the last of the rocks to sink when they hit slower water. It also takes longer for them to get worked into the gravel bed with the rest of the rocks so the sooner you go after a rain, the easier they are to find and the more likely that your footprints are going to be seen by someone else rather than you seeing their's Terry is on track too. The more sandy the creek and the fewer the large creek gravel and boulders the more likely a point is going to have of surviving. I have a place in Texas that I hunt that is primarily sand with small river pebbles and the majority of the points we find are intact and not dinged badly. We even find old bottles in old dump washouts along that river that have survived 30 plus years because of the sand. I apply the same principle artifact hunting creeks as I do with gold prospecting. The closer to the source you are the more likely you are of finding the best pieces so my best advice is to do your research and find the camp sites and then find those high banks and hunt directly down stream from them. Hope this helps. Good luck hunting

Tim

P.S. I want to see your first find!

[kentlangreder]

bolen if you want to see some great insitus of creek finds browse the recent finds thread and look for posts from me and show me flint we have lots of pics from our creek hunts on there but buckhunter has given you some great info go with it !!!!

kent langreder

[David Crain]

Bolen,

Your creeks are a little different than ours but I'm sure there are some similarities. You have to look slow but I bet your creeks are cleaner than this. Concentrate on areas where gravel wants to lay, the points will drop out there also. Keep the whole process in mind ... water washes away the bank ... point(s) fall in with other gravel and rock ... water pushes them downstream ... current slows or swirls or something happens with the hydrology that lets the point(s) and gravels fall out of the current.

And nothing beats getting in the water to hunt points in the hot summer time.

Good luck!

[beachpoint]

man, seeing these pics, especially the first one, makes me wonder how many points I walked over in my younger days when I was roaming the creeks setting lines for catfish, plinking, and just goofing off. It never dawned on me to scour the gravel beds for points, the only thing I found was a minie ball from a musket, it stood out because of the shape and color. all the places I fished and creeks I crossed over when I worked in the field are off limits now. I still want to do this successfully, time to do some research. Thanks for the info.