That’s brilliant figuring the downhill incline would be a good place to hunt!
We were comparing his finds in the Western US (few artifacts earlier than about 1860 — seem to have largely been brought west by Civil War veterans), the Eastern US (things dating back up to 400 years) and finds in the UK and Europe (up to 2000 or more years). Rather slim pickins out here in the West.
Here in The Michigan Boonies, most of the metal hits appear to be (I followed a couple of detectorists around the yard here one time, letting them know the location of the vanished farm buildings) broken rusty bolts off things, broken bits of flat metal pieces of things (sometimes with bolts through them), bits of barbed wire. In the west barbed wire was in use here and there, but where the grass was a little lean (and on the altiplano) herd grazing tended to be mobile and managed by riders and probably dogs, so, not much in the way of wire, and thanks to the distances covered, lost and dropped items would be spread out over perhaps hundreds of miles.
I’ve seen lots of YouTubes with guys using metal detectors to find gold out west. But it’s the naturally occurring gold. This was a couple of years ago when gold was half current prices. So likely there are even more guys roaming the the forests mountains and deserts either metal detectors