A missed chance at detecting a swimming hole and St Pete beach yesterday

[kc10bull]

Well I went on my first water hunt of the year! Finally got a pass from my wife to hunt all day. I had found a fresh water swimming hole on google back in December, it was a park but out of the normal path for most people or so I thought. Packed up all my gear and the wife trots out and jumps in the truck with me! Surprise I'm tagging along today, to keep you know who out of mischief. Anyway it took 2 hours to get to this out of the way park. Went in and talked with the rangers, they were friendly, then I ask about the swimming spot and they informed me that due to other water / sand hunters last year not filling there holes and leaving trash around, they no longer allowed people to detect in the park. I tried my best, and discussed our great hobby and promised to leave no traces and the trash I recovered would be properly disposed of. They still turned me down but said that I could go into the park for free and check out the swimming hole and the rest of the park. The wife and I took a tour of the park and when I saw the swimming hole I just knew this would have been an outstanding place to have detected. Upon exiting the park I stopped and thanked the rangers for the tour, gave them a business card and ask them if anyone looses something in the swimming hole I would be happy to come out and recover the lost item. They informed me that was nice and they would keep my information and give me a call when someone looses something! So all was not lost.

So now I had to figure out where to go and the wife ask to go to St. Pete beach so off we go 2 more hours of driving. Detecting time 3 hours, results: 1 hot wheels car, one quarter, 2 dimes, and a penny. Lots of bottle caps, pull tabs and parts of aluminum cans and one hoop ear ring. Saw a lady swinging her detector and she waved, went to talk to her and found out his was her first hunt with her new garretts detector. I ask her if she had any questions boy did she, she was swinging the coil a foot off the sand. I gave her some lessons on how to properly swing the coin and recover items from the sand. I then pulled out my 2 gold test rings 8k and 14k that I use and ask her to see if she could locate them. No luck not even a little beep. I made some adjustments to her detector and then she could here the tones perfectly. Then she found a hot wheels car burried at 3 inches. She was really excited. I informed her about the metal detecting club meeting at Bill Jackson's in Pinellas Park on te 4th Monday of the month at 7 pm and she thanked me, off she went with her friends to discover more treasure.
Oh and the wife and I sat and watched a beautiful sunset together, a great way to end a day of detecting! I didn't find any gold in the water. But we did have a golden moment watching the sunset .

 

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[Chi Town Bruce]

Thanks! for the run down, still had a nice outing.

 

[Sandman]

I enjoyed the story. It is good to give a newbie proper instructions so they can enjoy the hobby as much as we do. Places that I couldn't get into before have let me in after they learned I wasn't a slob and really picked up the junk. If you turned in some trash you found on the ground the rangers might have changed their mines right there. Other hunters of course would be pissed at you, but hey, you are helping the hobby and they aren't.

 

[goldfever]

It's not fair to close the place to detecting because someone didnt filll their holes and left some trash.
Beachgoers often dig holes in the sand and leave trash but they dont close the beach to swimmers.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

It's not fair to close the place to detecting because someone didnt filll their holes and left some trash.
Beachgoers often dig holes in the sand and leave trash but they dont close the beach to swimmers.

If life was fair, I would still have hair, would have been born with lots of money or hit a lottery by now, and my ex would have a bad case of something..............................

 

[goldfever]

It is discrimination!

 

[bootyhoundpa]

great story... thank you for promoting the hobby in a positive way... fresh water beach i was working last fall in a state park... every time i went there i would spend a half hour filling in other peoples holes just so the rangers wouldnt have a reason for putting the beach off limits....

 

[mumszie]

A sunset with your better half.... what more can you ask. It was a good day!

 

[Les West Central Fl]

Unfortunately it is true that some of the people in our hobby ruin it for all. Again it is a small percentage that gives us a bad name and closes opportunities for the rest of us. I have seen pot holes that are deep all over the beach and when you mention it to the person digging they give you the finger. There was a nice fresh water park near Brandon that was closed to detectorist because of the hole problems.

 

[Chi Town Bruce]

Treasure Hunter,

Couldn't have said it better myself!!

 

[halfstep]

I always fill back in my holes and pick up trash. On a sandy beach where a lot of kids play, they will dig more holes than a mole on juice. Swimmers and beach bums will trash up the area. The detectorist is the one who gets the blame. There isn't many sandy beaches around here but I always try to go when the beaches are empty. I have several rivers nearby and hit some of the popular swimming holes now and then. The beaches are mainly gravel with some sand here and there. I hit a little beach the other day but it was pretty trashy. I didn't find any goodies but I didn't hunt very long. My father and I hit another little beach on a creek that is at the edge of an old small town park and some of the park as well. We found 1 quarter, 2 dimes and 10 pennies. My father and I will be dirt hunting tomorrow. Got to give my new predator little eagle shovel out tomorrow. I ordered 2 more shovels, another little eagle for the girlfriend and a dixie which is a little eagle with a 10" longer handle for my father.