FLauthor
Hero Member
- Aug 22, 2004
- 770
- 203
- Detector(s) used
- Excalibur 800; Fisher F5; White Beachmaster VLF
- Primary Interest:
- Beach & Shallow Water Hunting
A little Florida History. During World War 2, the barrier islands in the Sarasota area were off limits to beach goers. There was a war on and strewn all across the beach were plywood targets shaped like trucks, Panzer tanks and cannons. Young pilots flying an assortment of fighter planes like the P-47 Thunderbolt, P-40 Warhawk and the P-51 Mustang would fly down that beach at diving speed strafing those target with from 4 to 8 .50 caliber machine guns and each gun was capable of 750 rounds per minute. That's a lot of brass and I imagine a lot was salvaged later after the war ended but a lot of it sank into the ground. Every so often when hunting Lido Key after a tropical storm has hammered the coastline, you'll get a good solid tone and you dig down and pull out a 1943 brass .50 caliber shell casing and sometimes it'll be a copper .50 caliber bullet which will really sound off. When you find one or both, you have found TREASURE, real Florida Treasure, a piece of history. It's not worth much but it looks good in the cabinet and its something to pass around with your kids and grandkids when the subject of World War 2 ever comes up. All that practicing helped our guys win the war.
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