Cherished Gun FOUND After 4 Years

[Digger62918]

Little Gun...BIG Field

I have been metal detecting for 12 years and today was one of the most rewarding days I have had in all those years. Kathy, a long time friend and detecting buddy of mine recently told me that her father had lost gun several years ago and asked if I would help find it. He had lost the gun over 4 years ago while farming a field. The gun was given to him by his father and was very sentimental. The gun was in the waist of his pants and fell out at some point while he was on his tractor plowing a field. Kathy has searched the field numerous times over the years but was never able to recover the gun. After recently coming up empty handed yet again she decided to get some help. Last week about 7 members of our local metal detecting club joined Kathy and helped her search the field. Everyone spread out and hunted the field for several hours, however once again the gun was not found. I was unable to join the group and hunt for the gun that day, Kathy called me that night and told me the bad news. It was obvious that she was very upset that the gun was still lost and I could tell she was loosing hope that it would ever be found. Today I met with her and she took me out to the field. At first I thought this should be a fairly easy find....that was until I saw the size of the field. It was HUGE, the field is aprox 5-6 acres in size and Kathy was unsure which area of the field the gun was lost. After tuning up our detectors we split up and started searching. I knew the gun would give off a strong large signal so I set my detector in All Metal mode and only dug objects that pinpointed over a large area. This allowed me to skip 90% of targets and cover ground more quickly. After about of hour of digging I had found a few large objects but no gun. I looked around to see where Kathy was, she was on the other end of the field. I finished digging the target I was on and I headed over that way to see how she was doing. As I started to walk I heard a loud BONG. After pinpointing the object I knew there was a good chance that this could be it. I thrust my digger into the ground, as I pulled out a large clot of dirt I could see the chamber of a gun. I was shocked, a needle in a haystack and I found it! What a great feeling! I wiped the dirt off the gun and noticed that it was mostly intact except the handle had completely rotted away and the barrel of the gun was missing. I marked the spot with my digger and walked over to Kathy. As I handed the gun to her she immediately started crying. After 4 long years of searching she would finally be able to return the gun to her dad. Her dads birthday is next week and she plans to return the gun to him on his birthday, the timing couldn't have been better. After we celebrated the find and calmed down we went back over the location where I found the gun. After just a few seconds of searching Kathy had found the barrel just a few feet away from where I had dug the gun. Over all the gun was in good condition. It was made out of Stainless steel so there was no rust and the barrel and handle should both be easily replaced. The feeling of finding it for her is amazing....its what every detectorist lives for. I'll never forget the feeling of handing Kathy that gun.

[rtde3]

Great story! Good job!
Why was he packing while farming?

[jgas]

Very cool stuff. Nice recovery. That just had to be sweet. Nice job. jgas

[artzstuff1]

Man what a story!!! great recovery digger!!!,,, thats what it is all about,, I found a lost gun once myself,,, its a good feeling !!!!

have a good one !!!


arthur

[Keppy]

Good deed and a nice ending.

[Shortstack]

WOW, on the gun AND the hunting partner.

[extractor]

Totaly great story! Thanks for taking the time to share it with us

[VERMONTPACKRAT]

I am glad to see that this one made it over here so quickly

Not all treasures are silver and gold. An invisible memory attatched to a piece that only its owner can see.

Great job !! VPR

[wwwtimmcp]

lots of farmers pack a gun, mostly to kill rodents trying to get into grain storage or varmints .

[Gator-Flea]

Nice story!!

[HerrinHunter]

Cool find!

Im just a few miles from you, in Herrin.

I just got into metal detecting about a month ago.

[DMN]

Great story! Good job!
Why was he packing while farming?

Critters and setch...what else?
Good job! It's nice to be able to make recoveries like that. Fun to find cool stuff but you can't replace doing a favor for a person. That's what keeps this hobby in good stead -- people like you who can be nice enough to donate a little time and effort to someone who can really use the help. Thanks again.