Late-Season Detecting in Minnesota?

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Most of you are probably out looking for deer and have put away your detectors, but has anyone been doing some late-season MDing in Minnesota before the ground freezes?? I've been doing some poking around at a local park and have found a few bucks in clad and some buttons and pins, nothing exciting, but it's nice to go out and enjoy the semi-nice weather we've been having before the snow takes over. An added bonus is that there are very few people using any of the parks now since it's gotten a little colder (I'm a little shy about detecting, so it's nice that I can be alone when i'm out there...). It's also nice that popping some grass plugs out of the ground won't hurt the parks since it's all gonna be covered up soon with snow, and will look like new once the grass comes back in the spring. I try my best to replace my dug holes so you can't tell I did anything, but i'm new at this and still learning how to do the least destruction when diggin'. Anyways, good luck to all the Minnesotans that are still swingin their detectors before old man winter puts us out of business!! (Good luck with the deer, too!)
-Matt

 

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[Blackjack77]

Hi Matt, I've used the cooler weather to trim back the woods around some fences and to gain access
under Pine trees. Then after I clean the area up-- time to detect!! I've found a couple of die-cast toys
shotgun shells, 2 pin-on brooch things with-in a foot of each other. Found a 1920 & 1940 wheaties and
some clad. Ground is getting cold- along with the temps- have had several 24f mornings. time is running
out for hands on detecting- research phase this winter!!
Luck to the Deer hunters- -way too many dead in the ditches!!!
HH-- tim

 

[Sandman]

Matt, when I started detecting I would wear safety glasses while I chipped at the frozen dirt here in Michigan to get out a penny. It was either that or paint the living room again. Never did know what was wrong with the other color.

At least with the cooler weather we have less bug to bite us too. I've been doing this for about thirty years and I still get self conscience the first few times out in the spring when the parks have people in them. Don't forget to check on some of the swimming areas, some places draw down the water level.

HH,
Sandman

 

[wolfpaw518]

"out looking for deer..." nuts, thats right...maybe we should be wearing blaze orange while detector "hunting" lol

neil

 

[Wetgreenie]

Ya, no kidding I just realized Deer hunting opens next weekend
and still have not been out to detect all these cool places we had in mind.
An old Fort on private land, a river crossing from the early days....Etc Etc.....

The past few weeks have been the best weather too.

 

[oldhippiecoinhntr]

I would love to be able to hunt year round in Minn, but not to be. Perhaps in southern Mn it may be possible, but here in the north country, better known as the ice box..........not likely.
I put my detector away a couple of days ago for the winter. But I did go out to two beachs, on the 17th of Nov. One I found almost nothing except for a couple of pennies in sand. But along with the beach there is picnic tables, and motor home parking areas, etc. There is also a berm about 3ft higher than the sorrounding grounds that encircles the whole beach area. Checking the berm in several areas, I managed to find some pocket spills, and some deeper coins.I decided upon looking around, and how the berm ran along the length of the sandy beach, that it was a place that swimmers, and spectators likely sat, and watched the activities. Also there was a number of tree's along the berm, and that is a good place for people to sit out of sun. Good place to lose coins and jewelry(rings). However after detecting for only about half and hour, and with a strong wind, accented by some drizzle and snow, I decided it was time to go. I was cold despite wearing a insulated jump suit. Made a note, 'come back in spring and check out the berm'.

From there headed northwest about 40 miles to another public beach. NOw it was a little after dinner, and weather had improved some, so decided I would check out the sand beach. I was really wanting to find another ring before end of season. So, parked near the sand, turned on my GTX, and put the coil down, and started to walk. Went 5 ft, and got a strong signal at tab. Well, you know on beach sand is easy to dig.........and I dig all tabs and foil etc on beach. Well scooped up the sand, shook it out, and all that remained was a nice mens gold wedding band, with 3 diamonds! Well, here was 'another ring' to end the season! I hunted the rest of sand (leaveing grass area for next spring), and found about two dozen coins, none old. And some casino gaming chips. Yea, really, had to check several times, and they did make the detector beep
So that ended my day, and headed home. But now with winter hitting us in the butt, and many things yet to do, had to retire the GTX for winter. Thanks for reading me carrying-on about my hunting. Hopefully someday I can get a good find to show a picture under the good finds.

 

[Wetgreenie]

Cool, Hope to see some finds......If we don't hear from you soon,
Have a great Hibernation....Dang cold and snow!

 

[dfxdude]

Well, I realized you can't dig in the frozen tundra, so I became an official "snowbird", arriving at Tucson on Nov. 24. I'm still setting up household here in North Tucson, but hope to be out swinging in the next week sometime and add to the 1,975 coins and other stuff I found in Minnesota over the summer. Temps are in the low 70's this week and I see it is -18 in northern Minn. this morning (Thursday 29th). I've got some research to do, to see where I will go here. Got one of those detailed atlases (from Walmart) of the Tucson area. I know there is an MD club here, as I met one of their members last winter. KEEP WARM ! Spring is only 4 months away.
DFXdude - Renville, MN

 

[Wetgreenie]

I hope you get out to detect for gold while in AZ. I saw Kevin Hogland (Minelab guy) on the travel channel teaching people how to find nuggets.