Compadre Hunt--June 4, 2011--A Good Reminder

[Smudge]

Ol' Smudge went dirt fishing this morning and can't wait to show you the results.

I went to a small park that really is off the beaten path in an older part of town.

When i got there, I was sorry to see their tot lot was covered in that astro-turf. Bummer. But the good news was that the parking lot was all dirt and sand, and that's usually a good place to hunt clad.

So I turned on the Compadre and set the discrimination at the "F" in "FOIL" and got to work.

Brother, I've haven't hit this many pulltabs in a long time! Some folks hate digging these things. I like it because that tells me if anyone has detected this area before me, they pretty well discriminated out any hope of finding gold too.

Well, at the end of my hunt, I had the usual collection of garbage.

It wasn't a great location for coins. Only 8 pennies (one badly damaged) and one quarter. All clad. I also got one piece of costume jewelry: a pendant.

Oh yeah, and 48 pulltabs. :P

In addition to all the garbage and all those pulltabs, I pulled this little beauty as well:

It's a size 6, 14 kt gold ring which also has an "FG" stamp, which I'm assuming means "fine gold"? It weighs in at 2.4 grams and was about 4" down in the ground.

I really had to contain myself and not do a "happy ring dance" right there in parking lot.

What a great day this turned out to be!

There's two lessons to be learned here:

1. The Compadre completely rocks as a gold and coin hunter.

2. If I had set my discrimination above "FOIL", I would never have found it. In fact, the signal got noticeably weaker the farther into the "FOIL" range I went. So as I have said, if you aren't digging pulltabs, you aren't getting the gold either. And here's the proof.

[Terry Soloman]

SMUDGE!!!!! Way to go!

[Gary66]

Man you had a great day.....

Nice ring and what a collection of pull tabs you have.

[birdman]

Hard work pays off So many people pass on the pull tabs and wonder where the gold is at.

[Smudge]

I ought to add that I tested this at home too. The farther into the "FOIL" range I went, the more broken the signal became. Past "FOIL" and the signal disappeared altogether.

There's an argument for low discrimination if ever there was one.

[Keppy]

Well... Smudge.. here is your "happy ring dance "..................

[ToddB64]

Smudge........Congrats on the 14K ring and pendant ! Looks like you dug approximately 75 to 100 items on that outing ! That's an amazing amount of work in one day, but it paid off !

Bought a new Compadre (received last week) and itching to go to my local parks and hunt the Tot Lots ! Took it out in my back yard the other day and found five pieces of junk and a motor mount bolt lost off of my riding mower last year (had to replace with a new bolt.). I'm going to try your "F" setting and dig pull tabs, looking for the gold and silver jewelry !

If you don't mind my asking, approximately how many hours does it take to dig that many finds ? What type of digger do you use ? Also, do you use a hand held pinpointer to locate your targets in the hole ?

I'm trying to figure out how you are able to dig up that many items in a single hunt. Is it long hours
spent, or speedy target retrievals, or a combination of both ? I would appreciate it if you could give me some specifics.

Thanks and I wish you continued good luck with your Compadre !

ToddB64

[Smudge]

Smudge........Congrats on the 14K ring and pendant ! Looks like you dug approximately 75 to 100 items on that outing ! That's an amazing amount of work in one day, but it paid off !

Bought a new Compadre (received last week) and itching to go to my local parks and hunt the Tot Lots ! Took it out in my back yard the other day and found five pieces of junk and a motor mount bolt lost off of my riding mower last year (had to replace with a new bolt.). I'm going to try your "F" setting and dig pull tabs, looking for the gold and silver jewelry !

If you don't mind my asking, approximately how many hours does it take to dig that many finds ? What type of digger do you use ? Also, do you use a hand held pinpointer to locate your targets in the hole ?

I'm trying to figure out how you are able to dig up that many items in a single hunt. Is it long hours
spent, or speedy target retrievals, or a combination of both ? I would appreciate it if you could give me some specifics.

Thanks and I wish you continued good luck with your Compadre !

ToddB64

Hi Todd.

I hunted the dirt/sand parking lot exclusively so I had no grass to cut through. This made retrieval a lot easier. I used my plastic trowel most of the time and my Lesche digger if I hit any roots. Thats why I was able to dig so many targets in 4 hours.

The other thing I had was a Garrett Propointer. I know the Compadre is $160 and the Propointer is about $130, but that device makes my enjoyment of this hobby higher than it ever was. It is a really great investment and decreases your retrieval time dramatically. I never hunt without it, except at the beach.

[ToddB64]

Smudge........Thanks for explaining ! Even with the easy diggin, I bet you still got a good workout ! LOL

I agree, a pinpointer sure makes MD'ing easier and faster !. I bought the Treasure Products Vibra-Probe 570, before the Garrett Propointer came out. It doesn't go as deep, but I'm satisfied with it's range. Like you, I never hunt without my pinpointer ! I also use a Lesche or my home made Arkie Tabdog Hand Digger Replica ( Photos attached.).

Happy Hunting !

ToddB64