CZconnoisseur
Full Member
- Jun 29, 2015
- 209
- 327
- Detector(s) used
- XP Deus All Three Coils (9" currently), Tesoro Vaquero 8x9 and 5.75" DD coil, Fisher F70, White's Spectrum XLT, White's IDX, Garrett AT Pro, Fisher 1265-X, Fisher CZ5, Fisher CZ6, White's TM808, White
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
Made a day of it today hunting a local college that was built in the 1870s. I spied the "quad" area from an aerial map and it called to both me and my hunting partner! The area we hunted is grassy and spans several acres, so running out of places to swing the detector won't come anytime this decade!
Set the Vaquero disc to "foil", which is halfway between "iron" and "5c" on the knob and got to work...still dug plenty of foil today but the trash pile (not pictured) was about as large as the "keeper pile"...so every other target turned out to be something worth holding onto. Started hitting some modern coins here and there, but I was interested in those whisper targets that hopefully would be a small piece of jewelry at depth.
An hour after getting started I got one of those signals - very, very faint audio but when I turned the Disc knob to pulltab, it still came in faintly. Most of the time I don't bother with checking the disc point of a target since this (in my mind) wastes time which could be spent detecting other targets...at about 5" down I see a funny looking hunk of metal, but then I notice an inset stone! I believe it to be a fraternity/sorority pin, likely 10K gold, with "L. B. Sutherland" engraved on the backside. There are some numbers as well which I can't make heads or tails of, and the front side has "Colorado" engraved at the bottom, likely denoting a Colorado chapter of that organization. Sigma Chi does exist at this college, and dates back to 1905 from what I've learned....
Not long after finding the pin, I got a deeper but solid signal which turned out to be an unexpected 1919 Wheat! Things were looking good as far as finding a new place to hunt with lots of potential! Then I got a tight little signal that sounded just a bit different than a coin, to pull a sterling "Bliss" toe ring! While digging this signal I was approached by a young woman who wanted to know what I was doing....I explained I was looking for mainly jewelry, and then proceeded to show her the gold fraternity pin to see if she knew anything about it. She said it was almost definitely a Sigma Chi pin, and then pointed out the house - but I didn't have time to walk over there to verify it - too busy digging targets!
Her friends started giggling, so she left and I continued the hunt. I was on point all day long looking for keepers, but admittedly every now and then I'd get distracted by the, uh, scenery....and I thought it was strange that so many people would be out and about on Sunday, but it IS Colorado! A group of young men decided to throw a football not too far away from me, so I wandered a little further down the "quad" to try and find more goodies.
About 50 yards away from the first pieces of jewelry I decided to start hunting a new area, and quickly found a "14" (class of 2014 I presume) medal that I'm guessing used to hang from a tassel. Went on to find another "14", and then a "13" - all of these finds indicated to me that I was in the right area for jewelry, so I kept my nose and eyes glued to the ground (most of the time
) in search of what glints! Found a couple of small junker pot-metal earrings, some deeper foil, and a few coins - but all the signs were there! It's just a matter of getting the coil over it!
After we finished the hunt, my partner and I drove around to scope out other areas on campus, and noticed that we had only just begun! This place will keep us busy for YEARS....and there's another local college we haven't even visited yet! I have no doubts this place has been hunted and hunted hard, but when has that EVER stopped me?!
Set the Vaquero disc to "foil", which is halfway between "iron" and "5c" on the knob and got to work...still dug plenty of foil today but the trash pile (not pictured) was about as large as the "keeper pile"...so every other target turned out to be something worth holding onto. Started hitting some modern coins here and there, but I was interested in those whisper targets that hopefully would be a small piece of jewelry at depth.
An hour after getting started I got one of those signals - very, very faint audio but when I turned the Disc knob to pulltab, it still came in faintly. Most of the time I don't bother with checking the disc point of a target since this (in my mind) wastes time which could be spent detecting other targets...at about 5" down I see a funny looking hunk of metal, but then I notice an inset stone! I believe it to be a fraternity/sorority pin, likely 10K gold, with "L. B. Sutherland" engraved on the backside. There are some numbers as well which I can't make heads or tails of, and the front side has "Colorado" engraved at the bottom, likely denoting a Colorado chapter of that organization. Sigma Chi does exist at this college, and dates back to 1905 from what I've learned....
Not long after finding the pin, I got a deeper but solid signal which turned out to be an unexpected 1919 Wheat! Things were looking good as far as finding a new place to hunt with lots of potential! Then I got a tight little signal that sounded just a bit different than a coin, to pull a sterling "Bliss" toe ring! While digging this signal I was approached by a young woman who wanted to know what I was doing....I explained I was looking for mainly jewelry, and then proceeded to show her the gold fraternity pin to see if she knew anything about it. She said it was almost definitely a Sigma Chi pin, and then pointed out the house - but I didn't have time to walk over there to verify it - too busy digging targets!
Her friends started giggling, so she left and I continued the hunt. I was on point all day long looking for keepers, but admittedly every now and then I'd get distracted by the, uh, scenery....and I thought it was strange that so many people would be out and about on Sunday, but it IS Colorado! A group of young men decided to throw a football not too far away from me, so I wandered a little further down the "quad" to try and find more goodies.
About 50 yards away from the first pieces of jewelry I decided to start hunting a new area, and quickly found a "14" (class of 2014 I presume) medal that I'm guessing used to hang from a tassel. Went on to find another "14", and then a "13" - all of these finds indicated to me that I was in the right area for jewelry, so I kept my nose and eyes glued to the ground (most of the time
) in search of what glints! Found a couple of small junker pot-metal earrings, some deeper foil, and a few coins - but all the signs were there! It's just a matter of getting the coil over it!
After we finished the hunt, my partner and I drove around to scope out other areas on campus, and noticed that we had only just begun! This place will keep us busy for YEARS....and there's another local college we haven't even visited yet! I have no doubts this place has been hunted and hunted hard, but when has that EVER stopped me?!
