A vow to myself for the day...

[CowboyKolo]

Okay, so I was going to go out metal detecting at a park across town today only to get outside and discover I have a flat tire. With no spare, and lack of fundage to get it repaired, my car will be firmly planted until tomorrow when the banks open up. So, I came back inside and reheated some breakfast. I am now sitting here and thinking to myself; I live in the downtown area of my home city. An area that's been resided in since the 1850's.

Now, I doubt I'll find any civil war era goodies as the city didn't see rapid growth until after 1870, but there's gotta be some clad and possibly silver still laying in wait for someone to go get it, right? So, here's my vow to myself for the day;

I will go for two hours, or 8 square blocks (which ever comes first) swinging my coil between street and sidewalk. I've already hammered my apartment buildings yard several times, with the landlords permission of course. Heck, I even have a couple test pockets in the front yard. I further vow I will go in all metal mode, and not look at any of the readings, but rather pay attention to tone and sound. And finally, I vow to dig every solid target I hear. No cherry picking, and probably a lot of "damnit, another beer bottle cap"s.

The only downside is, I will need to jump blocks once in a while because there are several registered historic homes, not to mention the state capitol all within that radius of where I live. But by 3 p.m. cst, I'll post pics of what I find, junk
and all. Wish me luck!

 

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[ivan salis]

GOOD LUCK --YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT MIGHT POP UP.

 

[HISPAN]

GOOD LUCK !..... do not give up, I always turn to my hunting spots by train .

 

[CowboyKolo]

Okay so, to quote Paul Harvey, "And now, the REST of the story..."

After ground balancing the White's Spectrum, I start my swinging about two blocks from home. First several signals I got were shallow solid ones, and bottle caps/pulltabs all. Then, I happened to glance down at the machine and noticed LOW BATTERY...oh god...flat tire, low battery, just ain't my lucky day. Soooo

I walk the 5 blocks to the nearest gas station and paid a buck per mile for one pack of two C cells. After leaving the store, I decide I need a cigarette so reach into my back pocket and, nothing. I must've left them at home in my coat pocket. *sigh* Now, the irony is, my first hit after leaving the parking lot was a sure sign the metal detecting gods have a sense of humor. Solid target, an inch down. I kick aside some leaves, and there is an empty (except for the foil setting off the detector) pack of Pall Malls. Not my brand anyway :P

So I go back to where I had left off, and I'm not there for more than a few minutes before I have two kids come up and start yammering away. They are all kinds of interested in what I'm doing, and I like kids so I let em stick around. Mistake! Why, you might ask? Because one of them would keep putting his head in my way while I was digging, and the other would reach down into the hole as I attempted to dig more dirt. After about three such attempts, I packed up and started walking until their moms called them back.

Now I am an hour or so into my avowed two hours, and I have three pull tabs, two bottle caps, four Zlincolns and I've only covered about 100 sq feet. At least, I think to myself, I will have plenty of ground to go over if I want to hit the full 8 blocks.

I continue on my chosen path, and start swinging around a tree that's obviously been there almost as long as the neighborhood. Wow, trash! More bottle caps/pull tabs. But, there was also a pocket spill of 2 clad quarters and a dime! Not too shabby I suppose. I keep going in that area for awhile, and get around a sidewalk leading from the main sidewalk to the street. I pick up a quarter signal about 4 inches down and pulled up what I thought was in fact, just a dirty quarter and put it with the others.

I get to the corner, and trash signals all over the place again. Now, I remembered distinctly saying I would dig up all solid signals, so I didn't go for ALL the hits as most were, gratefully quite broken. But there was one that kept coming up back to me as pretty solid with only the occassional break in tone. I figured what the hell, it's solid enough for me. So, I dug down about three inches and near the bottom of the plug was a nickle. But not any nickle, no siree! Yes ladies and gents, I have now found my second shield nickle in a year and a half The 5 side is legible, but the obverse is so worn down, if I hadn't flipped it over I woulda thought it was just a metal slug.

I looked down at my clock, and saw my 2 hours was up, so I then got back home and took a few pictures. After cleaning the quarter I mentioned, it turns out it wasn't a quarter at all, but a Freedom Token. It's got the Eagle, 13 stars, shield and aside from being a little warped is in pretty good shape. Due to it's weight, I'm thinking it's brass. Now, without further ado, here's the pics...sorry they aren't the best quality, but that's what you get for a 8 year old webcam that looks like it came from cracker jacks.

 

[sniffer]

the important thing is you had a chance to go out. nice finds

 

[Woodland Detectors]

OK.


Good Luck

 

[CowboyKolo]

the important thing is you had a chance to go out. nice finds

Very true...here in a couple weeks I'm sure I'd be killing for a nice day full of
tabs and caps, just because it'll be a nice day

 

[kyphote]

I'm enjoying this journal and commend you on the shield and token. I've always wondered how I'd fare swinging a coil through Richmond's trashiest blocks. You know there's plenty buried, but I don't have the patience to deal with the modern debris. Or the modern children. Keep your vow going. It's actually pretty fascinating. How do you avoid trespassing, btw?

 

[CowboyKolo]

I'm enjoying this journal and commend you on the shield and token. I've always wondered how I'd fare swinging a coil through Richmond's trashiest blocks. You know there's plenty buried, but I don't have the patience to deal with the modern debris. Or the modern children. Keep your vow going. It's actually pretty fascinating. How do you avoid trespassing, btw?

Because according to city ordinance, anything between the sidewalk and the street is public property. So, as long as I stay on one side of the sidewalk, it's no more trespassing than if I were in a park.

 

[CowboyKolo]

I should add however that there are some single occupancy homes scattered throughout the area, and though it's public property, since property owners are required to tend to the section of the lawn between said sidewalk and street, if they ask me to leave, I do so. But so far, I have had no issues with local police.

 

[kyphote]

OK, great to know. Keep it going! I'm living vicariously through you.

 

[CowboyKolo]

OK, great to know. Keep it going! I'm living vicariously through you.

LOL That'd be a first for someone to live through me Alas, with my day job currently, and the nice days winding down fairly quickly this week, I'm not sure if I'll get a chance to continue this before the weather goes south. By the time I got home today, the sun had been down for about 10 minutes, but I'm gonna keep trying.

 

[sniffer]

today it's supposed to hit 75 here, but by the end of the week the high is going to be 45. guess I better get out today

 

[CowboyKolo]

today it's supposed to hit 75 here, but by the end of the week the high is going to be 45. guess I better get out today

Today was an interesting day at work. Got to the shop and we only had two jobs, but they took about 2 hours each, not counting drive time. After the first one, my boss had to switch trucks with me, because mine had begun to over heat, and he thought it needed more than just water. So, he transferred everything over from my truck to his, except alas my cellphone charger. What does any of this have to do with metal detecting, you might ask (go ahead, ask...I know you're itching to)? Just this;

I managed to get out into the neighborhood for an hour tonight and dug up about 10 or so junk metal items, and had several false signals. Sadly, only one coin was dug the entire time. I managed to get a snapshot of it resting on the plug with my cellphone before it died. Now, I'm waiting for my boss to get here with the charger since he still has the truck. Soon as that gets here, I'll charge that badboy cricket up and shoot a photograph on over to my computer for uploading...till then, I don't wanna spoil the surprise

 

[CowboyKolo]

Not too shabby for the only coin pulled...a 1939 no mint Merc. Who knows, with a shield nickle and a merc in two days, maybe putting up with all that trash will be worth it lol

 

[Night Stalker]

a bad day metal detecting beats a day cooped up indoors anytime! Good thinking

 

[CowboyKolo]

a bad day metal detecting beats a day cooped up indoors anytime! Good thinking

Very true, and with the whole seasonal depression a part of my yearly holiday tradition, I need to make sure I get outdoors for as many bad days metal detecting as possible. Course, first a nickle, then a dime three days later..let's see...3x3 for 9 days till I get a silver quarter...in only 243 more days, I'll be up to a gold coin lol

 

[allen]

sounds like you had one of my normal days,
except I never have found a shield nickel.
If its not dead batteries, its no gas and if its
not that, then someone in the family has to
go to the doctor and Ihave to drive

 

[lafatlife]

Most of our houses in the town I live in have the grass between the road and the sidewalk. I have always wanted to detect there knowing full well that the town owns that much of the land but people here would call the police in a heart beat!

 

[CowboyKolo]

Most of our houses in the town I live in have the grass between the road and the sidewalk. I have always wanted to detect there knowing full well that the town owns that much of the land but people here would call the police in a heart beat!

I say, give it a shot, but go a block or two away from where you live so you don't have to put up with neighbors staring. My ultimate goal is to actually have someone come out of their house, ask me what I'm doing, and explain what I know about their home and what *might* be there. Perhaps get invited onto the sacred "other side"... And yes, I do research the area just like I were doing anything else. For instance, the nickle I found, the house it was in front of was built in 1900. According to the plat maps, the first house to show up there however was in 1887.

The building I live in was built in the 60's, but there was at least one other house, possibly two, that go back as far as 1870's. Unfortunatly, the current building was constructed about the same time it became required to tear out everything up to, and including the basement and refill the land (including utility lines) so the new land owner could start from scratch.