Frodov
Bronze Member
<Yes I *DID* the Chicken Dance!> YEEEEEHAAAAAAAAWWWWW
Hi gang! To say that I had a good day today would be like saying that most of you sort of like to metal detect. <guffaw> I got to get out and indulge in this hobby a bit this morning.. well late morning early afternoon anyway. A day off from work, with no pressing chores from the "Honey Do" list, I pressed my luck with the forcasted rain that was supposed to enter my part of the state. The state of Kentucky for those who don't know me. I loaded up my detector in my little truck and, made sure I had fresh batteries, headed out to a nearby town with a HUGE soccer complex.
I've posted finds here that I've made at this very same soccer complex as I've been there on many hunts.. it's one of those places that never seems to get "hunted out". Today's hunt was no exception. A little different perhaps, but no exception, I was greatly rewarded for my diligence and perseverance. (Oooh Big words... must be something good huh?) <laughing> Yeah it is..er.. was.. something good. Lots of somethings!
In the past, when I've hunted this soccer complex, I've relegated my detecting to the sidelines, the seating areas, and the paths around and to and from the concession stands. Oh, and the gravel parking lots.. always producers those are. Today, however, I thought I'd try a novel approach. Well, novel for me anyway. This might sound like a "DUH" moment to many of you, but I've kind of stayed off the actual playing fields figuring that they probably wouldn't be very productive. I mean I played sports, Football.. even soccer, and when I did we athletes usually didn't have much in the way of anything in our pockets while we were playing. I guess that was just me or something, because apparently the kids today (and adults alike) *DO* run around playing with pocketsfull of change and goodies. All the better for the likes of me and my fellow detectorists! ChaCHING!
What got me hunting on the playing fields was a moment of serendipity! A revelation or at least a realization of a practice that I'd somehow overlooked until this morning. At this soccer complex, as with others like it everywhere I'm sure, the nice big playing fields or "pitches" are trimmed and laid out and "lined" for full size fields.. most of the time. However, some of the time they are also rearranged to make smaller playing fields for the halfpints or little kids games.. kind of like half the size of the full size fields. When the fields are "downsized" the seating areas are moved around as well.... hmmmmm.. so sometimes the seating areas are actually ON the full sized playing fields!
<click goes the lightbulb over my head> Well DUHHHHHH <laughing>
And so I began.. I detected, a grid hunt, down the entire length of one playing field (downsized), and back.. and down and back and down and back... sweeping lanes about three or four feet wide (I don't have terribly long arms after all). And I found coin. LOTS OF COIN! Oddly though, save for a few memorial cents near one goal post EVERYTHING had to be dug up. Quarters, dimes, a few nickles, a handfull of pennies.. but not a single.. nary even one lone pull tab!! *GASP* I didn't know that was even possible! I don't care where I've hunted in the past, I've never EVER detected without finding at least ONE pull tab. Weird!
Weird or not I was having a ball! Not a soccer ball, just a good time. Detecting that is. Oh never mind. <sheepish grin> Sometimes the jokes work, sometimes, not so much. Eh.. <shrugging> Anyway. Having a good time detecting, even though it was hot and humid and I was sweating buckets I was digging coins almost every other step it seemed. Well.. ok, every few yards or so, but they were numerous. I soon lost count even. <smile> I had my little Prizm IV wide open as far as discrimination goes, I was nearly in all metal mode, detecting everything other than iron. Well at one stretch of the field it got a little quiet so I even opened up the iron slot.. and my detector went nuts! Now reading posts from other "Pro's" here at T'Net, I've learned that that can be a good thing.. detecting a lot of iron present. It's a little unnerving at first, to hear all those signals that were previously masked by that one little discrimination slot. A lot of deep signals ringing up on my display.. I dug up several nails and a file and even a screw driver and a piece of re-bar.. all of which went into the nearest garbage can as I past by. I tuned out the iron after that and went back to just digging likely coin targets. For a while. Then I got a wild hair and let the iron out again. BANG! A big target, just a few inches deep, just a few feet from the goal line. I dug thinking that it was probably going to be some more trash or some nails or something. As it turned out, however, it was this big honkin' rust encased horseshoe. Cool! Then I remembered, this soccer complex sits on the site of a former Thoroughbred Horse Farm. <rolling eyes> Yeah.. Horses.. horseshoes! Still cool though, I put it in my bag.. maybe it would bring me some luck if it had any left in it. I mean hey.. the HORSE "Lost" this shoe.. how lucky is that? <chuckle>
WELL Let me tell you! That shoe must have had SOME luck left in it. Just a few feet from digging up the horseshoe, I got a big coin ping! My Prizm was SCREAMING at me.. 50cent coin or bigger! So down on hands I knees I dropped after pinpointing the target. Between two and four inches my machine indicated, and solid! I carved out a nice big plug, nearly a foot across, and flipped it over then pulled out my Bullseye and ran it over the exposed soil. Oh it was there alright! just a little bit deeper.. I brushed some loose dirt out of the way and scraped a bit more with my digger, and was rewarded with yellow glint of reflected light.
Yellow? <raised eyebrows> YELLOW? There a little over three inches down in the dry packed dirt of that soccer field, just a few feet from the goal line, was the unmistakable yellow glint of GOLD! As big as a Freakin Half Dollar and as shiny as a newly minted coin! GOLD!
My heart skipped a beat.. then another.. then started to do the jitterbug with a scratchy hip-hop "Wikka-Wikka-Wikka-Weeeeee" My palms were sweating, my mouth was dry, the ground was spinning and I felt dizzy because the clouds were dancing.. then I realized that it wasn't the clouds, the ground was spinning because I was doing the chicken dance and didn't even realize it.. <rolling eyes> Then I also realized that I had not actually pulled the coin out of the dirt yet! <ROLLING EYES> Excited a little..you think?
Well, it may or may NOT be a gold coin, gold plated perhaps, but it's not legal tender. *sigh* What I pulled out of the dirt, shiny yellow, gold or not.. was this commemorative coin. For the love of.. <I won't finish that thought>.. Anyway.. it was truly exciting. A find that I will not soon forget, with that I could in some ways though. What I'd like to know is how did a one year old coin come to be nearly four inches down in the dirt? UNDER the grass and all that ... here's my "fool's Gold" .. or is that "Fro's Gold" ? <laughing>
Oh yeah.. I forgot to mention that I'd found a dog tag. Litterally, a tag for a dog. An "AKC" tag, but still a dog tag. I'd found that a while before the horseshoe actually, but you can see it here with GOLD coin. *sigh*
I still had nearly half a "half size" soccer field to detect after finding the commemorative soccer coin, but the skies were beginning to darken with the ominous approach of the rain that had been forcasted for today. There was no thunder and more importantly, no lightning.. yet.. at that point, so I kept on detecting. I detected and dug and detected and dug coin after coin after coin.. even after it did start to drizzle a bit. The wind picked up but it felt good, certainly cooled things down after being in the hot sun for a couple of hours. As I neared the end of the last "lane" along the far side of the soccer field, I heard my first rumbling of thunder in the distance. Even through my headphones. Glancing up I saw a tell tale flash of lightning in the distance and that flipped a switch in my gold fevered single minded metal detector brain.. "TIME TO GO!" I turned off my machine and beat feet to my truck. I loaded up my detector and gear and was pulling out of the parking area when the skies opened up.
WHOO BOY! did the skies EVER open up. Talk about your deluge! Very VERY heavy rain. The Lexington Bluegrass Airport reported 1.66 inches of rainfall in less than 2 hours. Cars were hydroplaning, trucks were jackknifing, lightning knocked out traffic signals and electrical service for thousands of homes. I mean DANG! After almost the entire month of August with little to no rainfall, we get a whole month's worth in a couple of hours! Ok, so it's not as bad as the rain that this system dropped on Florida.. thank you Miss Tropical Depression Fay.. but even though we needed the rain here in Central Kentucky, I kind of wish it had been a bit more on the gentle side of MONSOON! <laughing> Partly due to the fact that I VERY much want to go back to the soccer complex again tomorrow and hunt MORE playing fields! YEEEHAAAAAWWWW!!!!
I might even pack along that rusty horseshoe in my finds bag. <grinning>
Here's everything from today.. well.. short of the aforementioned horseshoe that you've allready seen.
A whopping $12.35 in clad and not a single solitary Pull Tab! WAY COOL!
*sigh* Just wish that big old gold coin was actually a BIG OLD GOLD coin.. <grin>
Happy Hunting Everyone!
Frodov
P.S.
I did get out for an abbreviated hunt last Wednesday, I didn't get around to posting anything about it till now though. Not that it was anything spectacular, just a quick hunt in a local park around the ball courts and picnic tables. I found some clad, some clothing (well, belt buckles anyway.. one looks old.. perhaps horse tack rather than clothing related.. the small one in the picture.) I found some pencils, pens, a big honkin' aluminum nail or spike.. probably a gutter nail. There were two pieces of copper pipe, different sizes, a lead "egg" fishing weight ? (no water remotely nearby?) Lots of pull tabs of course, and then there was the one Sac dollar coin. That was cool. Not spectacular, but nice to find all the same. Here's the pic for that hunt.. all in one shot.
<grin> Now.. back to the soccer complex.. Yeah Booooyyyyyy!
Hi gang! To say that I had a good day today would be like saying that most of you sort of like to metal detect. <guffaw> I got to get out and indulge in this hobby a bit this morning.. well late morning early afternoon anyway. A day off from work, with no pressing chores from the "Honey Do" list, I pressed my luck with the forcasted rain that was supposed to enter my part of the state. The state of Kentucky for those who don't know me. I loaded up my detector in my little truck and, made sure I had fresh batteries, headed out to a nearby town with a HUGE soccer complex.
I've posted finds here that I've made at this very same soccer complex as I've been there on many hunts.. it's one of those places that never seems to get "hunted out". Today's hunt was no exception. A little different perhaps, but no exception, I was greatly rewarded for my diligence and perseverance. (Oooh Big words... must be something good huh?) <laughing> Yeah it is..er.. was.. something good. Lots of somethings!
In the past, when I've hunted this soccer complex, I've relegated my detecting to the sidelines, the seating areas, and the paths around and to and from the concession stands. Oh, and the gravel parking lots.. always producers those are. Today, however, I thought I'd try a novel approach. Well, novel for me anyway. This might sound like a "DUH" moment to many of you, but I've kind of stayed off the actual playing fields figuring that they probably wouldn't be very productive. I mean I played sports, Football.. even soccer, and when I did we athletes usually didn't have much in the way of anything in our pockets while we were playing. I guess that was just me or something, because apparently the kids today (and adults alike) *DO* run around playing with pocketsfull of change and goodies. All the better for the likes of me and my fellow detectorists! ChaCHING!
What got me hunting on the playing fields was a moment of serendipity! A revelation or at least a realization of a practice that I'd somehow overlooked until this morning. At this soccer complex, as with others like it everywhere I'm sure, the nice big playing fields or "pitches" are trimmed and laid out and "lined" for full size fields.. most of the time. However, some of the time they are also rearranged to make smaller playing fields for the halfpints or little kids games.. kind of like half the size of the full size fields. When the fields are "downsized" the seating areas are moved around as well.... hmmmmm.. so sometimes the seating areas are actually ON the full sized playing fields!
<click goes the lightbulb over my head> Well DUHHHHHH <laughing> And so I began.. I detected, a grid hunt, down the entire length of one playing field (downsized), and back.. and down and back and down and back... sweeping lanes about three or four feet wide (I don't have terribly long arms after all). And I found coin. LOTS OF COIN! Oddly though, save for a few memorial cents near one goal post EVERYTHING had to be dug up. Quarters, dimes, a few nickles, a handfull of pennies.. but not a single.. nary even one lone pull tab!! *GASP* I didn't know that was even possible! I don't care where I've hunted in the past, I've never EVER detected without finding at least ONE pull tab. Weird!
Weird or not I was having a ball! Not a soccer ball, just a good time. Detecting that is. Oh never mind. <sheepish grin> Sometimes the jokes work, sometimes, not so much. Eh.. <shrugging> Anyway. Having a good time detecting, even though it was hot and humid and I was sweating buckets I was digging coins almost every other step it seemed. Well.. ok, every few yards or so, but they were numerous. I soon lost count even. <smile> I had my little Prizm IV wide open as far as discrimination goes, I was nearly in all metal mode, detecting everything other than iron. Well at one stretch of the field it got a little quiet so I even opened up the iron slot.. and my detector went nuts! Now reading posts from other "Pro's" here at T'Net, I've learned that that can be a good thing.. detecting a lot of iron present. It's a little unnerving at first, to hear all those signals that were previously masked by that one little discrimination slot. A lot of deep signals ringing up on my display.. I dug up several nails and a file and even a screw driver and a piece of re-bar.. all of which went into the nearest garbage can as I past by. I tuned out the iron after that and went back to just digging likely coin targets. For a while. Then I got a wild hair and let the iron out again. BANG! A big target, just a few inches deep, just a few feet from the goal line. I dug thinking that it was probably going to be some more trash or some nails or something. As it turned out, however, it was this big honkin' rust encased horseshoe. Cool! Then I remembered, this soccer complex sits on the site of a former Thoroughbred Horse Farm. <rolling eyes> Yeah.. Horses.. horseshoes! Still cool though, I put it in my bag.. maybe it would bring me some luck if it had any left in it. I mean hey.. the HORSE "Lost" this shoe.. how lucky is that? <chuckle>
WELL Let me tell you! That shoe must have had SOME luck left in it. Just a few feet from digging up the horseshoe, I got a big coin ping! My Prizm was SCREAMING at me.. 50cent coin or bigger! So down on hands I knees I dropped after pinpointing the target. Between two and four inches my machine indicated, and solid! I carved out a nice big plug, nearly a foot across, and flipped it over then pulled out my Bullseye and ran it over the exposed soil. Oh it was there alright! just a little bit deeper.. I brushed some loose dirt out of the way and scraped a bit more with my digger, and was rewarded with yellow glint of reflected light.
Yellow? <raised eyebrows> YELLOW? There a little over three inches down in the dry packed dirt of that soccer field, just a few feet from the goal line, was the unmistakable yellow glint of GOLD! As big as a Freakin Half Dollar and as shiny as a newly minted coin! GOLD!
My heart skipped a beat.. then another.. then started to do the jitterbug with a scratchy hip-hop "Wikka-Wikka-Wikka-Weeeeee" My palms were sweating, my mouth was dry, the ground was spinning and I felt dizzy because the clouds were dancing.. then I realized that it wasn't the clouds, the ground was spinning because I was doing the chicken dance and didn't even realize it.. <rolling eyes> Then I also realized that I had not actually pulled the coin out of the dirt yet! <ROLLING EYES> Excited a little..you think?
Well, it may or may NOT be a gold coin, gold plated perhaps, but it's not legal tender. *sigh* What I pulled out of the dirt, shiny yellow, gold or not.. was this commemorative coin. For the love of.. <I won't finish that thought>.. Anyway.. it was truly exciting. A find that I will not soon forget, with that I could in some ways though. What I'd like to know is how did a one year old coin come to be nearly four inches down in the dirt? UNDER the grass and all that ... here's my "fool's Gold" .. or is that "Fro's Gold" ? <laughing>
Oh yeah.. I forgot to mention that I'd found a dog tag. Litterally, a tag for a dog. An "AKC" tag, but still a dog tag. I'd found that a while before the horseshoe actually, but you can see it here with GOLD coin. *sigh*
I still had nearly half a "half size" soccer field to detect after finding the commemorative soccer coin, but the skies were beginning to darken with the ominous approach of the rain that had been forcasted for today. There was no thunder and more importantly, no lightning.. yet.. at that point, so I kept on detecting. I detected and dug and detected and dug coin after coin after coin.. even after it did start to drizzle a bit. The wind picked up but it felt good, certainly cooled things down after being in the hot sun for a couple of hours. As I neared the end of the last "lane" along the far side of the soccer field, I heard my first rumbling of thunder in the distance. Even through my headphones. Glancing up I saw a tell tale flash of lightning in the distance and that flipped a switch in my gold fevered single minded metal detector brain.. "TIME TO GO!" I turned off my machine and beat feet to my truck. I loaded up my detector and gear and was pulling out of the parking area when the skies opened up.
WHOO BOY! did the skies EVER open up. Talk about your deluge! Very VERY heavy rain. The Lexington Bluegrass Airport reported 1.66 inches of rainfall in less than 2 hours. Cars were hydroplaning, trucks were jackknifing, lightning knocked out traffic signals and electrical service for thousands of homes. I mean DANG! After almost the entire month of August with little to no rainfall, we get a whole month's worth in a couple of hours! Ok, so it's not as bad as the rain that this system dropped on Florida.. thank you Miss Tropical Depression Fay.. but even though we needed the rain here in Central Kentucky, I kind of wish it had been a bit more on the gentle side of MONSOON! <laughing> Partly due to the fact that I VERY much want to go back to the soccer complex again tomorrow and hunt MORE playing fields! YEEEHAAAAAWWWW!!!!
I might even pack along that rusty horseshoe in my finds bag. <grinning>
Here's everything from today.. well.. short of the aforementioned horseshoe that you've allready seen.
A whopping $12.35 in clad and not a single solitary Pull Tab! WAY COOL!
*sigh* Just wish that big old gold coin was actually a BIG OLD GOLD coin.. <grin>
Happy Hunting Everyone!
Frodov
P.S.
I did get out for an abbreviated hunt last Wednesday, I didn't get around to posting anything about it till now though. Not that it was anything spectacular, just a quick hunt in a local park around the ball courts and picnic tables. I found some clad, some clothing (well, belt buckles anyway.. one looks old.. perhaps horse tack rather than clothing related.. the small one in the picture.) I found some pencils, pens, a big honkin' aluminum nail or spike.. probably a gutter nail. There were two pieces of copper pipe, different sizes, a lead "egg" fishing weight ? (no water remotely nearby?) Lots of pull tabs of course, and then there was the one Sac dollar coin. That was cool. Not spectacular, but nice to find all the same. Here's the pic for that hunt.. all in one shot.
<grin> Now.. back to the soccer complex.. Yeah Booooyyyyyy!
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nice finds and lots of them. thanks for the info and the novel(no pun intended) approach to hunting large soccer fields.
