The Gold, Silver and Bling of Playgrounds

[Professor of Engineering]

Hello Everyone,

The series of photos depict hunting playgrounds from June 26th – Today: August 28th. During this time I tried a fun experiment. The goal was to hunt only 6 very well used playground areas in affluent communities (some of these playgrounds have 15 rides and over 50 people at peak times) where the kid’s rides are located and had only fine mulch or coarse wood chips as their base. I wanted to see how many things I could find without digging in the grassy areas, but rather hunts based solely on recent or very fresh drops (a few were found a bit deeper). I visited each playground on Monday morning (start time 4:45 am) after the full weekend of children playing and teenagers hanging out. I took about five hours to complete the detecting and travelling per week. The rest of the metal detecting week was dedicated to old coin shooting, relic hunting and researching new places.

In the photos, only jewelry is shown, but rest assured the clad count was extremely high; about $83.00 dollars. During this time I found eight dollar coins around this one ride; a 6 seated spinning horizontal wheel. The trash decreased exponentially as the weeks moved on, since each visit I would remove more and more. By the last few weeks only good targets were found.

The jewelry was mixed with about 95% Bling and 5% Gold and Silver; I’m pleased with the experiment outcome.

Alas, as school opens my experiment has come to an end…cannot wait for next year.

Thank you for viewing.

GL & HH

Doc

 

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[Mzjavert]

I normally have great luck in school tot lots. The deeper into a neighborhood, the better luck I normally have. One thing I have learned is check the satellite view of the grounds if you have never been there before. I've been skunked a few times. I arrive and they use rubber mats or the grounds are fenced.

Nice gold haul!

 

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[Professor of Engineering]

Yes Mzjavert, those new rubber play areas are cutting into my good find count!

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Hello mk4125,

I am always trying to reduce randomness (it's the Physicist in me...Lol) from metal detecting and increase the chances of good finds!

Doc

 

[WHADIFIND]

Hello mk4125,

I am always trying to reduce randomness (it's the Physicist in me...Lol) from metal detecting and increase the chances of good finds!

Doc

That's kind of funny. I'm always trying to add randomness to my walks. Maybe it's the system's analyst in me.

I always figure that I'll just try to stay out of the way and let the one who *KNOWS* where everything is, lead me.

 

[Subterranean]

Tot lots ain't just for tots. Parents and Grandparents get jiggy with it and play too, resulting in adult jewelry swan-diving into the bark chips. I have learned to dig every signal, as the small items can give off a foil vibe...You had a great time, POE, congrats on the silver and gold. Sub

PS...I have a good time in the 10-15 foot ring around the playground, that is where the strollers and blankets end up, with things falling off of them!

 

[angelito1]

Nice hauls. ....

 

[btjbtj]

Congrats, Doc. Really like that cameo piece. -Lisa & John

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Hello btjbtj,

Nothing Earth shattering, but sure a lot of fun!

Doc

 

[Slingshot]

Nice finds, and a good digging strategy for summer park tot-lot hunting when plugging will almost always damage the grass. I do the same here but there are no affluent neighborhoods for many miles so my finds aren't as spectacular. Good hunting!

 

[sutphin]

SOMEONE GOT SILVER FEVER .

 

[StonedOregonhunter]

Sweet you're definitely doing good! HH

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Sutphin,

I sure wish there was more Silver and Gold, but bling is fun too!

Doc

 

[teleprospector]

Nice results for your efforts!
Jon

 

[Gridwalker306]

That's a lot of treasure, congrats!

 

[GA_Boy]

Great finds.
You developed a plan.
You stuck with it until refutation.
And you reaped the harvest.
Nothing better than a good plan ending well.
Marvin

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Thanks GA Boy!

 

[Relicific]

You really cleaned up those tot lots with great success.

 

[Underwonder]

Well THAT is quite a remarkable bit of recoveries in jewelry and cash! Your experiment proved to be quite interesting and fruitful. I have occasionally gone to parks to practice hearing sound variations on the machine and trying to learn to discern and to predict what will be in the hole. Still working on that...but not early in the AM . I am more of a night 🦉.

 

[sutphin]

NICE FINDS....

 

[DeepseekerADS]

This is a neat thread.

In '87 I was working at Pilgrim Station. In one of my rare days off, my wife guilted me into taking our son to a tot lot in Plymouth. That's where I found my last gold ring, at a swingset. I was so tired from overwork, she had to prod me to even turn my 1260X on. I did, walked over to the wood chips of a swingset, got a signal, got a gold, turned the machine off and went home.