A local school field.

[Brett]

Hi All,

This is my first real post here. I'll start off with a little intro and background.

I've been metal detecting for a month now with my Ace 250. My dad originally bought a Bounty Hunter Lonestar and then he soon yearned for something better so after the whole family did research we found the Ace 250 a good choice. My dad and I got Ace 250's and he sent the Lonestar to my brother in Florida. I try to get out detecting a little bit every day but it's obviously not enough. I've got gold fever now that I found a 14k gold men's wedding band in a bay side beach in Florida. My dad and I visited my brother for 4 days and were out detecting all day every day. Sadly the ring was the best thing any of us found, and the change wasn't bountiful. I only came away with about $8 for all 4 days. The beaches were pretty clean. Most of that was found in parks there. I'll post a pic of my ring another time.

So today I basically took one straight pass across the field at a local school and came back about 10 feet parallel of my first pass. I dug everything but I discriminated everything except nickels, pennies, dimes and quarters. I dug over 50 holes and came away with 4 quarters (one was '65 - close!), 5 dimes (a '66 was 8" deep), 5 nickels, 18 pennies, a Haunted Trails Token, a zipper, and some finger cuffs! $1.93 total in a few hours. Not that great, but I try to keep the ground really nice and I think that slows me down considerably.



My brother gave me the nickname RootMaster after I bought an Ames True Temper Planter's Buddy digging tool from Lowes, and used it to cut through a crap load of roots to get to a quarter 8" down that I thought for sure was my first silver. But it turned out to be a sandblasted '88. I love that sandblasted look that the Florida sands gives the coins. Some areas are toxic though and the coins are turned into garbage, mostly pennies. I guess RootMaster is as good a TH'ing name as any, especially when I'm kicking those roots in the a$$ now.

 

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[Samuelben]

nice was all your coins clad

 

[relichunters]

Not bad at all! Congrats on your finds. Also welcome to treasurenet!

 

[Brett]

nice was all your coins clad

Yeah, no silver today. The only silver coin I've found so far is a 1943 plain war nickel... found it in some crushed shells behind a cabana on a private beach on Lido Key in Florida. Didn't even really have to dig deep for it. You'd think with all of the 8" holes I dig there would be some older stuff down there. I'll keep looking!

Not bad at all! Congrats on your finds. Also welcome to treasurenet!

Thanks! It looks like a great forum for sure.

 

[Copperhead]

Nice haul...I hear ya on the "clean up"...sometimes I spend more time grooming than digging....

 

[Brett]

Nice haul...I hear ya on the "clean up"...sometimes I spend more time grooming than digging....

I just like to leave it as good as I found it... even better if I'm removing trash.

For anything past the 2" deep mark, I'll basically take my lock back 3" blade knife, and cut a square U-shape flap and pry up the front edge, and slice the turf at the 2" deep and flip the flap back. I basically know it's in the hole still and I'll loosen up the dirt with a plastic garden shovel or the Ames Planter's Buddy if it's hard ground, and I'll get my pinpoint probe fired up and set the sensitivity high and scan around and find the target. If I have to dig even deeper than that I'll pull out this thin large rag I have and pile up scoops of dirt on that, scanning with the detector and/or probe. Then dump it all back in the hole, flip the flap over and press it all down with my heel. You basically can't tell I was there.

The probe is nice when the target is 2" or shallower, because I can precisely pinpoint in on the target (usually right where my Ace said it was but I like to make sure before the next step). Then I'll take my pocket knife and cut a 1.5" square U-shape flap and pop the coin right up with the knife. These are obviously the cleanest holes.

I will scrape all of the dirt off of my shovels and tools into the hole before I close the flap too, and return the tools to my tool bag. Seems like I'm constantly doing this... I like the idea of locating all of the targets first and then just digging them, but I would want to know the pinpointing was spot on and the marker would have to tell me what I should expect and how far down it is. Poker Chips seem like a good idea, but Golf Tees wouldn't be bad either. I could write the depth number on the top and the color would signify the coin type. I'm going to have to try this and report back.

 

[jimbob450]

Welcome,and good post I might have to
get me one of them tools.Sometimes i
hit grass roots that are so bound up i can hardly get
a garden trowel through. JIM.