back stabben buddy

[Shortstack]

Baby jars full of crusty zincs at "secret spots" in easily accessible, open spots well distributed.

10-15 jars buried at 5" should do the trick.

Not mean, entertaining and vindictive. Well okay, a little mean, but if you're that fired up over it, have some fun with it!

Go to an Ace hardware & get the Brass roofing nails. They can be pushed into soft soil with a screwdriver. 20 or 30 will keep him frustrated for awhile There was a guy who hit a hot spot for gold coins back in the late 60s, he had a guy going to extremes trying to find his hot beach. Well, he couldn't get rid of him so he spread a keg of roofing nails all up & down the beach. Try to catch him watching, load up all your detecting gear & drive to a gas station & get a cup. See if he pops up. If by chance he's got a tracker on your car, put a return to or property of tag on it & drop it by the PD. Tell them you found it in the street out front & thought it might be theirs. Or as a friend did to his EX, label it then drop it in a mailbox. As I recall she was being vivited for 3 or 4 months If you wan to be a real Alpha Henry, and he's married or got a girlfriend get a female friend to call his house everytime he goes out hunting asking for him then hang up. Guarantee that'll put a stop to his detectin days in a heartbeat

Sharp roofing nails on a beach would be a very BAD idea for barefooted kids, etc. But!!!!! BBs would run him apesh-- and not hurt anybody. Believe me, chasing a blankyty-blank-blank BB will run a sane person NUTS. And best of all; a tube of BBs cost next to nothing compared to brass nails. And, those BBs would go right through any beach sifting scoop.

 

[JR in Hohenwald TN.]

A long story but worth reading. When it comes between friends, big bucks come first it seems.

I had a diggin bud that actually stole from me once. I thought we were good friends. In Central MS the relic hunting is very competitive and cutthroat, if you want to call it that. He was a well known 2nd generation shell hunter. We hunted all over Vicksburg. This guy has 300-500 shells in his storage and garage from him and his dad. I found out the guy would go back during the week in spots we found and clean them out. So when we showed up on the weekend there was nothing there.

We was out shell hunting one day and I dig a 3.25" Confederate Read shell with a experimental iron fuse and a strange bolt in the bottom. He told me to be careful cleaning it up or I could ruin it. I of course asked him if he would clean it for me since I was a had never dug such a nice rare shell. This shell was rare on a scale of 10 it was a 10. Tom Dickey wanted it bad when I sent him pics of it. That's how rare it was, TD didn't even have one. And he's the Grandfather of Shellhunting.

So my so called "best bud" takes it with him and brings me back 2 weeks later a 3.25" Read shell. When he bought it back it had a strange grayish color to it and coated with polyurethane. He told me it was the way confederate iron comes out. SO a year later Tom Dickey beats me out of it for $600 after pestering me eveytime he sees me at the relic shows. Which $600 was top dollar then. Tom takes it home and re-cleans it and the bolt on the back falls off. Turns out a cw rusty bolt was ground down and glued on a 3.25" Milledgeville shell. My so called bud was a bodyshop repairman and painted cars for the local auto paint repair. So Tom calls me back and ask for a refund. I immediately give him his money back and start the tracing. Luckily before my bud cleaned it I had another friend take some professional pics of it before handing it over to him. SO I had those for reference. I go back to my bud and show him the pics and the shell he brought me back and the pics, no match,very similar but the pitting in places gave it away. I had never noticed it the whole year it sat as centerpiece of my collection. Even when this so called friend came over and seen it sitting in the case. The shell was taken straight out of the ground, I kept it for aweek and had a friend photo it then handed it over to my new diggin bud who was an experience shell hunter. Wasn't too hard to figure out where a switch occured.

So to end the story, I confront my digging bud and he breaks down. Even starts to shed a few tears(give me a break) telling me how he needed the money. This guy has 100's of shells from digging for 10 years and his dad even dug in the 60's when you could hunt in the military park. He tells me he sold the real deal to a guy in Texas. I make him cough up my $600 I would have gotten for it,takes him 2 weeks to pay me. Now old Tom still wants that shell. So we track down the guy in Texas. Sure enough, he bought a rare 3.25" Experimental Read from my now "ex-bud". But he sold it and its gone for good we're told. No names after that. The guy that bought it was from Texas had passed away years ago, he too would come buy on relic buying trips and hit me up,so he knew me too. My now ex-bud told him he dug it. He(Texas guy) didn't know it was stolen from me and that I had dug it. During the time the guy in Texas had it he would setup displays at the Nashville and Memphis shows, I was told there was one particular shell he showed that was rare as hensteeth and worth alot. Rarity 10. Sound familiar? Yep, that was it. The shell disappeared after he died.

I learned a valuable lesson there. Even still have that bolt head that fell off as a reminder to "trust". When it comes to the all mighty dollar, there is no friends in relic hunting. At least in the Central MS area. Big money prevails. I was super generous to this bud of mine, even giving him shells on occasion worth hundreds apiece. I never talked to that jerk again after that. I made sure his reputation was well known. He is like the Maddoff of shell hunting.

This was my experience. And I don't like to gauge others by his actions. He was just greedy and deceiving. We where good friends for 4-5 years, and this wasn't the only time I found out he'd scammed me afterwards. So be careful when picking relic digging buddies. JR

 

[XL-PRO PRO]

My ex used to hit the re-dial on the phone to see who I was talking to.After I figured this out I always made sure to call my own number after each call!!Really fun to watch.DBULL