Sherpat
Full Member
Hi guys! My name's Tom, and it's nice to meet you all.
I live a the very top of NJ, in the middle of a state forest right on the NY line. I've wanted a metal detector for years, as our house is surrounded by 30,000 acres of woods that were the site of Revolutionary War encampments, battles in the border war between NJ and NY, 17th century Dutch settlers before that, pre-Columbian Indians before them, and god know what else. Probably alien landings.
I've been walking the trails of those woods since we moved here in 1999 and always wondered what kind of artifacts might be lying right beneath my feet from centuries past. There are numerous crumbling rock walls - boundaries between long abandoned properties and fields - that run hundreds of yards through what is now thick forest just outside my door. There must be all sorts of interesting historical objects (I always imagine, anyway) scattered among the scree.
Knowing I've always been curious (since I yammer on about it constantly) my wife broke down and got me a Tesoro Compadre for Christmas this year. Probably to both shut me up and get me out of the house.
And it worked! I've done both now several times, after first getting familiar with the machine, and reading up on some detecting rules in general. On my first day out I found....a TON of beer cans. Sheesh. I gotta learn to discriminate. Oh, and a ring! A silver mens ring with a CZ center stone. Not worth much, but it looks brand new - my wife thinks some girl got it for her boyfriend and was going to give it to him in the woods at the overlook where I found it. But he pissed her off and she chucked it instead. Sounds good to me. It was down about 4 inches under grassed-over dirt, so I'm betting that little drama played out a good 20 years ago or so.
One thing I do have to check: local laws about hunting on state land, particularly with regards to archaeological finds. I know on the far side of our park there is an officially delineated and sanctified ancient Native American burial site that sees regular gatherings, so that's out of bounds. But outside of that, I'm not sure if there are any verboten areas. Gotta look into that.
Anyway, it's nice to meet you all and I look forward to scouring all the forums with the typical zeal of a New Convert. Sorry I rambled on here, but...ah, never mind. I'm not sorry at all. Just excited to start this new hobby
Tom
I live a the very top of NJ, in the middle of a state forest right on the NY line. I've wanted a metal detector for years, as our house is surrounded by 30,000 acres of woods that were the site of Revolutionary War encampments, battles in the border war between NJ and NY, 17th century Dutch settlers before that, pre-Columbian Indians before them, and god know what else. Probably alien landings.
I've been walking the trails of those woods since we moved here in 1999 and always wondered what kind of artifacts might be lying right beneath my feet from centuries past. There are numerous crumbling rock walls - boundaries between long abandoned properties and fields - that run hundreds of yards through what is now thick forest just outside my door. There must be all sorts of interesting historical objects (I always imagine, anyway) scattered among the scree.
Knowing I've always been curious (since I yammer on about it constantly) my wife broke down and got me a Tesoro Compadre for Christmas this year. Probably to both shut me up and get me out of the house.
And it worked! I've done both now several times, after first getting familiar with the machine, and reading up on some detecting rules in general. On my first day out I found....a TON of beer cans. Sheesh. I gotta learn to discriminate. Oh, and a ring! A silver mens ring with a CZ center stone. Not worth much, but it looks brand new - my wife thinks some girl got it for her boyfriend and was going to give it to him in the woods at the overlook where I found it. But he pissed her off and she chucked it instead. Sounds good to me. It was down about 4 inches under grassed-over dirt, so I'm betting that little drama played out a good 20 years ago or so.
One thing I do have to check: local laws about hunting on state land, particularly with regards to archaeological finds. I know on the far side of our park there is an officially delineated and sanctified ancient Native American burial site that sees regular gatherings, so that's out of bounds. But outside of that, I'm not sure if there are any verboten areas. Gotta look into that.
Anyway, it's nice to meet you all and I look forward to scouring all the forums with the typical zeal of a New Convert. Sorry I rambled on here, but...ah, never mind. I'm not sorry at all. Just excited to start this new hobby
Tom
