Frozen day at the Iceberg

[Danimal]

I met Zoso today at 11am at the Iceberg and we decided to give it a go. The temp upon our arrival was hovering around 20deg F. and within a few hours the wind increased and hard driving snow ensued and the temp dropped steadily the rest of the afternoon. As we left at dark it was about 8deg F.
The normally soft ground at the "wheat field" was as hard as pavement. I brought my relic shovel and even with that and my heavy Herman Survivor boots it was near impossible to dig. Nearly every coin was encased in frozen soil and had to be chipped out. Thank goodness there were no key dates (sadly I dug no silver today either, but I am happy with what was dug considering) as a lot of coins got whacked by the shovel or my Lesche.
Dave and I were dressed plenty warm and it wasn't that bad unless you faced into the wind.
Too tired and sore (had an accident out there and gashed my head badly and am fighting a concussion headache right now) to count the coins tonight. I did see a 1910 and a 1919s wheatie in there. Two junk rings as well as a Jefferson nickle that had been run over and squished...kinda cool.

Never let anyone say it's too cold to go out hunting.

HH all!!

Dave (Zoso) trying to somehow drive his digger into terra firma.

Dave holding out the resultant wheat cent

It was COLD

Typical wheatie encased in icy dirt

Totals cleaned

closeup of 1910 wheat cent

 

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[Danimal]

Dan,

You guys are nutz Still some awesome frozen finds! Take care of that gash.

RR

Thanks RR for caring...I still feel kinda woozy and have a banging headache.

 

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[99Brown]

Cool digs....nasty gash. Probably better get that stitched up!

99Brown

 

[Danimal]

Cool digs....nasty gash. Probably better get that stitched up!

99Brown

didn't you HEAR me 99??

As pictured, I have little hair left on top of my dome and what little hair remains WILL remain for now and not succumb to the Dr.'s shaver

 

[ZoSo71]

What a blast!

For as cold as it was, It didn't feel like it. I started the day off in a flannel and long sleeve shirt. That lasted for about 3 hours then the heavy
jacket came out. The wind and snow kicked up across the field and my warm coffee that I just poured onto the ground was already frozen
in less then a minute. My only complaint was I didn't have knee pads (tomorrows shopping trip) my knees were cold most of the day. But after the knees on my jeans froze solid it really wasn't bad, Until the car trip home...When they thawed!

The digging was a task! almost 4x the recovery time of a normal day. My very first hole had 9 Wheat's in it and it took a good 20 minutes to recover them from the frozen bits and pieces of earth without damaging them. Some did suffer damage as I stabbed the Lesche into the ground, But nothing with value was hurt. The Wheat's would freeze to your gloves after picking them up. I ended up changing gloves because they froze up with soil and coffee over run.

If the sun didn't set so early I would still be there!

My take today was 38 Wheat's and 9 Mem's...Zero clad..A Square Nail..A old Hair Curler..And a half-way decent Pocket Knife



ZoSo71

 

[Danimal]

Damn straight Dave!

Gotta love the way some square nails come out of the ground in the wheatfield area...they almost look new. A lot of the wheaties here clean up to look like they are still pocketchangeable. (as that a word??)

Thanks for joining me dude.

 

[ZoSo71]

One thing I forgot to mention, As the temp dropped so did the speed of my LCD screen on the DFX, It was kinda slow to respond to screen changes and I ended up depending on my hearing and not the display. My glove kept freezing to the trigger and I thought about taping a hand warmer pack to the back of the display unit. I truly thought the night before the DFX would have gone crazy in the cold weather, But I worked better then expected!


Dan, That cut didn't look half that bad in the field!. I'd keep an eye on it, just in case.

ZoSo71

 

[LJ]

Wow Danimal.....you guys are hardcore.......Kudos!!!! Looks like you have some keepers there. I hope your head is alright. Being in Louisiana, I just can't imagine MD'ing in those conditions. Good luck on future hunts and stay warm!!!

 

[dgaughan]

you my friend are hardcore or crazy either way my hats off to you congrats and hh

 

[Danimal]

you my friend are hardcore

Yes!

or crazy

Yes again!

either way my hats off to you congrats and hh

Funny thing is, even with the head injury, I woke up today and was considering going back out (until I looked at the outside temp and saw 6deg F)
Guess I'll kick it back and watch the Stuporbowl

 

[coinman66]

Nice finds Dan and Dave! Been there and done that myself, chipping out coins. Thats what i like to see. Hardcore extreme give em hell balls to the wall detectorists! Gotta get me some Hot Cocoa now that wore me out. It was -3 below here last night in the beautiful state of Illinois. WTG HH Coinman66

 

[Bavaria Mike]

Nice finds guys and way to tough out the weather! Better than sitting on the couch channel surfing, LOL, and you made some nice finds. The Iceberg sounds like it could be a dangerous place, surprised you let your guard down and took one upside the head. I will be visiting Ohio around August this year, maybe we can do a hunt together with all the guys. HH, Mike

 

[doyboy]

We hunted today when it was -10 F.

 

[Danimal]

We hunted today when it was -10 F.

Yeah but all you found were some 1700's coins lol!

look Kirk.....oh never mind

 

[Danimal]

Nice finds guys and way to tough out the weather! Better than sitting on the couch channel surfing, LOL, and you made some nice finds. The Iceberg sounds like it could be a dangerous place, surprised you let your guard down and took one upside the head. I will be visiting Ohio around August this year, maybe we can do a hunt together with all the guys. HH, Mike

Mike,
We'd love to show you some great spots in August...plus my son should be wrapping up travel baseball by then so I will have some free time.
We will be scouting a possible great area this spring that will probably lead to some nice old coins for a while. It was a stagecoach stop/hotel with a tavern next to it that was in operation from about 1818 through 1890 and now sits completely abandoned back in heavy woods on private property. The road leading towards it (also abandoned and closed) has other home foundations from that era. I recently received permission to go back there whenever I like. Should be good!

 

[ringfinder]

Wow Dan, hope you didn't knock those half dollars out of your eyes Nice finds, but think I'll stick to the hill sides with leaves and lots of sun. It will still be cold, but a whole lot easier to dig. Gary and I might try it as soon as it gets back up to the high 20's.

Take care and hope you guys keep finding hot stuff, Ha Ha!

HH, Ringfinder

P.S. I'm sending along a pic of my digger that we used the last time we were out two weeks ago.

 

[Danimal]

Denny...we really should hook up soon for a Winter hunt. We can go out and find stuff and exaggerate our finds together

PM me and I'll give ya my cell number.

BTW, I had a pick I was using on tree roots at the Berg but I lost it (??) I'll pick up another.

 

[sfinder]

Great finds at that iceberg-with the weather it sounds like it lives up to its name...I'm beginning to think people just dumped large quantities of pennies in that area before it was abandoned! There has to be a reason for so many pennies in such a small area. After a robbery they didn't want the pennies and threw them there, or kids took a bunch of pennies and dumped them in that area or something? Also, maybe you should wear a hard hat when you hunt there!

 

[jonhls]

hey dan they dont sew head wounds like that anymore they glue them....and the plus is ya get to keep the hair been there done that....

 

[Mark S.]

Hunting??!!!!!!!!!

I cannot even dig my way to the ground!

We had 60 degree weather several times in january. Since yesterday eve we got about 3 feet of cold white stuff. Thats in addition to what was already there. More coming. I think it hit 6 degress today. My tractors hydraulic system froze up. There is water leaking into it somewhere. Its in the garage thawing out. A neighbor plowed me out. Schools are closing up for tomorrow.

Hunting!!!!!!!!!!

So goes life in Western New York

Actually my club is having a winter hunt at my place in two weeks. You just toss the coins in the snow. The way it is now the coins would sink out of range. Of course so would some of the people!!!

Mark S.

 

[Southcacalaky]

Good Job, and my head hurts just looking at that !! Art...