Hi Folks; CELEBRATING: It's my Birthday and It is the start of my 49th year of --

BARKER · Nov 17, 2016

Detecting. It's been an incredible journey for sure. 49 years ago my Mother gave me my first detector and I've been doing it ever since. God has truly blessed me with a great hobby and many friends over the years. May God Bless all of You & Yours. PEACE:RONB :headbang:

Loco-Digger · Nov 17, 2016

Happy Birthday you old fart. :occasion14:

kingskid1611 · Nov 17, 2016

Happy Birthday and many more to come...... :hello2:

Digzit2 · Nov 17, 2016

Happy birthday and God bless you to.

Dave N Japan · Nov 17, 2016

Happy B-Day

Dr. Syn · Nov 17, 2016

Do be careful, that many candles may melt the cake.

Tom_in_CA · Nov 17, 2016

what was your first machine? What kind of depth did you get on coins in those days ? Where'd you take it and what was a typical day's finds in those days ?

Happy Birthday !

Keith Jackson · Nov 18, 2016

Congrats. Mine is slightly different in that 49 years ago today, my mother gave me life.

Limitool · Nov 18, 2016

I'm late to the party but what the hell.... HAPPY LATE B-DAY BUDDY!

BARKER · Nov 18, 2016

Hi Folks; Thanks guys. TOM_IN_CA I got a RadShack BFO. It buzzed like crazy, drove people "NUTS" and was good for 6" on a good day. BUUUTTTT back then that was all you needed. Very few people had detectors. There were NO CLUBS and I always found silver "every" time I went digging. I was pretty much confined to beaches because there was no Disc and pulltabs were everywhere. Recovery was easier on the beaches as well. I would fill a 5 gallon pail full of just silver coins and another full of clad and pennies. I kept the wheaties and Indians separated. I'd find rings almost 2 - 3x per week. It was great. Then they came out with the TR metal detectors and my finds exploded and people did not mind me doing it anymore. Then came the TR Disc. It was ok but not great but that allowed me to hit the parks and I had a whole new gold mine open up for me again. Today, everyone has a detector. Every place has been searched and finds are thin. Finding Silver today feels like you hit the Lottery.!!! Ahhhh those were the days. PEACE:RONB

SD51 · Nov 18, 2016

Happy B-Day Ron! I know what you mean about the old days! Silver everywhere and almost took it for granted then. One time I had a killer signal next to a tree in a park and noticed a dozen people watching me. Left it there and came back early the next morning and recovered a honking silver ring!

BARKER · Nov 19, 2016

Hi SD51; Yup, Back then we were curiousities. No one had a detector. People thought detecting was cool hobby or you were just a nut they laughed at. Me, I smiled all the way to the Bank.!!! Today, people don't even blink. My, how times change. PEACE:RONB

Hey Folks; Tell us your stories of the good old days detecting. We await. PEACE:RONB

G.A.P.metal · Nov 19, 2016

Happy Birthday BARKER !

SD51 · Nov 19, 2016

OK here's another old detecting story... Stopped in a small southern MN town in the 70's and spotted a school next to a city park. It was around Thanksgiving and hadn't snowed yet but it was cold. Tried the school play ground area and it became obvious immediately that this had never been detected. Silver and Wheaties everywhere. Saw a giant pine tree next to the entrance to the school and thought, this tree was small at one time. Figured there should be some coins under the lower limbs. Put the coil under the lower limbs and recovered a nice Walking Liberty half. Unfortunately it started to sleet and I had to find some cover.

Noticed the park had a picnic shelter with just a roof, no sides. Got under the roof and luckily the ground was just dirt. Mercury dimes where everywhere and were only down two inches. Brought back more silver than trash that day. Back then the digging tool was just a screwdriver too.

Tom_in_CA · Nov 19, 2016

SD51 said:
OK here's another old detecting story... Stopped in a small southern MN town in the 70's and spotted a school next to a city park. It was around Thanksgiving and hadn't snowed yet but it was cold. Tried the school play ground area and it became obvious immediately that this had never been detected. Silver and Wheaties everywhere. Saw a giant pine tree next to the entrance to the school and thought, this tree was small at one time. Figured there should be some coins under the lower limbs. Put the coil under the lower limbs and recovered a nice Walking Liberty half. Unfortunately it started to sleet and I had to find some cover.

Noticed the park had a picnic shelter with just a roof, no sides. Got under the roof and luckily the ground was just dirt. Mercury dimes where everywhere and were only down two inches. Brought back more silver than trash that day. Back then the digging tool was just a screwdriver too.

SD51 and Barker, thanx for the Nostalgic trip down memory lane. Yes: Even into the mid 1970s, there was still some parts of the USA where the hobby hadn't take off yet. And/or defunct country picnic grounds that no one had wised up to research out yet.

When I got into the hobby in about 1976-ish, a guy I hunted with told the story about a Boy Scout camp that was heavily used in the 1930s to early 1950s, that he was apparently the first one to ever hunt (in about 1974-ish). He described getting dozens of silver each trip, an untold amounts of wheaties as fast as you could dig.

And I heard of the first guy in our town who probably ever swung a detector here. It was 1963 or '64. He'd seen a classified ad in one of those "True West" or "Desert Highway" type magazines, and sent off for a catalog. Before long he was the owner of an old Whites BFO. Assembled it and headed to the schoolyards around town. Although the thing probably only reached 2" on coins, yet there were coins everywhere. The speed was slow though, as there was no discrimination. So they dealt with foil globs all the time he recalls.

Tnmountains · Nov 20, 2016

Happy B-day and God Bless!

Z.K. · Nov 20, 2016

Happy b day and detecting anniversary, big guy. You are one a kind.

Interesting turn this took with the early hobby stories...hard to imagine how addictive that must have been.

Msbeepbeep · Nov 21, 2016

A belated HAPPY BIRTHDAY to ya!!!
Hope it was a great day!

And God bless!

BARKER · Nov 21, 2016

Hi; Back then We were far and few between. My friends thought I was a nerd. For me it all started on a wise crack. I had a gym teacher, Mr. Gillis, who used to come in saying he found this & that. Well one day I basically told him he was full of Bull. He didn't like that to much so he made arrangements for me to go out and use a detector. The first time I went out with him I found $4 and a gold Wedding Ring. Every time he took me out I kept finding stuff and I got hooked. Then my Mother got me a RadShack BFO detector for my Birthday. I went out by myself and never looked back. I went digging "ALL" the time.
Then I got tired of my friends laughing at me so one day I brought in 2 5 Gallon buckets full of silver coins and some jewelry and Rare coins I had found. They never laughed at me again. In fact 3 other guys got detectors as well and we all went digging together.
When I was 15 I became a Certified PADI Diver. When I was 16 I went on an Expedition with Outward Bound. We sailed over to the southern tip of Greece and worked on a Village called Trilae that had slid off the coast of Greece in 548BC due to an earthquake. We dove on it, mapped it, brought stuff up etc.. I've been doing it ever since. Now it's been 49 years and I realize the best gift my Mother ever gave me was that blasted detector. It enriched my Life forever.
Folks, If you know any kids that like History and would be willing to try detecting. GET THEM ONE ok. I believe that if you do you will truly change the course of a kids Life for the better. How rich is that ?? So please do it ok. Let's hear your stories. What say ye ?? PEACE:RONB