Ogre1190
Bronze Member
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2015
- Messages
- 2,063
- Reaction score
- 2,409
- Golden Thread
- 0
- Location
- Northern Illinois
- Detector(s) used
- MineLab E-Trac, MineLab Safari, MineLab Explorer XS,
White's 5000 D, White's 6DB, White's 5000 D GEB
Sunray X-1 for the ML's, Garrett PP for the White's and a Backhoe
- Primary Interest:
- Metal Detecting
- #1
Thread Owner
I think it would be fun to hear some of the stories out there. Here’s mine…
May of 1980. An extremely (unusually) hot day. I’m pulling my squad car around to the garage and I pass our Director of Public Works, Tom, standing back there. I park and walk over to talk to him. I notice an older Gentleman with a metal detector working the grassy areas near a railroad overpass that’s across the road from our complex. I laugh and make fun of him, something like: Look at that idiot – baking his brains out. Well, Tom almost whacks me! He says HE does that in HIS spare time and has been for several years. He then, more-or-less, ‘challenges’ me to try it. We were both off the next 2 days, so I agreed to meet him at a location in the neighboring town.
The next morning, we meet at this old, OLD Park. Tom tells me HE’S been mowing and clearing…since this town doesn’t care about the property and told him to have fun if HE wants to take on the task. He sets me up with one of his machines - a White’s 5000D – gives me the crash course, and off we go. About 3 feet off the path into the grass, I get my 1st hit. I call Tom over and he shows me how to pinpoint. About 3-4 inches down, I pull out a dirt-caked piece of metal about ½ inch square. Tom pours some water over it and gently rubs it clean. It turns out to be the base piece off an old ring…not the band, but the flat piece that was soldered to it. EXCEPT…this one is outlined with 14k rope and there’s a small diamond embedded in its center!
Hook! Line!! Sinker!!!
I make Tom take me the very next day to his Dealer – 45 miles away – and buy the top-of-the-line unit (for that day)…A White’s 6DB. Now, $350 was a sizeable outlay in 1980, and persuading my then-Wife I’d make good use of this thing took SOME doing…but she calmed down and I didn’t have to make another 90-mile round trip to return it.
The next weekend, Tom and I went to a 1950’s-ish looking school in the town we worked in located along another of the State roads that ran through. Tom explained that locations along busy roads are usually pretty hunted out, but he thought we’d find some newer stuff and I’d be able to get more comfortable with my new machine.
Comfortable? SH*T!!! We’re not 5 feet off the edge of the parking lot and our pockets are FILLING! Nothing deeper than 5-6 inches and LOTS of pre-64 silver! Just Washingtons, Roosevelts and Mercs…but LOTS of it (and jewelry, too)!! Total…Virgin…Ground. That first DAY – we each had over 50 coins and at LEAST 10 silvers each! Long story short…That place paid for my detector 10x over in less than a MONTH. Best hole: 7 Washingtons. Best find: A HUGE 14k wedding band weighing in at a hair under an ounce. Best Silver Day: 16.
Well…that’s my story. What’s yours?
May of 1980. An extremely (unusually) hot day. I’m pulling my squad car around to the garage and I pass our Director of Public Works, Tom, standing back there. I park and walk over to talk to him. I notice an older Gentleman with a metal detector working the grassy areas near a railroad overpass that’s across the road from our complex. I laugh and make fun of him, something like: Look at that idiot – baking his brains out. Well, Tom almost whacks me! He says HE does that in HIS spare time and has been for several years. He then, more-or-less, ‘challenges’ me to try it. We were both off the next 2 days, so I agreed to meet him at a location in the neighboring town.
The next morning, we meet at this old, OLD Park. Tom tells me HE’S been mowing and clearing…since this town doesn’t care about the property and told him to have fun if HE wants to take on the task. He sets me up with one of his machines - a White’s 5000D – gives me the crash course, and off we go. About 3 feet off the path into the grass, I get my 1st hit. I call Tom over and he shows me how to pinpoint. About 3-4 inches down, I pull out a dirt-caked piece of metal about ½ inch square. Tom pours some water over it and gently rubs it clean. It turns out to be the base piece off an old ring…not the band, but the flat piece that was soldered to it. EXCEPT…this one is outlined with 14k rope and there’s a small diamond embedded in its center!
Hook! Line!! Sinker!!!
I make Tom take me the very next day to his Dealer – 45 miles away – and buy the top-of-the-line unit (for that day)…A White’s 6DB. Now, $350 was a sizeable outlay in 1980, and persuading my then-Wife I’d make good use of this thing took SOME doing…but she calmed down and I didn’t have to make another 90-mile round trip to return it.
The next weekend, Tom and I went to a 1950’s-ish looking school in the town we worked in located along another of the State roads that ran through. Tom explained that locations along busy roads are usually pretty hunted out, but he thought we’d find some newer stuff and I’d be able to get more comfortable with my new machine.
Comfortable? SH*T!!! We’re not 5 feet off the edge of the parking lot and our pockets are FILLING! Nothing deeper than 5-6 inches and LOTS of pre-64 silver! Just Washingtons, Roosevelts and Mercs…but LOTS of it (and jewelry, too)!! Total…Virgin…Ground. That first DAY – we each had over 50 coins and at LEAST 10 silvers each! Long story short…That place paid for my detector 10x over in less than a MONTH. Best hole: 7 Washingtons. Best find: A HUGE 14k wedding band weighing in at a hair under an ounce. Best Silver Day: 16.
Well…that’s my story. What’s yours?
Last edited:
