What is YOUR story? Here's Mine!

[Terry Soloman]

What is the real treasure of metal detecting? I believe it is the stories behind your finds, the people you meet along the way, the wonder of our history below your coil, and that unexplainable, indescribable joy of discovering a bucket lister!

What is the story of your best find? I have been fortunate to live in areas rich with history, legacies of wealth, and war. From the Weaver Mountains in Arizona – detecting for gold nuggets, to the beaches of Long Island New York – detecting for gold, silver, and diamond rings, coins, bracelets, and necklaces.

My favorite story is about taking a Japanese tourist couple as early clients of my business, Arizona Gold Adventures, on a curated metal detecting hunt in the Weaver Mountains. I took them out on Y Not claims, gave them both rudimentary training on our Minelab GPX 5000, set up the two machines and let the couple go.

About four, maybe five minutes later I heard the wife let out a scream! She was about 40-yards away, and my first thought was she stumbled on a rattlesnake. Running toward her and her husband I saw them jumping up and down and embracing each other. She had found a 3.4-ounce gold nugget!

Here’s the kicker. The nugget was a “Figural Nugget,” and the wife was convinced it looked like her childhood dog, a Poodle. In 2011, gold averaged approximately $1,572 per ounce, reaching a record high of over $1,920. A local buyer offered her $8,000.00 and she turned him down, because she believed the nugget was a gift from her long dead Poodle, for loving and caring for him.

I'm pictured with a Two+ ounce gold nugget also found on the Y Not claims.

True story. What’s yours?

 

[k0bgalan]

I agree. I have too many hobbies! Amateur radio, airgunning, metal detecting, fishing, and a few more. None are really related to the others, except for one thing; camaraderie! Real aficionados of any hobby tend to be friendly, and willing to help extend whatever the hobby is.

 

[Blackfoot58]

I’ve been through many hobbies as well:
Black powder shooting, archery, hunting, fishing, running, cooking, bow making (archery), metal detecting, carving, yodeling…

I’d say detecting and cooking have lasted the longest. I met many great folks along the way too.

 

[SD51]

My most memorable finds are when I recover a ring for someone.

Here's two...

My mother-in-aw lost a ten diamond anniversary ring when she stoped the car in the country to dig up some wild flowers for her garden. I asked her to show me where they parked the car and where she walked to dig the flower. I found it in five minutes.

The other story... we were vacationing at Navarre Beach, Florida in 2018 and I thought I would detect the beach early in the morning near the pier. A man walked over and asked if I would look for a ring their friend's daughter lost the day before. We gridded off a large section of the beach and on my last pass, I found the ring. Their friends were driving back to Oklahoma that day and their daughter was over the moon happy because her grandmother had given her the sterling ring just before she past away.

 

[Centsless Detecting]

I'd have to say and not to be corny, my two best finds are the two guys I met that I go detecting. I've known them both for years now and we regularly go out detecting. Sometimes all 3 of us at the same time, other times it's one or the other. Our friendship(s) has expanded beyond just treasure hunting as well. Probably have spent more time playing Call of Duty with my 69 year detecting buddy than swinging a coil with him. Both times I just happened to be driving through the park and saw someone with a detector. Pulled over, struck up a conversation, exchanged numbers and here we are.

As far as physical finds go, I've been fortunate enough to find a few old copper culture relics where I live. Those items are my favorite to find here. I always get excited when I get a nice high tone knowing that another piece of copper is a possibility. Not that big silver isnt fun to find dont get me wrong. Never thought id find something so ancient when I started this hobby. Im coming up on a decade of metal detecting now. Boy does the time fly.

 

[daddyflea]

My best story was hunting a house where an older lady once lived. She gave permission with strict instructions for me to tell her everything i found. I found a walking liberty and a couple other silvers. I also found a pendant off a Bracelet of an old Race Car. I was going to toss it because it was just pot metal, but true to my word, I told her about it. As soon as I told her she got real quiet and I knew something was wrong. She then stated "You don't know the story do you." I told her no I don't. She told me that when she was 12 her Mother was a Race Car driver. One of very few in the state and her Mother had been killed in a Race Car, exactly like the one I described. She asked if I would give her the car. Of course I drove over to her house to find an 80 year old Woman crying while looking at the car. She had already called other Family members to find that no one had ever had a Pendant like that. She believed that this had been her Mothers and was so happy to get it.