Eklawok

4 hours ago, deathray said:

Id probably kick his ass.

I had a guy come up to me in a park about a month ago with an attitude telling me that i had better be filling in mine. I about did the same, but i am not trying to relive my teens and 20s...lol. But it was irritating when I aways fill in mine and someone comes up with an attitude trying to, indirectly, say that I am not. But, I put on my statesman style face and assured him that I was. He then went on to tell me how he knew someone who had gotten hurt tripping on somebody's dig. At that point I could admire the irritation that we both had. I don't want to be accused, and others don't want tore up land and tripping hazards. If we don't police ourselves, somebody else will for us. And also, it helps not to have a hot temper either. That is a shortcoming of mine that I work on continually. While it might be nice to imagine kicking someone's ass, please don't do it. Even if they really, really, really deserve it. And yes....i knoooooow it can be hard. 

You know, I considered getting an MX sport. But I knew of the MXTs reputation, and had been wanting one for a while. So, I got the MXT A/P. I got it a day or two before Steve made his review public. Now I am still a noob, but that kind of news would have made me use words that I really shouldn't put here had I gotten the MX sport.

Ok, enough bashing Whites. Now to be nice. I absolutely love my MXT! Whites..... you still my bro

A day will come where the MXT will be a memory and won't hold a candle to what is out on the market at that time, but that is not today. Heck, the thing looks like its stuck somewhere between the 70s and the 90s with dials and switches mixes with lcd displays and push buttons. Although, that is one of the reasons i like it. I am certain that the MXS will be a proven winner though. It will have its strengths and weaknesses as well. As does any equipment. More people using them will flesh out what it will do just like it's older brother, the MXT.

Maybe we will get something like a "MXT All Pro Sport MX". A machine with all the good things from both...and waterproof. One that would be able to use existing accessory coils from both. Maybe it might talk to your phone through an app to log your hunts and targets found. That could be neat I would think (now someone will tell me of a machine that does that). The options are almost limitless there.

-Tom

 Nice....I think I'll be doing some of that when I get home from the slope.

8 hours ago, GB_Amateur said:

Could you give an estimate of how many hours you spent digging last week, and how many total coins you dug?  I'd like to be able to estimate how rare such an occurrence is.  The number of coins dug is the more important one.

The word 'impressive' doesn't begin to do this justice.  If those are nearly independent events (that is, we're not talking about someone stealing a coin collection and then dumping it in the local park) this is approaching astronomical.  I recall an article in Coin World newspaper back in the the 60's where an estimate was given of the number of hours searching through bank rolls it would take to find various scarce and rare Lincoln Cents.  Wish I could find that article.

@GB_Amateur I know that you are probably meaning more towards silver coins. But, this is what I have dug over the past week....starting Monday. Found my first ring today too. It is a kids ring from a gumball machine, but it is still a ring.....you can see it at the bottom of the pic. I would say that is the take for about....mmmm....maybe 12 hrs of hitting a few of the local parks where I live.

5 hours ago, auminesweeper said:

Hey, ya know I have even found a Fake Roman coin made by the Romans that is about1800 +/- years old, 

So it just goes to show even back then you could not trust the Mafia   

john

Geeeze....darn the luck. Get all excited and.....

But with it being a "real" fake, and not a modern one, I'll bet that it a pretty neat piece. Its a good thing that the Romans didn't have pulltabs.

6 minutes ago, 1515Art said:

Those are really nice, I'm afraid I'm in about the same place as the Toyota, at 4500 pounds max. I think it will pull the boat ok, but with gear and fuel I'm probably over 5000#'s and pulling it over the hill to Santa Cruz over time might be a problem. 

I keep rehashing this and I need a small v8 in a vehicle with good 4 wheel that's small enough to get me into areas I want, or sell the best boat I've ever owned. 

Salmon and rock cod season now, so I going to cross my fingers and keep checking cl. 

 

Have you considered a  short bed regular cab truck? You may not have the luxury of storage, or seating, in the cab. But you do get a short wheel base, 4 wheel drive, and the option of a V8. They are getting harder to come by anymore due to the popularity of trucks with 4 doors now.  But, it could be an option. I have a 2010 dodge with the hemi. And at a rated 390 hp with something like 400 ft lbs of torque, power is not lacking. The thing drives like a 4 wheel drive muscle car. If you keep your foot light on the gas pedal, 20 mpg is not hard to get on the highway, with no load of course. But, only seating for 3 people. Some say thats a bad thing, I kinda like it. And if you throw a bed cover on them, all your stuff stays dry riding in the back. I put one of them on mine with a bed rug liner, and stuff rides well without getting scratched up or sliding around.

13 hours ago, RickUK said:

 

Quote

Its all down to learning the site that you are detecting and the history and many other things,and of course gut feeling and trying to increase the reward to effort ratio in your favour,i am lucky that i live not all that far one of the greatest roman locations in the UK hence alot of my finds are roman and even celtic,the latter is my main targets ie the celtic gold staters as these are the Holy Grail that i am after.

That has got to be pretty cool to find a target that somebody lost possibly over a 1000 years ago. 

8 minutes ago, auminesweeper said:

You might find that a bit easier using a concentric coil because they pin point better because the target always ends up in the middle,

john

Ya know....I was kinda curious about that. The 10" DD does seem to pinpoint "oddly" compared to what I was used to with my Garrett with the 6X9. But I am getting used to it. I did pick up a 4X6 for the Mxt though. Kind of a cool little coil to play with. Just doesn't cover a lot of ground. But it is pretty nice to use around trees and such.

18 hours ago, gambler said:

Eklawok, I also am trying to teach myself how to pop coins with a screw driver. I usually give up and dig. 

Me too

48 minutes ago, gambler said:

i'm strangely drawn to the box......

Hey, all kids know that the best thing about getting a new toy isn't the toy inside, but the box that it comes in. Just ask my daughter....she'll tell ya so. 

If only pulltabs were worth something. Nice dime though. 

22 minutes ago, jasong said:

Wow what a small world! I'm pretty sure that rig photo was taken in the hills just south of Wamsutter, WY where I lived and worked for a year on it's big brothers (Nabors 101&102) as a directional driller and I've "driven" it. It's even bigger than it looks - these rigs "walk", we drilled 20+ well pads with them. The ironic thing is they really are pinpointers, we could generally get within 5-10ft accurate wellbore placement at 18,000ft depth.

I use a Lesche too.

Yeah, I see them commonly too when I am at work on the northslope. Some of them are actually extremely "portable ". It like watching a house driving down the road with some of the small ones.

Anyways, to get back to the topic. I have a minelab digging tool that is similar to a lesche, a plastic trowel when needed, and a little folding Gerber hand shovel for when i am in a "sandbox" , like in a tot lot, or in an area that I can dig without doing any damage. I have been working on learning how to use a screwdriver to pop coins though. Or, in my case, pull tabs.

2 hours ago, auminesweeper said:

D11 Cat,  for the Specie's,    After that I get serious, 

I told ya that little coil was sensitive

 

It this what you use as a pinpointer?

8 hours ago, argyle said:

 

Yeah definitely GB...

 

What I directly like are the YouTube clips when a guy is using a machine I've never used, but are interested in buying one.

Mainly for the Audio on the unit, even though the audio can sometimes be a bit off due the compression of files, I can still get the gist of it's sound.

 

And the clips where someone runs through the settings used and why, then hearing signals he's passing up on, then on to judging a signal, quickly throws in a little trick to throw off ferrous judgement, and decides it's a dig and is rewarded with a coin, are my favs.

 

 

I like the ones where they go to dig a target and something really good, and unexpected, pops out. There is one on YouTube that a guy goes to dig a nonferrous target and a gold bar pops out. He is in total disbelief at the time and doesn't believe that it is gold. His buddy keeps telling him "no its not brass, you found gold." I think his day was shot after that...in a good way though.

5 hours ago, argyle said:

Being a depth of sliver thread that Eklawok started, and seeing already a couple of coins that have been found by detecting have been posted up, (geez they didn't leave much room on the Liberty Dime for the full date) it would be nice to see a few more pics and explanation of type of coin, depth found and with what type of signal initially made you dig, the rarity of it ect.

Just a thought, but it would be good to see more coins on the thread.

I can't join in, as all my pics of American, Australian and British silver coins found, taken after I bought my first digital camera, got wiped off a computer...

I like that idea. It might help out some noobs like me. The penny that I just posted a pic of came up as just that, a penny. And the tree that it was under just look like a good place for stuff to get dropped under. I found a few other pennies, a quater, and some bottle caps as well. In fact, the bottle caps that I found were right next to that 59 penny.

1 hour ago, auminesweeper said:

Steve,I told you that Go find was not a Big Boys detector.

Lol

1 hour ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Almost all the coins I have ever dug were 8" or less. 8" - 10" would be crazy deep for me unless I was using a PI.

Yeah, at that particular park (spenard beach park that is) it seems to have a hardpan layer about 6 to 8 inches down under the topsoil. Even though i found a few junk items in it (right on the top of it), I would think that anything of value would be on top of it. But, I can't  say that with certainty. I am not experienced enough to make a call like that nor do I know how many loads of fill may have been dumped there over the years. But here are a few pics of the older penny that I found. Like I said before, it was only an inch or two down next to a spruce tree. I also found my first quarter for this machine (I had found a few with my old one) so that was pretty cool. But no silver. 

Again, I would like to thank everybody's input on my original question. Lots of good information and entertaining stories have come about on this thread so far. 

6 hours ago, sjmpainter said:

Eklawok, I picked up a Gold Racer this week. Been testing it in the parks after work. I found a penny that might be interesting to see.

No great value but the date is encouraging.

 

Just found a 1959 penny at at spenard beach park here in Anchorage about an hour ago. It was only an inch or two down under a tree. When I get somewhere where the lighting is better, I'll post a pic. Sitting down for a afternoon beer and snack before I venture elsewhere. No silver as of yet though. 

Wow....so much good information here. When I posted this thread I didn't realized how much good "searching" information that I would receive. It really is inspiring to me to go and really look in the older areas where I live. I just pawned my kiddo off on the grandparents tonight for the weekend and may have to do as such tomorrow. In the spirit of this thread,  I have snapped a few pictures of a dime that I had found a few years ago in some pocket change. It is a 1940 something. The last number of the year has rubbed off. It appears to be a 1946. I have actually kept it separated in one of my gold pans. I think that it would be cool to find a buffalo nickel or another older coin just because it would be older than what I am (being born in 77). Kinda funny too now that I think of it, I haven't seen a bicentennial 1976 quarter in a while either. I m8gbt have to check my change jar for one. I remember them as being quite common at one point when I was a kid. 

8 hours ago, sjmpainter said:

Eklawok, Silver in Anchorage is hard to find. I think the question is not so much how deep but where to look. Here is a post on the topic.

Most of the tot lots have been revamped with new play areas in the last five years and when that happens they usually dig the sand/wood chip ect. and replace it with new. Most down a foot.

With that being, I notice a lot of the off the beaten path parks do have older coins but the silver is still elusive.  Its very interesting I can find penny and nickels to about 40's - 50's but the dimes and quarters and what not 65 is the limit. The only exception is foreign coins that do not have silver.

I don't want to turn you off, I am sure silver is out there somewhere  just know it will take effort. And if you find one let me know.

HH.

Some pretty good stuff here. But I agree with what steve had to say in the links, Anchorage is a bit on the young side to find any silver on a regular basis. And the older areas that would be the most likely to have it have been probably hunted to death, or have been paved over. Although I do wonder about the yards around some of the older houses around town. If a guy was to go out here (around Anchorage )shoot for silver the 3 main things that he would have to take into consideration are location, location, and location. I would figure the further south you would go the less likelyhood to find them would be. However if a guy were to hit up areas like Spenard, Fairview, Mountain view, and the older areas still open in the downtown area, the higher the probability. Also keeping in mind that it seems that most, but not all, of the parks in Anchorage were established in the 70's and 80's. Here is a useful link for anybody inerested:

http://anchorageparkfoundation.org/directory/

It doesn't cover all of, what i consider parks (like Javier De Lavega-which may be considered a ball field and not a "park"). 

This is some good information that I am getting from everybody here. I think that it is cool that I am getting advice from not only from local people, but also from overseas. 

18 minutes ago, RickUK said:

He who digs wins. He who hesitates doesn't

This still wont answer your question but you can get some idea what we are up against,hence its one of those questions that can never really be answered.

Absolutely correct on the digging part. And while you're right, your explanation doesn't directly answer the question, I loved the explanation you gave. It brought a smile to my face as I read it. 

1 hour ago, DDancer said:

Depends on the depth of all targets.  Usually you can determine that by the depth registered by you VDI to true depth however VDI has its disadvantages and depth is often mis-advertised.  My suggestion is to look hard at what the VDI says and make a gut choice.  Often targets of desire are laying at a certain level as regards the reading.  Use that info to dig.  It varies from place to place and that is what many of us look for.

Yeah, I have noticed when I get a strong, clean signal, the vdi is usually accurate. It is when it jumps around that things can get a bit iffy. And when digging in the sand that they use in some of the playgrounds around here, the signal can change as material is removed from the top of the target. 

9 minutes ago, auminesweeper said:

I have dug a few deep coins around the 14 - 15 inch mark plus and some things down to about 20 or more, I have dug some monster pits at times,

john

Sounds like me digging up a few nails, beer cans, and beaver tails the other day. 

I know that this question is subjective, but I am going to ask anyways. For the guys out there who have found, and continue to find, old silver coins, how deep on average are you finding them? Just a question that came to mind as I was out this afternoon picking off "surface" targets at a local park. I know that there can be a lot of factors involved, and I doubt where I am at that I am going to be finding buffalo nickels or anything of the sort. Just a curiosity.

3 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Big leap there! I liked Mikes post because he is one of the best there is so I am happy just to see him posting. It had nothing to do with his assumptions about your level of expertise

Give it a go, see if it is for you or not. Good luck!

I have to say, with my interactions with steve in the past, in person btw, he won't steer you wrong.  I say this as being a total metal detecting noob in my opinion. And from what I have found with my MXT, and the size of the targets, something in that class may be better suited for your application. I have never ran a machine with a higher sensitivity than the one I own now. But, I can only imagine the patience, or greif, one may have by running a unit that has been tuned for a more prospecting environment used in a park full of bubble gum wrappers that has been chewed up by a lawn mower. Just my 2 cents for what it is worth.......from a self proclaimed noob.

Yeah, the legs glued on didn't sound good to me either. 

That's pretty cool. I have yet to go over my front yard.  When I do, I'll probably find a bunch of old Milwaukee cans or house keys