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schoolofhardNox

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Posts posted by schoolofhardNox

  1. Beach hunt # 21 and the adventure continues. Same beach for about 8 hours. I extended the search to almost the end of this half of the beach. I could probably spend another day going over that whole area again, to see what I missed. There are definitely targets in between the areas that I hunted. I had so many hits, I just had to let some go. I almost cried when I finally got my first Buffalo nickel. 😂  How many Jeffersons can one person dig before he gets a Buffalo. The targets were nonstop for most of the day, until I hit an area that was not affected by all of the past storms. At that point, the coin targets dried up. A ton of clad, lots of nickels and 19 silvers. Finally, one gold ring surfaced, along with a gold wire probably from some kind of earring. I think the coin total was 229, along with the normal junk targets and an unusually high spoon count. I’m going to try and get back next week sometime to see if the other side of the beach has any erosion. I never looked on that side to see if something similar happened there as well. I’m very grateful to be able to hunt with no competition present, and very favorable sand movement. Usually, I fight to get 1 or 2 silvers. Recently, I have been blessed with way more than that. This is the best hobby in the world! 🥰

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  2. 1 hour ago, GB_Amateur said:

    Including two Walkers!  If I added up right you've had 41 silver coins in your last three hunts.  Didn't you say others beat you to this area?  If so, how did they miss so much, were they ignoring high conductors to concentrate on gold jewelry?  And is there a chance Mother Nature puts an end to this before you get everything within your detector+coil's capability?

    I know you earn what you find, swinging that battle sword for many hours each time out, but it still seems like you've been on time travel back to the 70's/80's.

    Hopefully more silvers to come if I get out tomorrow 🤭 The pros out there hit this beach and every other one in the area. But they know there is no gold where I was hunting. They read the beach and kept to the gold bearing areas. No one strayed because the other guy would take their spot. I heard there were at times 8-10 guys combing the beach. I can tell they never ventured up my way because of my nickel count and the other small non ferrous stuff I found. They would have to dig those or miss gold.

    Unless we have another big storm, I don't see my areas being covered over anytime soon. Everything I was digging was from just below the sand to a maximum of 10 inches. So even if it gets sanded in, I should still be able to get more coins. Tomorrow should be the test as I'll be hitting another area. If that produces, then I can say a good chunk of that beach was evenly washed away.

    I agree, it's mostly all from that 70's- early 80's era. Just recent enough to get a ton of clad, but also early enough to get some stray silver. 

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  3. Beach hunt # 20 was of course back to the same beach. Finding out that the rest of the beach has the same potential as previously has me going back whenever I can break away. It’s not often that conditions remain the same, and you can get a bunch of coins and a very nice amount of silver. Apparently, I have been drawing a lot of  power from my batteries, as each pack only lasted around 4 hours, before I got that warning sound no one wants to hear. The problem I had with my battery reading the last time had to be an error on my part  🙄 as it seemed to charge ok. If it was completely dead with almost no readings, I doubt it would have charged at all. Both packs now charge to 8.2V, probably what old batteries should charge to. As for the hunt, I couldn’t ask for a better day. Most likely a record coin haul at (I think) 165 coins, 16 of which were silver, possibly silver crosses and what’s left of an earring. Also, possible gold, as it does not stick to a magnet and looking at the rolled edge, I see only gold with no corrosion. Older coins include a Liberty V nickel and a Barber dime.  I must admit, after I get off the beach I’m pretty dirty, with wet sand all over me. I must a sight to see 😄 Even the beach dogs stay away from me. The sand is very damp and tends to harden more than usual. I had to scrape it off my pin pointer. I’ll be back again, as I still have one long section to get through and lots of other areas to test. Hopefully the weather stays warm enough to dig.

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  4. 9 hours ago, Joe Beechnut OBN said:

    How are the tides there? I was wondering if your seeing any indication the water levels are changing? Here, this year, and not that Im hunting any but I still watch and they seem to not be going as low as many times as they have in the past.  We had two neg tides in Jan, past years we would get about one good one a week. 

    I'm in between projects and getting the fever watching your post! 

    And Great hunt on the Silver! 

    The high tides are breaking down banks like never before. The low tides are normal but productive. There seems to be a lot of movement both from demolishing banks and from the sea throwing back old coins from within. It must be scooping up quite a bit of sand just prior to the shore. Gold rings were plentiful in certain areas. Docks and boardwalks that are normally not visible were exposed more than ever.  If you were one of the first to get there, you were getting some pretty old coins. Shield nickels, seated, and gold rings in decent quantity. I talked with a few guys well after the rush and they said everyone had at least 2 gold rings, other more than that.

    51 minutes ago, rvpopeye said:

    Another make me look bad hunt for you !  Well done ! 

    Out of likes already on the first post I read , guess we don't get more till later in the day ?

    Like like like  , there's 3 ,  the hard way. You can't even do 3 the easy way .😳 and an Oh My ! for doing it in the cold.

     And an Official  YARC user title "School of HOOVER Nox" (TWOhs,,,P.O.)

    Feel free to make the T shirt .  Awards Swag Fund running low........

    I'll make two t-shirts -  rvpopeye for president - and ban schoolofhardNox from our beaches.  And you should see a doctor about that twitchy finger that keeps hitting that like button.

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  5. 32 minutes ago, F350Platinum said:

    Wow, scored some relics again! 👍

    Like the cross pendant and the vine looking thing in your trash photo, and the Ray Bans are cool 😎

    Nice handful of silver too! 

    Are those buffalo nickels?

    Thanks. The Ray bans are a nice gift. I would have never bought a pair, so that's one of the perks of detecting I guess.

    4 Buffalos this last hunt. This section was a gift for sure. It's been kinda dry lately.

    I'm going back as soon as I can get some time off.

    • Like 3
  6. 29 minutes ago, GB_Amateur said:

    Did I understand right -- 11 silver coins previous hunt and 14 this time??  I realize the saltwater has been mean to them but do you ever check the dates+mintmarks?  Regardless, good work as always.

    Most people would include weather as a factor in 'conditions', but not you!

    My hypothesis for that is the same as for the Roosevelts vs. Mercs -- fewer coins minted, but worse, fewer years for them to be lost before all silver was removed from circulation (by the public, not the gov) in the late 60's.

    Yep, it's been an unexpected silver streak. 🫠  I check the dates and MM that are readable, but not the really encrusted ones. I'm not going to do electrolysis on them until I get too old and can't hunt anymore. It will give me something exciting to do. 

    As for weather, I'll detect as long as it get above 20 degrees and isn't snowing or very windy. Preferably 30 and above is good. I just layer up.  

    I agree, same scenario on the Mercury/Roosevelt. It's funny how things work out sometimes.

    • Like 3
  7. Beach hunt # 19 was back to the same beach. I was ready to go over the same area slower this time, hoping I would pick up some more silver. The first thing I noticed is that the beach roughed up this area a bit more with more rocks exposed making it a little harder to run the coil smoothly. The second thing I noticed is that I did a terrible job the first time.  😂 This time I slowed way down and concentrated on the tiny signals, not like the solid ones I dug the other day. To my surprise, there were some deeper coins than I found the first time there. Also, there were some very iffy sounds that cleaned up much better and ended up being deep coins. Another odd thing was 4 pair of sunglasses sitting on the surface (not in one spot). I didn’t think much of them, and I always take them off the beach. When I got home, 3 of them were corroded and scratched as usual. The 4th pair however was a nice pair of Ray Ban. They were slightly scratched but not corroded. And they fit perfectly. 😊 That was a nice surprise. I also extended the search area to adjacent sections, and those areas produced some coins and a bit of silver as well. They were not packed with coins as in the previous area, but still worth the effort. All in all, another good silver hunt. I’m going to keep going back until conditions change and the fun dries up. 🥺 I didn’t think this beach was going to do much, so I avoided it for a couple weeks. I’m glad I decided to hit it when I did. Another plus was that I found my AQ knob in my driveway after the snow melted. I just need a set screw for it, and it’s all set again. Life is good.

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  8. 20 minutes ago, Joe D. said:

       That's one of the late signs of obsessive detecting! Telling yourself what your doing, than agreeing with yourself that your gonna do it!😆

       Nice job again, and impressive haul! Love the big Franklin especially! Seem rare as hens teeth, as most have been hoovered up!🍀👍👍

    I've been obsessive detecting since I was 7 😅 It's easier to find Walking Liberty halves than those Franklins for some reason.

    • Like 2
  9. 14 minutes ago, Joe Beechnut OBN said:

    Thanks for taking us along and sharing! I would check with my friends on that AQ knob, maybe a anderson excalibur knob would fit?

    Thanks Joe, I was just going to post that I found it after the snow melted on my driveway. It made it almost home before it fell off. 😄. I just need to get a set screw for it and I'll be all set. I will check the other knobs to make sure they are tight.

    • Like 4
  10. On 1/25/2024 at 6:04 PM, F350Platinum said:

    Ok man, now you're just showing off 🤣

    That is awesome. 119 coins? That's like a day or two at a campground without the old stuff. That storm must have dug deep! I hope it didn't send the gold even lower... 🤔

    Fantastic job!

    It's not me showing off....it's the beach flexing it's silver muscle 😍 It's hard for me to imagine silver still at this beach, but it's here. I'm not sure where the gold is, but it's not going much lower. The depth ranged from 4" to 8", but I don't think a VLF would have heard them through that sand. I went back (coming soon 😮), and I redid my area plus some and it produced more at greater depths. But 12ish" is the maximum depth as I was hitting clay. So I'm not sure where the gold is. Either it's gone or my GPX just can't separate it from the sand. This is the toughest type of sand I have hunted at my beaches.

    16 hours ago, rvpopeye said:

    Nice pile of keeper coins !

    Always fun picking up live ammo too.😵

      

    Thanks. I will use that round in the gun that I don't have 🙄.  It was fun digging coin after coin and not really moving too far to do it.

    • Like 3
  11. That's sad. One of the best, if not the best and most versatile machines made. 🤔 That's probably the real reason to discontinue it 😅. Who knows why, but now I'm mad that I didn't but another GPX battery when one was available for sale on here. 😖 Hopefully the after market will still have some available, but I agree the price may go up. You wanna see panic.... discontinue the GPX 5000 and the GPZ 7000 and tell everyone they can now just buy a 6000 for all their nugget needs. 😲

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  12.             Beach hunt #18 was a marathon. I decided I wanted to get back to the previous beach after getting a Shield and V nickel out of there. That beach is old, and I was sure there had to be some deep silver or gold left there. But first, the traditional bathroom stop at another beach is in order. Once there I had to get a look at that beach as well. It looked like it had some damage from the last storm and the sand repairs had already started. So, if I wanted to try this beach, it would have to be today or wait for the next storm. I agreed to do one half of the hunt here and then go to the planned beach. So, I got ready, fired up the GPX and got absolutely no sound from the machine. It didn’t even turn on. Did I finally kill my GPX from all those beach hunts?  😲 Well, I tried another cable, same results. Luckily I took a spare battery, which I sometimes do not do. Moment of truth…. Battery problem or GPX problem. Either one is going to cost me. 🙄 2nd battery worked fine, and the hunt was on. I’ve included a picture of the location I was hunting. You can’t tell the purple color as well as you can in person.

                Targets were far and few between and it took me about 30 minutes before I dug a coin. I tried an area that has that purple/black sand mix, which even gives the GPX issues. Once I located a terrible sounding target, I dug it and got my first green penny. I spent the next 15 minutes trying to locate another target and going through a lot of settings to see if I could clear up the signal. I finally found a way to detect this area. I knew it had the potential for good targets that may not appear to be so good (or even at all) on other people’s machines. Once I figured out how to hunt there, I even went over what I did, and targets started to appear. The further I went into that area, the more frequent targets appeared. Needless to say, I never made it to the other beach. I spent 6 hours prying rocks to expose a ton of coins. In the greatest concentration of coins, I rarely dug any iron, aluminum, or other nonferrous items. It was almost exclusively coins. But prying some big rocks took its toll on my trusty spade and it cracked the fiberglass shaft enough for me to retire it. RIP old friend.  😥 I don’t know when I will get a chance to get back there, but I will probably do that same area and see if there are other areas that are similar. One of my best coin days with a total of 119 coins. 11 of them were silver. The surprises were the Franklin half, a Barber dime and my first Seated dime from this beach. Also, one lone Buffalo nickel. No gold, but that’s fine by me. R&R today, maybe I can sneak in another hunt soon.

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  13. Wow, you do find some odd stuff 😄 That cuff link is non traditional, to say the least. And what's with that 3 prong sort of candle snuffer? Man you got some weird stuff happening there, back in the day 😳.  The silver handle is awesome. Anytime you find early American silversmith work is way better than the English counterpart.  Great hunt and a wise move to bypass the beach idea.

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  14. 11 hours ago, F350Platinum said:

    Aww man, shame you missed the gold rush! 😵 I'd have missed the whole thing myself, can't take temps below 30 at all. Reynaud's is a curse. 😠

    Still you managed to come away with stuff I find on relic hunts which is awesome. 😎

    Fantastic hunt regardless. 👍

    Yeah, the cold definitely changes how or if you can hunt. For me, I can layer up and get away with it. It never got above 27 degrees, but if the sun is out, it's bearable for me. Only the toes and fingertips can get a bit chilled. That is one reason to dig fast and generate some heat 😄

    This beach is older and the relics were deep, but with a lot of sand moved around, they are  starting to surface.

    • Like 3
  15. Beach hunt #16 &17 are done. The first hunt was at my favorite beach which recently was very productive for the locals. The highest removal of sand that most people can remember was caused by a fairly high tide coinciding with a strong storm surge. A huge amount of silver coins were found, reaching back to Barber and earlier. Gold rings were very popular from what I understand. 🙄 I was unable to get there until about 4 days after the gold rush. It was cold…… 19 degrees as I was heading out of town.  I started out way too late, hoping it would warm up a bit. That was a mistake, as it only resulted in a shorter hunt than usual. The GPX did well, and I did have some minor luck with 3 pieces of silver 2 Indians, 2 Buffalos and a shot up Shield nickel. Quite a few copper cents were also found, but no gold. Some odd finds included a shoehorn (look it up young people 😅), a sugar tong, skeleton key and a surface find of a wooden bracelet. I dug the normal amount of trash. Not a bad day but I was hoping for more silver and possibly a little bit of yellow.

     

    Fast forward 2 days. I had to try again, so I took the AQ and the GPX out for a second hunt. Another short one, as it was cold once again. The AQ found one unidentifiable coin a bit smaller than a quarter and probably of copper/nickel composition. I was purposely searching a place that was very productive in gold rings. 1 hour in, the battery died. My fault, as I figured it would last about 3 hours, so I didn’t charge it. Oh well, out comes the GPX for the remainder of the hunt. I concentrated on low conductors primarily since the amount of iron, particularly small, sliver pieces of wire and rounder globs of iron were present in quantity, along with a lot of nails and fence wire. The only high conductor signals I dug were those that gave a purer, more coin-like signal. I did dig some iron liberally when I first got there to test the area. Concentrating on low conductors did get me a lot of nickels including a nice Buffalo and a decent Liberty V  nickel.  One lone Indian head cent showed up as well. Silver count was 4, gold count was 0. Again, I noticed that the nickels that I rubbed clean right after finding them cleaned up easily with some Dawn and 4/0 (#0000) steel wool. So for the uncleaned nickels, I’m not sure if once the nickels are exposed to more oxygen or if it’s exposure to the sunlight, they are extremely hard to clean when you get home. Some good hunting, some older coins but no Super Bowl. 😶 On a sad note, the beach decided to claim one of the knobs off of my AQ. It’s going to be hard to find a replacement knob as it has a thin shaft with a section that is cut away, so that the knob fits only one way on the shaft. ay yai yai 😖

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  16. 23 minutes ago, phrunt said:

    It's only $640 AUD which I think is very cheap for the size of the thing.

    Here at Miners Den

    I guess in the US it will be more and the dealers have to incorporate shipping the big sucker across to the US which won't be cheap.

    Thanks Simon. So that's around $425.00 US. Plus the shipping costs, so well over $500.00 😳 That's just a couple hundred dollars less than a budget Deus II. I always wonder when they say it hits big targets deep (I'm assuming nuggets), how that compares to a coin size object. What is the equivalent of a big nugget to a coin? I'm just wondering since I won't get one 😊, but it would be nice to know where a coin falls in the comparison. Hopefully there will be some videos of it in action.

    • Like 2
  17. 54 minutes ago, F350Platinum said:

    Man, the "Surface Scratchers™" like me must love it after you leave a beach and the tourists leave stuff. 🤣 Nothing but good targets and common crap on top!

    Bravo yet again for being the toughest and most disciplined detectorist I've ever seen. 👏🏆

    After they get all the good tourist stuff, I think they actually toss a bunch of iron for me to find next time I'm there.😄 As long as I get some silver I'm good. A plus was, I had a chance to talk with the state guys that run the place. Always good to see what they think of us detectorists. I always show them the good stuff - fishing hooks, pointy iron , etc 🧐......😁

    • Like 1
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