Search the Community

I have been around this hobby for over 35 years and went from the guy that had no idea what ground balance or gain meant to where I am today. It has taken thousands of hours of research and time, putting good detecting habits into practice. I, myself, have been very fortunate to be around some of the best diggers that have ever held a metal detector in their hands. If anyone ever thinks they are the best and they can’t get any better or learn more about what we do, then they are sadly mistaken. To this day I continue to learn every time I turn on and start swinging. Being associated with these guys for the last several years has really given me an insight that very few people will ever have. The team of diggers I work with are some of the best and most successful group you will ever find. Our fearless leader keeps us up to date on new machines and technology to keep us at a level we have attained. Now, how do you become the best detectorist you can be? First of all you must have an open mind and be willing to listen to the right people for instruction. In the past, I have been a involved in both Archery and Bowling to high degree. Those 2 sports taught me a very valuable lesson, if you want to be the best you can be, then learn from the best, someone that is very successful. I spent a lot of money buying the wrong stuff by listening to the “expert” that didn’t have a clue. I have learned how to do research from whom to seek advice. I run into people all the time that are wanting to get better, but they listen to people that have a good line but, don’t have the success to back up their claims. It sometimes is hard to get rid of bad habits, whether it is in your swing or the way you do research. YouTube is nice and there are some good videos and knowledge to be found on the site. However, there is also a lot of wanting to be people giving some not so good advice. It’s important that you as a viewer know the difference. You ask how do I know, again look at what they have found. A few old coins or a couple of gold nuggets doesn’t mean they have the knowledge you seek. Another thing is don’t keep changing the settings on your machine because this guy says it is the best way to do it. Learn your machine from testing buried targets to find out what works to get the best results in your area. There are no magic setting, there is however very good setting to start and work with to get your best performance. You will never be good if you are always changing your detector from this guys or to the next video guy that knows it all. YOU must learn how your machine works and when you need to change settings. Learn the sounds, do not depend on the ID’S # on when to dig. They are for a reference point to what might be the target. It takes years of dedication to understand this hobby. Now let’s talk about the detector that you have or want to get. I get asked all the time WHAT IS THE BEST MACHINE? The simple answer is “none” are the best at every task. And beyond that is what task are you wanting to use the detector. How about the selection of coils (not loops or heads) is compatible with a metal detector. What is the cost of the metal detector and the selection of coils you are going to need for your task? Not everyone can afford the most expensive detector on the market. But, if goal is to be the best nugget hunter you can be and are committed to that end, then, YES the Minelab GPZ-7000 is a machine you would definitely want to consider for Gold Nugget Hunting. To be honest, I am a bit prejudice about the brands of detectors I use so keep that in mind, but I use the one’s I use because they are the machines that I feel are the best for me and the tasks I want use them. That being said, here is what I have for my needs: GPZ-7000 GPX-5000 CTX-3030 FISHER GOLD BUG-2 XP DEUS These are not the only machines but they are my choice, do your research to find yours. THIS IS MY OPINION: Yes, I put in thousands of hours swinging and learning and have found over a thousand gold nuggets and some nice coins and relics. Why did I pick those machines? It is simple for me. When it comes to finding Gold Nuggets, Minelab is unsurpassed for depth on larger nuggets. That is why I have the GPZ-7000 and the GPX- 5000. Those two machines are similar but not the same. There are times when the GPX-5000 will outshine the GPZ-7000 and so that is the one bring out of the truck. If you are hunting nuggets in an area that has had a lot of miners camping and leaving iron items and trash behind, then discrimination may be needed and the GPX-5000 is the detector I want to use. When hunting in the Nevada desert where ferrous items are limited and nuggets of all sizes are possible to be found then the GPZ-7000 is my first choice. I have owned all the Minelab series from the GP 3500 up to the GPZ-7000. The GP series detectors have been the best gold finding detectors of their time. I have been fortune enough to find enough gold to justify the investment and I believe if you have the proper tools to get the job done correctly your chances of success becomes greater. The Fisher Gold Bug-2 is designed to find smaller and shallower gold and mean from fly *#*# to nice gold in the mineralized shallow ground. It is hard to beat the Gold Bug-2 when it comes to finding really small gold, but the Newer Minelab SDC-2300 comes very close but doesn’t have iron discrimination if that is needed. The last detector I use for hunting gold is the XP Deus. Now where would I use a multi purpose coin, relic and gold machine, in tailing piles looking for specimen gold. Again, these are my choices and for tailing piles The XP Deus is not the only detector that is good for the job, the Minelab X-terra 705 is the choice for a couple of the successful team members. When it comes to coin and relic hunting the Minelab CTX-3030 is what I find works best for me. One of the reasons I like this machine because it is waterproof. If you choose to hit the lake or beach you don’t have to worry about getting it wet and it works outstanding in the water while jewelry hunting. It has a good selection of coils to cover your hunting needs. In high iron areas I use the 6 inch coil and if the area it is a more open and uncluttered spot with deep coins the 17 inch monster coil would be the choice. The Stock coil works great for all around detecting conditions. The CTX-3030 or Minelab’s SDC-2300 are some of the best in water looking for those platinum, gold and silver rings. Again, there are other choices, but the CTX has it all and it covers most all of my coil and relic hunting needs. The XP Deus however, is a good choice with very heavy iron where the coins are close to the ferrous objects. I have paid for the XP Deus in a couple spots, finding some very nice targets lying too close to iron that the CTX was unable to find. I always use both units when I am in an area where old goodies are coming out of the ground. Back to how to become the best you can be. It takes hours and hours of using the correct techniques to become consistent in producing good finds. But just knowing your detector and technique is not enough by any means! The first part of becoming successful is doing the research to get you to a good spot. You can’t just always follow your buddies to get you to a good area. If they have been there, then you are looking for the left overs. It is fairly easy to find the cream in a spot, but to find what is below the cream and mixed in with the ferrous targets, or just plain DEEP TARGETS is what we are trying to do. You must put in the time to be successful. Wanting to find older coins and relics, then you have to be at a site that can hold those old items. The local city park is probably not your best choice but can be a very good place to practice honing your skills. The same holds true for a school yard. Lots of targets to get in some practice. With all the junk targets you can perfect your swing speed, coil control and keeping your coil level to the ground all the way through your swing. Learn how to separate targets and look for the deep ones, not the easy ones in the top 4 or 5 inches. Pass those up and leave those for later, but instead listen for the faint deep signals. The deep signals should be the better coins and relics. Look at the ground to see if has been turned over or fill has been added. While driving around look for old trees or stumps that have been there for years. Watch for older homes, especially ones that have bad lawn care. It can increase your chance to detect. Empty lots where old homes once stood. Look for foundations in those lots along with colored glass and trash from days gone by. Research at city hall or the library from where old roads or buildings once stood. Get photos from the era of when the community or mining camp was first started. Look at areas that didn’t have electricity back in the day, especially mine sites. Look for old maps of towns, forts or mining camps that are not on today's maps. The internet is a great source of information, but books and maps are usually the best way to go. As my detecting partner has told countless people, you will spend hundreds and even thousands of dollars buying that perfect detector, but you won’t spend a $100 a year buying research material to get you to those spots no one else finds. They are still out there. Research is all part of learning how to become successful. Coils are always a hot topic. What coil do I need? Well, you need the one designed to do the task you are attempting. If you are looking for shallow small targets, then a huge coil is not a good choice. Same way if you are looking for deep targets a small coil is not correct choice. Are you going to use discrimination, if so, you will need a DD coil. If you are after depth and sensitivity the mono coil is what you will want because they are more sensitive than their DD partners. There is also concentric coils on our coin and relic machines. You need to match the right coil to the task at hand. Smaller coils are designed to find smaller shallow targets. Big coils are made to go deep looking for that Lunker or deep coin, but if there is a small target at depth the big coil will most likely not see it and the small coil can’t see that deep so what does that mean. You simply can’t get them all unless you are scraping off a few inches at a time down to bedrock but we do try. Again, do some testing, if you are a nugget hunter then buy yourself some lead (Bird shot and fishing weights) in different sizes and put them in the ground at different depths and TEST!!! Coin hunters bury those coins in the ground so you can barely hear them. That serves two purposed, practice on faint targets and the opportunity to try different modes and setting to see what works in real life. Air tests are ok, but the mineralization and wetness in the ground tell the real story. That way you know what works and what doesn’t. That gives you the confidence and so you will not have to wonder if your machine and coil combination is correct. You will know! Confidence is a good thing. That is how we all have learned, practice practice practice…. You don’t have to be in the gold fields or a ghost town to become better on your detector. Instead of sitting on your couch go outside and put in some time learning about to make the machine and you work together to be successful. You might be surprised about how you want to get out there and find the get swinging after honing your skill level. If you have a family, what a way to spend some quality time together. And mom and dad you know the kids are going to get better than you. In conclusion, you want to be really good or just so so, the choice is yours. Everyone doesn’t want to be a Pro but if you do, it requires time, energy, investment and a lot of hours swing an digging. Remember, if you want to be the best then learn what you can from the successful hunter. Detector classes give you a huge leap forward to becoming successful. The final word is something I did hear on a video from a fellow digger: “Look of a reason to dig not for an excuse not to dig” Thanks for your time, Rye Patch Ron PS: Always fill in your holes, ask permission and leave it as good or better than before you dug.

I finally got my old 11'' replaced. This new coil is working great and I couldn't be more happy. Thanks to Dilek all my problems have been resolved. Yesterday and today were the first times I have given it a good run. I decided to hunt a farm house yesterday. I usually think the finds are getting low. Well low and behold I was wrong. Yesterday was good and bad as posted on the coin and relic forum. Today was even better!! same farm plus a kids camp. In two hours at the farm I scored a 2 oz. sinker, a bunch of odd lead, 2 wheat pennies, a girl scout pin from the 60's and two fabulous 1952 and 1957 roosevelt dimes. Around 1:30pm I decided to hit the camp. In another two hours I scored $1.05 in clad (not much) and a very awesome 1810 to 1830's button. inscribed on the back is Treble gilt Standard colour. seems to be a british button. Most of the clad from the 60's and 70's were at 6 to 7 inches deep. this button was around 3''. I did dig a bunch of deep trash always looking for the gold rings. The only thing is the id numbers are a little off, they are a couple of points off, but that was an easy learn. I'm thinking the old coil was bad from day one and today just proved it. I can't wait to hit some more of my sites and see what I missed with the old coil. The MK has yet to let me down and has been a great machine in the short time that I have owned it.

I started out the day on a high note by detecting an old farm that I found a Rosie and a merc on a previous outing. First good signals were some 22 casings. I then got into some 1970's pennies and hit a bunch of wheaties, The oldest was a 1919 pretty good I thought. Next up was a kids silver plate bracelet. Was hoping for better but it was not to be. After about 45 min. of trash I stumbled on an odd 1 3/4'' copper piece. This is very unique and I have no clue what it was. Last but not least was a 1943 p nickle, my first of this date. I thought it was an odd silver but seeing the delamination on the surface, my hopes were dashed.This nickel was at the 10'' mark. Now for the bad part !!!! On my way back home I decided to try and get permission for another old farmstead. This property is having a new house built on it and I figured why not. There were some drywall guy's there who did not speak english, so I decided to look at the old barn before I departed. The first sign you are in trouble is when a black cat tears ass out of the barn and almost hits you. I should have realized I was headed for problems. Anyhow I decided to leave, Jumped in my big truck, pulled foward and into a 3 foot ditch I failed to see. After stacking about a ton of stone under my passenger tire I got out. But It will cost me a new bumper $350, Brackets $52, and possibly a new fender $400 + paint. I'm not sure my finds will cover my stupidity!!! My wifes thoughts were, Glad it wasn't me. You would have bitched for days about my bad driving. Sometime's dumb catches up with all of us. Damn Black Cat !!!!!!

I been hunting this park for 2 hrs a day since last Sat the 24th. Anyway I have pulled out in excess of $35 - $40 in clad and a cpl silver rings and a few worthless tokens. This morning I pulled out $6.37 in two hours and only dug one tab and had on mystery 25 signal that I quit looking for at 12". I already had an 8" diameter plug and at 12" I just quit. There were a bunch of women show up and started exercising in the same area I was detecting but I was getting ready to quit so I headed toward my truck and on the way I decided to make a cpl passes of areas I already hunted. Well to my surprise in less than 50' and two passes 4' wide I picked up 85 cents and that got me to think that maybe I should grid it and cover the area again. I will admit when I swing there is a good chance I miss an area 6" or so between swings as I move forward but in the past when I tried gridding all I did was wear myself out and found very little or nothing. Since this park is such a producer I am thinking when I finish the last 3rd of the park maybe I should go back and start over covering the park in a horizontal search of what I been hunting. I am also wondering since I turned up the sensitivity yesterday if that's the reason I should go back over what I have hunted. I got the sensitivity turned up to 25 with no chatter or interference's. I been using park 1 and other than turning up the sensitivity I am in factory pre set. I have hit few bottle caps and I know colt 44 rings up but Bush beer don't. Tokens been ringing up 31 & 32 but I recognize them after digging a few. The separation between trash and good signals is beyond by belief. Three times this morning I hit signals that went from 23 - 30 and I kept swinging to see which signal want the most prominent and when I dug I got a quarter, dime and penny. One time 2 quarters and a penny. Also in the holes I found rusty nails and a lead sinker. I may not be right on the amount of clad I have dug because I haven't counted it exactly but I know I have a pile of clad not counting pennies of $93 and about $35 of it is E-Trac finds. Maybe someone can answer this. Often times when I pin point for say a quarter that's ringing up at 29 when I start to pin point the detector shows 13 while I am pin pointing. It don't bother me because I am listening for tone but always wonder why the detector don't show 29 when I am pin pointing a 29. All I can really say is I am one happy detecting dude with the 800. My E-Trac may go to rust unless I find a good reason to use it for anything other than back up. One last thing. I have charged it twice and get almost exactly 12 hours per charge. When the battery is almost dead the 800 with shut off on it's own. I do think that Minelab should halt production of the 800 so others don't get one and that would reduce the competition.

Most Hi-Tech, most user friendly, understanding that the most expensive isn't necessarily the best, and if it had to be the ONLY one you own. GO!

Had a little time for a property tour and short initial water hunt at a new permission this afternoon...the place holds promise! It's an old cabin/vacation spot that dates back to the early 1900s. I happened across the owner at the public access last week, and he offered free reign to detect it anytime. After running thru the water a bit, I realized it has likely not been detected in the past...or not detected very thoroughly. Dug a few nickels, including the no date buffalo...and numerous old pull tabs and ring tabs. The ring turned out to be just gold plate, but I believe it has some age to it. The other pic is of the lower jaw from a northern pike...was an interesting item to see in the scoop! I still can't believe I stumbled across a site like this these days...will definitely be many future trips back to this place. The owner is super cool and friendly. Hope y'all got out today as well...beautiful, cooler weather today and tomorrow here in MN.

Small skating pond has dried up a bit, enough to walk around in and detect. I'm amazed how much trash was in it but was able to poke around with my Gold Racer. Wish it had a bigger coil but love using it for coin and relic hunting. Pic of the pond, usually always has water in it and the lilly pads and arrow weed are still green on the edges. Bottom was dry enough to walk on. Ground had cracks and voids in the mud that gave some negative signals at times. Gravel and stones are few inches down but thinking there is stuff out of range of coil i was using. Brass candle stick base (rest was missing), small brass pin with a floral pattern on it that had a bit of silver plating on it and bit of clad. The 1948 p Rosie was from another section of the woods. Will hit that again with one of my other machines and bring more than just my hand digger.

A couple of days ago I returned to a late 18th century homestead that has been disappointing in the past. I've always felt like there was something good to be found around the house, but the best I could do were a few wheaties and a ton of iron and aluminum. I had about an hour and decided to hit it again. Same old thing right before I left I found a 41 wheat 6 inches under a 2 inch piece of flagstone walkway (thought that was great). A day went by and while building a pergola in my back yard and nearly cutting part of my thumb in half, I had enough of construction and decided to go back one more time before leaving that place on my do not return list. I found the usual iron, aluminum and trash. Then I dug an old Larkins cold cream lid and some other cool stuff and felt like things were getting better. About 40 minutes later I decided to hunt the old front yard very close to the road, I never hit this section before. Lots and lots of aluminum so I moved to the old rotten front entry with more flagstone. It seemed amazingly quite until I got a 28-32, hit odd numbers for me but it was very strong. I started digging on another crappy target, so I thought and at about 6 inches I found a 1908 Indian head 2 1/2 dollar gold coin!!!!!!! I'm a pretty strong fellow but I almost teared up from joy. I doubt that I will ever top this find and would be happy with just that. Needless to say I might have to hit the old site just a few more times. I hope all of you enjoy seeing the coin as much as I do.

$36.40.. plus 1 x 'old' 2 cent and 4 x 'old' 1 cents.. also an Euro and a NZ $1.. but best of all, there was a photographer shooting 5 topless girls in the early morning light (i thought i'd be the only one there, so did they).. needless to say i dropped the detector straight away and watched the show for a while.. i didn't take any photos of the girls but when i got back i did get one of the coins (sorry about that)..

My usual places are being eliminated one by one. Most of my places are public in nature. One of my favorite places I tried to hunt today and there was a police car sitting there. A bad sign. So I pulled around the back like normal and notice everything locked up and new cameras installed... So he comes back there and I speak to him. I told him we had been metal detecting that place over a year and now notice it locked up. As he put it, "fighting and stuff". In other words either drug related, gang related, or general hoodlum behavior. This has happened a lot to me lately, good places being off limits now for nothing I've done. I went to another place where a known idiot has been that likes to dig craters. I had hoped he would have moved on by now but no. Instead it looks like a mine field now over the entire area. That moron has dug so many holes it is unreal. Always the same, dirt left on the ground and a non packed remnant of the plug in the hole. That was enough for me today and another place permanently marked off my list. I'm starting to get frustrated more and more and today I even told my wife "Between the hoodlums and idiots messing things up, I may as well just sell all my equipment and give this hobby up." Anybody else feeling this way? I enjoy metal detecting but here lately it's peeved me off about how other people's behavior can impact my hunting grounds..

So my question to all is what is the largest item you have ever dared to dig. Mine was a 11 1/2'' bronze sun dial. I thought at first I found the worlds largest coin!!! Well it was a vintage 1980's sun dial. I got a good laugh and put a scratch on it, cause the target was so large. At 5'' pin pointing went out the window. (I still have it) I would love to hear your stories and photo's alike. Please don't be afraid to embarrass yourselves!!! We all had a what the hell am I thinking moment.

Hit the park at 5:30am and finished up at 9:00am. I think I hurt myself!!! Anyone who thinks the MK is lacking is goofy!! Decided to run the knock sensitive/off center 11'' to make sure the problem wasn't me. The grass was wet and oddly the coils knock sens. was reduced. Still had the same huge centering problem. (Still waiting on the new coil to arrive), But that being said, Man did I find the coins. Most were at the 6'' to 8'' depth. Coin to trash was 0 until the old english cap and a pull tab (couldn't help myself). Any How, this is how it worked out, Hand cramps included!!!! Ha Ha Ha 15 Quarters 4 Nickles 29 Dimes 9 Pennies 6 Hand cramps

After another long hot week and some things that are weighing heavy on my heart. I decided to hunt a little woodlot and creek to take my mind off the grind of life. I walked about 1000 yds down the creek with little luck until I found a odd item that looks like an umbrella handle. A short distance later I retrieved a very very small tea cup (cool). After striking out on the water, I thought that I might have better luck on terrafirma. Shotgun cases woo hoo!!! I then decided to hunt near a giant of an oak tree, every bit of 40'' through. Hoping for something good, I got a good deep hit. At around 11'' out popped a very large musket ball that measures .690 to .695. Thinking from a british brown bess. Spent another hour farting around and tripped up on a 97 number that kept bouncing down to the high 70's. Normally this would be coal, but the tone did not have the crackle that coal usually has. Woo Hoo out popped a 45 mercury dime. My second 45 in a very short time. Turns out that there were very small fragments of coal around the merc. The dime is cool, but I love Rev. War musket balls!!!! I ended my day with a 22 casing and a 22 bullet. Another good day with the MK!!! Time to have a beer and cool off!!!

Just keep finding clad. Charged up the Blisstool V5 last night for a morning hunt before the heat set in with a blazing hot sun starts baking me. Since most areas are pretty dry, not wanting to ruin any grass areas. Went back to a well hit spot where the ground would just damp enough to make for some easy digging and the ground would not dry out. The place is a good choice because the sprinkler system keeps the grass nice and green. This morning. True to form, the sprinklers came on, the grass at my spot was still wet. The rising sun and warming heat soon dried the grass. Made for a clean hunt. Ground balanced the V5 to perfection. Ran smooth with a nice stable threshold all morning. Used the 7x9 search coil again, which is just going to stay on this detector. Since I haven't used the V5 in several weeks, as I was testing out the new Simplex coils, it did take about 1 hour to get back in the swing of things. So a lot of trash was dug, just to get a feel of the audio responses between trash and good trash ( Canadian clad coins). Made for some good education today. There are a couple things I can say about the V5, it loves deeper Canadian clad coins. Pretty much already cleaned the place of surface to 5" deep coins. Finding there sure is a lot more at the 6-8" range than I thought. The V5 just sees them loud and clear, quite surprised how many are dug at the 7" range. Noted all those pesky dimes came from that depth. The only coin that came from a shallow depth of 4" was the Toonie. It sounded like a large surface target. Have to remember that for next time. Hunted from 6:30am to 11:15am, at that point it was too hot to continue, packed it in and drove home, guzzling a bottle of warm water. Yeah it heated up a bit in the cars trunk. This was only my second hunt, the more I use the V5, the more I like it.

“According to Miller, the country isn’t running out of money, there are just more coins “sitting in pots at home,” instead of circulating through the economy.“ https://www.forbes.com/sites/advisor/2020/07/20/is-there-really-a-coin-shortage/#3a28fe2df0a3

Went back to an old poured concrete foundation in the woods which is a popular Elk hunters campsite. This is a site where I found my first seated dime a few years ago. The area is loaded with modern trash and lot's of iron nails and old tin buried near the foundation walls. I brought my Teknetics G2 with both the 5" and 11"x7" coil as I also intended to try some nugget detecting near the creek. I didn't find any nuggets but managed to pull 2 nice V nickels, 1890 and 1883. I set the detector in disc mode after ground balancing at 83. The ground here is very mineralized. I then set the tone break at 40 to separate ferrous from nonferrous and started swinging . I dug everything that hit in the ferrous range and all one-way signals that sounded good one direction but like iron the other. I also managed a few relics and a small pile of trash.

The Three pence "3D" Like all other pre-decimal Australian coinage the three pence was based on the silver standard. The 16mm, 1.41g coins were minted in sterling silver (92.5% silver, 7.5% copper) from 1910 till 1944. In 1947 the coins were debased to 50% silver, 40% copper, 5% nickel, and 5% zinc. The debasement resulted from Australia needing to pay off its’ huge debts incurred during World War 2. All threepences have a plain edge. These are the best of my 3d collection, many more elsewhere. Note Date of release and Number produced under each coin. When I get a chance will move onto 6d, Shillings (1/-) Florins(2/-) and Crown(5/-) and silver round 50 cent.

Hit a new spot that used to have car shows on the field so it is a haven for trash. Enough iron there to sound like a loud threshold hum so I only spent an hour scouting it out and bit of cherry picking. Usual clad in the shadded areas and this tiny bell button that rang in the gold range but it is just tiny and bronze. Had a bit of trouble looking for it as it was dark and not the aluminum or gold color I was looking for. Will be hitting that are again as the woods are old. Should be great this fall/winter as it is mostly pines.

I like a bit of a challenge and, during the recent lockdown here in Oz, I decided to tune my Nox 800 to hunting just threepences. For those who don't know, a threepence used to be Australia's smallest silver coin before converting to decimal currency in 1966. They weigh about 1.3 grams and are 16mm in diameter. Once free to roam, i went to an old goldfield that lasted from 1855 to the late 1930's. There were a couple of old homesteads in the area that lasted until the mid 1970's. I figured i had pretty well worked out the best settings for the coin and was pleased that, after a full day's hunt, I detected 14 of the little beggars. I didn't get back to put in other hunt for larger coins as it persistently rained for the next three days and I was lucky to get my vehicle and caravan out through the resulting boggy bush tracks. Still, I have narrowed down several old homesites and, what I believe was, an old pub site. Now for another leave pass from the Minister for War.

There has been some discussion about detectorists being welcome or not on various public properties. This post is related to that. I'm calling it a "feel good story" but it probably feels better to me than it does to you! Couple weeks ago I was at my (new) favorite park which has been providing old coins (Wheaties, Buffies, silver War Nickels, Indian Heads, and even a few silver dimes), not generously, though. On this particular day I wasn't having much luck, it was getting hot, and my hunting spot was starting to experience other visitors. Although I don't mind people seeing me, I do like to keep my distance (even before the pandemic), in particular to allow them to enjoy the park -- it's meant for everyone and I can find coins pretty much everywhere whereas their activities may be more confined. I decided to check out a crushed stone parking lot that is no longer used. Part of it was in the shade and it was getting pretty hot. I had gotten some good signals there while traversing it previously on my way to greener pastures and I figured there might be some goodies which other detectorists hadn't bothered even considering. I was digging a promising target when I hear a garden tractor approaching, then stopping about 10 feet away (good social distance 😁) and looked up as the driver turned off his engine. "Well, I've never seen anyone detect a parking lot before" to which I replied "glad to hear that; maybe for once they left me some good stuff." Then we proceed to talk for 45 minutes. Thinking he might know of some secret spots I asked him how long he had worked here and my heart sunk when he said "six years". But then he told me he had grown up across the street in the 1960's! Talk about my attitude doing a 180. I proceeded to pick his brain and boy did he deliver. Sledding hill, former concession stands, former residences (the park has expanded since he lived there), swimming holes, picnic areas long overgrown, hiking trails that once were frequented but since forgotten. He knew some of the history of the park from 40 years before he even had lived there. I started wondering if I would remember all this 'treasure' he was revealing. He told me about other detectorists having been there and said they were respectful. As long as we fill our holes there's no problem detecting the park. Now not only do I feel better (I've always felt a bit funny when park employees are around) that I'm welcome, but some of the spots I previously thought might be off-limits are now fair game. If someone else questions me (not likely, but you never know) about what I'm doing in a certain spot I'll just say "George said it was OK." If they don't know George then they have no business asking me anyway. Oh, the target I was digging turned out to be a 5 inch deep copper Memorial penny. I dug a couple more relatively deep targets the next time there, having subsequently brought my Estwing rock hammer (way faster recovery but be careful to chip around the target -- a case where the White's TRX pinpointer really helps). Still only modern coins meaning the parking lot has been backfilled in recent times, and probably on more than one occasion (so the desirable old coins are probably quite deep). I've since moved on to the lush 'gardens'. Plenty more stories and photos of finds to be posted in the future.

Hello all, A little primer first; as some of you may know, my Equinox is in "the shop", due to previously posted issues! No worries; using the old trusty At Pro! So between Covid, and the horrendous heat wave we are experiencing, i haven't been out much to detect! But many of you have been out, and posting! So i just had to suck it up, and get my butt out in it!! Summers here used to be a nice balmy Easterly breeze most every day! The last several years have been unusually hot and humid, with little to no breeze, and record temps! Dangerous conditions, if you don't hydrate well! So, i decided to hit a few local parks, that I've hunted previously, a year or two ago! And stick to the "shaded" areas to make it bearable! Yesterday i had the 5x8 stock coil on, and did about 3 hours, before it became unbearable! I was soaked, but did well enough for what i expected to find! Today was much the same, in a different park! With the 8x11 stock coil! This park has very large tree's, so the added depth helps here, due to very rich soil! My results; as you will see below; are fairly typical of my park area's! Oldest coin was a 1955 D nickel! Along with a few early 60's; and up to present day coins! Not exactly ideal finds, but goes with the age of the area's that are accessible here! And it keeps my skills up! I included some of the junk items in my "paper towel" displays for future reference! I'm looking forward (probably 6ish weeks) to getting the Equinox back, and get back to the beaches! 👍👍

So I've been getting a lot of clad coins with both the Equinox and the Vanquish 440 in the local parks, but even in the older ones, silver coins have escaped me for a couple of months now. In between thunderstorms this afternoon, I hit the neighbor's parking strip, and in less than ten minutes, I pulled two silvers and a wheatie! My first silver quarter, AND my first Canadian silver. The quarter is pretty trashed, but I'm glad just the same! Felt good to break the slump!

Here are most of my good finds of the past year. I have a lot of pennies, a few dimes, 2 quarters, and 1 nickel. I saved a few old pull tabs because they were out of use before I was around. I have a button, a toy car wheel, A few bottle caps, a spoon head, a few keys, a EP co cap, a knife, and a broken toy gun. I have a few finds not shown here. Like an arrow to a bow, a game horseshoe, another toy gun, and a few older coins that went into my coin collection. The gun in the bag in from the 1950s I believe, and a picture of a mint condition one is below. The mason jar liner was un broken when I found it but I hit is with the shovel( I saved it anyway). The zinc cap was to far gone to save. Hope they are interesting to look at.

Wow! Look at what just came out of my aunts backyard! It looks like a 1976/bicentennial coin collection. It clean up really nice after a lot of work. It was not very deep. I am really glad I didn’t damage the acrylic(I think it is acrylic). I wonder how it got into the ground. Did someone bury it on purpose? Who knows. It is a great display. I can’t believe how nice it is. What do you think?

https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/nation-world/federal-reserve-powell-money-coins-pandemic/507-ef711276-60da-40c7-96c4-4fe258d7d996