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I have been out of the loop for a number of years and just joined back up. Here is my latest adventure. Aug 2020 Kind of a long read, Names and place shall remain anonymous. Got a call last week from a guy that wanted to know how to run a detector that he got from his dad. He was going to use it to help a friend find something that had been buried. I explained the machine to him and asked about size and depth of object and he didn't know for sure but said he would call back if he had more questions. About 4 hours later i get a call from same guy and he says his friends wife wants to talk to me. Wanted to know if I would drive over (about 65 miles) as they needed someone that knew what they were doing with a detector. I asked a few more questions about size and depth and was told about 30 inches deep & the size of a Carnation can, cardboard she thought. Having nothing else to do we decided to make the drive and see if I could help. Come to find out the guy had buried the can of coins about 10+ years ago and he and a couple of friends were trying to find it. He had suffered a couple of strokes and couldn't quite remember exactly where it was buried.. I asked of one thing and that was to take some pictures if we find it and no name's or location would be reveled. Pretty much about half of the space under the building had been dug to a depth of about 3 ft. We dug and I detected for about 1/2 hr and kept hitting some old rusty nails and from what he told me I asked them to remove a section of dirt and in the meantime I was going to check the big hole they dug earlier so the owner and I slipped thru the wall studs and began searching the other side, In the far back right corner I got a very very weak signal in the far corner and told him to move some gravel/dirt so I could check it again to see if it gets louder. It did so move some more gravel and it is louder and then it screams at me, I said we have a large target here and he starts moving dirt and gravel with his hands and a little piece of gray tape pokes thru and he yells we found it. More gravel come out revealing the whole lid and then the can. The can was heavy as it was full and I'm thinking he buried a bunch of silver and I said it would be nice to see some gold in that can. He said so you would like to see some gold would you. He and his wife were over whelmed to say the least that I had found it for them. He asked me how much he owed me and I said what ever you think, a little gas money. He handed me $2000.00. I said no way and he said you want more and I said that's way to much but he wouldn't take any back because you see I just dug up there retirement savings. Stuffed in that little can were 224 1oz gold coins ( All Buffalo and American Gold Eagle rounds). 10 tubes of 20 rounds each and 24 in clear cellophane wrap. At todays price well I guess you can figure that out.

I had a Jones again for a nugget hunt. Mind you the places I go that are 3 hours away don't have many nuggets left but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. I did it. My Barstow location was the choice. I've been stumped there many times in the past but it is a very beautiful place on a Full Moon night. Last night was simply THE BEST. It didn't matter if I found a nugget. When I got out of the car there was no wind. The temperature is in the mid 80s and there were no bugs chasing the lights. This was what I was after. I used Chet settings for the most part with my 7000/X 15x10 and just got to it. The first target was so small I just had to save it in the bottle. We've all had them. This one is iron. I was ready to go. My brain was working and my hearing was on. This was my close to parking target. I was hoping I had stopped on a nugget. My first location and walk around for 2 hours produced no gold. It consisted of new areas to me and an area where I had previously found a nugget. I could see it on my 7000 GPS! The next location less than a mile away took me to familiar nugget territory but by a different route. I ended up in an area next to a Joshua Tree where I had found my second nugget with the EQ 800/11 about a month after they came out. You have to really work things slowly as Lucky said in order to get a signal but that I did. Then like Simon said it took me a long time to finally get the target in the scoop. It was sounding off and I should have had my glasses but I finally knew I wasn't going to get skunked this trip. This is only my second nugget with the X. Staying in the same general area after that find it was just time to work the ground. I was in manual ground balance and the hot rocks were everywhere and a few wires. Eventually I came upon one of those signals that you just know sounds different. It was only about 3 inches deep. I made it back to my car at 3 AM for a snack and time to use the 800. I had been at it for 5 hours but I had two nuggets. This was my first use of the 800 since the 3.0 update. I like it. I didn't notch anything out in Gold 1 and just read the numbers. I could run sensitivity with the 6" coil at 20 and it would ignore many hot rocks. It was fun swinging the little thing but no gold with it this trip. Daylight was coming (5:30 AM) and I still had 3 hours to get back. It's expensive gold but worth it to the soul. Mitchel

Tonight I went for a detect. When I got to the beach I could see a detectorist coming in my direction on the edge of the water. I could also see another one up in front on the same line a couple hundred feet in the direction I wanted to walk. Those two were on a 'collision course' so I got away from the water to avoid the one in front of me. As it turned out the guy behind me went to the guy in front of me and then they were gone in the opposite direction from where I was going. I didn't step on their pattern of the water's edge. I walked and walked and finally got into my pattern and a beach without a detectorist. It had not been dug. The tide was low so I sampled the area as I know how to do and when I got to the end I turned in the direction I came from so that I could work the patch I had found. It started with one cheap ring and then I found some hoops and then some quarters, pennies and dimes. I was gridding and working it slowly. Someone approached me from behind and I could see it was another detectorist. I normally don't talk to others even before the virus. This guy came up to me (kept social distance) and asked if I was Gary. I said no and then he said 'I see you have been digging up the place here, how are you doing?' I didn't mention the ring but said I was getting coins and hoops (earrings). He said he worked that beach a lot over the years. He asked my detector and name and we exchanged a few more pleasantries before he said 'I'm going home.' He walked about 30 feet in front of me in the direction I was gridding and he detected. He stopped and was digging while I'm working my pattern getting closer. And then he still didn't move so I had to go around him but as I did he had a lighter out making some light to look at something he found (I assumed). He stayed in that little area for some time and I was now about 50 feet on the other side of him when he came up to me and said 'Can you turn on your light so that I can see what I just found?' Well, I'm already a bit pissed because he jumped my pattern and now he wants to use my light ... ok. He holds up a ring in the light and he declares it cheap. It was corroded. Next he has another ring. He says 'cool, it has sapphires and other stones, I think it is silver but it might be white gold!' Oh my goodness. He said what did you just find? (It was a dime.) I'll never forget the sight of that ring in my light. I'll never forget him jumping my pattern. Soon after he did in fact walk down the beach and leave me to my patch. I was pissed as I said and wondered the real etiquette or 'right of way' in this case. I felt I would have found that ring if he hadn't taken advantage of my search pattern. After a bit I said that I needed to go back where he found the rings and see if any were missed. Sure enough I got another cheap ring and then I found a sterling band. He hadn't gotten it all but he got the best piece. Later I found one other cheap ring to make it 4 ring finds for the night. As I was getting near the end of my 4 hour session the Rolling Stones song 'You Can't Always Get What You Want' popped into my mind. I didn't get what I wanted tonight. As a metal detectorist I don't always get what I want but I do get what I can find. Maybe we could paraphrase the lyrics and make it universal to metal detecting. Mitchel

I detect several days a week no matter the beach conditions. Lately I make it simple and go to a couple of the same beaches and I get what is available for that particular day. Yesterday, Monday morning I got out a bit late (7AM) after a busy weekend for the beach and saw that the tractors had already raked the blanket areas. It is not a pattern I usually follow in dry sand but I know it can be productive. I headed to my small wave, wet sand beach and found next to nothing. I was getting ready to leave when I was approached by a guy with his gf/wife. He said 'Do you want to hear a joke,' in an 'island accent' and I said, ok. He said 'I was swimming yesterday and I lost my Gucci Chain!' I'm looking at this tall, polite black guy and thinking ... this is not a joke. haha He proceeded to tell me that he was here from St. Thomas and he had gone in the water on Sunday afternoon and forgot to take off his chain he had bought at his home island. This is something I wanted to help him find but also know more. He told me that it was just a couple of life guard stations down from where he found me. Ok, 4 life guard stations later we made it to his swimming area. This is one of MY beaches. When conditions are right it is a good detecting beach. As we walked his wife showed me pictures from the day before on her phone. I got to see the round (50g) chain he had been wearing. I told them it could be near where they lost it because the waves had been small, the tide was not big and the current was weak. When I started detecting the area I knew it was going to be a problem because it was the little 'suck out' waves that weren't going to take a heavy chain and push it up a sloped beach. I searched the water/wave line and it was a hard pack with the rocks churning up and down. We needed a snorkel! It was clear and if a chain was there you would be able to clearly see it but we were now 18 hours after the loss. I had been over this beach to get my 4 rings on Saturday morning. There was no new patch in the area. It was time for me to go. They were flying back to NYC in the afternoon and would be back at their island sometime this week. He had lost his prized chain but we agreed he should still enjoy the trip. We exchanged phone numbers. He would have paid me a reward (he offered) but I couldn't find it but I got a good STORY. That beach will never be the same. I will always look for Lebron's chain on that beach. I hope you get a good STORY about a beach where you detect. Mitchel

Packed up the toy hauler and headed out to meet up with some friends and hit a few hydraulic pits in the Sierra Nevadas. MikeB was, as usual, happy to share his knowledge and give some good advice; only had one skunk day during the trip. I had forgotten how rugged and steep the terrain is out there compared to Idaho! After 5 days of lugging the 7000 up and down rocky, slippery, manzanita covered steep ravines, Chet and I decided to work as a team on a hillside where nuggets were found. We dug and detected: he used the 7000, then I used Gold Monster to quickly identify and locate the nuggets...we pulled a quarter ounce out of a 6 x 6’ area that day! Can you believe this guy is over 80 years old? He can work that pick like a man half his age! This great hobby certainly keeps us in shape! One day I was down deep in a narrow ravine when I heard a distant shout....then Chet came on the radio saying he just saw the biggest bear he’s ever seen, up close and personal, and that it was heading down the ravine. Crap! You mean the ravine I’m in that’s only about 5’ wide here at the bottom?!?! Luckily, I then could hear it crashing through the brush running up the hill to my left. Wish I could’ve seen him though. No big lunker nuggets on this trip, but a few chunkies were found: And here’s my total for the 7 or so days detecting....I’m happy with it! On the last day, I sat overlooking The Motherlode country....thanking her for a good time, good friends, and for sharing a bit of her riches with me!😊

Watched this vid then went out to the most scoured and hunted to death place I know...my tiny front lawn. Not saying everything he says or does in this vid is gospel or will work in all dirt everywhere but he has his theories and what he does the way he does them works for him and he manages to find some great things in a few very hunted out parks so I got inspired to try to find just anything in my very difficult SE. mineralized devil dirt. After several years of scouring this tiny patch of land for many hours with 6 different detectors and tons of different coils and digging all decent signals I am down to the the odd, weird, strange, severely masked and incomprehensible ones only. I watched this vid, got inspired, and went out to try to find one decent target using some of his advice...just one. I didn't do exactly everything I saw done in this vid, that turning thing and examining targets from more than one angle always worked well for me here but my dirt is way weirder than his and I tried a few things but the most important point I attempted to do and prove to myself was just slow down...examine targets a bit more closer, don't just blow off jumpy signals or others that don't make sense. Not that I really ever do that but on this hunt I looked at each signal I got with a more critical eye and attitude than usual. Could still be junk hiding down there, could be wasting a bit more time over some iffy targets but none of my hunts are timed events, I just go out and get signals and decide whether to dig....or not. If it takes a little more time to figure out a confused signal, site or situation so be it. The rewards for extra patience might be nothing but maybe, just maybe...they could be great. My Nox had the sniper mounted, I did a factory reset before the hunt to start with a clean plate and didn't modify too many of the factory settings. I hunted in 5 tones, Park 2, usually I use Field 2 but changed it up a bit on this one....I left the horseshoe on through most of this short hunt. Fe was at 6, recovery at 5, switched to Fe2 after awhile and eventually maxed it out along with the recovery but didn't find much else after these four targets showed up. All these targets were found in Multi...single frequency hunting just doesn't seem to work very well around here at all with the Nox. It wasn't all peaches and cream, I still got fooled on a couple of rusty nails and a few small and crazy tiny pieces of iron but not all that much, dug very little trash that wasn't iron so I was happy with that. The 1953 nickel was the absolute first target dug, short, sweet, jumped a bit from 11-13 and a bit iffy unlike most of my usually solid nickel signals but when this thing popped up first thing I was actually shocked and thrilled. The lead hem weight was an older one, #4, nice and heavy and really jumpy initially but solid once I dialed the coil into its location. The dime is modern but hiding in a tiny crack vertical between the grass and the curb. The older Naval button was the prized treasure of this hunt, the only one I have ever found. Faces to the left so pre WW ll as they changed the eagle from looking left in 1941 to looking to its right. Don't believe civil war and could be anywhere from 1850 to 1941...but I am thinking maybe around or a bit later than WW l on this one. Mower hit but sweet find never the less. Kept switching between 4kHz and Multi checking out many targets, other frequencies too, I still don't see a whole lot of advantage to me in my sites using 4kHz or any other single frequency but I still switch to them to check some signals and will continue to do that until I see something positive or just lose patience and give up. Basically, my point of this post is just to urge you to look a bit closer at some of your signals, with a bit of extra attention and coil manipulation signals can change from initially good to bad or, hopefully, from initially bad to good. Also to thank this hunter for taking the time to make this vid and I enjoyed seeing another hunter's thought process, experience and skill on display. If any of us take just one thing, idea or insight from watching the vid that could make a difference for any of us even on just one stellar piece of future treasure it will be 49 minutes well spent.

That is what my friend got for a 1934 biological survey duck band 15 years ago. That is for less then a gram of aluminum. I have found 4 of those old ones on land with my machine plus 2 more modern ones in the water .I even got a goose band from the 90's on a river bank. I called the goose one in and got a paper with the history of the bird of where it was banded and when and where I found it .I called in one of the more modern duck ones I found in the water and they only give you info online now.I even got 4 hunting with a gun and one was banded in Maryland by the big bay and was taken (A very old bluebill) at a pass shooting spot between Lake Ontario and the St.Lawrence river on a grassy hill. I even called the old ones in and they could not find any info. Metal detecting is like a box of chocolate and you never know what you will get.

I am going to write a little bit about my outings with the GMX. It will be fun and maybe I will be able to harvest some advice from more experienced detector/prospectors. I did go to a creek/swimming hole but had very little time with the detector. I have a very young family and it can be hard to concentrate when 1 of my 4 kids is getting hurt or stuck or .... so I gave up on it pretty quickly that day. I was able to get out to the Lynx Creek withdrawal area with a friend. He's new as well and using a Time Ranger Pro. I looked on Google Earth and picked out a wash that ran parallel with the main creek. That way we would be able to detect in and out on our hike. Unfortunately, the borders of the withdrawal area are not marked well on the maps I found available but the private claim the wash was on is marked really well once you get out there. We hiked along the fence for a while looking for area that might be interesting to detect. The only spot I found was a large hole. The material excavated was a different color than the surrounding soil so I dug a few iron targets from the pile. It doesn't seem like anyone has thoroughly gone through all that material with a detector and there are many hot rocks and pieces of iron mixed in with the material. Eventually, we hiked down to the main creek bed. My partner moved quite a bit faster than me and found many tin cans along the way. I tried to be as meticulous as I could whenever we found a wash to detect and found only one large can. I think I will bring him on my future trips and send him in front of me to remove large trash items. We detected up the mostly dry creek bed and dug trash target after trash target. I heard it was trashy here but I had no idea it would be this bad. The area had many hot rocks which would send my detector into overload if touched. I ended up needing to set the detector down to level 3 sensitivity just to get around without overloading constantly. All in all it was a fun outing with some rugged hiking and a near heart attack when a deer jumped up about 5 feet in front of me. I was using the 6inch concentric coil but would like to take the 4x6 double d out here and see if it is able to handle the hot rocks any better. Outing 3 was to the same area but I wanted to try the mineralization tracking feature of the detector. Lynx creek is more known for gold panning so I thought I might have better success that way. I swung it around and everything in the area is really mineralized. I was able to find a couple spots with a bit of an increase on the meter and it was really did seem like there was quite a bit more black sand in the areas the detector was interested in. I panned for a while in these areas but found no gold. After a while I wanted to try detecting up the hillside in front of me. It was pretty steep and, I thought, difficult enough to deter some prospectors. When I got up there it was definitely steep and full of loose rocks. I was only able to detect a small portion of the hillside but I found plenty bullets. Many of the loose rocks were quite hot. At this point I was getting better at listening to the detector and figuring out which sounds are hot rocks but it was still pretty challenging on this hillside I was worried about pushing one of the rocks out of the way and killing one of my kids who might have wandered underneath me. After a short time of this I could tell that my families patience had run out and we probably needed to head home, still gold-less Unfortunately, there is a new issue in this area. The management of the forest forgot to renew the mineral withdrawal and now large areas are now private claims. The area i had originally planned on going the 3rd outing was all claimed up with fresh signs everywhere. I can only assume fences will follow. In the end I don't know if Lynx Creek is a good area to detect. If I come out here again I will bring my TDI and see if that makes the hot rocks anymore bearable. I am digging all the targets anyway so I don't know if the discrimination afforded by the GMX is helping. I will try and head out again soon. Hopefully the temps here in AZ will go down soon and I can get into more of the GPAA claims in the area.

Last night I wanted to go out and see the Comet so I needed to go to a dark sky. I know a couple of very dark sky places where I have hunted nuggets in the past. I had checked the weather and it said it was going to be 106 for a high and still at 100 at sunset but it was a pleasant 88 when I got there. I left the coast at 4 PM and the trip was just awful with traffic. It took 4.5 hours for a 3 hour trip. I got to the viewing area at a good time and couldn't see anything because the sky was still too bright because the sun had just set. Before I could get my boots on a couple of the red ants had already stung me. While I was waiting I started to detect. I was getting some little bbs and some trash so I was in an area that had not been completely worked. Meanwhile the sky is getting dark and then I see a faint glimpse of the Comet. I tried to take some pictures but I don't have those skills so I'll show a sunset picture. I could see the Comet well with the unaided eye but it is not possible to see details. It has quite a long tail against the dark sky. I was detecting with a light and checking back against the sky until it became too difficult for my eyes to adjust from lighted ground to sky. I concentrated on my detecting as the Big Dipper rotated and the Comet got too close to the horizon. At midnight I had no nugget and I wanted to make a short move. As you can see the moon is a sliver and it set so the desert is a very dark place. I think I would be there until sunrise if I didn't use the GPS on 7000. The car gets lost after a 100 plus yards or so. I had two detectors with me but I was determined to use the 15x10 Xcoil and find its first nugget. About an hour at the new location and several hot rocks later I got an almost 'ghost sound' and decided to scrape. The signal got better and it wasn't surface trash but I had dug hot rocks this deep already. When I got down 6-7 inches the target was out. I knew it wasn't big but I could see a little hot rock and I captured it with the magnet. I waved over the spot and the response was still there. Could it really be an end to the skunk? The last time I detected for gold was April 3. I had been out 3 other times this year with no result. I had dug bullet pieces tonight that I was 'wishing' were golden in color but all were dull gray. I separated the scoop material and heard a little thunk and saw a glimmer of gold. It was time to relax. This was a .4g nugget. I've found larger nuggets, smaller nuggets and more nuggets than this night but I had accomplished my goal. I had seen the Comet and gotten a nugget. It was time to get back safely and not fall asleep on the 3 hour drive. I got back at 5 AM before the traffic this time. Mitchel

...to my uncle! I was detecting a local park when I got a solid 55 at 4 inches with the simplex. When I dug it out I saw a big fat ring in the hole! My uncle was visiting our house and when I showed him the ring he immediately took it and said is this tungsten? Yes, I replied confused. He said I lost this 2 years ago on my last visit to your house! I was in the park and when I got home it wasn’t on my finger! I was stunned and I happily offered it to him. He thanked me a million times and almost cried. It feels really good to make someone’s day especially your uncle! Thanks for looking!

For the holiday weekend last week I was determined to get a little more time on my new Nox 800 despite the heat and humidity. Most of my old permissions have changed hands now, so I headed to a bed and breakfast owned by my sister just to try to learn the new machine more. I'd been there a few years ago without much success, but recently studied a map from 1872 and saw there had been a fairly large house across the street where they have one of their cottages now. The door to the 1872 house appeared to be approximately where there is now a rock and gravel driveway. Knowing I wouldn't last long in the heat even though it was the morning, I left the driveway for another day and moved to the grass under some trees near the ditch, hoping for some old coins. Within a few seconds I got a solid (but elongated in one direction in pinpoint mode) repeatable tone in the lower to mid 20s. In the bottom of the plug there was a partial old red brick, and the edges of two more bricks in the side of the hole. I took this as good potential in terms of time period. Anyway, I removed the brick from the bottom of the plug and found a square nail with the pinpointer. Knowing that wasn't what I heard, I probed deeper in the plug and pulled out an intact skeleton key! Didn't detect anymore because my brother-in-law came out and we visited for quite a while, and it was getting hotter by the minute. The next morning I went back for some more. About 4' from where I found the skeleton key I got a solid 24 signal that seemed to be shaped more like a coin. This one had broken glass in the hole and plug. I have to admit I was a bit disappointed when I pulled out what looked like jewelry with lots of rhinestones instead of a coin! A little while later my sister came by and I showed her the piece of jewelry. She took it inside and cleaned it, and brought it out on the porch while we tried to figure out what it was. We finally decided it may be an old hat pin? Anyway, my sister said that the rhinestones were a really good quality. I took my pocket knife out and tried to scratch one, but it was too hard. Hmm. For the fun of it I got a piece of the broken glass I'd dug out of the hole and cleaned a small area on it. Would the "rhinestones" scratch the glass? They did! I felt kind of sick for a while! I know there are other things that can scratch glass besides diamonds, but just the thought that these might be real diamonds was pretty exciting. But it looks like the metal was silver plated and not solid silver, so I'm thinking that real diamonds wouldn't have been set into cheaper material. I plan on taking it to a jeweler to find out what the rocks really are, but that probably won't be very soon due to the current pandemic situation in my state. Thanks for looking, and happy hunting! Wow, just realized this was the length of a short novel--sorry!

I received a text message from a friend yesterday telling me that one of our neighbors up the street lost his wedding band while playing on one of those large inflatable water slides. He asked me if I could help. Of course I said yes and my friend picked me up in his golf cart and we headed to the man’s house. Our neighbor was standing by the water slide staring pensively at the ground--his face and body language told me the whole story. 😰 He pointed out where he was standing when he shook the water from his hands and felt his ring fly off. He and his young son had searched the area for over an hour...even using a magnet in desperation--not very effective on a gold ring. 🥴 Fortunately, the suspected area was only about a 10 foot square. I cranked up the EQX in Park 1, noise canceled, lowered the sensitivity since this would be a surface find and started to grid the area. I hadn’t gone 3 feet when I got a nice solid mid tone. I pulled out my Pro Find 35 and told him to look exactly where it was pointing. He parted the grass, which was about 3-4 inches high and there was his ring. The look on his face was one of total relief and incredulity. He couldn’t believe I found it that quickly (neither could I). I’d spent all of 1 minute at the most swinging the EQX before it sounded off. To say he was mightily impressed would be an great understatement. He then asked me all about my equipment and detecting since he knew zero about any of it. His wife came running out of the house and thanked me profusely saying her husband was no longer in the dog house! Quick find; quick return and all is well. 🙂

I found this in April of May of this year. I cleaned it, my brother put it on the grinder, and showed it to my dad. It looked shiny then, but since it darked and starting to chip. My dad looked at it and said it was probably my grandfather who had lost it in the 1980s doing yard work. He used to wear old jeans and maybe fell out of his pocket. My dad told me used to clean his pipe with this knife. My grandfather had passed in September of 2018, so I never got to show or ask him. It is a Trim pocket knife by Bassett. It was made a producer of beauty products I believe and my grandfather ran his own barber shop. I believe he got it through that business. It will never be like new, but it holds sentimental value. I only wish I could have showed him.

Last weekend concluded Monte's 12th Welcome To Hunt Outing (WTHO), a gathering of new and old detectorists looking to get together and spend some time out testing their detecting skills against some Western Ghost Towns. This gathering centered around Wells, NV. I was really looking forward to getting away after being cooped up at the house for the last couple months and working from home due to the pandemic. The outing came at the right time. We ended up having 18 detectorists from the Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Colorado and Texas. More were scheduled, but some had to cancel due to the impact from the Virus going around I hope they can make it next go round. I arrived Saturday, May 30th, to help Monte and OregonGregg scout out places most everybody would likely want to hunt. Metropolis, Tobar, Shafter, Tecoma, Cobre and Toano are the most popular.I hunted with my Deus, EQ800 and Nokta FORS CoRe. All three made some good finds. For me, there were lots of bits and bobs found. I'm amazed at the number of little ornate buckles that turn up. And the bullets, the never ending run of bullets and empty cartridge cases. And it is always interesting to watch other detectorists at work and observe detectors, coil choices, search rods, gear, hats, finds pouches, swing rates and methods and all the rest of it. Two of my detecting goals this year are to turn up a Seated Quarter and a Half-Dime. Neither surfaced for me at the outing.. An 1876 Seated Quarter did make an appearance for DanO. A big congrats. I was fortunate to turn up some early date Wheat Cents, the most notable a 1910-S, an 1880 IHC and a very nice 1864 2¢. An unexpected but appreciated surprise. It is my second deuce. Tokens and coins seemed to be coming from under every piece of sage for a while there on Thursday, the 4th. We kept hearing reports of something else turning up. OregonGregg and I were commenting that the detecting door to Toano and Cobre was open there for a short time. Lots of smiles going around. Then it seemed to close. Friday, I was flat out skunked; hard. After I finished in the Toano / Cobre area I even went back out to Metropolis and hunted till dusk trying to find something, even another corroded wheat cent. No go. I guess the universe needed to balance itself after Thursday. In summary, I have a couple old coins to add to my finds. And a very cool WTHO shirt that abenson printed up at his business. First Class, thank you Andrew. And I met some new people, and got to catch up with old friends and acquaintances with some good meals and time chatting around the table. And whenever you get detectorists together there are always discussions over brands and models and coils and such. It is fun to listen to the detector banter. I have some very old detectors, a couple discontinued detectors and a couple new detectors. I have to admit that I am impressed that OregonGregg hunted the entire time he was there with 1 detector and 1 coil; his Nokta FORS CoRe and the small OOR coil. Cudos to Gregg. Gregg pulled off a dime trifecta with an 1845 seated, 1916 Barber and 1917 Mercury, as well as a toasty Shield nickel, an IHC and some wheaties. Oh, and he might have found a Nevada trade token. LOL. And I owe him a steak dinner for losing our bet for oldest coin with a date. His 1845 Seated Dime beat out my 1864 2¢. This is a good thing. Now I have a good excuse for another road trip. And another opportunity to find that Seated Quarter and elusive Half-Dime. And finally, a big thanks to Monte for bringing everyone together. There were several Seated coins, IHC's, Shield Nickels, trade tokens, and some stellar military buttons found. Most everybody posts their results on Monte's forum (AHRPS.ORG) for those interested in having a look-see. I hope Steve doesn't mind the off site reference. I beg your pardon if I'm out of line Steve. These WTHO's move around some and are a great venue for bringing a friend to introduce to the hobby, have a first experience at a Western Ghost Town where you can gather some pointers and see how others do or to test your skills with your detector against some very difficult sites. And if you're interested, you might even be able to chat up Monte a bit. Hope to see all of you out there exploring the Western Frontiers. UtahRich -

This will be the only option to post an update, as I can't show anything but the sea bottom for today😒... It happen too many times to prepare yourself, to check at least three times by day the wind radar, to follow the moon progress, to timing the tide for hunt in the right area.... When all the factors are aligned and you also find the expected conditions in the place you was avidly following... This can happen.... Nothing...Absolutely nothing......💀 A coin, a fishing weight and silence...so much silence to destroy the patience.... Now, being a so called "pro" (this only mean for me "no gold no bread") this really usual condition creates sorrow.... To be in the only good place to hunt around and find nothing else than a miserable coin can hurt to the soul.. In a way or another after years, all we are used to fill the calendar with more winning days than defeat days... Funny thing is my curse of camera on my shoulders, as everytime I have with me the way to film the session, absolutely nothing relevant appears!💩 Black cross for today....💀 Cheers all of You!

I got up early this morning and tried to sneak out to a local beach but I was stopped. My 2.4 year old son came out and I just couldn't leave. Most mornings lately we've just headed to the park to feed the squirrels. He has gotten good at feeding them by hand either a walnut or a peanut. Today the tides were right and we were 'marine layered in' with a light mist so it was time to drive to Huntington Beach. That is about a 40 minute drive in light traffic so off we went. This was my second trip with him to this beach since the lockdown was over. The first time I found just a few coins but less than $1 in change. This time we went past the little playground and on to the beach. I let my son determine the direction. He headed north. It was a great day for him because it was a large, flat beach at low tide and he could run. That he did and I was swinging behind him. We went up into the dry sand and those were my first targets, just a couple of pieces of foil. After 45 minutes I had nothing! We went out on the wet sand and did a little bit of learning of the alphabet. I got a few letters in and we sang 'ABC' before he was off to the south. We were going to go in that direction when he saw a little kid in the distance and off he went back toward 'ABC'. I lagged behind and saw the other little guy was with his parents but about that moment I heard a little signal near the 'ABC' and I dug it. It was my first wet sand signal. Meanwhile my son had found a play buddy. It turned out this little guy was younger but his dad was an older guy like me out with his first and only son. 😀 They both had a good time for 20 minutes or so before the parents had to go. This picture looks back towards the south and the Huntington Beach Pier and back to 'ABC' where I found the target. As I got back near the location I found it I put it down on the sand and took these two pictures. It is just a little cross/crucifix that is 3g and .417/10k. I didn't find any other wet sand targets. Sometimes you have to forget all the knowledge and all the clues and just let someone else lead. It doesn't have to get any better than this. Mitchel

Finished up my road trip today on a good note. Started the trip up in the Texas panhandle where I did quite well at an old park. Dug lots of silver, wheats, couple of rings and a couple of tokens. I've been doing a little relic hunting in southern New Mexico the last couple of days at a 1850s fort site. Manage to put the coil over three good buttons, some percussion caps, fired mini balls and some buck n ball lead. My detectors of choice were the Minelab CTX 3030 and the Minelab Equinox 800. I used the CTX primarily for coin shooting and the Equinox for relic hunting. Second picture is from hunting in Texas. I'll be headed back first thing in the morning to Central Texas to unwind and get ready for another work week, thanks for looking.

So the other day my neighbor told me she lost part of her rosary when she was walking her dog. It was a multitude of events where her phone rang, kids ran out and the dog kind of pulled off enough that when she took her hand out of her pocket fast, it broke and flew across the grass near the sidewalk. She was able to find most of it but could not find the a piece that had a little cross on it with part of the chain and beads. This rosary really meant a lot to her. My neighbors know that I metal detect for gold but they did not ask me at first and tried themselves to find it, even going to point of borrowing a metal detector from their relatives. When they came back empty handed and I saw them in the driveway they told me the story. I said you should have just asked me, I would love to help! Plus for me I thought that this would be like leveling up in metal detecting skill set. I only hunt for jewelry when I go to FL to visit my folks, so I only get in maybe a few weeks of that. Plus I rarely detect in the parks, I just don't like all the people. So I wanted to know if I could really do this. So I asked her to show me some of the other parts of her rosary so I could get hear what the signal sounded like, what kind of ID number would show up, and how much sensitivity to use since it should be a surface find (it was only lost for a couple of days). Well I knew this was going to be a challenge cause the little cross came up around 15 and the chain was ferrous, I think it was a -4 all on the Equinox. I was not sure if the cross and the chain were still connected. Well when I got to the area she lost it, there was so much trash and EMI plus I could not discriminate because I was not sure if they were still connected or not, but i persevered. Knowing that I would not have to dig, helped eliminate a lot of targets too. Anyways it only took me about 20 mins and I found it! The cross was still connected to the chain, and when the signal came up it was a double blip of those exact numbers! I looked down and there it was. She was so excited and thankful and I was just as excited for her and knowing that I could do it! It was an absolute great feeling to help her out, I felt on top of the world at that moment. I would even say I felt a bigger high finding that for her vs when I find a nugget! Anyways here the pic.

Well, I made it out to the tailings piles yesterday for a couple of hours. I didn't find any gold, but I am convinced there is some out there. There is a LOT of trash, and it was extremely challenging for a beginning detectorist. I found a ball peen hammer head, and some iron hanger/bracket thingy. I also found my first bona fide "hot rock". I really thought I had a nugget, as the Nox was singing with a solid 1 on the VDI. However, the little pointy rock below was the culprit. I also found the larger rock just laying on the surface. It doesn't register any kind of signal, but it is really, REALLY heavy, and looks like it has, to my untrained eye, a lot of iron in it. Any ideas? I'm starting to understand the coin and relic aspect of detecting, but I am completely clueless on the gold front. Should I dig all the signals that don't obviously show as ferrous when in all metal mode? Think I'm gonna need to take some lessons! Gerry, I think I'll be calling you when I finally get back to Idaho.

So... I'm out at the park this morning, detecting around one of the older trees. Using the Vanquish 440, 'cause I'm being casual, and I like the "turn on and go" aspect of it, when I get a strong, but bouncy signal in the 28 - 34 range. So I pinpoint and start digging, and very close to the surface, I find a big rectangular piece of foil inside of an athletic sock. First I think, Oooooo! Someone stashed some cash! I start peeling the foil and discover it is a cell phone. I think to myself, well this isn't something someone lost, this was purposefully put here. Then I think, why would someone do this?! To hide SOMETHING! I think the foil was an attempt to block any cell signal. So I stopped peeling the foil, and put it in a plastic baggie. I'll take it to the police tomorrow. I wish it had been cash...

I got out for a couple hrs yesterday with forum member Beatup's brother. It's summer in Sunny Yuma, approaching 100 degrees around 9:00am so we started right at sunup. We were 30 minutes into a desert wash that had produced good gold for him this past winter. We split up at the first junction of washes I went left, he went right. I had taken about 10 steps and froze mid-stride as an 18" DiamondBack rattler slithered through my legs from behind me. He paid me no mind, and gathered himself up under a jumble of rocks 10 ft away. He never rattled, hissed or made any aggressive motion, early morning temps around 70 degrees. All I can figure is he was under a small boulder and as I passed he decided we were heading in the same direction, the gravel wash being his own territory. The fact that he was decidedly moving on his way and didn't stop and rattle probably saved me a pair of underwear. As dear old Fred Mason would say, "don't kill them, you're the trespasser" and I rarely do. I have snake chaps, but generally have excuses not to wear them, oh well. The good news, I found a 1.5 gram piece and brother of Beatup found a whopping 5 grammer. As old Sgt Esterhaus on Hill Street Blues used to say "remember, let's be careful out there".

I think at some point I've already inquired about this question but it never hurts to ask again. May years ago, on the original Tesoro forum, the one linked on the Tesoro site there was two guy that traveled around and hunted old home sites. These two guy would travel to the upper eastern states and some of there finds were just amazing. Its always funny they would post their stories on a Tesoro site while they used the Minelab Explorer on all their trips. I hate to say I've looked through many archive sites and have yet to find even one of the stories. These two guys could write some of the most captivating detecting stories I've ever read. Just wondering if any of the ole timers here might remember these two guys and their hunting adventures.

I was sitting out the "Rona" virus and hunkered down near Quartzsite in my toy hauler trailer earlier in the month. I wasn't really hitting the detecting very hard, mostly exploring an area unfamiliar to me. I found a couple small bits, ran into a "tiger" rattlesnake (very unique coloration) and a Gila Monster during my travels. I've hunted the desert southwest most of my life and only seen 3 Gila Monsters, ever. Nasty acting creature, hissing and making half hearted charges. Black mouth and flicking tongue are pretty convincing to keep your social distance. Then disaster with the Rokon and a reminder of the laws of gravity and old age. The culprit, a steep rutted road with a big rock on a banked turn. I considered changing to a lower gear for engine braking, but nah, I can do this in high gear. About halfway down I was reminded of that physics thing, something about "objects in motion will remain in motion unless acted upon by an opposing motion". The steep downhill put me in motion, unable to make the banked turn, the rock, it turns out is an opposing motion. I landed hard on my left side, my left leg under the 250 lb Rokon with a perfect sized rut to bang center of my thigh. Man that hurt, I'm going on 3 weeks now still hobbling around on a sore leg. As most of you know from my other Misadventures, this isn't my first crash so the die was cast. My girlfriend had been interested in getting a RZR so she could accompany me on my explorations and we had looked a couple used ones. When she saw my injuries this time, that clinched it. Even my 27 yr old son was making that clucking sound and head shaking. 'You're going to really get hurt one of these days, Dad'! So, we got serious and searched Craiglist in both AZ and S.CA. We found a nice, lightly used RZR 900 2 seater, with all the stuff, doors, roof rack, bead lock wheels and tires etc. More than I wanted to spend, but considering I might get a few more good years out of this 65 yr old body, probably well worth it. So, if any of you young bucks are interested in my Rokon, it's for sale. I'll post it over on the For Sale section for a full description.

In South Australia we are really limited to public accessible fossicking areas. We have two areas open to the public at Echunga: Chapel Hill & Jupiter Creek Diggings, and another area which is the old Gumeracha Goldfields. The area available to the public is now a pine plantation, so access is via a permit available from ForestrySA. So when 90% of the old diggings has had pines planted on top of it, unfortunately a lot of the old gold workings such as shallow diggings, test pits, shafts, wash piles etc are simply no longer visible, so it does present a challenge of knowing where to look, but there are also some positives: 1. Old pines give you nice shade during summer, and 2. When they harvest, the ground gets churned up from all the machinery. With all this extra time I've had on my hands, I've had time to sort through a lot of footage and found many videos from my visits to the forest, with hopefully some valuable info to others. Part 2 will be up later today.

According to the Mayo Clinic you should shoot for 30 minutes of moderate detecting everyday to loose weight and maintain fitness. Sounds simple enough right? So I decided to get some detecting exercise a couple of days ago. My first spot was a new farm field that was plowed up about a year ago. I instantly got into a lot of coal, and thought this is not going to be fun. After about an hour I hit on a beat up mason jar lid. next came a 32 cal. cartridge case. Another hour and more coal I found a nice mangled spoon. Ten more feet and I got 1/2 of a spoon or fork. I was thinking my god there has to be something good in this field. That's when I found a harness buckle with leather just laying on the surface ( OK maybe I'm in a better place in the field) NOPE, Two minutes later I found a what I thought was an early 80"s binaca breath spray container which brought back fond memories of my youth. (drive in movies, awkward moments with the opposite sex, ect.) But it turns out it was Bovine mastitis spray made by Schering Co. As a rule of thumb PLEASE do not use mastitis spray as breath a freshener!!!!!! Next trip out was a place close to home. I decide to swap coils and hunt with the 9 inch to focus on gold jewlery. After digging 2 dozen pull tabs, and I knew they were. I decided I was smart enough to discern the signals, so I stopped the insanity. During my 4 hour hunt I found $1.97 in clad ranging from the 1970's to the 2000's. My first good target was a brass buckle (not gold) Next was a Ford car key (not gold) Next was a very creepy face/head thing that kinda frightened me. (not gold) And last but not least was a small motorcycle in pretty good shape, For being a plastic /metal import. Looks like it's in fair running condition And I would be willing to trade it for a CTX-3030. Any interested parties please do not PM me. (I forgot, it wasn't gold). Tomorrow I'm just going to Have a beer and a bourbon and give my wife a smooch!!! (And I will not be using the mastitis spray.) Maybe next time I'll find the GOLD!!! Seriously, I hope all members and family of this forum are doing well and Staying safe.