Metal detecting what a great hobby. Years ago early 70's I was in a barber shop waiting to get a hair cut and they had some treasure magazines on the table. As I was looking Through the pages it showed all these guys with their metal detectors showing off all the gold bullion, coins, and other artifacts they had found. Well that's all it took I was hooked. After my hair cut I ran over to the local book store and bought every magazine on treasure hunting and metal detectors I could find.
After I got home I read front to back all the magazines twice. My wife came over to see what I was doing, she gave me one of those looks and walked away, what does she know. Ok Now what type of metal detector to buy? As I look through these metal detecting magazines there was allot to choose from. So many different styles of metal detectors, some cheap some go take out a second mortgage.
Anyway I go the cheap metal detector route. After all how hard could this be, wait for a beep and dig up some treasure. Off I go to my local Wal-Mart with dollar signs in my eyes and dreams of being in one of those magazines. Ok got my new metal detector for only forty bucks and head back home. Take it out of the box start to read the instructions here comes the wife again, she takes a look shakes her head and walks away, go put on some make-up you scare me.
After reading the instructions and setting up my metal detector with the one knob it had I was ready to find some treasure. We lived in a fairly older home so I thought there might be some good stuff buried in the lawn. After about four hours of swinging this thing and hearing every type of beep imaginable I though my house was build on a landfill. My metal detector finds included cans, nails, aluminum foil, and rusted out iron. How could this be not one red cent.
Now my neighbor see's me and comes over to see what I was doing since my yard looks like it had been bombed with all the holes in it. I show him my metal detector (which he didn't even know they existed) and asks what I was doing. I explain the best I could about metal detecting and he seemed impressed. So he reads the instructions and off we go For another hour. Same results, junk. Ok fine I show my neighbor the magazines I had bought and takes them home. Look at my poor yard, clean up all my metal detector findings go in and have a beer and try to figure out what went wrong.
A few hours later my neighbor comes back over all glassy eyed and pumped up and blabbering about metal detectors. Boy is he hooked. He starts to tell me he just read all the magazines and the metal detector I just bought was junk. That made me feel real good. Anyway he says lets go into a partnership and buy a better metal detector. Will split everything we find.
We decide on a Whites metal detector, spent about two hundred fifty dollars for the unit. All right this has allot more bells and whistles than my one knober. The instructions are more detailed and tells you what to listen for and how deep the object may be and how to dig without destroying the yard, cool. We start in his yard since my wife was still not amused what I did to ours.
Ok here we go. About ten minutes into the search we get a signal, dig it up and low and behold it's a quarter. Wow you thought we had just won the lottery. All right this was good our metal detector was doing what it was supposed to do, find treasure. Three hours later we had found about sixty-five cents, and one 1943 wheat penny. Well that's all it took the wheat penny was like gold, apart of history, who lost it, how long has it been buried etc.
Now my neighbor remembers one of his friends used to be a paperboy back in the day. We go to his house and explain our new found hobby, metal detecting. He thinks we're nuts but agrees to let us hunt. You ready? Five minutes and a good signal we dig up a standing liberty half. Well his buddy thought we had gone crazy the way we whooping it up. We continued to hunt until it got dark, our metal detecting finds for that day included: the standing liberty half, three mercury head dimes, five Roosevelt dimes, four washing quarters, and eleven wheat pennies. Not bad for beginners. Most of the finds were about three inches deep.
We continue using this same metal detector for months to come. Visiting relatives we haven't see in years not just to see them, but because they lived in some older houses and wanted to hunt in their yards. We did pretty well with our metal detector finds; in fact one of the relatives had lost a wedding ring years ago and guided us to the approximate location she thought she had lost it.
About a half hour later, yup you guessed it we found the ring. I don't think neither one of us had seen so many tears of joy, made us feel good and and got a great steak dinner for our endeavor. Metal Detecting had gotten into our blood and we were on a great high.
Buy now we both continued to read books and magazines about metal detecting. We shared ideas and thoughts about new places to hunt. At one point we both agreed we needed to purchase our own individual metal detectors. We had shared this one for a long time with good results. Finally we agreed to sell the one we had split the profit and and get new ones. After some research we both decided on a Whites Metal Detector hip mount (Keeps the arms from tiring) I can't remember the model maybe 6000 Di, but we both spent a little over six hundred dollars for our units. During our research we found that using headphones we could hear those faint signals of deeply buried treasure. Also we were now equipped with a big old Bowie knifes to cut our plugs, instead of a gardening tool. Made my wife happy since we had broken everyone she had. Oh we now had pouches to put our finds in, keeps the dirt out of the pants pockets.
These metal detectors had all the bells and whistles, great depth ID and the best target ID, 8" search coil, and could easily pick desirable targets out of trashy areas and handle harsh ground conditions much better. The learning curve on these metal detectors was tough, but with trial and error we figured them out pretty quick. Now since we had some top of the line metal detectors we decided we would go back and revisit the places we had already hunted. Well low and behold it was like someone had replenished the ground with coins. I could not be live we had missed that many finds with our old metal detector. I guess new technology is it is. From spring to late fall we hunted every minute we had available, I must say we hunted in every conceivably place we could find. Sometimes we would drive hours to a site, this was after a little research to make sure we had a chance of finding something.
Living on the east coast old man winter shows up and put a slow down on our metal detecting. Hey look spring is here grab our detectors and let's go. Wait a minute the neighbor has an idea, let's try under water metal detecting. What are you crazy I said? He says no, he did some reading about it over the winter and with what we know now it would be easy to do. Ok talked me into it. Now for some reason we go to a Garret underwater metal detectors. We go all out on this one, wet suit's, boots, weight belt, and scoop for picking up the loot we may find you thought we were going scuba diving. Anyway it was basically the same concept and hunting on land only allot slower. Digging under water and not being able to see were your digging is tough. In the water we placed long poles to set up a sort of grid so we knew were we had hunted. The first few times out it was slow going, our finds consisted of some newer coins, pull tabs, cans, and lead sinkers.
We went and did some research on an old pond and found it had been a popular swimming hole years ago. Got permission for the owner (very important) and away we went. It was a brisk fall morning and I had better ideas than jumping in the water and swing my metal detector. This was a small pond and Ii figured it wouldn't take long. About a half hour into the hunt I get a good signal, scoop it up a silver quarter, cool. My neighbor hollers over look he brings up an old class ring. This looks promising. I now don't feel to bad being out in the cold. Another signal scoop it up and as the bottom silt washes away I see a glint of gold and diamond. Holy cow it's a wedding ring, and with a big diamond. Well I start hollering to my neighbor to come and see what I had found. Now were excited. We stayed there for about four hours, the days metal detecting finds: My diamond ring, several sliver coins, a gold necklace, and some sinkers. My neighbor: the three class rings, a gold metal, a silver metal, and some silver coins. This was our best day in our metal detecting hobby.
Winter is back now and my endeavors have changed along with a new job. When spring rolls around I find I just don't have the time to metal detect anymore, plus we are moving. My neighbor feels bad for me but brings up what a great time we had over two years of metal detecting together. We move and I just don't have the time anymore to pursue my hobby. For my neighbor he continues, joins a metal detector club and in a very short time becomes president of this club. I see him every now and then and he still hunts. He showed me one of his greatest finds, a small pouch with five gold Indian head coins in it he found in an old picnic area. I sold everything of value I had found over the years, including my metal detector.
I had amassed a small hoard of treasure over the years; I sold to the tune of twelve hundred dollars for my metal detecting finds. My wife, well she was very happy when I showed her that diamond ring, she still has it till this day. She went and had it appraised for fifteen hundred dollars. The good news I retire soon, guess what my hobby will be, Metal Detecting.
