bruinvikes
Elite Member
The season started out very slow and ended with me on a "golden" high. I used to find myself getting discouraged but after having a talk with a fellow forum member I learned just to take things in stride and just be happy to have the chance to swing at all. That probably would be the biggest piece of advice that I'd give to a newbie from now on. "Just be patient, learn what your machine is telling you and DON'T give up, the good stuff will come".
In October of 2015 we moved from the city and we went out into the country. There are farm fields all over the area where we live. I've hunted a few farm fields with not much luck. There is a very small park down the road (just over a mile away) from our house that used to be an elementary school. The school was built in 1942 and torn down in 2011. This is the location that I go to almost every time I want to hunt. I've only been able to locate five silver coins at this site, but I'm happy with that and I'm sure there is more there that I haven't gotten my coil over yet. I started out hunting next to the pavilion area and I was literally finding hundreds of pennies and pull tabs. I also found two mercury dimes and two silver rings in this area. I moved over to the other side of the picnic area and it was less trashy. In fact, I found my first ever large cent. It is a Canadian, but it's still a large cent. I was able to locate an Australian dollar coin also. After realizing that my clad total wasn't rising very fast I moved over to the open field area where they have a couple of kiddy soccer fields set up. Here I immediately found a couple of half dollars (one clad and one 40%er) and a couple of silver GWs. I also found my first thimble ever (three total, none are silver) at this site. Two more silver rings were added to my collection as well, making it a total of four from the entire property.
According to the map sites that I have seen online there wasn't any houses in this area, but I seem to be finding things that tell me differently. I found what I believe to be the lids, or covers to two pocket watches. I also dug up what I think is the frame to a compass, or maybe a stopwatch. It is hinged on both sides of the frame. In this small area I've been pulling a bunch of square headed nails. I also found the frame of a pistol. It is missing the hammer, the cylinder and the pistol grips. If you notice in the pic the trigger guard is bent up preventing the trigger from functioning. My guess is that whoever this gun belonged to salvaged what parts he could and moved on. After doing research on the pistol I learned that it is an early 1900s German starter pistol. Within a 25' radius of finding the pistol I was able to locate a gunpowder flask. I didn't know what it was until posting it on the forum and someone informed me what it was. It isn't in good shape at all (almost split apart from the seam) but the ornate design on it is very cool.
Shortly after finding the flask and gun (within two weeks) is when my year started shining even brighter, thanks to the settings advice from DIGGER27. Thanks DIGGER! I found lots of wheat pennies at this site, but shortly after getting the settings help I was able to dig up a 1909 wheat penny from a nine inch depth. In the goalie box section of one of the soccer fields I find a 1.8g 10K double wishbone ring.. My first gold in 4.5 years! Less than a week later on one of the sidelines of one of the soccer fields I find my first ever class ring! 10.3g of 10K yellow gold! About a week later I was swinging on the soccer field and I was able to locate a 1.4g 14K Star of David charm.
My favorite find of the year happened earlier in the year from a public park. I went on a hunt with Ice Scratcher and was able to locate a 1864 Civil War token. This token was under a pine tree and it was only two inches deep.
I hope 2017 is a great year for all of you pirates!
I will try to post all of the pics, but if I can't figure it out I will add them in the comments.
In October of 2015 we moved from the city and we went out into the country. There are farm fields all over the area where we live. I've hunted a few farm fields with not much luck. There is a very small park down the road (just over a mile away) from our house that used to be an elementary school. The school was built in 1942 and torn down in 2011. This is the location that I go to almost every time I want to hunt. I've only been able to locate five silver coins at this site, but I'm happy with that and I'm sure there is more there that I haven't gotten my coil over yet. I started out hunting next to the pavilion area and I was literally finding hundreds of pennies and pull tabs. I also found two mercury dimes and two silver rings in this area. I moved over to the other side of the picnic area and it was less trashy. In fact, I found my first ever large cent. It is a Canadian, but it's still a large cent. I was able to locate an Australian dollar coin also. After realizing that my clad total wasn't rising very fast I moved over to the open field area where they have a couple of kiddy soccer fields set up. Here I immediately found a couple of half dollars (one clad and one 40%er) and a couple of silver GWs. I also found my first thimble ever (three total, none are silver) at this site. Two more silver rings were added to my collection as well, making it a total of four from the entire property.
According to the map sites that I have seen online there wasn't any houses in this area, but I seem to be finding things that tell me differently. I found what I believe to be the lids, or covers to two pocket watches. I also dug up what I think is the frame to a compass, or maybe a stopwatch. It is hinged on both sides of the frame. In this small area I've been pulling a bunch of square headed nails. I also found the frame of a pistol. It is missing the hammer, the cylinder and the pistol grips. If you notice in the pic the trigger guard is bent up preventing the trigger from functioning. My guess is that whoever this gun belonged to salvaged what parts he could and moved on. After doing research on the pistol I learned that it is an early 1900s German starter pistol. Within a 25' radius of finding the pistol I was able to locate a gunpowder flask. I didn't know what it was until posting it on the forum and someone informed me what it was. It isn't in good shape at all (almost split apart from the seam) but the ornate design on it is very cool.
Shortly after finding the flask and gun (within two weeks) is when my year started shining even brighter, thanks to the settings advice from DIGGER27. Thanks DIGGER! I found lots of wheat pennies at this site, but shortly after getting the settings help I was able to dig up a 1909 wheat penny from a nine inch depth. In the goalie box section of one of the soccer fields I find a 1.8g 10K double wishbone ring.. My first gold in 4.5 years! Less than a week later on one of the sidelines of one of the soccer fields I find my first ever class ring! 10.3g of 10K yellow gold! About a week later I was swinging on the soccer field and I was able to locate a 1.4g 14K Star of David charm.
My favorite find of the year happened earlier in the year from a public park. I went on a hunt with Ice Scratcher and was able to locate a 1864 Civil War token. This token was under a pine tree and it was only two inches deep.
I hope 2017 is a great year for all of you pirates!
I will try to post all of the pics, but if I can't figure it out I will add them in the comments.
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