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How the Old Guy Got Started in Metal Detecting

C

Cupajo

Active member
In the early '80s I decided to try my hand at treasure hunting with a metal detector. I bought a Whites 6000DI discriminating land machine and used it to find lots of junk and coins in old yards and at the beach near my Connecticut home. I found one nice gold ring with it before I became a convert to water hunting.
One day while working the local beach I noticed an older guy detecting the shallows. He seemed to be doing a lot of digging and didn't appear to want to be disturbed. I watched him as he searched and it became apparent to me that if I wanted to find jewelry and other valuables that I would have to get in the water. I built a plexiglass box for my Whites and found it was too sensitive to minerals in the water to be of much use in salt water. If I adjusted it to ignore the salt it couldn't find anything. In fresh water it would no doubt do much better, but my home is minutes from a popular beach. I needed a salt water machine.

A quick trip to my friend the local metal detector dealer resulted in a Garrett XL500PI purchase. I was now armed and ready to get the gold. In three years of digging I found about 12 Lbs. of silver and hundreds of gold rings. I've returned 28 rings to their owners and two of the finds were written up in The Hartford Courant, Connecticuts oldest newspaper. I'll continue another time if there is any interest. there are a few good tales for later. I just thought I would lay the ground work first.

Copajo

(Nobody gets it all, but I'm working on it!!!)
 
I hunt both the water and dirt, but mostly water. Easier on the body and more enjoyable. I'm up here in North Windham, CT. Grew up in Groton, New London, Waterford. Looks like your water hunting is doing pretty well for you.... George-CT
 
Not a wonder you guys hunt those beaches ! Nothin' like those quantities around these parts. Success seems to follow those who let good conscience be their guide. Good on you and welcome aboard ! :clapping:
 
n/t
 
Welcome , I also am from that era of detector and opening of the salt water beaches to a great machine , the ol pulse XL 500's .... I may not have found as many rich targets but have meet and travelled with may great people in this hobby ..Jack and Eleanor Hube to drop a name or two ...LOL
Again Welcome and enjoy the the posts, very good bunch here..
Bill G.
 
WOW!!!,

What a welcome!!!!!

Thanks all!!!!!!!

More later.

Cupajo

(Nobody gets 'em all, but I'm workin on it!!!)
 
Everybody Loves a Surf Pirate Story! What could be Better?? I'm a surf pirate myself and I'm always ready to listen to a good yarn, especially about surf hunting. I've only been surf hunting a few years and I've done well even though I missed the glory days when the surf was ripe with loot for those who dared to wade in.

Welcome to a Great Group of Friends,

BDA:cool:
 
Remember children, this was 23 years ago when I was much more able than now. I only searched for three years, then I put my machines away and only used them to locate lost items of jewelry for people that called me. During those 3 years the only problems with the XL500s were the battery packs were starting to fail after 2+ years of frequent use and I was regularly repairing the loop connectors as they suffered lots of abuse chest mounted. A few weeks ago I decided to tune up the old machines and git to diggin again. I need the exercise. My first hour out there almost killed me!!! I rebuilt the battery packs and repaired one connector wire and I was ready to get to it. On one of those days after digging for an hour or two a fellow I had known 23 or so years or so ago hit the water not far from me and later we reaquainted ourselves. We both seem a bit older now. Any way he claims I got him started detecting in the water and as a result he found his first gold then and the rest is history. He was with a hunting partner that used an Infinium LS. That guy had no mercy and not being a slow child I realized that what I was watching was no miracle, but one fine machine and a guy that knew how to use it!! This convinced me to order an LS for my self. I know the value of a good machine and I've always considered Garrett the best. I'm impatiently waiting for delivery.

I'll fill in the gap '80's etc. later. Gotta go for now.

Thanks for your interest.

Cupajo

(No one gets 'em all, but I'm workin on it!!!)
 
I am also in to working on getting an Infinium LS , my hunting buddy has one , but is not so taken with it and has offered it to me at cost ... We are just getting back to hunting together again ,(long story) . He has a bit of a different interest now as to what he like to hunt for these days , ..I am just grateful to be able to get out and hunt be it water or land ... Of late my friend Gerry has the desire for Colonial war relics and coins and has for the most part given up hunting the water ...

If you are ever in the neighborhood of Rt 24 / 494 MA feel free to give a shout and stop by I would be glad to see you , coffee and chew the bull etc ... maybe even a quick hunt around the farm ....
Bill G.
 
Thanks for the invite Surfcutter. I rarely get out of Ct. these days and as for Tr. Htg. have more within a stones throw of my front door than I'll ever get to. For now I,m content to visit via these posts altho it would be great to have a meeting of the clan and have a cup and chew the fat. While I've been waiting for my LS to arrive I've given the old XLs a workout several times and have four gold rings to prove it. I had to return the first one they sent me because of technical problems and Garrett has another new one in route. Wish me better luck with this one.

On with the story. I spent evenings and weekends and every spare moment of those three years in the water searching for treasure, I hunted the off season (January, February, and March) of those three years in water so cold it hurt to get it on your bare skin. Ice formed on my stainless steel (Homemade) scoop and it was too slippery to lift at times. There were no distractions (such as swimmers, kids and adults asking what you're doing or what you've found and wanting to paw through your finds) from those whispers of sound in the headsets that meant another target to dig and a possible jewel. The tides were more favorable and the water more clear.

The Connecticut River froze so solid one year that the Coast Guard Ice breakers had to plow up the river to Hartford to allow the oil barges passage. One very still and extremely cold morning I got suited up in multi-layers of warm cloths, my insulated chest high waders, shoulder length rubber gauntlets with GI wool glove liners and headed for the water. There was a very clear, almost heavenly, musicalsound in he air such as I've never heard before or since. The mystery was solved when I got close enough to the beach to see the huge, crystal clear chunks of ice that had been transported to Long Island Sound by river current, wind and tide. They bumped together against the beach and one another and produced the most beautiful, clear bell tone I've ever heard. In 2001 I mentioned to a lady that lives near tthe beach where I heard the sound that I had gone out in that winter to prospect the shallows and she asked me if I had heard the beautiful music Mother Nature made that year?

There were many times when I didn't recover a valuable find, but I always found something of interest. I recovered BB gun BBsand bits of wire from fireworks. Pounds of fishing sinkers and trash such as beer cans and broken bottles from thoughtless people that threw them in the water to be rid of them. I've often thought it would be poetic justice if the person that threw the glass out there would be the one to get a terrible cut from the jagged, broken glass. I suspect that has never happened, but I live in hope.(does that make me a bad person??).

Enough for now, thanks for tuning in.

Cupajo

(Nobody gets 'em all, but I'm workin on it!!!)
 
PS,

Surfcutter, I forgot to mention that I happened to watch Eleanor dig up a nice diamond years ago in Old Lyme at the base of a cut bank following a bad N'or Easter. It almost got me back in the water, but I had other pursuits at the time. What goes around---and here I am again and happy to be here Gang!!!

Cupajo
 
I hope to get down to Eleanor's shop in the near future and get a machine for my son but a lot has to happen for that to work out . Again Welcome Enjoy the posts and the great people here they are really the true treasure . ...
Bill G.
 
Not many folks find that much treasure...you have done good! Please have a great day! Kelley (Texas) :)
 
Hi Kelley,

In the mid-80s I had what was then the best available detectors. I learned how to get the best out of them and me. The only other people out there were not as well equipped or as adept with their equipment, and my results proved it. All those rings were gold and I had probably 20 plus pounds of silver total, all found in 3 years of regular hunting. I sold some of the silver years ago so I don't have an accurate total. Woulda, coulda, shoulda.......! When a month or so ago I decided I needed to get out there again for my physical well being and my sanity, I found that the methods I used so long ago still produce (4-gold rings). There aren't as many there these days as there were largely due to my efforts and those guys who learned slow down and to listen, really listen to their equipment. Now I'm learning to understand what an Infinium LS is trying to tell me.

So if you see an old guy out there diggin deep, watch and learn cause you too can find keepers by following his example.

HH Friends,

Cupajo, Ct.

(No-one gets 'em all, but I'm workin on it!!!)
 
have not had nearly that kind of luck returning them. I did return one that was a 1932 high school ring though. She was dead but I returned it her grand daughter.

I don't hunt salt water and use a Fisher 1280x and just love that machine. I also have a CZ 20 but don't much use it. Also a Whites XLT and a Shadow. I have not been detecting in a while though. Too much to do and too little time

We are certainly interested in Detecting storys here. Most of us detect!
 
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