Ed Steinhoff
Active member
About 85 miles from me is a small town with a nice little park that gets pretty heavy use, especially during tourist season. As a bonus there is a popular hamburger joint across the street. I travel through there every so often and have always wanted to give it a hunt, but never had the time to stop. Recently on my way back through this town I finally had time for a short hunt. When I pulled in the parking lot I spotted a detectorist hard at work. I since there are no clubs in my area and few other tectors I almost always hunt alone, and was excited to find a fellow enthusiast to talk to. When I walked up to this guy I almost had to stand in his way to get him to stop. I saw that he was swinging a whites spectra v3i with a huge rectangular coil. When he moved one earphone on his grey ghost headset, I asked him what was that coil? He said it's a big foot. I then told him that I hunt too, but I just have a tracker iv and a pioneer 505. He thereupon grunted, put his earphone back over his ear and walked off. I felt rather humbled and definatly chasented for bothering such an expert with his high end equipment! I went to the hamburger stand, purchased my lunch and sat in the truck eating and watching Mr. hospitality carefully grid back and forth and dig every signal, dutifully filling in his holes and packing out the trash. After eating I left without even trying to hunt behind Him. Today work took me back to this town and again I found myself with an hour extra time at the same park. The last two mornings have got down to 18 and 11 below zero with the first good snow, so I was thinking my season was over. When I looked at the little park and remembered the chilly atmosphere the last time I said the heck with respecting that guys hunting grounds and I broke out the tracker iv from behind the seat and stared a quick hunt. The second swing in the sandbox produced a shiny penny! Ok that one could have dropped after mr. whites last visit. next stop the gravel filled tot lot and no suprise there, was clean as a whistle, no trash, bobbypins, nothing. But I carefully swung the slides and monkey bars, nothing. then even more carefully, the swings. Halfway done the tracker spoke and another penny appeared! Encouraged I began to search around trees and tables. pulled another deep penny and a Quarter, dime, and two penny pocket spill that had been there a while. I am not saying the tracker is a better machine but attitude and knowing your equipment makes it hard to be humble! HH Ed in co.