Mason Jarr
New member
When I bought my E-trac last November I was a little lost in figuring out how to use it. Luckily, I saw a post by Jason in ID showing his year end totals and it said he was using an E-trac, also. So I PM'd him and asked him some questions and he became my unofficial mentor. We've PM'd and emailed back and forth for 6 months and he got me to a level with the E-trac that it would have taken much longer to attain on my own. We've been trying to get together for a hunt for several months. I'm in Idaho and Jason is attending dental school in Utah so it's not that far to travel. But, it's really been a challenge trying to get our schedules to line up. Finally, though, we were able to work out a plan where I could go down this last Thursday and Jason would be able to hunt half days (in the afternoon and evenings) on Friday and Saturday. If we didn't go with this plan, then it would have been into the fall before we likely could have worked something else out.
I got to Utah in the early afternoon on Thursday, got checked into a room and texted Jason to let him know I had arrived. I didn't want to bother him too much because Thursday was his 5th wedding anniversary and, of course, he had plans with his wife. He did reply back with the details on where we should meet on Friday afternoon so he could drive us to his chosen hunting location. Friday morning I was on my own and it's a big area when you're from out of town. I had done a little research on the iternet though and went to a couple of older parks. I wasn't expecting to find much because Jason had told me that most of the public areas in Utah had been worked pretty hard over the years. And he was right. No silver, but I did find some clad and a few coins from foreign countries. Around 11:30 I made the drive to a location closer to where we were to meet and then had lunch. Jason arrived at 1PM and we finally got to meet each other face to face after 6 months of electronic chatting. We talked quite a bit on the way to the spot where we were going to hunt. At the first location, Jason got us permission and we'd just settled in for some serious hunting when the tenant came back out and said that since she was renting the place her Mom said they'd better get permission from the owner. We said we understood and gathered up our stuff to leave. It just happened that there was another place right across the street and a man was working in the yard. So Jason got permission for that spot and we got down to work. Even though this was a fairly old place we each only found some clad and Wheaties. My highlight was a three coin Wheatie spill. We worked that spot thoroughly and then headed back to the car for a drive to another spot.
The new spot was rented by a young couple and they gave us the go ahead. It wasn't a huge yard, but it was big enough to last us for the rest of the evening. After we'd gridded the entire place, Jason had a Merc, more Wheaties and a ring (he never told me what it was made of) and some odds and ends. I pulled a couple of foreign coins from the same hole, one more Wheatie and two Mercs (I think Jason put me on the side where he thought the most silver would be)! We headed back to my truck and made plans for the next day.
On Saturday, Jason had a garage sale for most of the morning, so we didn't get a start until about 2PM and he had to be home at 7. We quickly went back to a place we'd asked to hunt the day before, but the parents weren't home. This time they were there and Jason scored again, so we went to work. There was a good bit of clad in this spot, but mixed in were enough deeper targets to keep it interesting. I could see Jason digging pretty steadily and he was racking up Wheaties and then he walks over and shows me two coins that are stuck together. It was obvious that one of them was silver and the other was some type of cent coin. I finished the little section I was in and then joined Jason in the larger section of the lawn. Fairly quickly I pulled a nice Merc and a Wheatie. Now even though I think I have a fairly slow swing, Jason is even more methodical than me. He proved that there's a reason for it. He moved over into the little section of lawn that I'd worked alone and then picked up two more good targets. One turned out to be junk, but the other one had two Wheaties in it. I'd completely missed it!
After this yard, we were almost out of time, but we did drive around and look for one more spot. We got a couple of shoot downs from owners and then spotted a really, really old house. The owner was in the yard and he said he was going to detect it himself, but he turned out to be an interesting person and we spent almost an hour talking with him. By then, Jason had to get going and I needed to get back to my room and get things sorted so I could pack up and head home today. Here's some pics of my total harvest of keepers and the two coins that Jason found stuck together. I know Jason had two Mercs and quite a bunch of Wheaties. He also found two rings. It was a great trip and hopefully we'll get together again down the road and I can host him up in my area.
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l281/Mason_Jarr/DSC_0677.jpg
The large foreign coin is from Iceland and the two smaller ones are from Austria. The others are from the USA! Duh!
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l281/Mason_Jarr/DSC_0679.jpg
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l281/Mason_Jarr/DSC_0680.jpg
My Mercs.
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l281/Mason_Jarr/DSC_0681.jpg
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l281/Mason_Jarr/DSC_0682.jpg
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l281/Mason_Jarr/DSC_0683.jpg
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l281/Mason_Jarr/DSC_0684.jpg
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l281/Mason_Jarr/DSC_0685.jpg
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l281/Mason_Jarr/DSC_0686.jpg
The foreign stuff. Not that old or valuable, but interesting....at least to me.
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l281/Mason_Jarr/IMG_0671.jpg
Jason's two coin meld.....
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l281/Mason_Jarr/IMG_0674.jpg
....and separated.
Forgot to mention I used my E-trac on Friday and the CTX on Saturday.
I got to Utah in the early afternoon on Thursday, got checked into a room and texted Jason to let him know I had arrived. I didn't want to bother him too much because Thursday was his 5th wedding anniversary and, of course, he had plans with his wife. He did reply back with the details on where we should meet on Friday afternoon so he could drive us to his chosen hunting location. Friday morning I was on my own and it's a big area when you're from out of town. I had done a little research on the iternet though and went to a couple of older parks. I wasn't expecting to find much because Jason had told me that most of the public areas in Utah had been worked pretty hard over the years. And he was right. No silver, but I did find some clad and a few coins from foreign countries. Around 11:30 I made the drive to a location closer to where we were to meet and then had lunch. Jason arrived at 1PM and we finally got to meet each other face to face after 6 months of electronic chatting. We talked quite a bit on the way to the spot where we were going to hunt. At the first location, Jason got us permission and we'd just settled in for some serious hunting when the tenant came back out and said that since she was renting the place her Mom said they'd better get permission from the owner. We said we understood and gathered up our stuff to leave. It just happened that there was another place right across the street and a man was working in the yard. So Jason got permission for that spot and we got down to work. Even though this was a fairly old place we each only found some clad and Wheaties. My highlight was a three coin Wheatie spill. We worked that spot thoroughly and then headed back to the car for a drive to another spot.
The new spot was rented by a young couple and they gave us the go ahead. It wasn't a huge yard, but it was big enough to last us for the rest of the evening. After we'd gridded the entire place, Jason had a Merc, more Wheaties and a ring (he never told me what it was made of) and some odds and ends. I pulled a couple of foreign coins from the same hole, one more Wheatie and two Mercs (I think Jason put me on the side where he thought the most silver would be)! We headed back to my truck and made plans for the next day.
On Saturday, Jason had a garage sale for most of the morning, so we didn't get a start until about 2PM and he had to be home at 7. We quickly went back to a place we'd asked to hunt the day before, but the parents weren't home. This time they were there and Jason scored again, so we went to work. There was a good bit of clad in this spot, but mixed in were enough deeper targets to keep it interesting. I could see Jason digging pretty steadily and he was racking up Wheaties and then he walks over and shows me two coins that are stuck together. It was obvious that one of them was silver and the other was some type of cent coin. I finished the little section I was in and then joined Jason in the larger section of the lawn. Fairly quickly I pulled a nice Merc and a Wheatie. Now even though I think I have a fairly slow swing, Jason is even more methodical than me. He proved that there's a reason for it. He moved over into the little section of lawn that I'd worked alone and then picked up two more good targets. One turned out to be junk, but the other one had two Wheaties in it. I'd completely missed it!
After this yard, we were almost out of time, but we did drive around and look for one more spot. We got a couple of shoot downs from owners and then spotted a really, really old house. The owner was in the yard and he said he was going to detect it himself, but he turned out to be an interesting person and we spent almost an hour talking with him. By then, Jason had to get going and I needed to get back to my room and get things sorted so I could pack up and head home today. Here's some pics of my total harvest of keepers and the two coins that Jason found stuck together. I know Jason had two Mercs and quite a bunch of Wheaties. He also found two rings. It was a great trip and hopefully we'll get together again down the road and I can host him up in my area.
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l281/Mason_Jarr/DSC_0677.jpg
The large foreign coin is from Iceland and the two smaller ones are from Austria. The others are from the USA! Duh!
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l281/Mason_Jarr/DSC_0679.jpg
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l281/Mason_Jarr/DSC_0680.jpg
My Mercs.
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l281/Mason_Jarr/DSC_0681.jpg
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l281/Mason_Jarr/DSC_0682.jpg
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l281/Mason_Jarr/DSC_0683.jpg
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l281/Mason_Jarr/DSC_0684.jpg
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l281/Mason_Jarr/DSC_0685.jpg
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l281/Mason_Jarr/DSC_0686.jpg
The foreign stuff. Not that old or valuable, but interesting....at least to me.
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l281/Mason_Jarr/IMG_0671.jpg
Jason's two coin meld.....
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l281/Mason_Jarr/IMG_0674.jpg
....and separated.
Forgot to mention I used my E-trac on Friday and the CTX on Saturday.
