Greetings to all of my brother's and sister's 
The new job is going well and I am border line on meeting the bills, but thank God for the construction job which helps make everything better in making ends meet.
I always thank each and everyone of you, and know that my family and I are in your prayers. I have not heard from some of you in a while, but I know your thinking of me and you know that I can pop up here at any given time. So glad to see new names on the forum and welcome my brothers and sisters.
It's been really beautiful here in New York.
This winter has been very mild and I have had many opportunities to go out hunting with some very lucky results. I've learned some techniques while out in the woods and have honed in on some settings on the Explorer II. I had to put on the coil from my Explorer one on the II because the coil for the II is not working right, you know the black coil, and frankly I think MindLab should have replaced the coil for me instead of just adding that shrinking rubber to fix the wire that became shaven from the shaft.
Anyway, it's working great with the one so I've been using that one until I can send in the black coil for repairs. I hope some of you have had a chance to go out hunting, and hope you are fairing well. I must stress though, that if you go out with a newbie... make sure that they understand that covering their holes is of the up most importance.
I have lost a hunting buddy because,
frankly, if we do not say anything to others just to hold the peace, the fact remains that we need to cover all holes no matter how large or small. If not we are going to lose our rights as detectorist state by state till we have no where to hunt. I say this because a beach hunter began hunting with us in the parks. He never had hunted parks, and in the beginning we stress the importance that unlike the beach where a small hole can be filled in with a little kick of sand, that in the parks and private property we are being watched, you may not see them watching you, but in most cases we are being watched while you are busy making that plug, and people will check on you and how you leave an area.
In the beginning he was doing fine, and started to make some very nice finds, I mean here's as hunter that found four Musket Balls in one day. I have yet to find a Musket Ball here in New York City. I've found all mine up state. He's fund nice military buttons and very nice coins including his first seated liberty, which here are in New York are very difficult to find because the earlier hunters have dug them up for years in our parks, and I was wondering why I was not finding any of these coins.
Well, little by little I began seeing these holes while we were hunting, and I kindly ask him if he was filling his hole, he said yes, I began to notice if he was telling the truth, well he wasn't covering all his holes and he uses a shovel. I don't like using a shovel in the parks, because on our permits it states the size digger you can use, a shovel is not one of them. he digs in the soil and turns the shovel 360 degrees all the way around and takes out the soil, and was doing this on lawns also. I explained to him that we make a plug and then dig deeper if needed, we retrieve the target, and return the soil back into the hole and pat it till it looks as if it was never dug. No, he was leaving the hole half full and in some cases when we were in the deep woods where he figured the holes will not be seen, he'd leave them open.
He began to leave more and more holes open and I have fell into a few of them and was beginning to become tired of telling him while he began reversing the claim towards me, that I was indeed leaving the hole and blaming him. I simply told him that I admired how much he has learned in hunting parks, but when you begin making things dangerous by leaving holes and not caring, accusing others that they are the ones leaving the holes, then it's time to let that person go folks. If you will not follow the most important rule of metal detecting then you are going to find yourself hunting alone.
I also know that because of some of these well known hunters from the 60's and 70's is the reason permits are required today to hunt the Parks and some parks are off limits entirely. I will refrain from stating their names here and some of you may know them. These guys have cleaned out parks in the early 60's and 70's, and some of them still return to these hunted out parks looking for areas that have either opened up in respect to the forage or other environmental features that had hinder them from hunting in those days, and we must remember that the detectors in those days were not the best instruments like we have today. My hats off to these veterans who had to dig a lot to obtain those treasures, but most of you did not cover your holes and even in those days, it clearly had that notice in the instructions and on the box, cover allllll holes, because I remember working with the White's Coin Master and the Red Baron by Bounty Hunter, you had to dig every solid signal, and the trash... don't get me started...LOL, but we covered our holes, both large and small. It's a shame to lose hunting buddies because of this rule which some people believe doesn't pertain to them.
Now for the good stuff.
... A True Story...
I was doing OK, as far as finds were concerned, and it seemed that every spot I found, others that I had invited were finding more stuff than me which was quite alright with me, because I believe that what's coming to you is going to come to you, God works that way. I am however not happy when hunters come right next to you when you have stated that you have found silver... As a rule I like to stay about 50 feet from others and it may be the reason why I get left out, but I will not go to close to others because the detectors may start talking to each other and you'll both lose out on some nice finds.
I was on a dry spell, I mean no silver or relics of any kind,
but a lot of trash and I do not have to tell you how it feels when you receive that high pitch on the Explorer and it turns out to be a can top, some kind of part of a door, or other metal that come in like silver. Finally, I got a signal. cross hairs are half way up into the box... it's got to be a dime...??? It is, and hey... 4"s deep, it's a 1916, look at the back man.... I see it's got a mint mark, get your glasses man... Ok OK... ahhhh it's an S and not a D, but, I found silver, it had been 4 or 5 outings without finding silver. Meanwhile, my buddy had gotten Indians, silvers, watches, musket balls. I'm beginning to feel like I was cursed, and made a silent prayer.... Lord, why am I not finding my share? Please, help me out here... another 3 outings and nothing... and all I had to say was thank you Lord because I can at least get out to hunt and enjoy myself, and all the time, I'm adjusting my Explorer to different setting, and after careful consideration I noticed that I had my detector set to only respond to signals to up to only 4 to 6" or so... 
I had set the Explorer in that manner because the other black coil was giving me a bad thumping sound when I placed it on the ground or the sand at the beach. I had to lower my sensitivity to 8 and my gain to 4. Let me tell you, you are working with the least that the Explorer can work with... I had changed my coil and forgot to bring back my super settings where I get coins at 12" to 16"s, I mean, other were telling me... Philo, you always make nice finds, what's going on? I have always told everyone hunting with me whether it be on the beach or in the woods that when an Explorer is working at it's peak...look out.
Well, when I noticed that my settings were off, I started from scratch, and mounted my favorite program. First, I pumped up my gain to 7, the gain on the Explorer I or II enhances the targets in the ground, it's like a bass boost so to speak, but you have to be very careful because the higher the gain in some areas you'll get too much amplification and it'll drive you crazy. I set it at 7 if that proves to much I roll back to 6, if you go lower that 6, you'll start to lose depth at about 4" very time you lower the gain. I placed my sensitivity to 29 and to 31 where the Explorer can handle the grounds minerals and static from passing planes, two way radios, and electromagnetic fields, such as a wires, ionized air particles.
I have learned a lot as to how the Explorer needs to be tuned to perfection if you want to find the good stuff. You may have to configure her in every new area you come to. I noticed that my settings at the beach or in the parks near beach's are entirely different than those of the parks that are in-land.
I reset my response to Ferrous to weed out the iron and pick up the good metals next to the iron, and my iron mask is set with one bar to avoid the low iron signal one receives when you have the iron mask opened entirely. Well, I went out the next day, turned the beast that was sleeping on, and what a difference... my threshold hum was constant, without wavering, and I told my buddy... my Explorer is working at peak performance, look out now, he laughed and said, you have not found silver the last 3 times we've been out dude... Ok, I warned you.
He had taken me where he had dug up a 1876 seated liberty, dime and sure enough I went around the tree and I got that nice high pitch at about 8" deep and the cross hairs locked in the right hand corner... I dug and when I made my plug, and popped it up, with no effort a shinny silver disc comes out with the plug, it's a Washington Quarter, 1953... Silver I yell. My buddy looked at me with that face saying I did that area and I missed it. I told him, I told you... she's back... I parted from him a bit and up the hill by some rocks again...Bammm, another quarter at 7" and my other buddy had hunted that spot two days ago when we were there, and I yelled silver, and my buddy is now giving a face of unbelief. We start down this hill and again I get that nice high pitch... it's a Rosie at about 8" beautiful shape...silver I call again. Now, he says... leave some for me... I said you found plenty, now's my turn dude.. I go down further and my buddy says he has to leave... bye, I said. I work an area where I have to lower the sen, but the gain is fine...Bammm two more silver dimes... a merc and a rosie almost same hole... then a V nickel, and I said hey might as well give me an Indian... yes... four feet away an Indian. All in All a good day.
Next day I go straight from work after putting in a night shift for 12 hours, and my buddy doesn't call me. I know why... I call him, he's at the park by the beach. I went by and two other hunters are with him. I got out at 12:30PM so I know he's not going to be there long, so I work my way towards him in an area I know has been hunted out, but feel good about the area and as soon as I go over a tree... I get the signal... It's a quarter, but which one??? There 10"s down is a Barber looking at me... love it...
Thank you Lord is what I say every time I find something nice. I don't know about you guys and dolls, but when I find an old coin I imagine who lost the coin, how was he or she dressed, and how did the area look at that time? Well, that day I found the whole set of Barbers, 1 quarter, 1 dime, and V nickel, 2 Indians, a rosie, and a merc. I had gotten my detector to work perfectly again. As I walk through the woods I found myself with my hunting buddy who seemed indifferent, and said he found 3 silvers and when I told him what I found he like shrugged it off as if I was a wise guy because I had told him that my detector was back to performing perfectly. He told me that our other friends were up a little further and that they too had found silver. I called as I approached and they answered back, don't come over here because we are leaving, as if for me not to find where they were hunting which was going to be easy, because I knew that my buddy will leaves holes all over the place, so indeed when I got there they were gone and I hit the area a bit and that's where I found the rosie 1946.
The next day I returned the area and my hunting buddy was with me and he immediately hit silver, a rosie, and not long after I also hit a silver dime, a barber 1907, and when he left a tree he was hunting, I dug up a merc, and boy was he angry telling me that it was his, and I said, hey, I wait till people stop hunting a spot before I go into it, I never hunt too close to others. I looked around and for some reason knew I was not to find any more, so my buddy left and I kept hunting and found myself an area that I had not seen before and as I was sweeping the coil slowly, I came upon a mixed signal, and didn't know what to make of it because, I know how most Indians sound like with the Explorer, it's a very nice tone almost of that of a screw cap but a little bit lower, but there was a whisk of a high pitch trying to come through along with the lower thump of iron, and another nickel. The meter registered at 9"s it's a deepy... I said, again, I look around and noticed a tree about 25 feet away and knew it was a perfect distance for the 5:00 shadow in the summer.
I made a deep plug of at least 8"s and nothing, carefully I go down another 2" and in the soil is a very nice Indian Head. I remember to re-sweep the hole and received this high silver pitch, the target hairs were all the way in the upper right corner indicating a large coin, but had gotten those all day only to be relic type finds, but this was a bit harder to retrieve as the hole began to fill with water... It seemed to me that this area may had been under water at one time, and with two full scoops on my tiger shark out popped a dark token, and re sweeping, I was still receiving the high pitch and I continued to dig into the soil with the water and finally it came out and it was a large disc, black from the black soil. I began to treble as I turn the coin to see what it was, first I thought, walking liberty, but to my surprise when I saw the eagle with spread wings and the stars told me it was a Barber in very good shape. I walked back to the hole and rinsed it very carefully in the water, and low and behold, what a thank you Lord I let out. The Barber half looked as though it was dropped the day it was put into circulation. It's a beautiful specimen.
Now I have the complete set of three nice near mint condition Barbers... The Quarter 1916, The Dime 1914, and the Half 1909. There were no other coin from with-in 50 feet around of the coins and the token, except for a couple of wheaties, so I believe these were dropped off a canoe which were very popular in those days there.
Since that day, I have been finding silver almost every time I go out, remembering to set my Explorer correctly for the spot I am working and making sure to go slowly. Yesterday, I returned to a spot that I knew had seen early action there because of a piece of glass I had found there before. Now, get ready for this hunt because it was purely a blessing of the Lord, and it has made other very jealous and they have not called me to hunt, but rather had called another hunter to hunt the area where I had found my most significant find of my detecting outings. I also knew that this was a one of a kind finds and there were no more to be found until the air pressure or erosion takes place in the years to come to bring whatever coins are at a deeper depth to enable our detectors to pick them up.
I got off work, and decided I could not sleep because of all the noise at the apartment so I decided to go to the spot where I had found some Indians and a V Nickel. We were first up a hill working an area that looked promising, and everyone working faster as usual got lost in the brush, and I stood because I felt as though there was a nice find to be found there, and low and behold. I worked an area where you get those vines that make hunting impossible and where everyone avoids, and Bammm, I get the usual high pitch cross hairs in the upper corner dug in deep and I knew Half, large cent, or dollar. Not too deep, out pops with the soil as I hit it perfectly under the coin... a Walking Liberty Half, 1946 in nice condition. I yell out silver... but no one was around and I placed my hand over my mouth as if I felt like a nut yelling in the park with no one there to hear me, but again I knew there were no more coins to be found there, but did managed a button, pretty old also.
I started to look for the others and I saw them at the spot I had plans of doing very slowly. I get there and the guys are all over the area, and I said to myself, these guys will be lucky if they find cans the way they are hunting. I looked the area over, honed in on the largest tree there and made a bee's line to it since no one was there hunting and I do not like hunting too close to other, you know why...LOL. I was nearing the tree and noticed that someone had dug up an old top of a hammer and a broad chisel, and I knew they were 1800's and why the person that found them didn't hunt 50 feet around that area very slowly was beyond... Well, I knew better, so as I approached the large tree, again about 20 to 25 feet from that large tree I receive the most beautiful whispering sounding high pitch I ever heard and knew it wasn't silver, and knew it most either a relic or large cent, but I stood there and got the depth reading, it was a good 16" deep and I said...wow, and I looked up to the sky and knew I was going to be blessed, but was not ready for what I was about to uncover twice fold...
I prepared a real deep trust of my tiger shark making sure it was the proper distance so as to not scratch this find. I went penetrating the soil down at least 8"s and brought out the black soil and the deeper soil began to turn a rich smelling fertile brown color, and I knew this is 1800's soil folks, remember that... No treasure yet, down another 4"s and no treasure yet, I widen the hole and down another 4"s and when I flopped the soil over which was becoming clayish and gray, right on top was this thick large disc... I thought nothing of it and had forgotten that the older large cents were this thick, and as I reach down to retrieve it, it dawn on me, hey, it's not a relic, it's a large cent, but which type and what year? The clay was embedded heavily on the coin, but I knew I had a nice find. I look at it with my glasses and can see one cent on one side. At home I cleaned it with plain water and a peroxied water to reveal and turned out to be a 1794 large cent... I Thank the Lord and placed the coin alone in one of my fishing jacket's pockets.
I then knew I had to hunt this area very slowly, and about ten inches away I receive another nice tone, but it was in the range of a dime and an Indian penny. I found that it's pitch regulated up and down between these to type targets, I was baffled as to what it could be, so I trusted my tiger shark again about 8"s and when I pulled that plug, a little thin shinny disc embedded in black and brown soil. I look at it and seeing it's a little worn, so a little rubbing is not going to make a difference and I see the pillars and I said no...no... it can't be... OH YEAH... my first Spanish 1/8 Reale, and I was trying to be nice in sharing the find, so I walked up to one of the hunters, and asked him, is this a reale, he pulls out his mag-glass and said...yes...it's a real... 1787 or 1767. Where did you find it, I said over there because I wanted to return to the spot, so when I did returned to the spot, before I knew it he was there, and on the phone call the others to come to spot where I had found the two coins. I was not happy with the act, but my spirit held me in check, so right by the other side of the tree he hits a silver coin and will not tell me what it was claiming it was full of dirt, and he didn't want to scratch it, and I knew he had a good find, and it wasn't the first time he had done that to me.
Anyway, just as I thought, they were the only coins to be found there and I continued to work there and moved to the other side of the tree where in the many vines I dug a dateless standing liberty, and also managed a small buckle, an old button, and some other relics. All in all, what a beautiful day folks.
The next day I did not hear from any of the guys but when I went back to the spot, they were all there along with someone else they invited and that didn't fall too good with me either, because here's the same guy that tells me that he has some spots, but can't take me there because the other hunters would become angry, it doesn't make any sense.
Again, I knew there was no more old coins there, and upon working some of the other areas these same guys were hunting I managed mercs and rosies and Indians, go figure. All I know, I thank my Lord for my blessings and I will always keep the peace and just avoid the problems this sport can bring, because sometimes, your may just be better off going out alone... Stay bless and happy hunting everyone.
All that silver and countless wheaties, Indians, and silver rings were found in the last 2 and 1/2 weeks, completely awsome folks how the Lord has blessed me.
Philo_NY
The new job is going well and I am border line on meeting the bills, but thank God for the construction job which helps make everything better in making ends meet.
I always thank each and everyone of you, and know that my family and I are in your prayers. I have not heard from some of you in a while, but I know your thinking of me and you know that I can pop up here at any given time. So glad to see new names on the forum and welcome my brothers and sisters.
It's been really beautiful here in New York.
This winter has been very mild and I have had many opportunities to go out hunting with some very lucky results. I've learned some techniques while out in the woods and have honed in on some settings on the Explorer II. I had to put on the coil from my Explorer one on the II because the coil for the II is not working right, you know the black coil, and frankly I think MindLab should have replaced the coil for me instead of just adding that shrinking rubber to fix the wire that became shaven from the shaft.Anyway, it's working great with the one so I've been using that one until I can send in the black coil for repairs. I hope some of you have had a chance to go out hunting, and hope you are fairing well. I must stress though, that if you go out with a newbie... make sure that they understand that covering their holes is of the up most importance.
I have lost a hunting buddy because,
frankly, if we do not say anything to others just to hold the peace, the fact remains that we need to cover all holes no matter how large or small. If not we are going to lose our rights as detectorist state by state till we have no where to hunt. I say this because a beach hunter began hunting with us in the parks. He never had hunted parks, and in the beginning we stress the importance that unlike the beach where a small hole can be filled in with a little kick of sand, that in the parks and private property we are being watched, you may not see them watching you, but in most cases we are being watched while you are busy making that plug, and people will check on you and how you leave an area. In the beginning he was doing fine, and started to make some very nice finds, I mean here's as hunter that found four Musket Balls in one day. I have yet to find a Musket Ball here in New York City. I've found all mine up state. He's fund nice military buttons and very nice coins including his first seated liberty, which here are in New York are very difficult to find because the earlier hunters have dug them up for years in our parks, and I was wondering why I was not finding any of these coins.
Well, little by little I began seeing these holes while we were hunting, and I kindly ask him if he was filling his hole, he said yes, I began to notice if he was telling the truth, well he wasn't covering all his holes and he uses a shovel. I don't like using a shovel in the parks, because on our permits it states the size digger you can use, a shovel is not one of them. he digs in the soil and turns the shovel 360 degrees all the way around and takes out the soil, and was doing this on lawns also. I explained to him that we make a plug and then dig deeper if needed, we retrieve the target, and return the soil back into the hole and pat it till it looks as if it was never dug. No, he was leaving the hole half full and in some cases when we were in the deep woods where he figured the holes will not be seen, he'd leave them open.
He began to leave more and more holes open and I have fell into a few of them and was beginning to become tired of telling him while he began reversing the claim towards me, that I was indeed leaving the hole and blaming him. I simply told him that I admired how much he has learned in hunting parks, but when you begin making things dangerous by leaving holes and not caring, accusing others that they are the ones leaving the holes, then it's time to let that person go folks. If you will not follow the most important rule of metal detecting then you are going to find yourself hunting alone.
I also know that because of some of these well known hunters from the 60's and 70's is the reason permits are required today to hunt the Parks and some parks are off limits entirely. I will refrain from stating their names here and some of you may know them. These guys have cleaned out parks in the early 60's and 70's, and some of them still return to these hunted out parks looking for areas that have either opened up in respect to the forage or other environmental features that had hinder them from hunting in those days, and we must remember that the detectors in those days were not the best instruments like we have today. My hats off to these veterans who had to dig a lot to obtain those treasures, but most of you did not cover your holes and even in those days, it clearly had that notice in the instructions and on the box, cover allllll holes, because I remember working with the White's Coin Master and the Red Baron by Bounty Hunter, you had to dig every solid signal, and the trash... don't get me started...LOL, but we covered our holes, both large and small. It's a shame to lose hunting buddies because of this rule which some people believe doesn't pertain to them.
Now for the good stuff.
... A True Story... I was doing OK, as far as finds were concerned, and it seemed that every spot I found, others that I had invited were finding more stuff than me which was quite alright with me, because I believe that what's coming to you is going to come to you, God works that way. I am however not happy when hunters come right next to you when you have stated that you have found silver... As a rule I like to stay about 50 feet from others and it may be the reason why I get left out, but I will not go to close to others because the detectors may start talking to each other and you'll both lose out on some nice finds.
I was on a dry spell, I mean no silver or relics of any kind,
but a lot of trash and I do not have to tell you how it feels when you receive that high pitch on the Explorer and it turns out to be a can top, some kind of part of a door, or other metal that come in like silver. Finally, I got a signal. cross hairs are half way up into the box... it's got to be a dime...??? It is, and hey... 4"s deep, it's a 1916, look at the back man.... I see it's got a mint mark, get your glasses man... Ok OK... ahhhh it's an S and not a D, but, I found silver, it had been 4 or 5 outings without finding silver. Meanwhile, my buddy had gotten Indians, silvers, watches, musket balls. I'm beginning to feel like I was cursed, and made a silent prayer.... Lord, why am I not finding my share? Please, help me out here... another 3 outings and nothing... and all I had to say was thank you Lord because I can at least get out to hunt and enjoy myself, and all the time, I'm adjusting my Explorer to different setting, and after careful consideration I noticed that I had my detector set to only respond to signals to up to only 4 to 6" or so... I had set the Explorer in that manner because the other black coil was giving me a bad thumping sound when I placed it on the ground or the sand at the beach. I had to lower my sensitivity to 8 and my gain to 4. Let me tell you, you are working with the least that the Explorer can work with... I had changed my coil and forgot to bring back my super settings where I get coins at 12" to 16"s, I mean, other were telling me... Philo, you always make nice finds, what's going on? I have always told everyone hunting with me whether it be on the beach or in the woods that when an Explorer is working at it's peak...look out.
Well, when I noticed that my settings were off, I started from scratch, and mounted my favorite program. First, I pumped up my gain to 7, the gain on the Explorer I or II enhances the targets in the ground, it's like a bass boost so to speak, but you have to be very careful because the higher the gain in some areas you'll get too much amplification and it'll drive you crazy. I set it at 7 if that proves to much I roll back to 6, if you go lower that 6, you'll start to lose depth at about 4" very time you lower the gain. I placed my sensitivity to 29 and to 31 where the Explorer can handle the grounds minerals and static from passing planes, two way radios, and electromagnetic fields, such as a wires, ionized air particles.
I have learned a lot as to how the Explorer needs to be tuned to perfection if you want to find the good stuff. You may have to configure her in every new area you come to. I noticed that my settings at the beach or in the parks near beach's are entirely different than those of the parks that are in-land.
I reset my response to Ferrous to weed out the iron and pick up the good metals next to the iron, and my iron mask is set with one bar to avoid the low iron signal one receives when you have the iron mask opened entirely. Well, I went out the next day, turned the beast that was sleeping on, and what a difference... my threshold hum was constant, without wavering, and I told my buddy... my Explorer is working at peak performance, look out now, he laughed and said, you have not found silver the last 3 times we've been out dude... Ok, I warned you.
He had taken me where he had dug up a 1876 seated liberty, dime and sure enough I went around the tree and I got that nice high pitch at about 8" deep and the cross hairs locked in the right hand corner... I dug and when I made my plug, and popped it up, with no effort a shinny silver disc comes out with the plug, it's a Washington Quarter, 1953... Silver I yell. My buddy looked at me with that face saying I did that area and I missed it. I told him, I told you... she's back... I parted from him a bit and up the hill by some rocks again...Bammm, another quarter at 7" and my other buddy had hunted that spot two days ago when we were there, and I yelled silver, and my buddy is now giving a face of unbelief. We start down this hill and again I get that nice high pitch... it's a Rosie at about 8" beautiful shape...silver I call again. Now, he says... leave some for me... I said you found plenty, now's my turn dude.. I go down further and my buddy says he has to leave... bye, I said. I work an area where I have to lower the sen, but the gain is fine...Bammm two more silver dimes... a merc and a rosie almost same hole... then a V nickel, and I said hey might as well give me an Indian... yes... four feet away an Indian. All in All a good day.
Next day I go straight from work after putting in a night shift for 12 hours, and my buddy doesn't call me. I know why... I call him, he's at the park by the beach. I went by and two other hunters are with him. I got out at 12:30PM so I know he's not going to be there long, so I work my way towards him in an area I know has been hunted out, but feel good about the area and as soon as I go over a tree... I get the signal... It's a quarter, but which one??? There 10"s down is a Barber looking at me... love it...
Thank you Lord is what I say every time I find something nice. I don't know about you guys and dolls, but when I find an old coin I imagine who lost the coin, how was he or she dressed, and how did the area look at that time? Well, that day I found the whole set of Barbers, 1 quarter, 1 dime, and V nickel, 2 Indians, a rosie, and a merc. I had gotten my detector to work perfectly again. As I walk through the woods I found myself with my hunting buddy who seemed indifferent, and said he found 3 silvers and when I told him what I found he like shrugged it off as if I was a wise guy because I had told him that my detector was back to performing perfectly. He told me that our other friends were up a little further and that they too had found silver. I called as I approached and they answered back, don't come over here because we are leaving, as if for me not to find where they were hunting which was going to be easy, because I knew that my buddy will leaves holes all over the place, so indeed when I got there they were gone and I hit the area a bit and that's where I found the rosie 1946.
The next day I returned the area and my hunting buddy was with me and he immediately hit silver, a rosie, and not long after I also hit a silver dime, a barber 1907, and when he left a tree he was hunting, I dug up a merc, and boy was he angry telling me that it was his, and I said, hey, I wait till people stop hunting a spot before I go into it, I never hunt too close to others. I looked around and for some reason knew I was not to find any more, so my buddy left and I kept hunting and found myself an area that I had not seen before and as I was sweeping the coil slowly, I came upon a mixed signal, and didn't know what to make of it because, I know how most Indians sound like with the Explorer, it's a very nice tone almost of that of a screw cap but a little bit lower, but there was a whisk of a high pitch trying to come through along with the lower thump of iron, and another nickel. The meter registered at 9"s it's a deepy... I said, again, I look around and noticed a tree about 25 feet away and knew it was a perfect distance for the 5:00 shadow in the summer.
I made a deep plug of at least 8"s and nothing, carefully I go down another 2" and in the soil is a very nice Indian Head. I remember to re-sweep the hole and received this high silver pitch, the target hairs were all the way in the upper right corner indicating a large coin, but had gotten those all day only to be relic type finds, but this was a bit harder to retrieve as the hole began to fill with water... It seemed to me that this area may had been under water at one time, and with two full scoops on my tiger shark out popped a dark token, and re sweeping, I was still receiving the high pitch and I continued to dig into the soil with the water and finally it came out and it was a large disc, black from the black soil. I began to treble as I turn the coin to see what it was, first I thought, walking liberty, but to my surprise when I saw the eagle with spread wings and the stars told me it was a Barber in very good shape. I walked back to the hole and rinsed it very carefully in the water, and low and behold, what a thank you Lord I let out. The Barber half looked as though it was dropped the day it was put into circulation. It's a beautiful specimen.
Now I have the complete set of three nice near mint condition Barbers... The Quarter 1916, The Dime 1914, and the Half 1909. There were no other coin from with-in 50 feet around of the coins and the token, except for a couple of wheaties, so I believe these were dropped off a canoe which were very popular in those days there.Since that day, I have been finding silver almost every time I go out, remembering to set my Explorer correctly for the spot I am working and making sure to go slowly. Yesterday, I returned to a spot that I knew had seen early action there because of a piece of glass I had found there before. Now, get ready for this hunt because it was purely a blessing of the Lord, and it has made other very jealous and they have not called me to hunt, but rather had called another hunter to hunt the area where I had found my most significant find of my detecting outings. I also knew that this was a one of a kind finds and there were no more to be found until the air pressure or erosion takes place in the years to come to bring whatever coins are at a deeper depth to enable our detectors to pick them up.
I got off work, and decided I could not sleep because of all the noise at the apartment so I decided to go to the spot where I had found some Indians and a V Nickel. We were first up a hill working an area that looked promising, and everyone working faster as usual got lost in the brush, and I stood because I felt as though there was a nice find to be found there, and low and behold. I worked an area where you get those vines that make hunting impossible and where everyone avoids, and Bammm, I get the usual high pitch cross hairs in the upper corner dug in deep and I knew Half, large cent, or dollar. Not too deep, out pops with the soil as I hit it perfectly under the coin... a Walking Liberty Half, 1946 in nice condition. I yell out silver... but no one was around and I placed my hand over my mouth as if I felt like a nut yelling in the park with no one there to hear me, but again I knew there were no more coins to be found there, but did managed a button, pretty old also.
I started to look for the others and I saw them at the spot I had plans of doing very slowly. I get there and the guys are all over the area, and I said to myself, these guys will be lucky if they find cans the way they are hunting. I looked the area over, honed in on the largest tree there and made a bee's line to it since no one was there hunting and I do not like hunting too close to other, you know why...LOL. I was nearing the tree and noticed that someone had dug up an old top of a hammer and a broad chisel, and I knew they were 1800's and why the person that found them didn't hunt 50 feet around that area very slowly was beyond... Well, I knew better, so as I approached the large tree, again about 20 to 25 feet from that large tree I receive the most beautiful whispering sounding high pitch I ever heard and knew it wasn't silver, and knew it most either a relic or large cent, but I stood there and got the depth reading, it was a good 16" deep and I said...wow, and I looked up to the sky and knew I was going to be blessed, but was not ready for what I was about to uncover twice fold...
I prepared a real deep trust of my tiger shark making sure it was the proper distance so as to not scratch this find. I went penetrating the soil down at least 8"s and brought out the black soil and the deeper soil began to turn a rich smelling fertile brown color, and I knew this is 1800's soil folks, remember that... No treasure yet, down another 4"s and no treasure yet, I widen the hole and down another 4"s and when I flopped the soil over which was becoming clayish and gray, right on top was this thick large disc... I thought nothing of it and had forgotten that the older large cents were this thick, and as I reach down to retrieve it, it dawn on me, hey, it's not a relic, it's a large cent,
but which type and what year? The clay was embedded heavily on the coin, but I knew I had a nice find. I look at it with my glasses and can see one cent on one side. At home I cleaned it with plain water and a peroxied water to reveal and turned out to be a 1794 large cent... I Thank the Lord and placed the coin alone in one of my fishing jacket's pockets. I then knew I had to hunt this area very slowly, and about ten inches away I receive another nice tone, but it was in the range of a dime and an Indian penny. I found that it's pitch regulated up and down between these to type targets, I was baffled as to what it could be, so I trusted my tiger shark again about 8"s and when I pulled that plug, a little thin shinny disc embedded in black and brown soil. I look at it and seeing it's a little worn, so a little rubbing is not going to make a difference and I see the pillars and I said no...no... it can't be... OH YEAH...
my first Spanish 1/8 Reale, and I was trying to be nice in sharing the find, so I walked up to one of the hunters, and asked him, is this a reale, he pulls out his mag-glass and said...yes...it's a real... 1787 or 1767. Where did you find it, I said over there because I wanted to return to the spot, so when I did returned to the spot, before I knew it he was there, and on the phone call the others to come to spot where I had found the two coins. I was not happy with the act, but my spirit held me in check, so right by the other side of the tree he hits a silver coin and will not tell me what it was claiming it was full of dirt, and he didn't want to scratch it, and I knew he had a good find, and it wasn't the first time he had done that to me.Anyway, just as I thought, they were the only coins to be found there and I continued to work there and moved to the other side of the tree where in the many vines I dug a dateless standing liberty, and also managed a small buckle, an old button, and some other relics. All in all, what a beautiful day folks.
The next day I did not hear from any of the guys but when I went back to the spot, they were all there along with someone else they invited and that didn't fall too good with me either, because here's the same guy that tells me that he has some spots, but can't take me there because the other hunters would become angry, it doesn't make any sense.
Again, I knew there was no more old coins there, and upon working some of the other areas these same guys were hunting I managed mercs and rosies and Indians, go figure. All I know, I thank my Lord for my blessings and I will always keep the peace and just avoid the problems this sport can bring, because sometimes, your may just be better off going out alone... Stay bless and happy hunting everyone.
All that silver and countless wheaties, Indians, and silver rings were found in the last 2 and 1/2 weeks, completely awsome folks how the Lord has blessed me.
Philo_NY
Great finds too! God bless you and I hope you get back soon!