A
Anonymous
Guest
And I relearned two major lessons about our hobby:
#1) You never get it all on the first hunt.
#2) Hunt the outskirts, instead of going for the obvious places.
Now, I initially worked that park for a month, as often as I could, running a grid pattern, using my marker flags that I've made, then running another pattern at 90 degrees, and using all the coils I have. I pulled over 100 Wheat's out of the "towel line" area in front of the beach, along with a dozen silver dimes and a couple of War Nickels. No good jewelry, although I did get one nice 10K ring in the water the next year.
This park, on the "towel line" is JUNKY! Pulltabs every 12" or so. Iron EVERYWHERE, mostly in the form of twisty-ties for hamburger/hot dog buns. I repeat, I've used my 5", 8", and 10.5" coils here. Even as junky as it is, the 10.5" managed to see "around" a few targets, and was able to get more of the tilted coins.
Today I went in, with my 8" coil, Sens. at 5, GB'ed slightly positive, swinging SLOWLY so I could hear as much audio information as I could. I got a few modern coins, and started digging some junk. I managed to get one crusty green Wheat (most Wheat's here are crusty green), at 4", that indicated solid Zinc Cent. Then, I managed to get two Wheat's that were co-located with some pulltabs. See statement #1 above. I just need to mark off a small area, grit my teeth, and proceed to dig all shallow hits, then come back in with a bigger coil and get the deepies.
After about an hour of listening to the hammering mid-tones in my ears, I started wandering in the back part of the park. This may have originally been the entrance, or at least a back entrance, as there is a gate, and some gravel paths for vehicles. I scouted this area out years ago, and did find a Wheat, but not the quantity of older coins that I was getting at the beach, so I wrote it off as unproductive. See #2 above. I wasn't getting many hits, so when I encountered a shallow Zinc hit, I dug it. I was surprised to find another crusty green Wheat at 2"! And, it's a 1919. A foot away, I got another similar signal. This one was a '20 Wheat! A couple feet away, I got yet another shallow Wheat. Go figure.
Laurie came by to see how I was doing, as well as let one of our twin sons run around after his Doctor's appointment. We talked, and watched Logan play for awhile. I kept wanting to head back to where I had left off, but Laurie kept telling me to stay. Go figure. After she left, I went straight back to where I had left off. 5' from where I recovered the trio of Wheat's, I got a solid High Coin hit at an indicated 3". I flipped up a plug, and started removing loose dirt and gravel from the hole, when I saw the silver edge of a dime. I thought I had a Merc., judging from the little bit I saw. Once I had the coin in my hand, sure enough, it was a Merc! Here is it:
<center> <img src=http://img322.imageshack.us/img322/1298/20060531merc7xj.jpg> </center> <p>
It's in pretty good shape, to. All totalled, I got 6 Wheat's, dated '19, '20, '42, '45, '51D, and '52D; and the Merc.
Note: the picture(s) might not show up due to bandwidth limitations. If the picture(s) are not there, check back at a later time.
HH from Allen in MI
#1) You never get it all on the first hunt.
#2) Hunt the outskirts, instead of going for the obvious places.
Now, I initially worked that park for a month, as often as I could, running a grid pattern, using my marker flags that I've made, then running another pattern at 90 degrees, and using all the coils I have. I pulled over 100 Wheat's out of the "towel line" area in front of the beach, along with a dozen silver dimes and a couple of War Nickels. No good jewelry, although I did get one nice 10K ring in the water the next year.
This park, on the "towel line" is JUNKY! Pulltabs every 12" or so. Iron EVERYWHERE, mostly in the form of twisty-ties for hamburger/hot dog buns. I repeat, I've used my 5", 8", and 10.5" coils here. Even as junky as it is, the 10.5" managed to see "around" a few targets, and was able to get more of the tilted coins.
Today I went in, with my 8" coil, Sens. at 5, GB'ed slightly positive, swinging SLOWLY so I could hear as much audio information as I could. I got a few modern coins, and started digging some junk. I managed to get one crusty green Wheat (most Wheat's here are crusty green), at 4", that indicated solid Zinc Cent. Then, I managed to get two Wheat's that were co-located with some pulltabs. See statement #1 above. I just need to mark off a small area, grit my teeth, and proceed to dig all shallow hits, then come back in with a bigger coil and get the deepies.
After about an hour of listening to the hammering mid-tones in my ears, I started wandering in the back part of the park. This may have originally been the entrance, or at least a back entrance, as there is a gate, and some gravel paths for vehicles. I scouted this area out years ago, and did find a Wheat, but not the quantity of older coins that I was getting at the beach, so I wrote it off as unproductive. See #2 above. I wasn't getting many hits, so when I encountered a shallow Zinc hit, I dug it. I was surprised to find another crusty green Wheat at 2"! And, it's a 1919. A foot away, I got another similar signal. This one was a '20 Wheat! A couple feet away, I got yet another shallow Wheat. Go figure.
Laurie came by to see how I was doing, as well as let one of our twin sons run around after his Doctor's appointment. We talked, and watched Logan play for awhile. I kept wanting to head back to where I had left off, but Laurie kept telling me to stay. Go figure. After she left, I went straight back to where I had left off. 5' from where I recovered the trio of Wheat's, I got a solid High Coin hit at an indicated 3". I flipped up a plug, and started removing loose dirt and gravel from the hole, when I saw the silver edge of a dime. I thought I had a Merc., judging from the little bit I saw. Once I had the coin in my hand, sure enough, it was a Merc! Here is it:
<center> <img src=http://img322.imageshack.us/img322/1298/20060531merc7xj.jpg> </center> <p>
It's in pretty good shape, to. All totalled, I got 6 Wheat's, dated '19, '20, '42, '45, '51D, and '52D; and the Merc.
Note: the picture(s) might not show up due to bandwidth limitations. If the picture(s) are not there, check back at a later time.
HH from Allen in MI