Metal Detecting Official 2011 Tracking Thread

[AGgressive Metal]

I have a metal detector now, so I want to track what I find. Hopefully some others will join in and post their finds too.

I am running just a basic White's coin shooter. It is an intro-level detector so its not great at distinguishing between items, so I do a lot of digging.

[Thogey]

I find so many bullets and shells, you'd think WWII happened in Prescott.

[DirtyFingers]

I have a metal detector now, so I want to track what I find. Hopefully some others will join in and post their finds too.

I am running just a basic White's coin shooter. It is an intro-level detector so its not great at distinguishing between items, so I do a lot of digging.

Great idea! I like reading about coin shooting finds. Do we post as we find or post what we have found for the year? I keep a tally on my finds from year to year.

[TheJonasCollegeFund]

Went out for a quick hunt before my 12-hour midnight shift. I found my second .925 silver ring. This after countless pieces of junk jewelry. And it had a 'honker' of a stone. But I knew by how big it was....that's not my kind of luck. The stone was bigger than the eraser head on a pencil. SO, I had to hunt a little more after work to kill time until the coin/jewelry shop opened to have it checked out. BUMMER! Still silver but no-go on the diamonds! Soory about no picture. Will eventually start posting some pics later. I started back in the middle of August with the Ace250. I've found over 2100 coins (1300+pennies) for over $115. I seem to have no competition in a couple of good areas.


Sorry, these two small hunts produced 54 coins for $3.42

quarters-5
dimes-16
nickles-6
pennies-27 (17copper)

[TheJonasCollegeFund]

Hit the park on the way home from work this morning. Short hunt. More pull-tabs than anything else. But, more funds for the dump bank. $1.25 to add to the pile. I don't usually dig for pennies on short hunts but these 20 today were right below the surface and all I had to do was 'pop' them out. No digging for 'em. Over 1400 pennies in 2+ months. With 500+ being copper!

1-quarter
8-dimes
20-pennies (13 copper)

[Lemon Thrower]

ace 250 here. used it once at the beach and did not find anything.

any suggestions on where to hunt?

[TheJonasCollegeFund]

I've had a tough time at the beach, too. So far, my best places have been tot-lots and parks. Next would be baseball and soccer fields. I've been expanding on those too. I've discoverded the grass on the edges of outside basketball courts are full of coins. Gravel (loose) parking lots are cool too, as long as there is alot of traffic/parking there. Then again, you could try your own back yard. Also, I've got 4 spots to hit hard next year...all have concession stands close by. These 4 sites have produced alot of change. Kids and pennies...when I stopped at the park this morning I only bothered with the shallow pennies. I'd still be there digging if I went after all of them. There are thousands of them at this park. I bet it would look like the surface of the moon if I had dug all of them. Maybe one day just for the fun of it (exercise), I'll dig all of the penny signals I get.

[DirtyFingers]

My son and I coin shoot old homesteads where we can get permission and abandoned homes, which there are alot of these days. So far this year, between the two of us, we've dug up 2-sterling silver rings, 1-14k gold ring and three copper rings. $3.00 face of 90%, around 75 wheat cents back to 1910 and 5 Indian Heads, two of them 1876 and 6 buffalo nickles. In between hunting around old houses we hunt public areas and so far this year we've dug up close to $225 in clad coin. We've dug alot of junk over the years but we've found that it's best to dig every signal unless it's blatantly a junk signal. I'll dig the cents if it's a copper signal.

DF

[Thogey]

That's the funny thing about detecting. If you're not discriminating, you spend hours digging up wire, screws..(wait a loud signal) aluminum pull tabs, bottles caps, bullets, nails. and "bang.."

You find a corroded zinc or maybe even a dime.

It's like hitting the motherload.

[DirtyFingers]

It never gets old. The best days of the year for me is when I leave home with the discriminator and my fishing tackle in my truck. I generally shoot on jewelry or coin mode.

DF

[TheJonasCollegeFund]

Another short hunt after work this morning. Hit a popular tot-lot and found a litte clad and a 'tweety bird' charm. Then headed home but had to take a quick stop at my favorite tot-lot. I have let it alone for about 2 weeks. It produced a little as always. But this time I ventured into the grass. The grass is where it's at! Pennies everywhere again. I tried just shooting dimes and quarters along with the shallow pennies. Alot of solid dime signals turned out to be pennies. You ace owners know what I'm talking about! Had fun and the weather was nice.

quarters-13
dimes-----9
nickels....2
pennies..42

$4.67 to the dump pile! (except the 19 coppers!)

[TheJonasCollegeFund]

Stopped again after work this morning to the spot I finished up with yesterday. Won't have a chance to hunt again until Saturday afternoon. This spot produced 11 quarters and a few dimes yesterday. I wanted to hit that a little harder today. Plan again was to shoot quarters and dimes. I did try out a couple of the nickle signals, too. And, I dug a few pennies. Anyways, I had fun. Nice weather for me. The bank said it was a whopping 39 degrees when I started. (had shorts on) The sun was out and after working in the HOT mill, 39 felt great! No great finds just some clad for the dump pile.

quarters-18
dimes-17
nickles-3 (1958-d)
pennies 12 (4 coppers)
total-$6.47 ($4.67 yesterday....found me a new pick-3 number for the lottery!)

[TheJonasCollegeFund]

Got out this evening for about an hour. It rained most of the early afternoon. Easier to dig with that rain. Went again shooting for quarters and dimes. Had the county police check on me...he sat and watched me for about a 1/2 hour. Almost every time at this spot...I get a visit from either the county or city police. I just wish they had more female officers! I'm either in a high crime area or somebody is doing something in the area I'm hunting....either way my spider senses keep me on my toes whenever I'm there. Funny thing is that when they show up..they come in really fast...no lights or sirens just fast. I guess they want to see me run. Anymore I just see them out of the corner of my eye and kinda ignore them. Short hour hunt got more funds for the dump bank. $2.06 The 6 pennies I got all had solid dime readings on the ace.

quarters-6
dimes-5
pennies-6(4 copper)

total-$2.06

[Thogey]

You're not allowed to dig in sports fields around here so...

Thursday during my son's soccor practice, outside the fence.

6 Aluminum cans: 3 beer (incl 1-24 ouncer), a brass screw. A computer! ( mashed and twisted frame with wires, in a drainage ditch). An Al junction box.

Wow, I hit the motherload!

[TheJonasCollegeFund]

Had 10 minutes of light after work this evening....went to a little park down the street I grew up as a kid. The name...Penny Park...ha! Anyway, 10 minute hunt got me a quarter and 4 zincers. $0.29 to the dump pile! I need some pennies to search.

[TheJonasCollegeFund]

Had 15 minutes of light this evening after work for a quick hunt at a tot-lot that's close to my work. Got me some more funds for the dump bank. $1.16 + 1 pull-tab! Tried to hit all of the high percentage spots. The 13 coins came in 3 spots. 3 minor pocket spills!

quarters-3
dimes-3
nickels-1
pennies-6 (3 coppers)

[AGgressive Metal]

Jonas - seeing as how we aren't competing in the same city, maybe you could give me some tips on where to search I only ever find a few crusty zincs and maybe a couple nickels.

[TheJonasCollegeFund]

I've mostly been practicing in parks. I have 3 tot-lots that I had been hitting every week or two. I have two little league fields to hunt. (not on the field) Then I have two large parks. One dates back to 1909, and the other, dates back to the late 50's/early 60's. I don't seem to have alot of competition for clad. I know there are a few hunters in my area but they are out for silver and relics. Lately, I've moved out from the tot-lots to any grass area. I'm finding more stuff that others overlook. Both baseball fields have 2 concession stands each. I just start from there and spread out. I'm just slowing down and hitting stuff harder. The newer park has alot of gravel parking lots and 4 softball fields with lots of adult leagues playing all the time. Each time I go out I learn something new in where the high percentage spots are. At one of the baseball fields the other day, I just followed a trail from one of the fields to the main parking lot. Lots of tire tracks from kids bikes. That whole trail was loaded with coins. I only was looking for nickels and up. Tons of pennies were marked. I scored $3 or $4 just walking that trail in the grass, mostly dimes and quarters! I found a batting cage that was on a concrete slab. It had 4 seperate spaces for 4 hitters at once. I've found lots of coins in the grass inches from the edge of the concrete! The whole perimeter had coins....I bet they just rolled off from the hitters and into the grass. And the four gates for the cages...just outside them, I guess where the next group are waiting their turn....more coins! Last tip....get out and scout some areas....watch people/kids. "THE GRASS IS WHERE IT'S AT!"

[AGgressive Metal]

Thanks - for the most part the parks I've hit are low use areas. I find mainly pop tabs and the like. I need to find higher-traffic areas, but in Cincinnati, a lot of those places are not places I want to be, especially as a white boy with a dorky metal detector.

[TheJonasCollegeFund]

This evening after work I got about 30 minutes to hunt before it got dark. I hit my rival high school's practice football/baseball field. Haven't been at that baseball field in 22+years. Once again, this was 5 minutes from my work! I messed around too long on the practice field because last time I drove by there the girls soccer team was practicing there and I could see alot of BLING! No luck...so I headed over to the baseball field to hunt by the bleachers and the backstop. Of course, I stayed off of the field, even though, as a stupid teenager, this was the same field that some friends and myself used gasoline to burn our schools initials into it during their homecoming game against us. During the game I would ask their guys when I made a tackle..."Do I smell like gas?"! Anyway....I had fun thinking about the old days. Short hunt got me another $1.37 for the dump bank! Lots of penny targets. This field also is where the high school has gym classes when it's nice out. I did find a pair of earrings...but no bling! JUNK! I'll be back when I have more time. There is some potential here!

quarters-5
dimes-1
pennies-2 (2-copper)

$1.37

[TheJonasCollegeFund]

Hey AG...I got an aunt and uncle in Georgetown who is begging me to visit them. If I get the chance next spring, maybe we could hook up and hit those spots...that'll make 2 white boys. Can't be any worse than Chicago or Gary,IN!

[TheJonasCollegeFund]

Went out on a scouting trip today, mainly for next year. I hit a bunch of new spots. A couple of parks and 2 beaches. But I ended the day at one of my favorite places. More for the dump bank! Went hunting in shorts and as I left I saw ICE in the birdbath. It did warm up to fifty, though! Nice sun action, too! Come January I'll be missing days like today! Nothing special in finds today...clad, pennies, and pull tabs.

quarters-13
dimes-15
nickels-4
pennies-52 (22 copper)

$5.47

[Lemon Thrower]

i have a detector but have not used it much. i'm starting to get an idea about where i might find stuff. how do you go about starting, say at a h.s. practice field. do you need permission or anything?

[TheJonasCollegeFund]

Public schools....PUBLIC....tax payer property. I stay away or ask permission from any private or religious school. I see no difference between the little grade schools and the bigger high schools. In an earlier post I was hunting at my old high school's rival. It's right next to the police station. I just waved at them...they waved back. There is no difference between walking/jogging on the track or playing catch with your son or metal detecting. You just have to use your head and common sense. I don't dig on the actual field. I may pop a shallow coin or two but no big plugs. I'm sure I'm not doing any more damage than them pesky moles or all of those squirrels. Any public property should be fair game unless it's posted. I have tried to get of some school property around here but because of some vandals it gets locked up at night and the weekends....even barb wire. Most of the schools are open, though. I plan on hitting that high school practice field again this week before work!

[TheJonasCollegeFund]

Got out for a 1 1/2 hour hunt on Saturday and about 4 hours today. Saturday I hit two small schools and my favorite skateboard (pennies) park. I did better in the grass just outside of the playgrounds. I did find my 4th presidential dollar under the swings at one of the playgrounds. Both of these schools were middle schools. Today I hit 2 small parks, 1 big park, and my favorite baseball field. The three parks together pruduced a couple of coins. One junk earring and one Cabela's token....thought it was a chuckecheese one. I've hit them before and the finds are getting smaller and smaller. On the other hand, the baseball field was a different story. When I got there I noticed that they recently picked up their wooded bleechers. I tried lifting them earlier this year...way too heavy! They all had that black thin tarp to keep the weeds out. Also it had about an inch of dirt on top of that. It was loaded with coins. I have to go back when the weeds die off. I'm amazed at the amount of weeds coming out of the tiniest cracks in that tarp! Anyway, totals below. Maybe I got enough recently to go get me a box of pennies to do.

Totals:

Dollars-1 (G.W.)
Quarters-15
Dimes-29
Nickels-4
Pennies-56 (21 copper)