A great find and another first - still can't believe it

Over the past several days, I have been taking my little guy with me when I metal detect out at one of the oldest park in town that quite the history. Each time I went, I ventured over to the far end of the park away from all the hustle and bustle to an area I thought would have ground that has been relatively untouched since its inception in the 1890s. The spots where I swung my detector had no rhyme or reason to it because I was at the will of wandering toddler who likes to watch people, geese, planes flying in the air, and every single squirrel within his curious gaze.

With this challenging variable, I decided to be really particular about the signals I chose to retrieve - no iffy ones, just ones that were solid and could easily be some form of coinage. One signal I got was about 2 inches outside the ring you see of a recently planted tree in the park, so it was ground that was undisturbed for quite some time. The target ID I got made me think older penny but it would jump down to pulltab range as well. I took my screwdriver out and took a chance at it. As I pulled up some dirt, waved it over my detector and confirmed it was in my hand. As the dirt fell away, I could see the beginning of a circular pattern and I first thought "pull-tab again" - but then I got a sparkle! My was floored and completely dumbfounded - I had found my first gold ring! I quickly checked the inside of the band to verify and I saw the "10K" marking on it. It was a larger men's ring.

What makes this ring stand out though is not the size of the gold ring, but the size of the stone that it holds, it was huge! I was secretly hoping in the back of my mind that this was a diamond but I did not want to get my hopes up. I got it tested over at a local jeweler (thermal test) and it was negative. Still, the 10K band came in at a decent 5.25 pennyweights. Finds like these definitely get you deeper into the hobby!

Living on the edge

There is this new approach to parks that I have started to take with a few good results. The idea came from an ebook I got free through a Minelab owners forum, called "Understanding your X-TERRA" by Randy Horton. In this book, a friend of Randy's likes to hunt along the edge of a sidewalk, where the park or property grass meets the sidewalk. The theory in this approach is that people drop items from their pockets and if it falls on edge, it could roll to this interface and get stuck in the grass matrix. Take it for whatever you think but I plan on testing this out and see what results I get over time.

For now, an "edge" search that I did at a park on the east end of town yielded me one penny and one flower earring. Not bad. There is potential - even for edges that seem like they would produce nothing. Things have not always been like they are now - conditions change and some spots collect dropped items and then become just a piece of grass at the edge of a park where no detectors have gone before.

First Silver....in my own backyard!

Well the weather was better than predicted and since my 19mo son is a outdoors loving toddler, I figured I would have another go around the backyard. Why would I swing coil around an area I have already detected? Well, for one thing, I am more experienced with the slight differences in tones given off by my detector and I had also changed my threshold and sensitivity settings to something less conservative. In the course of trying to keep an eye on my 19mo son, I discovered about  cents in clad, some pieces of aluminum sheeting that I suspect were cut when the house was constructed in 1979, and a leftover piece of a water sprinkler. The real surprise came when I discovered a sterling silver pendant shaped like a lizard. I don't have a weight on it but it is indeed silver as it had the "925" stamp on the underside I was looking for.

First Old Coin...1946 S Wheat Penny!

Had an afternoon to venture some property just a mile outside of an old mining town of Neihart, MT. In its heyday, Neihart was a town that was built up from a boom in mining huge silver and lead ore deposits. I ventured around some and came upon a major dump site (lots of old cans) and picked up a couple 22 caliber bullets still intact. Other than a few other random pieces of metal and a screw cap to some type of heating units (rated at 150,000 BTU from a company called MTI in Perrysville, OH) there wasn't much I was getting of any interest.

 

As I made my way back to the cabin, I swung my detector just off the roadway. Just a mere two feet from the road's edge, right across from the cabin driveway, I got a solid beep that definitely sounded "coin." It was only a 1/2 inch in the soil and I picked it up and saw Lincoln's head. "Oh, just a penny" I thought as I turned it around - that's when I saw the wheat penny reverse side. Oh man, was I excited. On top of that, I brought it in and cleaned it soap and water and discovered it was a 1946 - with an S mint mark! - WooHoo! My first old coin and it was a San Francisco minted wheat penny. This is certainly a first that I will remember for a long time. Looking forward to other great finds in the future in that ol' mining town that dates back to the 1870s.

Been a while

So I have been tardy as of late in my metal detecting pursuits. What can I say? Life is happening. At any rate, I scouted the Fort Shaw property and now have permission to detect it whenever I am ready. In the meantime, I am curious about detecting another's friends property that is out of town but along the Smith River. Need to do some research on the history of the area so I can get an idea of what my be out there.

First set of rings!

Made a faithful return to that good city park that gave so much earlier. This time the real producers were THE EDGES of the tot lot. On two different sides, I recovered not one, but two different rings. Don't get too excited  about the stone, it's good ol' cubic zirconium (there's a chip in it). The target IDs on these didn't catch my eye, but when they were recovered, they certainly got my attention. A button and 26 cents in clad was also had this time.

Getting excited for a potential trip this weekend to a nearby tiny town of Fort Shaw and get a chance to hunt some ranch land. Maybe there will be a relic or two in the mix...

Interesting weekend finds

This past weekend I got some time to hunt at a different park in town. The park is considerably large and will take quite a few visits to thoroughly cover. For this first trip, I kept the hunt isolated to the tot lot along some of the more rugged terrain on the far end of the park. The tot lot yielded a very nice $1.22 in clad in just about an hour's time. In the far end of the park, I got some nice signals which turned up a railroad spike and a kitchen knife with the blade broken off. 

I'm sure there are other goodies out there so as soon as this 6" of snow that just fell in town last night takes a hike and gets a little warmer