z118
11-09-2009, 04:46 PM
Where to start...
This Sunday I met up with Angel for a hunt. I should mention that Saturday was a very long and tiring day for me. But this did not stop me from getting up at 3 am on Sunday for a 300 mile drive for a hunt with the king of all things silver. I made good time, arriving around 9:30 am. You know you are in MA when you are doing 70 in a 45 and people are passing you on both sides and making rude hand gestures as they do it. Anyway, as soon as I pulled into the agreed upon location I spotted a guy swinging a detector who I assumed was Angel. It was. I introduced myself and we promptly headed over to the spot he had picked out.
I was not expecting to find much on this hunt. Mostly I just wanted to see the man in action and learn what I could from him. He had warned that this was a trashy, heavily hunted spot, which is not my forte to say the least. As soon as I started swinging I knew I was in trouble. All I heard was trash, trash, trash. I couldn't believe it. And no clad! So much for this, I thought. But then Angel comes walking over with a 1917 Merc he pulled. This is ridiculous I'm thinking. But I kept at it. Still just trash. And more trash. Maybe 15 minutes later Angel comes walking over again, this time with a sweet silver pin. I'm starting to wonder if this guy is for real. Ugh! Again, I did not come into the hunt expecting to find anything, and I had to keep reminding myself of that. Finally I got a nice deep signal which sounded hopeful, but proved to be a '65 quarter and '67 dime. And of course Angel walks over again with more silver - a Rosie this time! I started thinking that my best chance of finding silver would be to hunt behind Angel and try for whatever silver he might drop! I got back to hunting and I swear an armored truck backed into the area and started loading up all the silver Angel had already found, presumably to haul it off to the bank or secret treasure cave or wherever it is he keeps all his loot.
The experince was very humbling. I thought never again should I attempt to put my two cents in on ANY metal detecting question because obviously I have no clue what I'm doing. So at least that was good - that I was reminded in no uncertain terms that I still have a lot to learn! At that point I just resigned myself to enjoying the nice day and watching Angel in action. I did manage a wheat in there somewhere, which was a maybe 4 inches down and completely on edge, so that made me feel a little better.
A short while later I get a VERY nice tone, but it was a little weird in that it seemed to move around based on what direction I swung. I pulled a big plug and it was still in the hole. I scooped out a lot of dirt and it was still in the hole. Angel was nearby so I was thinking about calling him over to scan with the Etrac and Itell me what he thought. But I scooped out a little more and then saw a large chunk of dirt with a silver edge in it. I was too big to be a dime and there was no reed to it which confused me for a second, but then some dirt fell away and there it was - a Standing Liberty Quarter! My first! I was pretty stinking happy, to say the least. WOW!!! That find made me feel a lot better about things!
After this point I was getting pretty tired, and I must confess my recollection get a little fuzzy. I got a tone at one point that I can not remember exactly, I believe it was a little low for silver, and did not pinpoint well, but i dug anyway and after scratching around for a while out pops a green disc that seemed like it must be a coin. I walked over to show Angel. We kind of stared at it for a while. It was caked in dirt that would not come off. We agreed it must be a coin, but couldn't figure out what. I knew if I had found something that had us both stumped then it must be pretty good. At the car we nailed it down - a half cent! Holy cow. My mind was blow. It has cleaned up pretty well so far - the date is 1804.
That's two firsts and a new oldest coin in the same hunt. WOW!
I stayed for some time longer but did not make any other finds of note. I wsa so tired I'm sure I was not as attentive as i should have been.
Angel, thanks agai for meeting up. That was a hunt I will not soon forget.
My apologies for the rambling post - I'm still pretty tired! I need to work on those pics of the half cent too... I don't have my usualt set up at hand...
This Sunday I met up with Angel for a hunt. I should mention that Saturday was a very long and tiring day for me. But this did not stop me from getting up at 3 am on Sunday for a 300 mile drive for a hunt with the king of all things silver. I made good time, arriving around 9:30 am. You know you are in MA when you are doing 70 in a 45 and people are passing you on both sides and making rude hand gestures as they do it. Anyway, as soon as I pulled into the agreed upon location I spotted a guy swinging a detector who I assumed was Angel. It was. I introduced myself and we promptly headed over to the spot he had picked out.
I was not expecting to find much on this hunt. Mostly I just wanted to see the man in action and learn what I could from him. He had warned that this was a trashy, heavily hunted spot, which is not my forte to say the least. As soon as I started swinging I knew I was in trouble. All I heard was trash, trash, trash. I couldn't believe it. And no clad! So much for this, I thought. But then Angel comes walking over with a 1917 Merc he pulled. This is ridiculous I'm thinking. But I kept at it. Still just trash. And more trash. Maybe 15 minutes later Angel comes walking over again, this time with a sweet silver pin. I'm starting to wonder if this guy is for real. Ugh! Again, I did not come into the hunt expecting to find anything, and I had to keep reminding myself of that. Finally I got a nice deep signal which sounded hopeful, but proved to be a '65 quarter and '67 dime. And of course Angel walks over again with more silver - a Rosie this time! I started thinking that my best chance of finding silver would be to hunt behind Angel and try for whatever silver he might drop! I got back to hunting and I swear an armored truck backed into the area and started loading up all the silver Angel had already found, presumably to haul it off to the bank or secret treasure cave or wherever it is he keeps all his loot.
The experince was very humbling. I thought never again should I attempt to put my two cents in on ANY metal detecting question because obviously I have no clue what I'm doing. So at least that was good - that I was reminded in no uncertain terms that I still have a lot to learn! At that point I just resigned myself to enjoying the nice day and watching Angel in action. I did manage a wheat in there somewhere, which was a maybe 4 inches down and completely on edge, so that made me feel a little better.
A short while later I get a VERY nice tone, but it was a little weird in that it seemed to move around based on what direction I swung. I pulled a big plug and it was still in the hole. I scooped out a lot of dirt and it was still in the hole. Angel was nearby so I was thinking about calling him over to scan with the Etrac and Itell me what he thought. But I scooped out a little more and then saw a large chunk of dirt with a silver edge in it. I was too big to be a dime and there was no reed to it which confused me for a second, but then some dirt fell away and there it was - a Standing Liberty Quarter! My first! I was pretty stinking happy, to say the least. WOW!!! That find made me feel a lot better about things!
After this point I was getting pretty tired, and I must confess my recollection get a little fuzzy. I got a tone at one point that I can not remember exactly, I believe it was a little low for silver, and did not pinpoint well, but i dug anyway and after scratching around for a while out pops a green disc that seemed like it must be a coin. I walked over to show Angel. We kind of stared at it for a while. It was caked in dirt that would not come off. We agreed it must be a coin, but couldn't figure out what. I knew if I had found something that had us both stumped then it must be pretty good. At the car we nailed it down - a half cent! Holy cow. My mind was blow. It has cleaned up pretty well so far - the date is 1804.
That's two firsts and a new oldest coin in the same hunt. WOW!
I stayed for some time longer but did not make any other finds of note. I wsa so tired I'm sure I was not as attentive as i should have been.
Angel, thanks agai for meeting up. That was a hunt I will not soon forget.
My apologies for the rambling post - I'm still pretty tired! I need to work on those pics of the half cent too... I don't have my usualt set up at hand...