I Buy Me This Metal Detector

[Sixgun]

Who in the hell ever said "retirement is great" or this stuff about the "Golden Years"? This winter has been the toughest for me to get through in all my life...no BS.......I can only shoot so much before I get bored.....can only clean up after so many animals.....can only get on"leverguns" so much.......I went from not having enough hours in the day to too many hours......

Anyway, enough of the whining......I go out the other day and buy me a metal detector to hopefully bridge the gap in my boredom. I did a bit of research and found that for an unknowledgable guy like me, a Garrett 400 Ace is a good start......spent half the day reading the manual and the other half playing out in the yard. After the detector, a pointer and a plastic trowel, and taxes, I had just about five c-notes into it.

Then........drum roll please....Yesterday, .I went on my first expedition out in the pasture and a bit into the woods and repeated the same today.........I scanned the areas where there were no bullet traps, past or present. Only thing I found was a mess of silver dollars, a gold Elgin watch, some buffalo head nickels and a double eagle.

How about you guys...you play with these?--------6



Not too bad huh?


OK, the BS is over. I found close to a dollar in change...nothing older than 1980, a mess of bullets that all but three are mine, and a Hot Wheels car that my son left in the yard probably 40 years ago. Also found a mess of buried beer cans????? (I don't know) and other metallic junk. I'm new to the game and am learning on how to differentiate between junk and good stuff.

[missionary5155]

I thought you got this so you could find all those long forgotten shooters.

[Pete44ru]

.


This past Summer, I bought a plastic-ey detector for $10 @ a yard sale.

It actually works pretty good, based on the several times I've used it.

I found a ring (which my youngest Daughter claimed), a few modern coins, and an active, but hidden, water shutoff valve, buried about 6" down in the lawn of my municipal library (I re-buried it).

An acquaintance of mine has found a LOT of jewelry in the Winter, but he only works state or city salt water beaches that are usually packed solidly with sunbathers all Summer.(We live in the Ocean State)


.

[Griff]

What? Forget where all the guns are buried? Sometimers disease hit early?

[Blaine]

I can just see it now: The Official Metal Detector Old fanny burp Uniform....

7380243-expressive-old-man-in-loud-shirt-holiday-concept-isolated-against-white.jpg

[Sixgun]

[quote=BlaineG post_id
I can just see it now: The Official Metal Detector Old fanny burp Uniform....7380243-expressive-old-man-in-loud-shirt-holiday-concept-isolated-against-white.jpg
[/quote]


Oh man...just wet my pants! A white Michael Jackson. ----6

[Pitchy]

Well heck, if ya lose your car keys ya got it made.
Now bring it over here and we`ll walk the old grades and dig up some RR stuff.

[OldWin]

No lie, I hate to lose brass so bad I used to borrow my buddies to find my empty after I shot a deer.

There, it's out, psychoanalise that!

I always thought it'd be cool to use one around the old time logging camps.
The same buddy used to prospect a little too.

[Rimfire McNutjob]

You know he's a gun guy at heart when he can tell that out of all of the bullets he found ... 3 weren't his. I'll bet they lacked the personal monogram that he's stamped on the bottom of all of "his" bullets since the early 70's.

[Sixgun]

Yea, I hear ya....for things like finding stuff in a small area where you KNOW you lost it, the $125 pointer would work fine.

McNutjob....good one......


First place I'm going to hit outside of here is an old wooden 1 room church with an outhouse outside a couple of miles down the road.. It's been boarded up for at least 40 years and has been in service since the early 1800's.....no cemetery on there or anything else. It's where the farmers help used to go as they were not allowed in the white mans churches.

Then there's Brandywine Battlefield about 4 miles down the road and another area 2 miles from there where the largest battle actually took place but going to jail is not what I want to do.

Lots of old homesteads around here from the 1700's and even late 1600's, but these "old money" people want to keep riff-raff like me off of them. The house where my wife grew up was built in 1804 but has since been bulldozed over and the ground all changed over.

I like returns on my investments but I think this one is a loser....for fun only. We will see.---6

[6pt-sika]

No lie, I hate to lose brass so bad I used to borrow my buddies to find my empty after I shot a deer.

There, it's out, psychoanalise that!

I always thought it'd be cool to use one around the old time logging camps.
The same buddy used to prospect a little too.

Been there done that !

When the 260 REM first hit the market I got one right away and a single box of bullets . Used those 20 cases to work up loads and load for the upcoming season . Anyway I dropped a live round while seated about 30 feet up in a tree and couldn't find it in the leaves below . So as you said I borrowed a friends detector and found it in about 5 minutes .

[6pt-sika]

I had a "Compass" brand detector when I was in high school . My grandfather and a friend of his were HUNG UP on looking for civil war relics . Swear to God I could walk over a spot with my detector give it to one of them and they go back over the same spot and find something good . I found a bunch of nails plow points horse halter buckles and junk like that .

Lets just say I didn't then and do not now have the patience for metal detecting .

[marlinman93]

There are areas of my backyard I'd just have to avoid, or I'd spend more time digging than detecting! Too many metal fabrication projects done, and too many pieces of metal lost!

[ollogger]

Have not used mine all that much but had good intentions, the only thing I found that pleased me was a live 32-20 round
that I dropped in the long grass


Brad

[Sixgun]

These new ones have great built technology. You can "mode" it for coins, jewelry, relics, and even customize what you are looking for. In the "coins" mode, you will only hear beeps for non-ferrous items, but larger iron pieces will still beep. There is a cursor that shows what the probable find is.....iron....lead/brass/copper........and up,the scale to silver. You will get a digital readout showing how "good" your target is. High numbers from 60-99 will get you excited......like yesterday when I was getting 84-90, then finding a buried beer can.........most all beer cans I found were Pabst Blue Ribbon which was my choice from 1975-95 and I have no idea how they got buried. I keep a clean yard and don't just throw trash around.

There's a great "iron audio" button that when you push it a low tone beep will come up telling you it's junk iron, therefore allowing to to skip digging it up. There's also a lot of stuff I have yet to learn that saves you a lot of digging.

Then there is a "pin pointer" which allows you to pinpoint the target. A 6" hole is all that is required to dig and then you use your pointer to find it in the clump of pelosi you just dug up.

It's definitely challenging which is what I need for my present mental boredom. ----6

[Griff]

I don't need a metal detector. I can just let my son drive around the pasture with my p/u... He's already found 2 railroad spikes with the front tires...

[Sixgun]

Griff,
Thanks!!!! I needed that laugh.---6

Hey, have you seen the toy yet?

[earlmck]

I tried one about 20 years ago. I had located some nifty old homestead places in Nevada because my job at that time got me out into remote areas. About the 10,000 th square nail I dug up I threw up my hands and gave up: a "junk iron" indicator would sure have been handy and might have kept me in the game.

[Bill in Oregon]

Dang, Blaine, do you have benign prostate hypertrophy, too?



Actually, I have a Minelab Xterra 705 I need to get out of the garage and use again. Haven't found a lot with it, but the very first thing I found with this particular machine was a nice Mercury dime, so I have high hopes for it.

[EdinCT]

I have a buddy who had a detector that cost him around 2000 grand and he found about everything one can imagine. He found a button from a war of 1812 coat between the road and sidewalk in the downtown of Groton CT! Colonial coppers and musket balls in places you would go to jail today for shooting one. One day he invited me to go on a side hill of some property our church had been given and we found the back half of a 45/90 shell, I wished it could talk. He also was in Mass on a green that once was used for milita drills and while digging musket balls found a perfect flint and gave it to me. I wonder if it was a British or Yankee flint? One thing I used to do for him was to make note of all foundations I found while hunting in the state forests.
He recently told me he had sold his gear and has gone into photography because he was bored with it!

[jeepnik]

Back in the late 70's early 80's I was working nights. I'd get off work and as a way to relax I'd walk the local beach with a, compared to today, primitive metal detector. I did find quite a few coins, keys, a few watches and surprisingly several wedding rings (women's). I let the life guards know and left them my number. I'm happy to say I was able to return them all to their owners.

Retirement is coming, and I plan to do a bit of that again. I actually still have that old detector (wonder if it still works) but I'll likely do an upgrade.

[Sixgun]

Like most things in life, we all end up "upgrading". I did not want to start at the top but also did not want junk either. So far, I'm pleased with this one. Eric. (Yooper2) gave me lots of information on where to start in my quest. My many thanks to him for his knowledge.

Lots of sunshine for a change around here....think I'll put my fatigues on and give it another try.----6