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FIELD REPORT
August 10th 2003
The area I gained permision to search is a swimming pool that has a fence around it.
Inside the fence are three small lawns where the sun bathers lounge in their lounge chairs.
The lawns are routinely mobbed with swimmers and loungers so I was excited to begin my search.
I started out on the first lawn and my first target was a siver ring. I dug it out with my probe
and damaged it slightly. I tend to dig carelessly when I know I will be digging a lot of clad.
This is a big mistake
on my part cause I know you can dig anything at any time. I pocketed the ring and took my next swing
to find target after target I soon was pressing myself to treat each target with an equal amount
of care. Some if not most sounded to me to be pennies but I dug them and dug them and dug them.
I started to think I might only be finding pennies for the rest of the day. I steadied myself
and
thought about what I was doing, I thought about what signal I wanted to hear. I decided
that any signal could be anything so I should just be careful and dig everything. When there
are so many targets in so small an area you start to go a little buggy. I did a pattern that covered
the entire
20' by 10' lawn. I finished the
initial pattern in just under an hour, wich was the amount of time I was given to search before
they put out the lounge chairs and opened the pool. In that time I had tried to stay focused
on locating any good signal but I didn't dig a few signals cause I couldn't find them with my
probe.
After I finished the pattern and before I had to leave I did a quick pattern going the other way
and found quarters, dimes and pennies all over the area. I just hope that I was listening carefully
enough for those iffy sounding gold signals that could be small jewelry. I think I was trying atleast.
I know the lawn I searched still has dozens of targets to be found but I'm more interested in the other
two lawn sections first. This site is going to take a few weeks to finish.
FIELD REPORT
August 17th 2003
Dig, dig carefully, don't give up. Three main rules to follow. I hit the lawns at the pool again and I needed these
rules to keep me going. My detector was sounding off like R2D2, the lawn was full of rocks, and someone emptied their penny jar.
I patiently attacked the area in a slow, contained assault. The signals that my detector identified as zinc pennies I left for another day.
I scanned ahead picking off penny after penny until finaly I saw silver in my hole. I pulled out an extrordinarily plain silver band.
I made my way across the two lawns in just over an hour. Several times I couldn't find the target with my probe so I left it and kept moving.
I figure I've got weeks left in the season to hunt it so I'm not in a big hurry.
FIELD REPORT
August 30th 2003
Last week I said dig, dig carefully and don't give up, well I dug my share today.
Last week after I did the two far lawns at the pool area, having skipped the zinc penny signals,
I had a pocket full of change and a silver ring. I basically went in and got all the choice
signals out of the way. So great, today I went back with my four inch coil on my Discovery
2000 and went after all those pennies. I came up with 23 from the two lawns. What else did
I find? Well nothing really except for two cheap earrings. I said cheap, not the 18k gold or
diamond studded variety. My main thought of today is if you skip those pennies you could be
missing some good stuff like small gold jewelry because the signals for small gold can sound
exactly like zinc pennies, foil or some combination. Today my diligence didn't pay off but I
bet it will tomorrow.
Maybe I spoke too soon it did pay off today! I found a lovely ring at the playground
over in Crossroads. I used the old White's classic III. Boy is that thing noisy in the trash!
FIELD REPORT
August 31, 2003
Variety is the spice of life. Today I meant to do the pool area with my 4" coil but the guy never showed up.
I spent an hour hunting an enormous lawn with my 4" coil just to kill the time. I actually managed to find about 30 cents.
Then I changed sites and hunted a restaurant's outdoor seating area. I ran into a lot of trash and used my 8" and 4" coils. I found about a buck in clad.
If I found anything valuable I was to turn it in to the owner but I was hoping to find something good anyway. I finished there and went to a friends
business where I had been recruited to clear the back alley of nails. The business was built in 1924 so I was only too happy to volunteer.
I searched and picked up nails and found the usual back lot items like pipe fittings, a peephole lens, and light bulbs. I also found a couple dimes, a few pennies,
and a quarter. By the way I did manage to find 16 nails total but not a single old coin.
FIELD REPORT
May 22, 2003
Today I hunted the old middle school in Sisters. Some of the buildings were recently demolished
and the ground was scrapped clean. I was happy to be on grounds that date back to the early 1930's.
Trash was a problem and I really had to slow myself down. I decided to give it a good effort. I hunted the
fenceline where the bus picks up the kids and along the sidewalks that were removed. I hunted along the
line of where the school house used to be and just went slow looking for faint signals. I found a wheat penny
and thought I might find some silver if I keep on creeping along but I never did. I am conviced there are many
more old coins buried at the school but they are deep and really hard to locate.
Here is a hint to follow:
Zero in. When you are detecting where there may be a lot of
discriminated items it takes some patience. How many times have you swept your
coil back to a signal you wanted to double check only to find a real solid
round and distinct signal. It happens to me a lot and I know most of my finds come
when I am going slowly and zeroing in on anything I come across. The difference between hitting
the signal right in the middle of your sweep and of finding the signal off
to one side or the other is huge, the detector will generally sound off near the signal
and it is up to you to follow it through.
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