My finds worth posting -- updated 12/13/14

WhiteTornado · July 4, 2014 11:35PM

Figured I may as well start a thread for my finds. Hopefully I find enough to keep this thread going

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Hunted a local high school yesterday. Spent most of my time in the foul ground area of the baseball field, and then near the front entrance to the school.

Found $1.22 in clad, actually my best clad haul in one outing, believe it or not. Three of the pennies in the top row of the picture are really shot, all chunked up. The red penny really is painted red. The item in the lower left was some sort of junk jewelry item, maybe a tie tac. Hard to tell. It has a pin in the back and there was a spring in it, although the spring fell out as I was scrubbing the item with a toothbrush.

Not sure what this is, any ideas? Appears to be iron, may have been blue at one time. Found it at the baseball field, I think somewhere behind home plate.

ricko · July 5, 2014 6:09AM

Nice group of quarters there...no idea what the metal chunk is...Cheers, RickO

Bayard1908 · July 5, 2014 11:47AM

Good start and good experience for finding more.

WhiteTornado · July 6, 2014 10:32AM

Consensus on Treasurenet was that it's a piece from an older style, drag-behind implement that would be used to groom a baseball infield.

WhiteTornado · July 10, 2014 4:28AM

Had about an hour this morning so I hit two tot lots I had not hunted before. Slim pickins at both locations. First tot lot was very small and there were hardly any signals there. Got the cent pictured, a 1982. Second lot was bigger but not much to be found there. Dug one signal down pretty deep, must have been 8 inches and it was just can slaw

. Got the dime pictured, along with the two large, iron objects. I'm guessing those were from some landscaping or construction crew. At least I got more practice with my machine and now have another couple of locations I can cross off my list.

Happy hunting everyone.

kennytpez · July 10, 2014 10:01AM

Nice finds for both trips!

ricko · July 10, 2014 11:18PM

<< <i>and now have another couple of locations I can cross off my list. >>

White Tornado.... experience MD'rs know that a site is NEVER hunted out....Cheers, RickO

Bayard1908 · July 11, 2014 2:19AM

Big pieces of junk like that will usually give a surface signal, yet not actually be on the surface. If you can lift your coil a foot or so off the surface, and still get a signal, you're almost certainly dealing with a big piece of junk. The probability that it's a huge coin spill or treasure chest is fairly low.

WhiteTornado · July 15, 2014 9:09AM

ricko...i won't cross them off forever, but they do need to season for a while

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Bayard...thanks, that is a good tip and these iron plates did give off the kind of signal you described.

WhiteTornado · August 18, 2014 2:14AM

Went to the beach in Ocean City, MD last week. Tried out my detector in the dry sand a couple of times (it is not waterproof, so no shallow water hunting). We were staying at the northern end of the beach. The "towel line" area was almost devoid of signals, it was weird. I even tried lowering the discrimination. I heard that beach re-nourishment may have taken place earlier this season, so perhaps the goodies were deeply buried under the new sand. I did have a little bit of success around the beach entrance areas and the umbrella rental stands. I hunted early morning a couple of times, got in maybe 2 hours of hunting time total and produced 44 cents in clad. It was fun to do it and I did get to practice with my sand scoop.

I met another hunter who was swinging an AT Pro one evening. He and his wife said they both hunt. They told me that during their beach trip last year, the wife found a ladies solitaire diamond ring, about 30 blocks to the south.

Happy hunting, everyone.

pcgs69 · August 18, 2014 11:41AM

It was worth a shot. You never know what will show up at the beach. I've never really had much luck out there but others have had luck.

ebaybuyer · August 20, 2014 10:58AM

that is a weird looking item, kinda looks like a veloceraptor claw

WhiteTornado · August 31, 2014 4:24AM

Been a few weeks since I hunted. Last time was my beach vacation. Talked my son into coming along this time

. We hit one of the local high schools, concentrating on the areas near the front entrance. Didn't do as well as I did a while back at another school, but it was still fun to get out. My son is getting better at using the equipment and learning how to pinpoint within the target hole. Keepers included 2 clad dimes and 4 modern Lincolns, two of them toasted beyond recognition. Happy hunting all!

ricko · August 31, 2014 4:28AM

Practice improves your hit rate..... also, research might lead you to some better hunting grounds... Cheers, RickO

WhiteTornado · August 31, 2014 10:09AM

Heat and humidity returned to central Maryland today. We lasted only about 45 minutes before my son got bored and I got too hot. Whew! I hope to do another club hunt in September.

gyocomgd · September 1, 2014 2:05PM

The value of the nail, pull tab and Dell button can only go up from here. Hang on to them.

WhiteTornado · September 7, 2014 8:20AM

Hunted a park for a couple of hours. Got some clad and a toy car. The clad included a nice pocket spill, most of those coins were on the surface.

WhiteTornado · October 15, 2014 2:11AM

Last Sunday was my treasure club's annual open hunt, in the beach area of a state park. I woke up feeling sick as a dog, must have caught a bad cold on Friday. But I dragged myself out of bed, popped Advil and headed out. I didn't want to forfeit my $75 registration! In fact, it’s been a rough week which is why it’s taken me this long to post about it.

To clarify, this was held at the beach area of a state park, so all you needed was a detector and a sand scoop. I'm sure that is done on purpose to make the proceedings go quickly.

The first hunt was all silver coins and I got just under $2 face, as shown. No rarities of course but it was cool to get a couple of Barber Dimes and a few Mercs. I was feeling fine during that hunt and up through our lunch break. But, then I started dragging the second half, as the Advil wore off and it clouded up and got cooler. After lunch they had a kids hunt for a while, then we finally did the second hunt about 1:15 PM. That one was all tokens which were later redeemable for prizes.

I only found one token as they didn't hide as many of those, and apparently I was not alone. I think some people got shut out. My prize wasn't all that great, a t-shirt provided by one of the sponsoring metal detector companies, Whites. Some people got old silver like Morgans and Peaces, a couple of guys got new detectors (Minelab Xterra 305 and a Whites Coinmaster), and there were a lot of giveaways for things like hats, headphones, diggers, etc.

They also had a few raffles; I bought tickets for the giveaway of a gold coin. Didn't win that one. The big giveaway was for a new AT Pro. All participants were given one ticket. Would you believe mine was off by ONE DIGIT??

One really cool giveaway involved them hiding 10 small keys, 5 during the silver hunt and 5 during the token hunt. Each person was allowed to try the key on a small wooden treasure chest. They had stuffed it with things like a modern $5 gold coin, a string of pearls, a couple of Reales, and several more items. Total value was $500. I didn’t find a key.

The giveaways went on and on and I didn't leave until about 3:00 PM. I was back to feeling sick as a dog by that point til I could come home and get more medicine.

All in all it was good, probably worth going again next year. And I’m sure it will seem even better when I’m healthy next time LOL. It was a nice outing and serves to raise awareness of the club. Some people came from as far away as NY and TN. The TN guy even donated a small bag of gems, apparently from one of those fields where you can pay a fee and hunt for gems. In April they have another outing but it is a closed hunt, only open to club members. I'll be interested to see how many goodies they give away at that one.

ArgentumStaccum · October 15, 2014 4:35AM

Excellent report, White Tornado!

Bayard1908 · October 15, 2014 8:06AM

I've never found a Barber dime, a silver quarter, or a war nickel. You've got me beat.

WhiteTornado · October 15, 2014 8:45AM

<< <i>I've never found a Barber dime, a silver quarter, or a war nickel. You've got me beat. >>

Well, to be fair, it's a seeded hunt so they pushed me pretty far to the finish line before letting me run

pcgs69 · October 15, 2014 10:58PM

So you took a cab to mile 26 of a marathon and ran from there...no bigs!

Just tell everyone you found 17 silvers in one hunt! You stumbled upon a site where they were littered everywhere...never seen anything like it before.

WhiteTornado · October 16, 2014 4:27AM

<< <i>So you took a cab to mile 26 of a marathon and ran from there...no bigs!

Just tell everyone you found 17 silvers in one hunt! You stumbled upon a site where they were littered everywhere...never seen anything like it before. >>

I like that storyline

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My club treasurer just informed me that the same guy who won the $500 treasure chest also won a Whites pinpointer, a $130 value. So that guy really cleaned up!

WhiteTornado · October 25, 2014 11:02AM

Got out for the first time in two weeks. Great weather, blue skies and temps in upper 60s to low 70s. I decided to make my first ever attempt at door knocking.

Most of the houses in my neighborhood are newer, built since 1970, including my own. There is one house, though, about a mile from my place and I noticed via searches online that it was built in 1930. Always wondered if that yard would yield anything decent. So I got up the gumption and drove over there and knocked on the door. No answer after a couple of knocks so I had to skip that place. I saw they have a "for sale" sign in the yard now, so hopefully I can get a chance there soon.

Wasn't quite sure where to head after that, so I tried a church a few miles away. The main doors were open so I wandered in. Took a minute before finally finding a few ladies in the kitchen area. Explained why I was there and the one closest to me kind of smiled and said with a laugh, "and when you find a million dollars, you'll let us know, right"?

It was obvious they really didn't care if I hunted the property, so I got started.

Hunted around the edges of the parking lot and along the sides of the building. Didn't find much, just 26 cents in clad and a few trash items. Spent about an hour and a half there. I noticed about halfway through that the couple of other cars were gone, so I was there all by myself. It was nice to finally crack the ice on hunting private property. Hoping it leads to better finds in the near future

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Happy hunting, all.

pcgs69 · October 25, 2014 1:10PM

It's tougher than it sounds to knock on doors. You never know what kind of personality will answer. If you're ever at an old restaurant or other location, I find that after you made a purchase, or have gone there a few times, they tend to say "yes" if you ask. Who is going to say "no" to a paying customer?

WhiteTornado · November 7, 2014 2:38AM

Not much hunting for me lately. I did get out last weekend for about an hour and a half. Wasn't quite in the mood to knock on doors so I decided to hit a couple of schools I had not hunted before. Both are fairly modern. First hunted an elementary school which is probably no more than 40 years old. I was surprised at how little I found. Maybe others have hunted it already, don't know. I got a couple of toasted pennies and some assorted junk, including the yellow "whatsit" pictured. Any idea what it is? Found it next to a sidewalk on the interior grounds (not next to the street). The white item on the lower left of the solo picture is a golf tee, just used that to help prop it up and provide a profile shot.

Moved on to a high school which was remodeled just 3 years ago. The front grounds have a lot of concrete, not as much sod as I've seen at other schools. Found a clad dime and a couple more pennies. Also found a bent key and someone's lacrosse pin, which is the most interesting item I've found in a while. Pretty sure it's just costume jewelry, but neat nonetheless.

My local treasure club is having a group hunt next weekend, so I hope to get out there and make my first really big find. You never know. Happy hunting, all.

Bayard1908 · November 7, 2014 9:29AM

Something is wrong. You should be finding much more than this. We know that your machine works since you found a bunch of silver on a seeded hunt.

WhiteTornado · November 7, 2014 10:02AM

Could simply be location. My part of town is not that old, only about 45 years old, so maybe I need to focus on other parts of the area which are a lot older.

Bayard1908 · November 7, 2014 11:14AM

I believe the "whatsit" is a strip of fired blank cartridges used in a nail gun.

ricko · November 8, 2014 4:56AM

Correct about the nail gun strip....Cheers, RickO

WhiteTornado · November 8, 2014 10:29AM

Thanks, nail gun strip was also confirmed when I posted it on Treasurenet.

410a · November 8, 2014 10:56PM

Google Pesky VDI 92........It's a 3 year old find of mine and I will be back there today hunting before the cold weather sets in here in NJ. When I figure out how to post pictures on this site you guys and I will have more fun. Right? Right! regards, from Mike with the DFX 300

WhiteTornado · December 13, 2014 10:29AM

Went on a group hunt today at a large, old park. Temps were chilly, not as bad when we were in the woods, but when we were in the open it was windy and cold. Stayed for a few hours. Park is very large and old, a lot of history, but our group hardly found any keepers. At least the ground was nice and soft for digging due to recent rains. Below are my keepers. A large junk jewelry bracelet, it opens where the curvy parts are in the front. Neatest jewelry item I've found yet, too bad it wasn't sterling! After cleaning it up, I could tell there was paint flaking off from it. A nice-looking clad quarter, and a few modern Lincolns. One guy in the group found two Wheaties, so hopefully the old stuff turns up the next time we go there.

Happy hunting everyone.

My finds worth posting -- updated 12/13/14

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