Describe your close calls
pendragon1998
Posts: 2,070 ✭✭✭
I've been enjoying lurking around here. I don't detect, but after reading about your posts I've at least had a few pretty vivid dreams about metal detecting. I suppose that counts for something.
Anyway...I was wondering if y'all had any good "close call" stories to share. Almost stick your hand in a rattlesnake's face? Ever come close to being tossed in the back of a police car because you looked suspicious? Ever bring that shovel down an inch away from a beautiful gold coin?
I'm sure y'all have some stories to tell!
Anyway...I was wondering if y'all had any good "close call" stories to share. Almost stick your hand in a rattlesnake's face? Ever come close to being tossed in the back of a police car because you looked suspicious? Ever bring that shovel down an inch away from a beautiful gold coin?
I'm sure y'all have some stories to tell!
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another time me a friend were looking for a way into a property. i decided to climb the fence. as the first leg went over, i ripped the crotch of my pants. my friend found the gate to be unlocked and walked right in. hahahahaha
I went to an old lumber mill site that dates back to around 1840, on an old road here that dates back to use in the 1500's...I was poking around where a fellow MD'er said he had found several Barber dimes. Well the the mill was located down a part of the road that is all dirt and several miles in a deserted area....basically, nobody around for miles. I always hunt with my earphones on ,and got out of my vehicle, turned on my detector so it could acclimate, and then got my headphones and put them on....as I rounded a tree right in front of my vehicle.....I walked right up on a rattlesnake!...As luck would have it, I was looking down and watching where I was going, but it still startled me. I debated on killing the snake, but since I was in his domain, I just let him go. My nerves were so rattled, that I packed up my stuff and left....I have never been back since, and now the site is gone. That snake was a 6 footer and had a around 6-8 rattles, but it was hard to get an exact count, as you can imagine!
One time, and this was a funny one.......I was downtown and searching around an old oak tree in the center of one of our local parks.....I had searched for 10 minutes or so, when an old black man walked up and just stood around, watching me....after about 5 more minutes, I looked at him, dropped my headphones and asked him how he was doing. I just stared at me and said..."Mista, that is shore one nice one ya got dere"...I told him thanks, and he said, "It's da quietest one I ever heard..and the grass shore looks good when ya cut it..." I didn't have the heart to tell him it was a metal detetcor, and not a weed eater!!
One of the times I was sure I was going to jail........a fellow MD'er who I don't associate with any longer, called me and asked if I would like to go to Darien, Ga. A local place with a lot of history. There is a church there where Sherman was supposed to have camped when he was terrorizing Savannah...Well, after reassuring me that we had permission to hunt the grounds, we set off to look. It was a beautiful day, and before long we were finding Mercury head dimes by the dozens, the signals were so many that it was hard to even pinpoint the targets. After about 20 minutes, all of a sudden there was the sound of police car sirens and dust and dirt filled the air. Several police jumped out of their cars, pulled guns on us, and told us to stand still..The sheriff asked us what the hell we were doing there..I told him we were MDing and he asked us who gave us permission! I looked at the guy that told me it was OK and he said...."Nobody, I just thought it would be OK".........I almost died....They told us to get the hell off their property, and never come back, if we did, he would throw us in jail, no questions asked. The sheriff was Tom Poppel, and he meant every word he said....he had a reputation there, and he would back it up....The trip home was eventful. I was so pissed at the guy for doing that.....I severed my ties with him, and have never been back to Darien again, although now the sheriff is dead...
I was watching the ground for anything interesting while we were walking thru grass/mud on a hillside that had some eroding. Came across a mud covered item that was about the size of a quarter and obviously a coin. I waited till we got back to the car to use some bottled water to wash it off hoping it would be civil war era.
a very muddy 1973 quarter.
Not exactly a close call but had my mind racing until I could get it washed off.
On the way home we happened to run into a group of off duty police that were doing a fund raiser (at a four way stop sign in the middle of nowhere none the less). I guess he was checking out my backseat. He mentioned my metal detector and I said yes we'd been out hunting earlier in the day near the state park but made sure to mention we weren't actually using it in the park. He told me about a nice river landing where he says tons of civil war bullets can be found just with the naked eye and a little ground searching. I've been dying to get back out there since then but my wife and I haven't been able to get any time when we are both off to go there yet since with the drive its a whole day adventure.
You wouldn't believe how long it took to get him to sit still for this.
*ZLLLLOOOP!!!*
My feet shot out from under me on the wet grass, and I was soon tobogganing down the bank on my buttocks. I was unhurt by the fall, since the bank was not very high (only about as high as the roof of my car, below), but the problem was, the detector took the brunt of my fall, and snapped right in two at the control housing. Aaack!
The warranty fixed it, but I was detectorless for a while. Then a coil died right after I got it back. That first GTA-500 I got was a real lemon- or cursed. But after some wrangling, I ended up getting a whole new detector. (Now that I think about it, the dead coil happened first. I got a replacement machine after the first one snapped in two.)
Rattlesnakes? No. Oh, we've got 'em, though. Big 'uns. I have had a couple of snake encounters, though fortunately they were harmless ones. Still, they'll get your adrenaline up at first! Once I came upon a monstrous blacksnake that was easily five feet long. Another was the little green snake that fell across the bill of my cap as I ducked under a branch, and swung in front of my face!
I had a close call of sorts on the day I found my oldest coin. I was detecting in a freshly cleared area in the woods. Hurricane Earl had come across Florida and hit us from the landward side. It was still fairly distant, so we didn't have any rain, but the winds were blowing in 40-50-60 MPH gusts. That didn't bother me much since I was wearing headphones and was surrounded by woods, which served as a windbreak for the most part. I was just happy that the wind gusts were keeping me cool and preventing the usual deer flies and skeeters from attacking me.
Just as I had dug a strange, squarish piece of copper that looked like a mysterious old coin, a couple of guys wandered down the path towards me, and said,
"Is that your van out by the road?"
They needed me to move my van so they could start cutting up and carrying off the big, huge hickory tree that had fallen across the road... right in front of it.
It would've crushed my van, easily!
So I can not only say I have been detecting in a blizzard (that was in North Carolina), but in a hurricane, as well.
Well, OK, so sue me for exaggeration. Earl was just a weaking tropical storm at the time.
Here's a borrowed picture of what I almost ended up with as a facial decoration.
A banana spider. I don't know if they are dangerous, but imagine having THIS pasted to your face by a bunch of sticky tendrils of spiderweb!
That was one of the times I let out a little girly squeal of terror, just for a second.
I think I already told the story of the dozen pairs of glowing eyes that were staring out of the woods next to me on one night hunt, right?
And splitting my pants wide open, too. Done that many a time, but not out in some secluded place where I was detecting, with nobody around. Noooo, I had to do it at work, while passing through a five-star restaurant.
<< <i>I think I already told the story of the dozen pairs of glowing eyes that were staring out of the woods next to me on one night hunt, right? >>
I found it!
Thanks to Lord M for the stories I requested