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DIGS O' THE DAY (2006-01-07): NIGHT HUNTING WITH A NOVICE

lordmarcovanlordmarcovan Posts: 43,194 ✭✭✭✭✭
DIGS O' THE DAY (2006-01-07): NIGHT HUNTING WITH A NOVICE

After work on Saturday night, I left with Chris McCarthy, one of my coworkers. He had expressed a desire to try metal detecting, so we went out to the beach with my two detectors, to give him a chance to try it out. I figured the beach would offer some easier digging, but the challenge of setting the detectors' sensitivity properly for wet sand conditions made things more difficult for both of us- we each got a few false signals and soon left the beach empty-handed, mostly since it was a cold, windy night and pretty dark. I seldom ever got many signals on that part of the beach, anyway, which is a little surprising since we were right in front of the King and Prince Beach Resort, where I used to work for nearly seven years. I suppose one must wait for the right tidal conditions or a storm, to remove some of the sand before many targets can be found there. There's sure to be a lot of targets in the sand there, as that's a very busy spot on summer days.

Once up on dry land in the scruffy grass of the public beach access, Chris dug his first detector targets: some aluminum trash. That certainly wasn't my idea of fun, though, and I was worried that the beeping of the detector would disturb the guests in the nearby hotel buildings. (I had headphones, but only one set, and left them in the van since they weren't working properly.) We left the King and Prince and headed over to Neptune Park, which is located by the Pier and the St. Simons Lighthouse, on the southernmost tip of the island. The public buildings in the park were undergoing a major renovation of some sort, and they had plowed up a lot of the sod around the area. This made for some very tempting "naked dirt", particularly as Neptune Park has been a regular producer of silver coins over the years. Unfortunately, all that nice naked dirt in the construction areas had been fenced off and clearly marked with signs restricting access. Darn! Maybe when all the construction activity is winding down, there will be a window of opportunity between the time the fences come down and the time they re-sod the lawns.

The first place I took Chris was to the sandy playground area, since digging would be easy there- easier than on the beach, even, since the sand was dry and loose, and there was bound to be plenty of modern change and perhaps a key or a ring or two. Shooting for modern change is not my idea of exciting detecting, but good practice for someone on his first outing. Chris found a small, cheap trinket of some sort- a child's charm or pendant, and some modern coins. I seemed to be finding all the trash, but soon I was popping out modern coins as well. We left the playground and went to the back of the park behind the buildings, where art fairs and similar events are often set up, and found a few more coins and small targets. We also found an old, buried sprinkler head that I always seem to dig up- it gives a solid half dollar reading on my meter every time, and I must have tried to dig the darn thing up five or six times over the last decade.

My total haul for the night was about 83 cents in modern coinage. I don't recall who came out ahead in the tally, but Chris did okay for someone on his first outing. We were windburned and chilled, though- my ears were purple from the cold, and Chris, who'd been digging without any gloves, had numb hands. I had sort of hoped one of us would get a Wheat cent or perhaps some silver, but that was a bit too much to expect for a training expedition at night under less-than-comfortable weather conditions. Though there is no doubt still plenty of silver left in Neptune Park, and Wheaties galore, it's been hunted enough to ensure that a lot of the easier pickings are gone.

If Chris still has detector fever after such slim pickings, then perhaps he's made of the right stuff. He seemed to enjoy himself. So did I, despite the lackluster finds.

The St. Simons Island lighthouse, taken at night from Neptune Park. It was built in 1872 on the site of the original 1808 lighthouse, which had been destroyed by retreating Confederate forces early in the Civil War.


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Neptune Park and the St. Simons Island Pier, taken on a drizzly afternoon in 2005.


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~RWS

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