Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Anyone go metal detecting?

I don't hunt flowerbeds......grin

I ran the heck out out one from 78/84. Best find is/was a 1886 penny ( https://www.etsy.com/listing/479158...8r5Kt2AIVEWt-Ch1rcwACEAQYAiABEgKR4fD_BwE ). Horses of coil under bleachers and swings at the schools !...good fun ,but you have to learn... I know I passed up a lot of gold...cause it read as junk .

My son does a some metal detecting as a hobby when he has the time. Objects he finds that look like they could have some collector interest he sometimes puts on e-bay. The last I heard him say he had already made over $100 so far from stuff he's found. Coins like wheat and Indian head pennies, buffalo nickles, Mercury dimes, etc. he keeps. Finds lots of junk metal though --- rusted out tin food, engine fluid and beverage cans, pull tabs and bottle caps, lots and lots of rusty nails especially around where old homesteads and buildings used to be. He started out with a little Radio Shack detector back years ago in his early teens. That one paid for itself just by finding our lost aluminum arrows. A while later on he bought a used White's at a pawn shop. A few years back he bought a mid-price new high tech machine and pin pointer, can't recall the brand name and model now though. They all use 9 v batteries, IIRC. He seems to really enjoy it.

Oh yea...my "finds" included 10 million beer can tabs…the old rip 'off type lol

Sub’d

Thirty years ago I lived in central Georgia, my buddy and I went in on a nice metal detector. There were some minor Civil War battlefields in the area where we looked. We did find several spent minie balls, all smushed up.
The town where we lived was the capital of Georgia during the war,and Sherman's Army spent two days there. My buddy was looking in a garden there in the town, at a house, and he found a brass button.
We looked it up and it was from a soldier from Massachusetts. That was pretty cool, we knew that on Nov. 23 or 24 of 1864, somehow that soldier lost his button. Because the next day Sherman was on the way to Savannah.

Found a lot of pop tops and nails.

I use the AT-Pro and have both large (standard) and small coils. The small coil sure is nice to use to find more targets... I was missing several items till I got the smaller coil.

Great way to spend the day.

dave

I bought a Garrett detector years ago and have used it off and on. I bought it mostly to find arrows that got under the pine straw at my range. It works very well for that.

Yesterday I found a ferrule to an old fork or knife that is made of silver and a button from the late 1700's to early 1800's.

The ferrule is about the lightest most next to nothing piece of metal that I can imagine finding, but it gave a great signal.

The button is a flat one piece button marked "Standard Colour Orange" that was once gilded with orange gold and probably isn't worth 2 cents...but it is fun looking and you never know what you will find. I was looking in a plowed field in an area where we have found a good many pieces of pottery flint flakes and "arrow heads". So far we have found 2 of the buttons that date from that time period. Yesterday, I also found a flint that appears to be for a shotgun or rifle from that same period. The metal detector wasn't used for that.

I like to look in places where people are puling their keys out of their pockets. Dirt parking lots, boat landings, playgrounds, church playgrounds, gates with locks off dirt roads are great places to find coins, areas around old buildings in the country, etc.

One important thing is to get permission first. Tell people what you will be doing and tell them that they won't be able to tell you were there. I always tell them I can haul off the trash or bury it back in the ground where I found it and let them pick which one they want me to do. I have also told people that anything that I find that is identifiable to the individual that lost it will go back to that individual. It's not very likely that anything you find will be worth any real money, but showing the people what you found can get you access to property and an invitation back. I have also offered to give anything I found to the property owner if they want it. Never had anyone take me up on it, but it is a gesture of good will and has gotten me permission to look.

Just stay outta huntsman22's manicured flower beds.

Anybody look for meteorites? Which detector best for finding them?

Flowerbeds and older garden areas are prime areas for lost rings....





http://nuggetshooter.ipbhost.com/

I have a neighbor who likes to detect in parks and river banks. An older lady. You should have seen how excited she got when I salted the grass with some pennies. Lol. still, she enjoys it, and it makes it easy yo find property stakes at the corners of the property.

If you love WWII and metal detecting check out WWII history hunter on YouTube. He goes to old battle fields and other WWII spots and finds some really nice stuff even occasionally dog tags.......

Hunted Milledgville, Macon, Griswoldville, and Clinton. Started detecting in 76 and still at it today. Rev War, Civil War relics targeted by me. Many buttons, buckles and relics from those sites worth much dollars. I don't sell anything just love to uncover and collect it.

I use a Nautilus DMC IIBa and a Troy Shadow X5 detector. Gives best depth and discrimination in my area.

geo

My coworker used one to find his sprinkler system valve and said it worked perfectly.

I run a White's DFX. I started in the early 80's with a Red Baron RB5. I shipped that off to Rattler a couple of years ago when he said he wanted to give it a try. There are two keys to successful metal detecting ... research and knowing your machine. The research part is a lot of fun and you'll become the local historian. Getting to know your machine is the harder part and takes trial and error. The best way is to bury the targets you're looking for and note how your machine reacts. But don't bury your wedding ring too deep, the wife isn't very understanding. A site that is often overlooked is a farmer's field. The hunting is hard as targets are widely dispersed, but they normally have never been hunted and if east of the Mississippi they have been traversed for 250 years. Always get permission first. Good Luck!

I went a lot during my 20’s, haven’t been in years. I had good luck finding old coins around old cemeteries and old churches.

I've been meaning to get one to explore old mining tailings piles, just haven't had time. As we have few cities and none old enough to have interesting aka valuable hidden metal objects finding some quartz with stringers or picture gold seems like a better use of time.

Examples of a couple things my son has found metal detecting.

Friendship, Love, Truth. Odd Fellows.