Metal detecting

Have thoughts about it occasionally. Never goes much further. I really don't have time for it so I can't see spending the money on one.

I metal detected for years. Ran a Whites 5000D Series 2 with a 12" loop for land hunting. Ran a Whites Surfmaster for all my underwater hunting. Found more silver coins than I could have ever imagined. My best land hunting was in PA, but had many good finds in Ohio also. Water detecting is where to go if you like gold jewelry. Once I started water hunting I pretty much quit land hunting. Today my 5000D is used to find crossbow bolts after they pass through whitetails. I had this detector for over 30 years and it still works like the day I bought it.

Bought a detector for my dad a few years ago for birthday or Father's Day. One of those. It's come in handy a few times for finding stray arrows that missed the target and landed in the field behind my house.
That's a good use.

I'm interested in getting into but other hobbies seem to take precedence. I'd love to take one around the old logging and silver mining camps up in the Cascades and Olympic mountains.

I brought it up to my mom once and she said she would have to disown me if I became involved with it. Apparently, I currently have TOO many hobbies that describe me as a "recluse." Guns, knives, trapping, model trains, online hunting forums, and archery ect. So then I told her that at least I am dating a girl with a great ass and she hung up the phone on me. lol

Yep, that's what every mom wants to hear, ha. I've got a detector from wally world that's great for lost things in the yard & for loose change. I'm glad to see I'm not the only with multiple hobbies...... railroad, telescopes, rc flying & of course DEER !

Tom, that was hilarious lol....

Tom you're the man...

I have done it off and on for years. I go from an obsession for a few weeks then put it down for a year or two.
I have a Bounty Hunter. I've found the usual stuff like coins, pocket knives, old brass bases from shotgun shells when they had cardboard... But the coolest thing I have found;

I was working a flood plane along the Ashtabula river basin with a friend. He was excited to find some ox shoes which he said were used more in the area pre-1850... The area was timbered for old growth timber during and pre-civil war then floated/dragged down stream to the mouth of the river to what was then part ship yard.(On Lake Erie) As I looked down the area we were in I noticed a very large old tree that would have taken 3-4 men to reach around. It had to be old growth. All the other trees within sight were about 75-100 years old. I started working around the base of that old tree and got a hit. Digging down about 2-3 inches I found what later proved out to be a metal button off a union civil war uniform.
My mind raced to the spot I had been earlier that day to envision that area nothing more than possible a grassy field with that one tree he must have sat down under to rest or eat snagging the button on a root as he got up.
No diamond rings or Rolex watches but that one old button got me hooked. Many old location structures are long gone but a trip to the county seat or log in to the Library of congress will usually produce a old map. Mine was the 1856 map by a company called "Nunan" They made maps of many of our county's that year. You may be surprised to see what structures were around you back then. Long gone homes, 1 room schools, saw mills, grain mills...

That's quite the story, pretty cool. I bet anything that the day after I die, they come out with a flint detector. Ha.

My friend was quite the historian and specialized on the great train disaster of 1876 in town.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashtabula_River_Railroad_Disaster

http://www.deadohio.com/AshTrain.htm

Every year in the spring he would go down to that stretch of river and re-work the area. The spring break-up of ice and thaw almost always produced something else to add to his collection. (Which he has displayed on occasion over the years.) Sometimes its just hardware but he has also detected some really cool items from the disaster. Probably one of the oddest things he had was a small glass jar about the size of a sm. prescription bottle around 1/4 filled with small gold balls of various sizes. When the fires started, they became hot enough to melt the gold jewelry of some of the passengers and even (I suppose) teeth fillings... The fall "pile drove" things well into the earth and river bank so you never know what the spring will reveal!

Anyway, He hooked me and showed me the ways to find lost structures to time.
Of course I always hope to fine a old mason jar of silver or gold coins around "old places"...

Used one last year to find my wedding band that got lost in the yard. We found it but also found a bunch of those old style beer can pull tabs and some old nails. Would be cool to get into and can see how you could get hooked on it.

Cool thread. 2 years ago my Dad bought a metal detector from Radio shack for around $400. I think he used it a few times. He also had an older White's detector. Last Sunday when I went and visited he made sure I left there with both of them. He told me to take a buddy out and have a blast. I figure that's all I need is another hobby. But what person doesn't love a treasure hunt?

My son asked for a metal detector for Xmas this year, with being winter it has sat in the corner. After this thread I was reminded that it was here and got me interested in it. So with that I went out today to play with it at an old farm, in short time I came up with a pocket watch , old tractor generator brass badge, and of course a small shed.

So, that's the way to find sheds!

Dang I would think that pocket watch could be worth some change. You going to try and clean it up at all?