Anyone hunt in the 1960s or 70s?

[bergie]

Anyone here who hunted when the hobby was first getting started decades ago? I imagine you could go just about anywhere and find amazing stuff. Every place was unhunted. Any great stories? I could imagine a place like Coney Island amusement park or any major site untouched...

 

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[GunFarce]

(For some reason the first part of my message vanished.. Here's the whole thing)

In 1973-74 I ran a diving shop in Toronto. One of my customers was into treasure hunting, and knowing that I lived up near lake simcoe, he asked me if I would like to give it a try on a spot he heard about. Soldiers bay is a spot on the holland river where a marina is located. At that time the East shore was simply a farm field. According to the records he searched, during the war od 1812 a bateau (small barge) was tied to a large willow tree on soldiers bay. The bateau was bound for Big Bay Point, the jumping off spot to willow creek, georgian bay, and north to the fort at michilimacinac(sp?) It caught fire and there was an explosion (black powder and muskets were also being hauled) The record said along with the muskets and powder was the 'soldiers pay' supposedly in an iron box on board. We found a old wagon rut trail (large trees now growing up in the middle of it) and followed it to a depression near the waters edge My friend had two detectors with him, a hand held conventional unit, and a thing he called a metritech(sp?) which consisted of a 6 foot pole with a transmitter on one end, and the receiver on the other. He said it would detect down to about 25 feet.. We found a lapstrake boat held together with copper nails under the mud, and dug through the hull because we were getting a stronger signal below the wood.. digging down about 12 inches, we found a wooden box and retrieved it. There was a signal from the box, and it was heavy.. We pulled it apart, and it was full of concrete (obviously a makeshift anchor) there was a sold signal coming from the concrete so I bashed it with a rock ,and out rolled a cannon ball.. The large detector was picking up a weak signal of a large mass of metal just off shore (all mud) so there was something definitely down there. Unfortunately, it would have taken, days, a cofferdam and mud pumps, to get down, and that was a much bigger operation than we were capable of undertaking.. Bob, my friend, has since passed away, but I was always fascinated by the things he found, from spanish silver to other coins and artefacts. My wife and I visited him several times after he and his wife Bev. had moved to Nova Scotia. Some of the stuff he found, and where he found it was absolutely fascinating. Now, over thirty years later, I have a MD.. My wife bought be one for Christmas this year.. A bounty hunter 2200 .. Maybe not the best, but now I can't wait for the ground to thaw and get out there.. Thanks Bob, rest in piece old friend... I've been waiting 30 years for this, and I suppose I can wait a few more months.....

 

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[shamhawks]

I'm new to this site, so have to bump this thread.

Must have been about 1976-7 when I was about 7 years old, and I'm at a family gathering and see a guy accross the street at a park with a metal detector and asked my parents if I could go over and talk/watch the guy and they said sure, but don't bug him. The guy was very friendly and he let me help him for what seemed like hours and I swear we didn't go more than 2-3 feet without hitting on something. He had so much what was probably silver and a few gold rings, watches etc. I also remember him giving me about $5 for helping him, so I know he must have done good.

I had so much fun, and can't believe I waited about 25 years to get my first MD. Parents must have said no to getting me a detector. guess, I can blame them

Also to add another good story (since I'm new here ) About 3 years ago, I go to a very small town (1-2k pop) where my grandfather lived and start off at the H.S football field and i had to be the first person to hunt here, cuz it was like a sea of coins. In one 10 foot area, I found what had to be $10 just in quarters with at least 5 silvers. IT had to be the concession trailer area. Anyway after that, I go to a baseball field area around the concession area again, where there is alot of pebble type gravel, and had a fair amount of luck there too. I finished off at the Elementry school and again was like a sea of coins everywhere. You didn't just find one, you found them in bunches. Half way through looking there, 3 grade school kids come and ask me questions and help. i must have thought back to the day the guy let me help him, so I take the headphones off, and let them listen to what I'm finding and help me....lol...It ended up being a free for-all and these kids were diving for where the coins were. They each probably ended up with about $2 each and finally it got too crazy and told them thanks for the help and left.

I put in about 6-7 hours in the 3 locations and although I don't remember the specifics, I had to of found at least $30 in clad and at least 20 silvers, 2 rings, 1 watch and a bunch of other misc and let the kids have about $6...have not had anthing close to this since in quanity and always wanted to go back as I barely even scratched the surface on the place, but it's about 5 hours away from me now and with gas prices the way they are, will stay close to home for awhile.

 

[trk5capt]

I Started In 1970, Mostly CW Relics, Have To Admit It Was Better Then Than Now. trk5capt...

 

[Gypsy Heart]

These stories are remarkable. Thanks so much for sharing them with us! Great thread!

 

[mlw67]

I started in 1977, with my dad's Compass 77-B.

By the early 1980s I was pretty proficient with it, and me and my hunting buddies got good at researching for sites, too.  We were able to find 4 or 5 totally virgin sites that were just jam packed with old coins.

My favorite site *ever* was the old Yakima, WA train depot.  There had been a park there from around 1890 to 1955, but around that time (1955) most of the park was razed for a parking lot.  The remaining little bit of park had become a weed infested bum hangout, but we realized its potential and scored big time.  The huntable area was only about 100 yards long by about 40 feet wide, but we had it all to ourselves and spent about 2 solid months of one summer on our knees digging bucketfulls of old coins, all dated before 1955!  I found a Morgan dollar there, among all the other lovelies.

Another hot site we got to hunt was a private site that by sheer luck my mom knew the owner, so we were able to get permission.  It had been a campground--possibly the most popular campground in WA state--from about 1870 to 1920.  We weren't the first to hunt that spot, in fact it had been hunted heavily before we ever set a coil upon it.  Still that didn't keep us from finding handfulls of barbers and indians!  I used to ride my bike up there with my detector on the handlebars every day I could, and came home every time with a bunch of 100 year old coins.  Local legend had it that the original hunters of that site had retired off the finds they had made.  I don't know if that is true or not, but I talked to one guy who had been there when it first was getting hunted and he told me he had found 5 gold pieces just around one tree, to say nothing of the silver!  As an aside, to this day, regretfully, I have not found a single gold coin, despite the countless silvers I've pulled out.     Nonetheless, that site produced what to this day is still my oldest American coin, an 1869 indian head (I'm in the northwest, remember  ), and also my most valuable dime to this day, a gorgeous XF condition 1904-S.  I still remember making both of those finds--the indian head came out of a hole after digging out 12 bottle caps, and the dime came to me by patiently sifting by ear (no discrimination!) through thousands of spent .22 casings in what had obviously been a firing range.  We had to earn *some* of those coins.  

Yeah, things have changed.  Today I had to work my butt off for hours just to find and dig up a single merc.     I still love the hunt though!!  

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

I used to hunt in the 70's. Finding silver was an everyday thing. I was upset that gold was not as easy. Quit hunting to work. When a hurricane hit Treasure Beach for the first time in 40 years, I dusted off my old Whites Amphibian, that picks up a quarter at 4" depth on its best day,, and headed for Treasure Beach! And I'm still here!

The most fun I had was taking my Coinmaster with me on an island hopping cruise to Jamaica, Cozumel, Caymans, and the Bahamas. No one had ever heard of doing it.

 

[DJ_Quinn]

WHAT GREAT STORIES! They would make a great book. The good old days when the pickings were the best. I thought I would find easy pickings here in Ireland because metal detecting is not very popular or common at all, however I am finding it to be more of a challenge probably due to the small population and undeveloped land. Those stories are great though, and I'll find ny horde one day.

 

[lonewolfe]

YEA , BUT I DON'T REMEMBER THE 60's & Early 70's? ?? SORRY? 8)

LOL!

quit smokin that crap Jeff and you might remember!

 

[Michigan Badger]

I started in the spring of 1968 in a small Michigan town. I used a Whites CoinMaster IV that got about 3 inches on a dime and 4 1/2 max on a silver quarter.

I hunted mainly parks in those days and dug loads of wheat cents but very little silver.
I tried different low cost machines but it wasn't until 1983 when I bought a Fisher 1260-X that everything turned around. I started finding Mercs; Barber Dimes; Indian cents, and rings.

Yes, 1983 was the beginning of good THing for me.

After some 38 years I still haven't found a standing liberty quarter with a date nor have I dug a silver half of any type (lots of clad JFKs).

Today I'm mainly a relic hunter so I don't really focus on coin sites that much.

For me, THing has been getting better, not worse. I find higher quality stuff today than I ever did back in those old days. The detectors are vastly superior today and there's so much more knowledge available.

I wouldn't go back for anything. Today's the best!

 

[SmokeEater]

I started in the 70's when my father bought a Relco Pacesetter. It was a lower end brand of MD, but it worked. I lived about a half mile from the oldest park in town, and while many of my friends headed for the swimming pool, I hit the areas around the lagoon and the picnic areas. YES, I dug my share of pulltabs, because there wasn't much descrimination on the older models. My best non-coin find was a brass padlock marked by one of the local railroads. I often wondered how it got there. No gold coins yet, but I still am looking. I currently use a White's XLT.
HH SmokeEater

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

In the early70's you could still find silver in your pocket change and was no big deal. A quarter was 25cents. So when you went detecting you found no clad on the beach because it wasn't invented yet. I remember buying a 1966 GTO in 1971-2 and the trunk had a box full of rolled silver quarters. I spent most of them.

 

[jblank37]

Started back in the late 60's with a home made BFO detector. This consisted of a coil glued to the bottom of a round piece of plywood, mounted to a broom stick with the electronics mounted to it. I worked across the street from a park that was a civil war army depot back in the 1800's. It was common to look for 2 to 3 hours and find at least a 100 coins along with a good number of minnie balls and verious civil war relics. All of these from 1 to 3 inches in depth. I saved up enough to buy my first store bought detector after awhile. It was a Heathkit, That I built myself. I went from this to a White's Coinmaster IV and a White's 66T. This is when I started finding the deeper coins. Alot of these were Indian Head pennies, Liberty Nickels, Buffalo Nickels, Barber Dimes and Quarters, a few Barber Halves, along with 3 Silver Dollars. My oldest coin from this park, a 1865 two cent piece. Never any gold. Also back in these days, I hunted 2 fairgrounds about 3 hours a day for a total of 9 days. Total equaled 1042 coins and 9 rings. No clad! Those were the days. The coins are still out there. Just have to get over them.

Friend's, John

 

[Southcacalaky]

Must have good pickins then, HH Art...