tnt-hunter
Bronze Member
- Apr 20, 2018
- 1,847
- 9,707
- 🏆 Honorable Mentions:
- 9
- Detector(s) used
- Fisher CZ-21, Minelab Equinix 800, ,Garret AT Pro,
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
DAY 1
I went back to the school and worked on the field. I am grid searching the entire field one section at a time. I was not expecting much because I have walked over this section many times and thought it was probably pretty well cleaned out. But the results today show that just wandering around and covering areas, does leave things behind. I spent 5.0 hours swingin the CZ21 and found 26 coins with a face value of $1.33, badly busted glasses, a piece of possibly camp lead, 2 rings, an aluminum mount for a cheapie ring that would have held a rectangular glass or plastic gem, 2 civil war bullets, a button, a screw off spark plug top, an ace bandage clip, a key, some aluminum fence tie wire, can slaw and tabs.
The 2 bullets are nice .58 caliber minie balls. 2 of the nicest drops I have found here. Many others have scratches and dents from the earth moving equipment the made the playing fields. One of them was a nice high tone at 5 inches in the hard dry ground. The second was a mid low tone combination down 11 inches. Depth and position in the ground do affect the signal your detector gives you and the biggest challenge most of the time is do I dig or leave it in the ground?
The rings were a nice surprise. The first is a tungsten carbide ring with a blue decorative band that has a stone mounted on the top. The stone is a small blue topaz. The second one popped out of the plug stone first and I thought I had a real winner. Then I saw the band and knew it was plated copper and the stone had to be glass. The ring was badly mangled by a mower or by being stepped on by football spikes. The band is very ornate and beautiful. It was a nice ring before it was damaged and spent so much time in the ground that the plating is almost completely gone.
DAY 2
I went back to the school to extend the grid and work another section. This one was smaller so after 4 hours I moved to a spot less promising, but more likely to produce coins. The second part is where I found most of the money this trip. In 5 hours with my old reliable CZ21 I found 40 coins with a face value of $2.77, a civil war bullet, a lead seal, a wheatie, a beaver tail tab with Virginia deposit paid, more fence wire, can slaw and tabs.
The bullet is a .58 caliber Williams Type III cleaner bullet, one of many from the school. This one is in good shape. The lead seal is from the B&O railroad and has 270 W on the back. This is the second B&O seal from this site. The first one has B&O R.R. on the front and CUMBERLAND on the back. I am pretty sure the new one was made much more recently then the one I found before. There is not a lot of info on line about these and the B&O railroad museum does not respond to inquires. They probably don’t have the staff to look these up. Everyone seems to be understaffed these days. The seals were used primarily on box cars if my info is correct.
So civil war bullets 11 out of the past 12 hunts here so things are still going well.
DAY 3
It is after Labor Day so I had a couple of state parks to hit. You can only do the beach and swim areas, but they usually produce a few goodies so I went as always with hope and started swingin. The beach usually holds a decent number of coins, this year almost none. The water usually has a fair number of coins and jewelry, this year fewer targets, but I still found a couple of winners.
In 5 hours swingin the ATPro in the swim area and over a good part of the beach. I found 26 coins with a face value of $1.34, 3 crosses, 4 rings, 6 earrings, an earring back, a bead, 5 sinkers, part of a .22 cartridge, a brass fitting, 3.5 tabs, a piece of bent aluminum, a toy car and the ever present aluminum foil.
One ring is a nice 14k band that gave a nice solid 60 signal on the pro. The others are a decorative stainless ring, a cheapie kiddie ring and a plated copper ring with czs. The tiny cross with czs is actually a silver earring with the post missing. I can see the solder mark on the back. The earring is a 14k heart. These small items are weak signals and frequently read just like a small piece of foil. But as I always say if you’re not digging trash you are missing treasure.
DAY 4
I went to a different state park that can be productive, but is not usually as good as the one I did DAY 3. This one usually produces a lot of fishing sinkers, but we can always hope for the best and come out swingin.
I finished the entire swimming area and beach (very small well defined beach) in 4.5 hours with the ATPro. All together I found 19 coins with a face value of $1.24, assorted fishing gear (including 32 split shot sinkers), jewelry bits, an earring, 2 selfie stick retainers, a 4mm socket, 4 toy vehicles and of course foil. I also dug a few bits of big iron (large washers and lag bolts). When the signal is load and strong I always try and scoop it out. It might be a knife or something else good, but it also makes it easier to find the small jewelry bits that the strong iron signal hides from us.
The earring looked cheapie when I scooped it even though the numbers were high. I took a good look when I got home and it is silver, marked MC 235 .925 MEXICO. So I got my silver for the day. Not my best hunt, but far from being the worst and as you can see in the bottom thumbnails this place still produces lots of sinkers.
DAY 5
I took a trip back to the scout camp and went to the Cub Scout part of camp. A heavy rain suspended my hunt for about a half hour so I was only able to get in 5.5 hours this time but I did manage to finish my work on one site and part of another. All together I found 116 coins with a face value of $9.68, 46 camp tent pegs, a belt knife holder, 5 neckerchief slides, a good Buck knife, an aluminum pencil sharpener, 2 different style fake cob coins, 2 belt loop awards, a hat pin back, a bead, a bolo tie end, a Cub Scout hat pin in bad shape, 3 NO CASH VALUE tokens with eagles on the front, 6 rope tensioners, some flashlight batteries (I find them frequently I just don’t mention them), 2 tabs and melted aluminum from the campfires.
I keep finding places to hunt at camp that have not been done. Thinking of places not used now that were used in the past or places I can get to now that I couldn’t get to before and you can see the results. I saw a post about metal detecting dying as a hobby. No place is ever hunted out totally, it just might mean fewer finds and needing more patience. And there are many places no one has ever detected including private farms and homes. Some modern homes are built on land that has been used for a long time and while the construction may have moved stuff around and buried some things deep, there are still goodies to find so keep swingin, it ain’t over yet.
NATURE
At the school they mowed the field so no more flowers for the bugs and bees to come for and so no more insects to take pictures of. We did pass some flowers on our evening walk the had a couple of butterflies on them. The sun was behind them and really made them shine on the purple flowers. These butterflies are APHRODITE FRITILLARY, not ones we see normally here in western Maryland but they do have a fairly wide range of habitat.
EYEBALLS
We did several walks at the mall and I found several coins in the coin returns, a quarter and a penny on the floor and 13 cents on a bench. So a decent week for the eyeballs.
Another good week in the books with more gold and silver (YTD 10 golds and 44 silvers since my year started May 1), oldies and interesting scout stuff as usual. Thanks for looking, stay safe, good luck and may your coil lead you to good things.
I went back to the school and worked on the field. I am grid searching the entire field one section at a time. I was not expecting much because I have walked over this section many times and thought it was probably pretty well cleaned out. But the results today show that just wandering around and covering areas, does leave things behind. I spent 5.0 hours swingin the CZ21 and found 26 coins with a face value of $1.33, badly busted glasses, a piece of possibly camp lead, 2 rings, an aluminum mount for a cheapie ring that would have held a rectangular glass or plastic gem, 2 civil war bullets, a button, a screw off spark plug top, an ace bandage clip, a key, some aluminum fence tie wire, can slaw and tabs.
The 2 bullets are nice .58 caliber minie balls. 2 of the nicest drops I have found here. Many others have scratches and dents from the earth moving equipment the made the playing fields. One of them was a nice high tone at 5 inches in the hard dry ground. The second was a mid low tone combination down 11 inches. Depth and position in the ground do affect the signal your detector gives you and the biggest challenge most of the time is do I dig or leave it in the ground?
The rings were a nice surprise. The first is a tungsten carbide ring with a blue decorative band that has a stone mounted on the top. The stone is a small blue topaz. The second one popped out of the plug stone first and I thought I had a real winner. Then I saw the band and knew it was plated copper and the stone had to be glass. The ring was badly mangled by a mower or by being stepped on by football spikes. The band is very ornate and beautiful. It was a nice ring before it was damaged and spent so much time in the ground that the plating is almost completely gone.
DAY 2
I went back to the school to extend the grid and work another section. This one was smaller so after 4 hours I moved to a spot less promising, but more likely to produce coins. The second part is where I found most of the money this trip. In 5 hours with my old reliable CZ21 I found 40 coins with a face value of $2.77, a civil war bullet, a lead seal, a wheatie, a beaver tail tab with Virginia deposit paid, more fence wire, can slaw and tabs.
The bullet is a .58 caliber Williams Type III cleaner bullet, one of many from the school. This one is in good shape. The lead seal is from the B&O railroad and has 270 W on the back. This is the second B&O seal from this site. The first one has B&O R.R. on the front and CUMBERLAND on the back. I am pretty sure the new one was made much more recently then the one I found before. There is not a lot of info on line about these and the B&O railroad museum does not respond to inquires. They probably don’t have the staff to look these up. Everyone seems to be understaffed these days. The seals were used primarily on box cars if my info is correct.
So civil war bullets 11 out of the past 12 hunts here so things are still going well.
DAY 3
It is after Labor Day so I had a couple of state parks to hit. You can only do the beach and swim areas, but they usually produce a few goodies so I went as always with hope and started swingin. The beach usually holds a decent number of coins, this year almost none. The water usually has a fair number of coins and jewelry, this year fewer targets, but I still found a couple of winners.
In 5 hours swingin the ATPro in the swim area and over a good part of the beach. I found 26 coins with a face value of $1.34, 3 crosses, 4 rings, 6 earrings, an earring back, a bead, 5 sinkers, part of a .22 cartridge, a brass fitting, 3.5 tabs, a piece of bent aluminum, a toy car and the ever present aluminum foil.
One ring is a nice 14k band that gave a nice solid 60 signal on the pro. The others are a decorative stainless ring, a cheapie kiddie ring and a plated copper ring with czs. The tiny cross with czs is actually a silver earring with the post missing. I can see the solder mark on the back. The earring is a 14k heart. These small items are weak signals and frequently read just like a small piece of foil. But as I always say if you’re not digging trash you are missing treasure.
DAY 4
I went to a different state park that can be productive, but is not usually as good as the one I did DAY 3. This one usually produces a lot of fishing sinkers, but we can always hope for the best and come out swingin.
I finished the entire swimming area and beach (very small well defined beach) in 4.5 hours with the ATPro. All together I found 19 coins with a face value of $1.24, assorted fishing gear (including 32 split shot sinkers), jewelry bits, an earring, 2 selfie stick retainers, a 4mm socket, 4 toy vehicles and of course foil. I also dug a few bits of big iron (large washers and lag bolts). When the signal is load and strong I always try and scoop it out. It might be a knife or something else good, but it also makes it easier to find the small jewelry bits that the strong iron signal hides from us.
The earring looked cheapie when I scooped it even though the numbers were high. I took a good look when I got home and it is silver, marked MC 235 .925 MEXICO. So I got my silver for the day. Not my best hunt, but far from being the worst and as you can see in the bottom thumbnails this place still produces lots of sinkers.
DAY 5
I took a trip back to the scout camp and went to the Cub Scout part of camp. A heavy rain suspended my hunt for about a half hour so I was only able to get in 5.5 hours this time but I did manage to finish my work on one site and part of another. All together I found 116 coins with a face value of $9.68, 46 camp tent pegs, a belt knife holder, 5 neckerchief slides, a good Buck knife, an aluminum pencil sharpener, 2 different style fake cob coins, 2 belt loop awards, a hat pin back, a bead, a bolo tie end, a Cub Scout hat pin in bad shape, 3 NO CASH VALUE tokens with eagles on the front, 6 rope tensioners, some flashlight batteries (I find them frequently I just don’t mention them), 2 tabs and melted aluminum from the campfires.
I keep finding places to hunt at camp that have not been done. Thinking of places not used now that were used in the past or places I can get to now that I couldn’t get to before and you can see the results. I saw a post about metal detecting dying as a hobby. No place is ever hunted out totally, it just might mean fewer finds and needing more patience. And there are many places no one has ever detected including private farms and homes. Some modern homes are built on land that has been used for a long time and while the construction may have moved stuff around and buried some things deep, there are still goodies to find so keep swingin, it ain’t over yet.
NATURE
At the school they mowed the field so no more flowers for the bugs and bees to come for and so no more insects to take pictures of. We did pass some flowers on our evening walk the had a couple of butterflies on them. The sun was behind them and really made them shine on the purple flowers. These butterflies are APHRODITE FRITILLARY, not ones we see normally here in western Maryland but they do have a fairly wide range of habitat.
EYEBALLS
We did several walks at the mall and I found several coins in the coin returns, a quarter and a penny on the floor and 13 cents on a bench. So a decent week for the eyeballs.
Another good week in the books with more gold and silver (YTD 10 golds and 44 silvers since my year started May 1), oldies and interesting scout stuff as usual. Thanks for looking, stay safe, good luck and may your coil lead you to good things.
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