New Member here Dupage County area

[General Zod]

Well I figured my first post should be a hello in a local forum. I've been lurking for a while and finally decided to join up and post.
Hello All

About two months ago I was out with some nephews in MO that had received a metal detector for Xmas some years past. I want to say it was a Bounty Hunter type. I asked if they had ever found anything and the answer was "Na, nothing," and it was collecting about 5" of dust. So I blew off the dust and took it and them to a local park. I had always been curious about metal detectors so I decided to give it a swing. The local park had a little beach area with a pond. You need to be a member of the subdivision to swim there and hang at the beach area. It is small nothing huge. So I start swinging and find fish hook after fish hook, then a couple of nickles, quarters,....the kids are getting pumped. We go by a wall and we start getting a lot of beeps.....things going nuts. I figured someone was on the wall and dropped a handful of change. The Kids are frantically digging a hole to China and out comes a large gold ring w. an emerald! No joke, no BS, my first 30 mins on a detedtor and I nail a gold ring. The park had been there for at least 50-75 years. I guess someone was just sitting on the wall watching their kids and the ring fell off. I have a picture of it somewhere....as soon as I find it i will post it for sure

Anyhow I was hooked. The kids have probally took a bobcat to the park by now! Moneys been tight so I had to put off a detector till now... I bought an old Whites 4900 pro off craigslist for $85....wow was that a bad choice. First the thing wouldnt turn on. The battery box was beat and all corroded and the knobs were all bent and missing caps!. Thank god the lady was kind enough to give me my money back......So I went to Kellyco and bought an ACE 250 sports pack. Seems to be a good entry level and has 2 coils, i got the covers and pinpointer as well. I was wondering if I should have bought the MineLab 30 ....but time will tell.

The Ace should be here in 3 days and Im pretty excited to have found this forum....do you guys get together and search together, shot the chit, and drink beer? I'd like to meet some seasoned guys in the area that may be able to show me a thing or two. I'm no stranger to forest preserves as I mountain bike in them in Dupage and CC.
Just make sure to watch out for the tiddy whitey's hanging from the trees!

Peace
Zod

 

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[treasurefiend]

Welcome aboard!!! The Ace is no slouch!!! I found all kinds of great stuff with it - including 2 gold rings.
I am pretty sure that it is illegal to metal detect in Dupage Co forest preserves. Im sure others will be able to verify that. We do get together and detect and bbq and drinking some beers every once in awhile on the weekends. I want to get a group hunt sometime soon, Bomber is the man that makes that happen. I have been hunting with Twistidd on the weekends for a while now, your welcome to comeout and join us.

When I use my ace, I just used it in coin mode. You may miss some gold, but I found my first one on a penny signal and my second one on a nickel signal. When it says that it is a quarter - it is. Only 1 time it wasn't, it was another ring. If you have any questions on the Ace just ask me or Twistidd, we both had a lot of luck with it.

You said that you got 2 coils, one is the normal coil. Is the second one 4" or the 9x12? I always used mine with the 9x12 as it gives you extra depth.

Oh yea, the batteries last a long time, but I got tired of buying them so I went to Walmart and bought some generic rechargeable batteries and the charger for under $20.

 

[treasurefiend]

I wouldn't recomend you start digging in lawns until you get some practice digging plugs like out in the woods or where you won't get introuble for wrecking the lawn, unles you dig your own ofcourse.

Places to hunt for easy money:

parks (tot lots) in the wood chips - found 2nd gold ring by some swings.
sleding hills - found 1st gold ring.
schools - I have only hunted elemenary schools, real easy money but I stay by the jungle gyms.

For older coins:

older parks
old houses
and if you know where a building or some place where people used to hang around back in the day.

 

[rcasi44]

Yep no detecting in Dupage forest preserves. Rob

 

[General Zod]

Well it sounds like my county FP is off limits, but I like road trips anyhow. I work in Cook and the girlfriend is in Lake county, so I cover a lot of ground. My Jeep is a year and a half old and has 47,000 on the clock.....and No, I dont drive for work! So I won't mind driving for treasure!
That was another reason I wanted a detector.....I do a lot of trips out west and have run into a lot of old buildings and old ghost towns and have said "it would be cool if I had a MD" I like to go far off the beaten path.

Fiend, It comes with the 9x12 as the bonus coil....think the stocker is the 6.5 X something. I figured, I may want the extra depth they claim you get on the 9X12. I'll get 4" sniper later if I really need it. I figure if I realy get into this a hobby I will probably want to upgrade to a minelab or something anyhow.

I have schools real close by, a bunch of parks, walking paths, and other good "starter" spots. I will be out learning in a few days and yes we will have to meet up and hunt some ground soon

Zod