foiled_again
Jr. Member
- Jan 29, 2013
- 85
- 59
- Detector(s) used
- CZ7a, Compadre (wader mod), Land Ranger Pro, Pro Pointer
- Primary Interest:
- Metal Detecting
I'm new to the forum but have actually been metal detecting off and on for over 20 years, with about 25,000 coins found (I keep records...obsessively). Currently we live in Orange County, California, where I do the beaches-parks-schools thing, but I'm retiring in another year and we will be moving to Weatherford, Texas, out west of Fort Worth. I am expecting to find older coins but (guessing) less jewelry (not that I have a whole lot...). Maybe i'll even do some of that research stuff everybody talks about.
My coin take from 20 years of detecting in Southern California: one Indian head (barely discernible even to me), four V nickels, four buffalo nickels, one Barber dime, two Barber quarters, two standing liberties, one Franklin...oh, and one Isle of Man commemorative gold coin, which had been made into a ring but still counts.
The highlight of my career was going on the Jimmy Sierra tours of England in 1994 and 1995. On the plane going over there the first time I said, "All I want is a Roman, just one Roman. If I find a Roman this will be a success." We got there and some of us went to practice in a field next to the hotel; in 15 minutes I had my Roman, with a bunch more to come.
Equipment used over the years:
Something from Radio Shack (broke after a month but got me hooked)
Tesoro Eldorado (not right for my beginner level of experience way back when, couldn't ground balance it to save my life, wish I still had it now)
Garrett GTA 1000 (very easy and fun to use but I never had the impression I was finding anything deep). Liked it well enough that when the first one got stolen, I bought another.
White's XLT (what I took to England, considered the best there was at the time, didn't think it made sense to make that trip with less than the best). Biggest mistake of my career was selling it.
White's Surf PI (still have it--whenever I want to find rusty nails it's my go-to machine. You have to know what your detector is telling you. The Surf PI tells me "Iron! I love iron! Valuable iron! Dig! Dig now! Dig iron!")
Bounty Hunter Fast Tracker--made a comeback with this entry level machine after a break of several years to get married etc. A little crude and constricting in some ways, no depth to speak of, but got me back in business.
Discovery (Bounty Hunter) 2200--found a lot of coins with this, mostly by learning where to go and hammering the good places. Not deep but very easy to use. Still have it, hope to get my grandson on this one when he's of age.
Bounty Hunter Time Ranger--used this only briefly and then sold it, seemed clunky to me and thought the display was poor, but it did seem pretty deep.
Fisher F5--Bought about a month ago and am seeing a big improvement in depth over the 2200and finding a lot more nickels, maybe from changing my philosophy from "find bulk clad" to "find something interesting." Too bad I got this and the previous during the "dead of winter" in Southern California when the temperature sometimes plummets into the 40s LOL.
My coin take from 20 years of detecting in Southern California: one Indian head (barely discernible even to me), four V nickels, four buffalo nickels, one Barber dime, two Barber quarters, two standing liberties, one Franklin...oh, and one Isle of Man commemorative gold coin, which had been made into a ring but still counts.
The highlight of my career was going on the Jimmy Sierra tours of England in 1994 and 1995. On the plane going over there the first time I said, "All I want is a Roman, just one Roman. If I find a Roman this will be a success." We got there and some of us went to practice in a field next to the hotel; in 15 minutes I had my Roman, with a bunch more to come.
Equipment used over the years:
Something from Radio Shack (broke after a month but got me hooked)
Tesoro Eldorado (not right for my beginner level of experience way back when, couldn't ground balance it to save my life, wish I still had it now)
Garrett GTA 1000 (very easy and fun to use but I never had the impression I was finding anything deep). Liked it well enough that when the first one got stolen, I bought another.
White's XLT (what I took to England, considered the best there was at the time, didn't think it made sense to make that trip with less than the best). Biggest mistake of my career was selling it.
White's Surf PI (still have it--whenever I want to find rusty nails it's my go-to machine. You have to know what your detector is telling you. The Surf PI tells me "Iron! I love iron! Valuable iron! Dig! Dig now! Dig iron!")
Bounty Hunter Fast Tracker--made a comeback with this entry level machine after a break of several years to get married etc. A little crude and constricting in some ways, no depth to speak of, but got me back in business.
Discovery (Bounty Hunter) 2200--found a lot of coins with this, mostly by learning where to go and hammering the good places. Not deep but very easy to use. Still have it, hope to get my grandson on this one when he's of age.
Bounty Hunter Time Ranger--used this only briefly and then sold it, seemed clunky to me and thought the display was poor, but it did seem pretty deep.
Fisher F5--Bought about a month ago and am seeing a big improvement in depth over the 2200and finding a lot more nickels, maybe from changing my philosophy from "find bulk clad" to "find something interesting." Too bad I got this and the previous during the "dead of winter" in Southern California when the temperature sometimes plummets into the 40s LOL.
