Re: The definition of "dig everything"?
Finally got back out again, for the first time in about 6 weeks. I think I need to pay more attention to what I am finding, the ID Numbers of the items and how they sound when I sweep over them. Also I should have noted the depth I was finding certain things at.
This evening, I went to a local Tot Lot, next to a local school, where I found a couple zipper pulls, some cut chain links, a few paper clips, a snap from a jacket or something and a few other assorted pieces of junk, including one Cherry Coke can about 5" in the sand. I also found a Barbie charm from a little girls necklace or bracelet and an assortment of coins. Will post a picture later when I get a chance to take one. Among the coins was a Sacagawea dollar and a large number of nickels. I found a couple pennies and one quarter. I thought it was a somewhat boreing set of finds until I got home and started going through things. As I went through the nickels, one looked a little odd. I wiped the sand from it and found it to be a Buffalo Nickel. With buffalo on back and indian on front. It was heavily worn and there is no date left on it. I guess it has been worn off. My first old coin find, so I thought. Then I decided to look more closely at all my other coins that I have found since getting going with the MDing, about 3 months ago. While not exceptionally old, I did find a couple of pennies from 1950 and 59.
Of all places to find this buffalo, the lot I was searching wasn't that old. All modern equipemnt. I do recall, though, going to that park as a kid with our nanny. I would have assumed that it was all torn up and redone in the nearly 40 years in question. Maybe they just compacted the old play lot and put some new sand over the top and put in new equipment? I did bend the edge of my scoop pushing it into the sand. It was a little soft on top but a bit compacted and denser underneath. About the top 4 inches was fairly loose but under that was pretty hard.
Something that, maybe some of the more experienced folk out there might address. I was using Coin and Jewelry on my XLT. There was a constant hum as I was searching. I assume that is normal. I have never noticed this before as I haven't used the headphones until tonight. While sweeping, One of three things would happen, I would either get a solid beep from the detector and an ID etc. , or a crackling kind of beep that would require some more sweeping to zero in on. Or, I would get a hit where there would be a quick silence. In other words, the hum would break. I hit the trigger on these breaks or silences, a couple times, and tried to do locate on a couple possible targets. I did find some items around 7.5" but for the life of me, I don't recall if one of those was the nickel or if the nickel was one of the broken signals I was getting. All I do recall, is that there were only, about 2 hits where I wasn't able to find the objects. As it got darker, I started to ignore those breaks in the hum. I wonder if I should try and search more of them. I think a few times, I was getting some solid bars on the lower ends of the spectrum About -10 to -95. I don't recall what they were but large iron comes to mind.
Like I said before, I think I need to pay more attention to what is going on and actually look closer at my finds. Rather than just putting them in my pocket. I note that sometimes I get into finding stuff and as time is running out, I just put things in my pocket and keep going. Trying to find more in the short time remaining. Maybe missing some opportunities for better finds. Or, by working like this, I might be finding more stuff of less quality than if I took a little more time or paid closer attention.
