Metal Detecting…

Bob Blaylock

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Aug 22, 2015
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In a private message, another user expressed interest in the subject of metal detecting, in reference to a posting I had made in another thread about some items I had found using a metal detector.

I suggested that for very much more discussion of the subject, he should create a public thread, so that anyone else who has any interest in the subject could also join in; and that if he tagged me in any such thread, I'd join in as well.

Well, he hasn't done so, so I guess I'll create this thread, and tag Intolerant.

It's a minor hobby for me. For no rational reason, a metal detector is something I've wanted since I was a child, but could never justify the cost of buying one. But as luck would have it, one turned up a few months ago at a thrift store where I was working at the time, priced at $10 (which meant $8 with my employee discount). It even had the original box, and user's manual. I couldn't find this exact model on the manufacturer's web site, but it appears to be nearly identical to their current bottom-of-the-line model, the Bounty Hunter Junior, with the only apparent difference being that mine has a different name, “Bounty Hunter Fun Finder”. A WalMart price tag on the box indicates that this was originally sold there for $49.96.

ZSC_5901_1600x1200.jpg



My first time taking it out, I went to a park a few miles away. I didn't think to take along any tools for digging, or containers for any loot I might find. I ended up digging with my bare hands,and with random sticks and rocks. To be honest, I didn't expect to need to dig. I didn't really know what to expect of a cheap metal detector, and I think I assumed that anything I found with it would be at the surface, or very close thereto. I was surprised to find that it could detect small things several inches deep. I didn't find very much that day.

ZSC_5899_1600x1400.jpg


Aside from one coin, a nickel, I used another treasure from the same thrift store from which I got the metal detector, to determine that I had approximately an ounce and a half of scrap metal.

ZSC_5956_1600G.jpg


Someone told me that scrap metal goes for about ten cents a pound, so I had here, nearly a penny worth of scrap metal. Plus a nickel. Total value of this haul: 6¢.

Also, in a playground area, I got a very strong indication, and ended up digging down half a foot or so, to find this:

Z2016-03-16 11.55.58_1600x1200.jpg


I'm guessing that it's a remnant of some piece of playground equipment that was there in the past, but which was removed to make way for the playground equipment that was now in that area.



A later expedition, right around the grounds of my own apartment complex, was much more prolific. By this time, I had acquired some basic digging tools, and a bucket in which to carry them along with whatever I found. This is the last occasion on which I photographed my entire haul, before throwing most of it away and keeping only the few interesting things.

ZSC_6485_1800x1400.jpg


Out of that haul, I kept nine pennies and a dime, and a .45ACP cartridge.
ZSC_6487_1600g.jpg


Pennies do not hold up very well. Since 1982, they have been made primarily of zinc, with a bronze plating. Zinc is a very reactive metal, and if the bronze plating is breached even slightly, and the penny then put into an environment that is the slightest bit corrosive, the whole thing ends up forming what amounts to a short-circuited battery, that corrodes itself away to produce completely-wasted electrical current.

ZSC_6693_1500Sq.jpg
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From one more expedition, also within my own apartment complex, just the interesting stuff…

ZSC_6691_1500Sq.jpg
ZSC_6686_1280x1600.jpg


Ten pennies, two nickels, and a quarter—45¢ in total, plus the remains of an odd pendant (I want to think it has some sort of Catholic-related meaning, but not being a Catholic, I don't really know), the remains of a cuff link, and a badly-corroded screwdriver bit.
 
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Have you looked at Forum Foundries Metal Detecting forums?
Scroll down. All the way. Right side clicke on TREASURE NET. Lots of great pics of metal detector findings and topics. It is not usmb, but it is the same owners as USMB.
 
In a private message, another user expressed interest in the subject of metal detecting, in reference to a posting I had made in another thread about some items I had found using a metal detector.

I suggested that for very much more discussion of the subject, he should create a public thread, so that anyone else who has any interest in the subject could also join in; and that if he tagged me in any such thread, I'd join in as well.

Well, he hasn't done so, so I guess I'll create this thread, and tag Intolerant.

It's a minor hobby for me. For no rational reason, a metal detector is something I've wanted since I was a child, but could never justify the cost of buying one. But as luck would have it, one turned up a few months ago at a thrift store where I was working at the time, priced at $10 (which meant $8 with my employee discount). It even had the original box, and user's manual. I couldn't find this exact model on the manufacturer's web site, but it appears to be nearly identical to their current bottom-of-the-line model, the Bounty Hunter Junior, with the only apparent difference being that mine has a different name, “Bounty Hunter Fun Finder”. A WalMart price tag on the box indicates that this was originally sold there for $49.96.

View attachment 74119


My first time taking it out, I went to a park a few miles away. I didn't think to take along any tools for digging, or containers for any loot I might find. I ended up digging with my bare hands,and with random sticks and rocks. To be honest, I didn't expect to need to dig. I didn't really know what to expect of a cheap metal detector, and I think I assumed that anything I found with it would be at the surface, or very close thereto. I was surprised to find that it could detect small things several inches deep. I didn't find very much that day.

View attachment 74120

Aside from one coin, a nickel, I used another treasure from the same thrift store from which I got the metal detector, to determine that I had approximately an ounce and a half of scrap metal.

View attachment 74121

Someone told me that scrap metal goes for about ten cents a pound, so I had here, nearly a penny worth of scrap metal. Plus a nickel. Total value of this haul: 6¢.

Also, in a playground area, I got a very strong indication, and ended up digging down half a foot or so, to find this:

View attachment 74122

I'm guessing that it's a remnant of some piece of playground equipment that was there in the past, but which was removed to make way for the playground equipment that was now in that area.



A later expedition, right around the grounds of my own apartment complex, was much more prolific. By this time, I had acquired some basic digging tools, and a bucket in which to carry them along with whatever I found. This is the last occasion on which I photographed my entire haul, before throwing most of it away and keeping only the few interesting things.

View attachment 74123

Out of that haul, I kept nine pennies and a dime, and a .45ACP cartridge.
View attachment 74124

Pennies do not hold up very well. Since 1982, they have been made primarily of zinc, with a bronze plating. Zinc is a very reactive metal, and if the bronze plating is breached even slightly, and the penny then put into an environment that is the slightest bit corrosive, the whole thing ends up forming what amounts to a short-circuited battery, that corrodes itself away to produce completely-wasted electrical current.

View attachment 74125 View attachment 74126

From one more expedition, also within my own apartment complex, just the interesting stuff…

View attachment 74127View attachment 74128

Ten pennies, two nickels, and a quarter—45¢ in total, plus the remains of an odd pendant (I want to think it has some sort of Catholic-related meaning, but not being a Catholic, I don't really know), the remains of a cuff link, and a badly-corroded screwdriver bit.


Looks like a "Sacred heart" medal.

sacred_heart_front_m7_sfi.jpg


Greg
 
Bob I have not had time to start a thread on metal detecting. Too much work has kept me busy and all. I will put up some of my finds and pics of my detector. You know for a cheap detector your doing pretty good man. You have to dig trash to get to the treasure . I'm a member at treasurenet friendly metal detecting forums and findmall.
 
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I'm on the Board of Directors for a non-profit health provider, and tonight was a Board meeting. My timing as far as getting ready and leaving to go to that meeting was such that I knew I would arrive absurdly early. The meeting was scheduled to start at 18:00, and I ended up arriving very shortly after 17:00.

Knowing that I'd be early, I brought along my metal detector and related paraphernalia, and spend that almost-an-hour in a “dirt” (actually, it turned out to be a concrete slab, with a layer of wood chips and shreddings) area along the southern perimeter of the parking lot, searching with my metal detector.

About half the time, whatever triggered my detector turned out to be either embedded in the concrete, or underneath it, and therefore inaccessible to me. (Well, I do have a good rock hammer among my metal-detector tools, so if I were really determined, I suppose I could have dug through the concrete with that, but I doubt if the property owner would have much appreciated that; and in any event, that would have been much more effort than I was inclined to put into it anyway.)

Here's what I did find:

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Among them a .22-caliber air rifle pellet, somewhat unusual, since most pellet guns are .177 caliber.

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Perhaps I should show what has become my set of tools to go along with my metal detector…

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The bucket and the three-pronged thing are from the same thrift store where I got the metal detector. The three-pronged thing is what I use for the vast majority of the digging that I do in connection with this hobby.

The trowel, I bought brand new, just for this purpose, but I have so far not ended up using it very much.

The rock hammer, I have had for at least a few decades, and it's what I end up using when the ground is too hard for the three-pronged thing. It's a much more powerful tool for digging and breaking things, than one would expect just by seeing it. If I were determined enough, I could tear through a brick wall or a concrete slab with it, though doing so would be no small effort.
 
Cool stuff. And it gets you out and interested. I used to go with my dad when he would go treasure hunting in Ling beach when I was a kid. Did it every Sunday. He went kind of nuts with it though. He was way into it. I'm a utility locator. Like it allot.
 

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