Bob Blaylock
Diamond Member
- Banned
- #1
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
Out of that haul, I kept nine pennies and a dime, and a .45ACP cartridge.
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.
From one more expedition, also within my own apartment complex, just the interesting stuff…
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
Out of that haul, I kept nine pennies and a dime, and a .45ACP cartridge.
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.
From one more expedition, also within my own apartment complex, just the interesting stuff…
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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