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Metal Detecting: Learning How the Easy Way!

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Contents

Chapter 1 Where to start?..........................................................Pg.6Chapter 2 New Places...............................................................Pg.9Chapter 3 The First Published Article-Right From the Start.........................Pg.13Chapter 4 You Never Know What You Will Find........................................Pg.16Chapter 5 The "New Machine-Pickwick Pickin's.......................................Pg.20Chapter 6 The First Barber Coin....................................................Pg.25Chapter 7 Pickwick, MN and Displaying Those Great Coins............................Pg.28Chapter 8 Iron and More............................................................Pg. 34Chapter 9 "Time To Team Up!".......................................................Pg. 39Chapter 10 Old School Sites........................................................Pg. 43Chapter 11 Lost Rings..............................................................Pg.46Chapter 12 More Coins To Be Found..................................................Pg.53Chapter 13 Rings and Things........................................................Pg.57Chapter 14 Internet Help...........................................................Pg.64Chapter 15 "It Was Worth It!"......................................................Pg.72Chapter 16 Vital Information About The Hobby.......................................Pg.76Chapter 17 Gold And Silver Conversion Charts-What Is It Worth?.....................Pg.88Chapter 18 Meeting Others In The Hobby.............................................Pg.91Chapter 19 More Outings And More Coins.............................................Pg.97Chapter 20 Guest Opinion...........................................................Pg.100Chapter 21 A Series Of Published Articles..........................................Pg.102Chapter 22 Looks Can Be Deceiving..................................................Pg.152Chapter 23 Lazy Days Of Summer-Detecting In Spare Time.............................Pg.156Chapter 24 Big Silver..............................................................Pg.160Chapter 25 More Lost Wedding Rings.................................................Pg.164

Chapter One

Comments from my family and friends have given me the encouragement to write this with the hope of giving you an idea of what it is like to get started in the hobby of metal detecting. Unlike other great books and magazines, this writing has the intention of sharing with you the items that are found with a metal detector, not the inner workings of the detector itself. I hope that you read between the lines, because whether you want them or not, there are helpful hints that I'm sure you will find useful when starting in this hobby. Close friends and relatives enjoy hearing about and reading the articles I've written for magazines, so I will pass on these experiences to you. These are actual events similar to what you will have almost every time you take a metal detector out to find buried objects of long ago. These "short stories" are not made up and have happened to me since I've started detecting in the spring of 1995. The earlier adventures may be a little "fuzzy" to say the least because I've started writing this in December of 2000.

It is hard to say when the detecting "bug" got me, probably when I married my wife Nancy and met my father-in-law, Bill McNelly, to whom this writing is dedicated. He was the biggest influence in my start with the hobby. He had been detecting for a number of years, starting with those detector "kits" that he basically built on his own. He showed me some of the equipment that he had made, detectors for underwater, different types of gadgets that he invented for all types of specialized uses. The rings and jewelry were my favorite things to look at, he found lots of coins but those were carefully put in holders and then put in a special place. The rings were found when some dredging was being done at a small beach near his home. Bill said it was an unbelievable experience to find so many rings in such a short period of time. There were High School class rings, wedding rings, and etc. all in a display that he kept near his special chair in the living room area. This small display caught my eye every time I passed by and I often wondered if I could find similar items where I live. Keep this in mind when you are driving about. There happens to be some dredging going on in my area now and it could be an interesting area to detect. There were literally tons and acres of dredged materials taken from the bottom of a lake near the area where I live. This in turn was scattered about for landfill and building purposes. I can imagine hundreds of coins, rings, and other types of valuables that are being pushed around by bulldozers at that site.

I asked Bill the usual questions and it was interesting to hear the stories of how he found valuables virtually on top of the sand. The "kits" that he used didn't have much for depth and I know because I purchased one from him. I lost a set of car keys in my yard and thought that armed with a metal detector; it would be easy to locate them. I knew that they would be on top of the ground and that I shouldn't even have to dig a hole. If nothing else, it would force me to cover the area thoroughly. No luck with the keys, but I ended up digging some holes because the machine beeped a few times. Darn nails! Oh well, it's a start! The keys ended up in the car buried in the seat. I chalk this up to experience and packed the detector away. I did try it a few more times but found the usual junk.

This happened back in the 1980's and the "detector" stayed hidden for quite some time - 10 years or so. In that time my family moved to a new house on a location that had an old foundation on it. In fact when we dug the basement for our present house we hit the old one that had been buried over the years.

In the spring of 1995, the urge hit me and I picked up a few copies of treasure magazines that were in a local bookstore. I was fascinated with the articles and the treasures found by the "seasoned" detectorists. I asked Nancy if we could buy one of the fancy machines that were advertised. I wrote a few letters requesting information from the top manufacturers and dealers. The material seemed to take forever to get to me, but when it finally arrived, I looked through it for a couple of days.

I then called some of the dealers in the area using the phone numbers in the ads and requested price lists. With this new information about the machines, we budgeted for low cost equipment and in a few days; I was ready to order my new machine. The "White's Classic III Plus" is what the dealer recommended; it was in the right price range and had the options he suggested that would be beneficial to me. It took three days to get to my home and when it finally arrived, I was ecstatic. When the box was opened, it didn't look like much; the special optional accessories were a digging tool, pouch, earphones and a few books on the hobby. I read through the owner's manual and practiced with the new toy on the living room floor with a couple of coins, rings, etc. to get a feel of the equipment.

The grass was green in the front yard and that was the next step. The Classic is a simple machine with only 2 knobs to worry about. Just turn the knobs to the "Preset" positions on the...