Been working the Fairgrounds in Albany Georgia on the corner of Oakridge and Westover Rd. Though I haven't gotten permission to hunt in the fairgrounds itself, I have been given permission to detect it's parking lots. These have been producing lots of clad and the best part is most are surface coins that are within 1/2in to 2 inches of the top.
Found three rings thus far there and have been detecting the place since Feb. Yesterday 3/4/05 I was able to pop up 18.90 in clad and a couple of nice keepers like a Sacagawea Gold Dollar, A Freedom Coin, a Midway token and a couple of other stuff. You can see these in My Photos Page. Will probably work this place for the next month. I could detect it all year and still never finish it. It's a massive area and lots to give up considering the number of folks that go through there in any given year. One day if I hang around there long enough they'll get used to me being around and maybe let me hunt the inside where all the rides, concession stands and other entertainment stands are. When they do, stand back since that is when I may just be able to break the .00 day mark, hopefully even .00. 3/8/05 Went back to the fairgrounds for a small afternoon hunt and was able to pop up 2.68 plus in clad and a nice little Silver ring with two diamonds in it (you can see it on my My Photos page 2). Yesterday I was able to pull 3.02 in clad. 3/9/05 Went back to the fairgrounds today for a short hour and a half hunt. I unearthed 4.67 in clad and would have stayed longer had the temp not been dropping so fast. It was 45 when I got there and by the time I left it had got down to 41. Yesterday a freind of mine (WildBill) from the Bounty Hunter Discussion Forum (http://www.detecting.com) posted a pic of a seated dime he had found, man it sure was a purdy coin. It got me to thinking about my first detecting love which is to detect old plantation houses and homesteads or any real old place that will yiled a few real old goodies. After seeing his pic I decided that I am going to have to start splitting up my time between clad/jewelry detecting and detecting the old stuff. Not that I don't like the feel of a heavy pouch laden with clad and a few nice pieces of jewelry mind ya, it's just something about the old stuff that makes you warm all over. Know what I mean?
3/18/05 Was finally able to get out today after three days of steady rain. Was heavy at times and others slow, nonetheless it rained and ketp me from detecting. Well, today it broke and I was able to get back over to the fairgrounds. The temperature was still a might bit chilly though I threw a jacket on and headed out. I didn't detect too long maybe 3hrs or so but I managed to dig up 5.76 in clad. Didn't find any jewelry so that sucked! The 5.76 was enough though to carry me over the two hundred dollar mark for the year. Right now I am sitting at .87 with a monthly total of 59.71. I'm still shooting to break the .00 monthly mark that I have been able to achieve in both January and Feburary. If I do great, if I don't no biggy. Hope to kick but tomorrow since the temp is supposed to be up in the 70's. Plan on spending the entire day detecting maybe 8-10hrs. Have a spot all picked out for it. Though about detecting it today, but wanted to have a good 8hrs to do it right.
3/19/05 Worked the fairgrounds again today and chose to detect that area where they bring in all the livestock and agricultural displays. I figured with all the Trucks, Cars, Vans, and Livestock-trailers constantly loading/unloading there had to have been some good finds considering these folks are always using their hands pulling on the livestock ropes, picking up bags of feed, hay and stuff as well as constantly reaching in and out of their pockets. Well, my hunch paid off since I think I had the best day yet here for jewelry. I found a total of 8 peices of jewelry. 2 Rings (Silver), 1 Bracelet (10k), and 5 Earrings (mixed batch). To add to that I found .79 in clad. I worked the place for 6 1/2hrs using Buddy my BH TimeRanger set on the P2 mode with it's sensitivity at 6, though as I got into some dryer gorund I upped it to 7 maybe for the last 1 1/2hr. The quarters were plentiful as was the dimes. I worked primarily the high tones as usual, though today I really was watching and listening to the low tones also. All low tones with a reapeatable tones that would hold the numeric for at least three counts over five passes I would dig. If they bounced too much I dismissed them and moved on. I've been building some good data on the low tones lately having worked this fairgrounds and it is staring to pay off. The braclet came in at 34 slightly lower than that of a nickel which on Buddy will display as 36-37. The Silver rings I got today both showed up as high tones, one was at 168 (notched V) and the other (rope design) at 174. All quarters were ringing at 202-207, while the dimes kicked in at 171-184. Most were at 179-184. Pennies came in at both med-high tones, from 90-154. If I had a hit between that spread it was a penny. I wouldn't dig any either unless they were at 2in on the depth indicator where I could pinpoint them with my pinpointer and just pop them up with my digging tool. Most dimes were between 2-4in and the quarters the same. Believe I found two quarters and three dimes that were at 6in. I could tell this place had not been worked before based on soil condition and trash that was still on the ground. Overall it was a great hunt and I certainly enjoyed pulling up all the jewelry, there were two earrings that I had thought to be Rings, but upon closer visual inspection I saw they were earrings 9hey could have been worst like a pull tab or screw cap). The bracelet (10k) is a nice one though really bent up. I'll straighten it up later. I cleaned them on my polishing wheels, then used a soft jewelry cloth with some lipstick like I would for my silver finds. I then took and soft brushed them with my cleaning tooth brush with whitening paste. Works well for finishing/cleaning out any groves/ecthings. BTW, my monthly total is now at .50 and my annual at 210.66. All I can say is Life is Good! 3/21/05 Went for another short hunt at the fairgrounds today. I managed to find 4.12 in clad and a little womans lapel pin (at least that's what it looks like to me). It looks like it has a half of a pearl in a silver roserette setting. It's a nice little piece. Dug it up from 4in. It beeped off at 179 on my TR's VDI. It wasn't all that stable a signal though one that would cause you to dig and investigate, glad I did. Cleaned up pretty well with just a soft scrub of toothpaste. Been at the fairgrounds all this week 21-25 March except when it was raining. Found a pretty good take of clad and a coupla small pieces of jewelry. If the weather holds out this weekend I'll hit it hard and maybe close out the month at .00, don't hurt to try. I'd like to get in at least 20hrs over the weekend. Well, it's 1 Apr and though it has been raining since last night I was able to close out the month of March at .22.
Will start the month (April) of slow due to my having to go out of town for the next two weeks, I will be home on the 9th but will leave out again the next morning not returning till the 16th. All is not bad though since I hope to get in some detecting time with some of my BH forum buddies Wayne and PadMaster. Looking forward to the time with them. Hoping to do more fairgrounds detecting since it has been yielding a consistent 2-4 dollars per 3hr hunt as well as throwing in a few nice pieces of jewelry. Hard to give up on a site like this honey hole. I also would like to get more time in some of my old plantation site an homestead hunts to see how many oldies I can dig up. We'll see how the month progresses.
Well, here it is the 11th of April and the day I got to detect with Wayne and the PadMaster. Pad picked out a place up in Tennessee. The place was an old school and later we went to a church. Though I didn't find much...a whopping .42 I truly and thoroughly enjoyed myself and the company. Wayne called me on Thursday (14 April) and asked if I wanted to do a quickie hunt with him during his lunch hour but I had to take a raincheck on it due to my not knowing what time class would let out. We finally did get out of class around 12:30pm. Since I had already packed the night before, it was just a matter of putting gas in my truck and hitting the highway. I finally got home around 7:30pm and was welcomed at the gate by Kimo, Chichi, Buffy and the wife. Kimo was more ecstatic about my being home than any of the others. :-)
Well, I finally got out to do some detecting again after a long break. At least it seemed long to me. I decided to go back and hit the fairgrounds again after work to make up for some lost time and dollars. I also wanted to hear the sound of a bunch of beeps and I knew the fairgrounds would have afforded me that. On Monday (4/18/05) I managed to dig up 3.61 in clad a small piece of a broken necklace chain. Not much I'll admit for three hours but it sure felt good hearing them beeps and popping them coins up. I went back again this afternoon for another three hour hunt though decided to try another spot that I felt would give me a better yield for time spent. My hunch paid off and I was able to more than double my previous days digs. In three hours I managed to pull up 7.16 in clad. No old coins or jewelry though I did have my hopes up on a few of the signals I got, maybe next time. In all, I am satisfied with my two day total of 10.77. Plan on detecting 3hrs per day for the rest of the work week if the weather cooperates.
Had a great day yesterday (4-22-05), found a bunch of clad and two rings (one Gold and the other Silver). You can read about the find on my Whats New Page and see the rings on My Photos Page 3. Today I got to enjoy the best of both worlds. I spent the morning detecting till around 11:00am then went fishing for 12:30 till 5:00pm. Found 3.68 in clad and caught a mess of fish. Life can't get any better.
Yesterday I managed to find 3.03 in clad and today 3.91. Doesn't sound like much I know, but that total of 6.94 was enough to carry me over the 50.00 mark for the year thus far. I know I won't even come close to my last months take though with the time I have spent this month in the field my take is a decent one that I won't complain about considering the rings I have found. Only have one more day left in the month and it's over. Lets see how May will prove to be.
5-11-05 Had a good hunt today, pulled in 9.34 in clad and two nice rings. You can see and read about them on My Photo's Pages 3 and 4. Went back to the same place today (5-12-05) and though I found 10.19 in clad I wasn't lucky enough to find another ring. I guess the place figured if it gave up two in one day that's enough for now! ;-)
5-31-05 Went on a small hunt this afternoon after work. Didn't do too much though, found 2.37 in clad and not much else. Hadn't gone detecting in about a week so it was a change. I've been busy since last Thursday fishing. Now that I have just about filled my freezer full of fish I can get back to detecting. I still have my fish (Koi, Shubunkins, Calico's and the rest) in the middle of their breeding season so I don't have much time each afternoon to spend detecting. Will try to get in at least 2hrs each weekday. Want to start detecting the old sites (homesteads/plantation houses) and get some old coins vs the clad I have been pulling up for the last 2-3 months.
June has fallen upon us and with it came the rains. It hasn't stopped raining for three days now. I'm ready for some sunshine and nice weather so I can get out and do some fishing and detecting. Want to start hitting the old sites in search of some old coins as well as maybe hitting some of my jewelry haunts. Been a while since I found my last ring so I am due for one if I can ever get back out there.
Well, here it is the 9th of June and thus far tis month I haven't been able to go detecting maybe four times toal for just a few hours. Seems the rain just will not go away, I guess it's good in a way for some but it sure is putting a damper on my totals for the month. I have about .00+ in clad and nothing else to show for all these days. this reall sucks!
6-12-05 Well, I finally made it to an old plantation site and man did I have a ball. I could only work the place for about 6hrs because the rains came back in and I had to quit for fear of frying my unit. besides Buddy (my old TimeRanger) is just that OLD and catches a cold real easy. No need to risk him getting sick like that. Anyway, I found lots of goodies and man do I want to get back to that spot. It's almost a two hour drive from my place though is worth it considering the types of finds. I'm sure I'll get back there again in the next few weeks but the weather man is calling for rain again for the entire next week. Check out the pics on My Photo's Pages 4 though 6.
11-07-05 I'm back and just went on my first hunt since being back. You can read about it in the article above.
11-11-05 Thus far it has been a great week at the fairgrounds, you can check out my totals on my What's New Page. Before I forget I wanted to take the time to say THANK YOU to a of our service men and women as well as all the veterans of our great country on this special day dedicated to all Veterans and those still serving our country. Never before have I been prouder of y'all than I was just recently while in theater. Though many has paid the ultimate sacrifice the message we sent around the world is clear, we are a nation that believes in freedom and love for country. I salute each and everyone of you out there for your contributions and sacrifices. Thanks!
11-21-05 Thanksgiving is right upon us and with it being so close I'd like to thank everyone who has visited my site, befreinded me in the various forums and have gone on some enjoyable hunts with me as I spent time in cities/towns all over this U.S.A. I believe Thanksgiving to be one of my favorite holidays. We get to gorge ourselves with great food and no one thinks anything about it. We get to watch some great games on T.V.. And best of all I don't have to go to church and put up with all them one day a year so called Christians. I can just pig out enjoy the day with family and friends and just be me. Knowing how I throw out a big spread on the table each year it won't be uncommon to have maybe in the neighborhood of 25-40 people stopping by. Even some of my metal detecting friends will more than likely stop by and trade stories of their hunts with me. Lastly, please be sure to give thanks to our almighty God for it was through his blessings that we all can enjoy this day.
11-24-2005 Happy Thankgiving. My God be with each and everyone of you today and share in your bounty.
12-02-05 Well Novemeber has come and gone. Have lots to be grateful for though. Closed out November with a months total of 295.85 (so close to the 300 mark I could taste it! :-)). We also found out that my daughter will be having another baby in July....hope it's a girl this time though so long as it is healthy it's all good with me. Leave my trust in God to take care of all the particulars. Both fishing and detecting has been good this month, I have a wild boar, a deer, and a mess of fish in the freezer more than we'll eat for awhile. Plan on adding some squirrel and rabbit to my freezer buffet as son as I can get out and shoot them. I only have three working days left this year then I'll be off till 9 Jan 06. Yippee!!:-) Looking forward to doing a little more detecting this month while I'm off, these short days are really a bummer. Still want to make sure I leave enough time to hunt and fish though so I'll have to manage my time carefully. Hope all of your November's have been as properous and enjoyful as mine was. Y'all take care!
12-09-05 Well XMAS is right around the corner and I hope most of you have about finished your XMAS shopping by now. Personally haven't had a chance to do much detecting lately due to both the weather (primarily rain) and the fact that by the time I get off work it is already dark in my neck of the woods. It's ok though since it is giving me a chance to re-focus some of my attention to family and home. I know there will be plenty enough time to detect next year and feel good about my take thus far this year. My wife and I decided it was high time to get us a new camera that is compatible with our new PC so we went ahead and purchased one. With the new camera I hope to be taking more pics to add to my site next year.
I have pretty well narrowed down my list of hunt sites that I have lined up for next year to ten. The ten does not include the twenty plus sites that I visit on a regular basis. These ten are new sites that I have been researching and will want to hit on in 2006. There are three that are old homesteads, one Plantation house site, one old school, one old (defunct) trailer park site built in the late 50's, one defunct water park, two farm fields that date back to the civil war days, and lastly an old area out in the woods where I know there had been some civil war activity. These should make for some interesting digs though can't guarantee that they haven't been visited by others in the past. From all that I have researched and seen they look to be pretty virgin territory as far as detecting goes.
12-15-05 Just got back in from working out of town all week. I had been in Anniston, Al. and though I took my TR with me in hopes of finding time to detect I didn't get to do any. We worked some long hours and by the time we got off it was already to dark to do anything but go out and eat. Besides it rained for the better part of the week there and upon my return home today it was raining cats and dogs. The forecast for the rest of the week here doesn't look to well at the moment either, hoping it will clear up some later this week whereas I can get out and do some detecting.
12-21-05 Didn't get to detect today though the week has not been lost thus far. I was finally able to talk to one guy ( Security Guard) at the fairgrounds that has allowed me access to the inside of the place where all the rides are set up. I primarily worked the areas where the concessions are located. On Monday I was able to come away with 27.91 in clad (2hrs) and Tuesday after little over three hrs or so was able to pick up another 30.14 in clad. Didn't find any jewelry worth speaking of. Found a few single earrings and a broken silver chain, but that was about it. The guard only works part time there and usually works only four hours at a time. I agreed that I would leave 1/2 hr prior to his going off duty. He was nice enough to provide me a copy of his months schedule so I'll know when to go there and be able to get inside the fence line. The place is a natural CLAD GOLD MINE if you know what I mean. You can barely go two to three feet without having a hit of some sort. Right now I am concentrating on only high tones as I normally do and am only picking those coins that are 2in or less...basically cherry picking. The ground was really soaked so it really made for high conductivity and good reads. I ran my sensitivity at 7 though I did get some falsing it wasn't enough to warrant my dropping it down to 6. On Tuesday I ran it at 8 (all the way up) for about the first hour then dropped it to 7 when I got to the wetter ground (shady areas). Found that in some areas where there were it had a high concentration of clay it would make my TR go nuts and the VDI would bounce all over unless I brought my sensitivity down to about 4. The same thing occurred in the parking lot area where I have been doing most my detecting. If I ran into an area like that and decided I would dig (4in +) thinking maybe because my VDI was reading a quarter (198-210) as you dug the hole to the depth it gave the target center kept shifting to one side or the other (basically to the side with the highest concentration of clay). My hole kept getting larger and larger as I would re-sweep it. I finally gave up on these and moved on after covering the holes. Have had numerous multiple coin hits where someone must have dropped all the coins they had in there pockets in one location. Detecting clad doesn't get any better than what I have been experiencing. The daily total's have helped boost both my monthly and annual take tremendously. Had it not been for the fairgrounds I'd be lucky to have made even the $500.00 mark this year. I really haven't worked the ride areas yet and still have a few more concession at and areas to work before I do. My plan is to work the concession stands, then move to the ticket booths, then to the rides. After I get to complete these I will make my way to the rest rooms and porta-potty areas. If things keep going right for me the fairgrounds may be the only place I need to detect! Nah, just kidding....I'd be too bored to do that. I still like the old homesteads and plantation sites to give up on them (gotta have them old coins). Have a few lined up for the new year but for right now, I will concentrate on getting as much clad as I can to stuff them grand-youngin's stockings with. Y'all have a good one....Life is Good!!
By the way if this is the first time you've visited my site please sign my guest book and let me know how you liked it. Always open to suggestions on how to make it better! Thanks for visiting.
12-28-05 Decided to update since it has been a couple of days since I've done so. Anyway, the only days I detected since I last updated were today and yesterday. The big difference from my other hunts was that I was using my new detector...........a Teknetic T2. Sure is a fine and sweet machine. Thus far I am still getting used to it in the field though have done some air tests and controlled ground testing to get a feel for how it will react once I did get to the field. Don't plan on going into to much detail here until the end of Jan or maybe sometime by mid-Feb. The reason for this is I really want to give it a good shake out and do some comparison testing with some of my other units. I wanted to put it up against the Whites DFX, Garrett GTI 1500, Fisher Coinstrike and CZ-70 PRO, and the BH TimeRanger (both the older and newer versions). These comparisons will take some time so I'll need to solicit the help of one of my detecting buddy's. I made some good finds with it thus far and the take from what I would term as average detecting sites hasn't been all that bad either. I have worked these sites regularly so any/all finds there is something to be proud of. There were two that really made my day. One was a Mercury dime 1945 that I found at 7ins and the other a IH (1905) found at 4ins. I can tell you that finding that Merc was also a feat in itself since it was caked in red clay. The IH on the other hand was found in a trashy area so that one I can see maybe why I didn't find it before. Still can't believe I had passed these over in the past though regardless of conditions. Both days has been perfect detecting weather and the ground conditions were exceptional since we have had some rain in the past week thus making the ground damp but not soaked and it was wet down to 6in. thus making it easy digging. My total clad take for the two days put together has been 16.77 so that's not too shabby. Seemed strange actually digging vice cherry picking the fairgrounds as I have been doing. The unit is considerably easy to use though will take some time getting accustomed to the toning and VDI numerics. Have identified some likes and dislikes but again won't go into them here at least not for the next month or so. For right now I am giving it a thumbs up but just how high that thumb will stick up is yet to be known. Life is good! Plan on giving the T2 another 8hrs tomorrow if the weather permits, it's calling for rain tomorrow and we have been under a tornado warning for the last two hours now. Thus far I have approximately 40hrs on the machine itself with only 21hrs actual field time. Lots more to do with it before I can give an honest assessment of it's capabilities. This will be my last post on the unit till I complete my assessment of it. I will continue to update my monthly and annual totals on my Whats New Page so at least you'll have some idea of how it's going. Y'all have a good one!
12-31-05 Didn't detect today decided to go fishing today for some of them slab Crappies. Did well and brought home my limit. Thoroughly enjoyed the day though wish there were no limits since it made me cut my day short on the water. Upon returning home I took advantage of the remainder of the day to finish cooking of the rest of my Deer Jerky. I made apporximately 50lbs of it. Should last me awhile, have already received another call from a freind telling me he'll be dropping off another deer later this evening.
Well the year has come to a close and my total clad take for it finished out at $917.74. Believe I could have broke the one thousand mark had I not been gone for three months of the year. It's was not all that good of a year for jewelry finds though and I contribute that to the fact that I spent much time at one site (the fairgrounds) cherry picking clad. Wanted to thank all those that has visited my site over the last year and hope that you enjoyed it as much as I did putting it together. Next year looks like it will prove out to be a more challenging year for me since my goal is to get back to detecting the old homesteads and plantation homes. One doesn't find as much but the finds in my opinion are quality and precious. I'll more than likely be using a detector than my ole trusted friend "Buddy" (my old configuration Time Ranger). The new detector is proving out to be quite good and if I can master it in the next month or so I will feel comfortable enough to use it more extensively. I don't believe I will be here tomorrow so to all I would like to wish each and everyone a Happy and Properous New Year!
1-01-2006 A Houli Makahiki Hou (Happy New Year!) Well, the new year is now upon us and though today has rained all day I am thankful for it and all that God has blessed me and my family with over the years. I am truly looking forward to sharing this year with y'all and want to thank each and every visitor to my site for partaking in my detecting journal. I hope the year will bring many finds that I can share with each of you in the My Photo's Page area. I also plan on updating my other hobbies page with lots more new photo's now that I have a new digital camera that is compatible with the PC I am using. They're calling for rains again tomorrow so I'll just have to wait and see how it pans out. If it does rain, I have lots of other stuff I can be doing like writing up my field report on the new unit I have been working with. I invite each and everyone of you to come in and visit my site for regular updates on how the new unit is performing. Aloha no!
1-03-06 Ahhhh finally got out to do some detecting today. I got to achieve to firsts for the year, well maybe three if you call finding a paper dollar bill one. The other firsts were a womans silver (.925) black onyx ring, and a 1955 wheaty. Forst old coin and piece of jewelry for the year. Not bad considering this was the first day of the new year I got to detect. I also found an additional $9.26 in clad coins, bringing my total for the day to $10.27. The new unit is still proving to be challenging to say the least. I believe I finally got the hang of how to read both the Fe and GC phase scales where I can work them to my advantage thus allowing me to distinguish rusty bottle caps from my small/high silver readings. The unit itself is proving to be no beginners detector, though believe it will be a great one for those having to work in heavily mineralized soils. Working the disc mode is almost becoming fun in that there are so many settings to choose from. The toning choices too allow one to really key into what he/she is wanting an how they want to hear it. Getting past bottle caps, pull rings and pull tabs in general is still going to be a challenge though and I am still working it. The biggest probelm I see with this particular unit is that the TID's are so close to one another and evebn overlap in many instances it is real hard to make out what lies beneath with any degree of accuracy. This holds true for right now, though may change as I become more familiar with the unit and it's language. It has no problem talking to me, I think it just talks to much! :-)
1-14-06 Got to go out and do 6hrs of detecting today at the old limesink on 3rd Ave. in Albany, Ga.. I wanted to see how my new unit would react to the soil there since it is a mix of loam and sand and carries a high mineralization signature. This area is probably one of the oldest parks (next to Tift park) in the Albany area and was used to host the cities fireworks displays. I have hunted this park many times in the past and so have others. I figured this would be a good test for the unit since if I were to find anything it was going to be at the 6-8in depths if not deeper. As I suspected the first hit I got was showing a dime at 6in. I was set up with my Sens @ 85, Disc @ 53, and Audio tone @ 3b. After digging out my plug at the six inches the unit displayed, sure enough there sat a dime. Throughout the afternoon, I was constantly hitting on dimes/quarters with a few nickels straggling in. The pennies.....well, what can I say they always appear. There is no way to disc them out either, sure I could the zinc ones but the coppers would remain since the unit only allows you to disc out up to 80 which is the default for pennies/dimes. That's ok though since 10.92 in clad was a good haul in my book for a place that has been worked hard. I also managed to find 2 dog tags with the oldest dating back to 1977, two tokens both of which the places no longer exist here in Albany...and one of them I never even heard of. I found a fishing lure which was really a surprise since there is no place to fish here (maybe someone was using the park to practice casting). There was also a bunch of other junk I managed to dig up hoping I found the big one! :-) All in all it was a great day and I tremendously enjoyed it.
1-19-06 The week for me between my last posting and this one was pretty uneventful aside for a few test I conducted on the new unit I am playing with. I did some comparison tests between it the DFX, CZ70, XLT, and the BH TR. I still want to do some with the GTI-1500. Results thus far has been interesting and believe they will at least if anything else tell me if this is a unit I want to purchase or not. I still have a few more things and places I want to detect with it to get a real good feel for it and to make sure I optimize it's functional potential. Don't like to be judgmental without first understanding all there is to know about the unit. Also too, I don't want to lose sight of the fact that most everything I have done thus far has been biasly geographical to this region. The unit may react totally different elsewhere. Lots of stuff to do and enjoying the hell out of it. From a clad take perspective I believe thus far it has been a good month considering I am truly just learning this unit and don't believe I know enough about it yet to work it to it's full potential. Time will tell.
2-12-06 As y'all may have already guessed, the unit I was and still am working with is that of the Teknetcis T2. I just got through posting my report of it on my Detector Links and Reviews Page. I hope you'll find it informative as well as informational. I apologize for not having been here to my site to update y'all on my hunts though I have been on the road a lot (work related) and haven't really had a chance to. I have kept my notes though and will try to update the other pages this evening or sometime later this weekend. I have to leave out again this coming Monday so I want to make sure I get as much as I can updated before doing so. Appreciate y'all visiting and hope you continue to do so.
2-21-06 Sorry I haven't updated in quite awhile, I have been on the road working out of town for the most part and what time I did have on the weekends while home has been pretty much consumed by family, friends and household chores. I hope to get back to norm by the first of March so please bear with me. I have been keeping notes of my hunts and other detecting related stuff thus when I do update my site there will be lots to read up on.
3-10-06 Well it's been almost a month since I last updated this page thus I decided to come in here and do so. As you may have read on My What's New page and the pics I have taken and added to My Photo's Page, I have been somewhat actively detecting but for the better part have been trying to master the T2.
Last weekend I did rather well in the Gold department as well as at one old homestead site with some old (pre-64) silver. What I have been working on with the T2 is trying to locate the best possible set of settings to use while detecting Gold jewelry. My goal is to get it down to a point where I can accurately identify not only the gold but if a ring what type (10k, 14k, etc.). I know this may be aski8ng to much though it does give me something to play with. I just got back in to town after having to work out-of-town the entire week. My plans are to hit the lake again tomorrow and see if the new settings I have been playing with will be better than that of which I was set at last weekend. Based on my trial runs I think it will be but that is left to be seen. You can get some good results in test beds but when something lays beneath the dirt and sand for years it takes on a whole new characteristic relative to the signals it transmits. Tomorrow will be proof to the pudding and am looking forward to it. If it doesn't work out I can always revert to the ones (settings) I used last weekend.
There was one other thing I wanted to mention here and that is about an update that I am working on. When I first wrote my field reprot on the T2, I had only had it a couple of months and was still as far as I am concerned trying to get fully acquainted with it. All to often in my opinion we see field reports written with no follow up as ones proficiency with a given unit develops. Well, in all fairness to the unit, those who developed it and myself, I wanted to be sure to cover this aspect of it. It's my believe now that I have enough time with the unit to provide that update and hope to have it out by the end of the month. I still want to get done testing the new settings against the gold since I believe I have SILVER down pat! I have also found what I believe to be the best way around the rusted bottle caps and have now got my did/no dig percentage up to around 94%. In other words, I can accurately identify a bottle cap...especially a rusted one 94% of the time thus increasing my find yield. Likewise I have also found that fine line on the aluminum pull tabs regardless of type(i.e. square, ring, oval, etc.). These took awhile but I basically approached them the same way I did running my TimeRanger. I got my VDI numerics to a workable spread. Between the VDI bounce, tone settings and audio itself, and TID I have based on my data thus far collected a 94-96% good dig yield. So long as it is that high I won't try to achieve any higher since I have always believed the other 3-5% just isn't worth it relative to time invested to do so.
Some of what I reported initially has changed and it's only fair I tell the public about it since those areas that I see the chanegs appearing were reported in a negative and now that I have had more time to master this unit and understand what it has been trying to tell me my find yiled is getting significantly better and the unit is responding much differently as opposed to when I first wrote my report. I know it is because of how I was setting up the unit and more than likely the settings in which I was working it at. Anyway, y'all keep an eye out on this page for my update. As I stated previously, I hope to have it out later this month if not early next month. In the mean time keep up with My What's New Page and My Photo's Page for new postings. Full pouches to all!!
3-11/12-06 I added these two days together since what I will write about will cover this entire weekends hunts. Yesterday (3/11) I decided to hunt two locations since the buddy I was going to pick up lived right near the old homestead place I detected last weekend. I figured why not stop there first and see if we cna get between some of the brush and weed us out some old stuff for at least a couple of hours before going to the lake.
When we arrived it was around 8:30am and the though overcast it promised to be a great day. We hadn't been there maybe 15min when I heard my buddy holler out that he found him a Merc. HE was using his new configuration TimeRanger while I worked with the T2. I had buddy (my old TR) in the truck but only planned on using if the T2 went belly up. I set the unit up as I had planned the night before and was ready to test out the new settings I've been working on for Gold. I knew that in this particualr site I would be best served working with the disc set at 74 since it woul allow me to pull out any silver it had to offer and if there was IH's to be had I would get them too. I had the tone at 3b thus allowing me to pick up the IH's more readily. My first silver came in at 86 and turned out to be a pre-64 Roosie at 6in. Within 3ft of it I picked up another at 4in. I then found a few wheaties and some other clad. As I came around to the side of the porch of the house the brush was high though I took a piece of cardboard I brought with me laid it over some of the brush and started shooting through it. I had in my pouch some trailer skirting nails which they use to tack down the bottom guides. They are aluminum and 6in long, you're probably thinking what on earth for? Well, over the years I have found that when in brushy areas I can lay the cardboard down over the brush shoot through it and if I get a hit, I can pinpoint it then push the trailer nail through the cardboard. I then lift the cardboard out of my way and can easily see the nail since they are long and have a head about 1/2in round. I then pull the nail out and dig my plug. EASY! Not to make this article longer than necessary, I dug down to the 8in depth where I had my hit. I was slightly concerned I may be doing all of this for nothing but a rusted bottle cap. The reading was high enough but the tone, the signal strenght and the lack of any bounce or not see my Fe bar spike gave me a little warm and fuzzy that what was down there was a good one. It was higher than a quarter thus I felt it would be a half or a dollar. As I dug down and took my AutoMax insewrting it into the hole I got a faint beep to the lower left of the hole. I was only at 6in so I knew I had to go further. I didn't want to damage any potential find so I cut the hole out slightly larger and worked below the target. I again inserted my AutoMax into the hole and it rang out real loud. I put my fingers down in the hole running them down the lenght of my pinpointers stem to the target. I cleared away some of the dirt and there was SILVER. Just by looking at the edges thickness I knew it was not a quarter but could be a half or dollar. As I finally got it pulled out I saw it was a half. What kind, I still didn't know. I cleaned it off a tad and immediately saw it was a walking lady. That sure was a nice find. After the half, I called out to George who was wroking a little clearing he found towards the back of the place. In all he had 2 Mercs, 1 pre-64 Roosie and four wheaties. He had some other clad but we were on a old stuff hunt.
I told him we needed to move sites since our 2hrs was up and we still had a good 45min drive to the next location. We loaded up our gear and headed to the lake site. On the ay there we stopped off at a MacDonalds place and picked us up some food to go. On the way over we were discussing different sites and some potential places we had observed along the way. We fianally got there and drove through the woods to where I knew there was a small pass just enough to fit my truck through. As we got closer to the water I told George to be on the lookout for Snakes and Gators as he detected and not to ever get out of my sight. Also told him to keep a watchful eye on me and around me and I would do the same for him since those gataors have an uncanning way of sneaking up on someone. We got out of the truck, pulled the tailgate down and sat there with the food we bought to eat prior to the hunt. I was looking at all of the places I felt would be good and pointed out to George three locations I would work. He pointed out a couple himself and as we ate we talked about the anticipation of the hunt. He had seen what I had found the week prior and was excited about getting started. Them poor sausage and biscuits he bought didn't stand a chance, he wolved them down like there was no tomorrow. I on the other hand was relishing the anticipation of the hunt. I watched him setting up his unit and started off towards his firsgt location. I reminded him about the snakes and gators and he waved and kept marching on. I finally got done with my breakfast burrito's and coffee, set up my unit in both AM and disc using the new settings I felt would work better than last week. After getting all set up I started moving towardfs my first spot all the time keeping an eye on the ground for snakes. While sitting on the tailgate of my truck and looking at the water I easily spotted at least 7-8 gators out in the water maybe 15-20ft from shore. The spot I was headed too had two of them offshore though I knew where they were so it would just be a matter of keeping my eyes on them.
I got to my first hunt spot and started my swing at half speed just to make sure the settings would pick up ok. I increased my speed slightly till I felt I hit the max. At the current speed swing I could move from AM to Disc with no break in speed. After maybe half and hour and maybe a buck in clad, I had my first Gold hit. I played with it for awhile since it hit hard though faded somewhat as I went back across it. I changed directions and picked up a couple more solid repeatables. The VDI showed it to be Gold but it was thin. I tried profiling it and almost decided not to dig it becuase of it's size. The only thing that kept bothering me wqs how fast I lost it's signal as I swept from East to West, but as I swept from North to South the signal remained constant. This in itself told me it was thin and long...sure as hell not a ring. Well, it is sand and it should be easy enough to find out what it is so I dug down to it's displayed depth and as I got to the target I saw a hint of gold sticking out of one side of the hole. I grabbed it and tried to pull on it. It didn't want to come out so I dug real carefully and noted it was a chain. I moved all the sand out of the way and finally retrieved my find. It was a nice herringbone design bracelet about 1/4-3/8 wide. Sure was purdy but awfully dirty. Well it was my first gold for the day and I was pleased. I still had an itch though to find a ring. I kept on till I got another gold hit and this one based on size and target ID had all the characteristics of a ring, Gold ring that is, yellow and sparkly so it was when I finally got it out of the hole. As I was looking at it I heard a noise to my left and saw some brush moving. I faced the brush and saw them move again though this time much more robust. The brush was moving in my direction so I took my pistol out of my boot and waited a while the brush quit moving so I decided to go and check out what caused it. As I got to the edge of the brush where I saw movement last, I saw a Gators tail. The fact that the tail was facing me told me it was facing the other way. I picked up a stone and threw it out a ways towards where the head would be. When the stone hit ground I heard the hiss and saw the old girl lift her head up. She was a big one maybe running 12-14ft. I guess she was laying in the tall grass napping and I must have disturbed her. I started back stepping real slow till I knew I was far enough away to turn around and seek another spot to detect.
I found another little clearing that I started detecting after making sure it wasn't inhabited by anything else. I was about 20mins into the new spot when I got another Gold hit. I dug down to where the T2 told me it would be and there she was. This ring was a real beauty and you can go to My Photos Page to take a look. By the days end I had found a few more pieces of Gold so hurry over to My Phot's Page to take a look.
When the day ended I felt good about my finds and George himself had found two rings and a necklace. We loaded up our gear and drove back towards Albany boasting about our finds the entire way.
The next day I called a buddy of mine and asked if he wanted to go back to the lake though he said he couldn't because his wife had other plans for their day. Well, I wasn't about to stop that from letting me go. As much as I don't like being there alone I went anyway. I got there around 10am and decided to try another area that was pretty cleared our and I could see a good ways so I felt a little more comfortable and safe. Maybe about 1/2hr into the hunt I got my first Gold hit. It undoubtfully was a ring based on the VDI readings and another indicator I have learned with this unit. When I dug up the hit man did my eyes open wide.....it was a beautiful diamond ring. Not a single stone but one of them types they call cluster rings. It was purdy sure nuff though dirty. I placed it in my pouch afte wrapping it in a napkin. I didn't want to scratch it with anything else I had in my pouch. I couldn't help but to open that napkin maybe 3-4 times as I walked around the clearing sweeping the sand beneath me. I got right at the waters edge in a little washout that was probably made by the rains draining into the lake. As I was working the washout, I had another hit though this one being that of a nickle. I wasn't there to be chasing clad.........I had a mission and that was to find Gold. The more the better! I swept the coil over the target again and once more I got a solid 57. I knew from past experience when the T2 says 57 it is a nickle 98% of the time. There was no bouncing of the VDI, it was a solid repeatable and rang loud in the hightone range as it should. I switched over to AM to see how it would react, as I was crossing over the target I did get a shift in VDI readings. I was getting a real small reading at about 41 then the 57 would show up solid again. It this this maybe three times. I switched back to Disc and all I got was the 57. Well, I was having too much more luck so I decided to dig the nickle. It was a nickel but much more to it than just a nickle. Want to know what it was????? If you do, go to My Photo's Page 2 to have a look see. ;-)
Th day wasn't over till after I found a few more nice pieces. You can see them all (yesterdays and todays) by going to My Photo's Page and My Photo's Page 2. I really feel good about the hunts and moreso about the settings I am now employing. The site is rich with jewelry and though there aren't many places you can detect becuase of the over-growth of weeds and brush there are enough places to make some good scores. By next month the Gators will start their breeding and this is not a place you'd want to be when they do. I'll try and come back again maybe next weekend if I don't get caught up doing something else. The good part about it is not many (if any) know how to get into this place and even if they did I doubt it would be other detectorist. I have seen traces of hunters being around but not detectorist. As far as I am concerned the place is mine.....all mine. :-)
3-18-06 Instead of detecting the lake today, I decided to do a hunt at an old homestead I have been scoping out for about six months now. The place sits way back in the woods and belongs to one of my friends hunting clubs. The house itself is nestled at least 1/2mi from the nearest road and is surrounded by pines and oaks. To the left of it is a broken down shed and next to it sort of kitty corner is a old well or at least the remants of what use to be one. I found where the outhouse was situated though all that is left there is it's foundation. My friend told me when they first bought the land (300 acres) they filled it in to make sure no one got hurt messing around it. The ground is loamy from years of leaves, branches and mulch laying on the ground. Easy digging, just the way I like it. There's no real grass or brush in the way of the place so to speak of, though there are lots of little seedlings trying to make their way to the top and into some sunlight. Spanish moss adorn the trees especially the water oaks and pea oaks. It's a real nice place and sure is quite back there.
I got there around 9am since it is about a 2hr drive from my place. I figured I stay till around 3:00pm if all was going ok. The place dates back to the late 1800's from what I have been told and there is evidence that supports that just by looking at the foundation of the place and the remoteness of it's location. I would imagine at one time there had to be a trail that led out of the woods there to one of the dirt roads that takes you in to them woods.
While I was setting up sitting on the tailgate of my pickup sipping a cup of hot coffee, I looked around to take the place in and try to imagine where would be the best place to start my hunt. I had brought my dog Kimo along for the hunt and he was as happy as a squirrel knawing on a corn cob. He went from one tree to the other leaving his mark. it really amazes me how much water them dogs have considering the amount of trees he blessed with his scent. Well so much for Kimo, as I was placing my new rechargeables in the T2, I heard some squirrels barking up a storm I turned and looked that way, and there was Kimo trying his dangest to catch them little critters. I got my batteries installed in my unit and now I was preparing to install a new battery in my pinpointer. After all of the preparations I switched on my unit set it up in disc, then switched over to AM and set the hum. I took myself another few big gulps of coffee since I was raring to go. The settings I decided to use was Disc at 70, sensitivity at max, and tone at 3b. I figured I would be hunting for IH's and old silver if anything figuring the place was not that of a rich mans home so Gold was out of the question. Silver though would be likely...very likely!
I finished my cup of coffee, closed my thermos then headed over where two big oak trees stood. I could see by the scars on the tree about ten foot up there may have been a clothes line there. The trees were maybe 25ft from the well and based on the rut in the ground going from the well to the trees I figured it to be the path the lady of the place took while washing clothes and hanging them out to dry. I sorta laid out a visual 50ft long by 20ft wide grid between the trees that I would work thinking if there was going to be anything for me to find there it would be inside of my grid. I worked in AM thus allowing me to shoot slightly deeper and swing faster than the T2 allows you to do so in Disc. I was maybe 30mins into the hunt when I finally got my first real good hit. I had others but they faded off without really hanging long enough for me to really pick them up. The one I had now was solid and was reading at 76. This told me I either had a IH or possibly a piece of pewter. I picked up two pieces earlier that were reading up in that range though their tones were unlike this one. Thiers were slightly more broken up and this one was coming in as sweet as you would want one to. I hit the pinpoint and read the depth at 10in. I switched over to disc to confirm my readings with a slower sweep. I got right on top of the target and saw it lock in as a 75-76. No matter how many times I swept it the results were the same. I felt good about this target so I placed the unit down adn started to dig. As I approached my target depth I slowed down so as not to damage any find that may be there. I placed my pinpointer in the hole, swept the edges starting at the bottom then criss-cross across the bottom. As I was almost finishing up my hole sweep the AutoMax went off. I couldn't see anything yet so I took my finger and started to dig out some of the loose dirt. I felt something touch my finger so I swept it around in the loose dirt that laid on the bottom...ahhh there you are! I picked it up and there in my hand was the first IH of the day. It did put a smile on my face knowing there was stuff to be found here, just will have to work for it. At ten inches it too told me that I had my work cut out for me.
After maybe twenty more minutes of sweeping in AM, I had another hit though this time my reading was much higher. My readings were bouncing around between 88-91. I tried to get it to give me a two span reading but never could. One way it would read 88-89 and on the back swing I would get a 90-91. I figured if anything that was a good sign that the target was probably tilted somewhat. The target was reading at 8in so I swithced over to disc to confirm with a slower sweep and allow the audio to give me a better tone than what you usually get in AM. Convinced I had a quarter or ring of sort I went to digging my target. It didn't take me long to get to it either as soft as the soil was there. I again set my AutoMax into the hole and swept it to hear it sound of on the left side of the hold. I removed a tad more dirt from that side and down fell my target. I saw it was silver though didn't know yet what it was. My heart sped up a bit with the anticipation of finding out what it was. I picked it up wiped it off and saw wings. hmmm... I turn it over and saw a purdy lady standing between something. I took my little spray bottle out of my pouch gave it a few shots of water and wiped it off with my rag. Ahhh hat I had was a Standing Liberty quarter. I couldn't make out the date so I sprayed my rubbing cloth and wiped it a few more times...I took out my magnifying glass and gave it a look-see. 1927. The definition was pretty good too. The flying eagle on the back was real purdy. Now this is what I am talking about, after one hour I have found an IH and a SL-Q, man.... that in my book is doing ok. I went back to sweeping again in the AM and it wasn't maybe 10mins when I got my next hit. This one rang in solid at 76-78. I figured it to be another IH so I flipped my unit over to disc again and swung the coil over the target a few more times to get a better feel for it's tone and numeric. Yep no doubt this is a IH. I dug down to the 8in mark that the T2 provided me and without having to use my AutoMax I saw the coin at the bottom of my hole laying to one side. I picked it up gave it a rub and sure-nuff another IH. I was feeling real good about this hunt thus far. I stopped where I was placed a branch on the spot and walked back over to my truck to get something to drink. I guess all the excitement and anticipation made me thirsty. I sat there looking around at the place taking in it's beauty. There is nothing like being in the woods listening to the wind make it's way through the trees, listening to all of the birds and critters doing thier thing. I called for Kimo since he was no where to be seen. He must have heard me cause he let out a bark and came running my way. Out of the woods he came running up to me with his tail going 240mph. I petted him a bit and told him to stick around and not wander too far off. With that said, he cut a bee-line right back into them woods. I finished my cup of coffee and a couple pieces of jerky that I had made and brought with me. I then walked back over to where I had left off and commenced to sweeping again. I didn' turn my unit off since I wanted to save my settings and not have to go through the whole set up routine again. I was maybe 20mins more into the hunt when I got another good hit though this one set in at 80-81. It was down there at 10in like that of the IH I first found. The tone was a bit shaky and faint though you could tell it was there. I switched over to disc, swung slow till I picked it back up and with more clarity this time. I hit the pinpoint to confirm depth and sure nuff it read me out just what I expected. I laid the unit down and dug my little hole to about 8in all the while checking with my AutoMax. As I got down an in more I got a good beep from my pinpointer. I moved my finger around the hole and felt the target. I picked it up and saw silver but man this thing feels smaller than a dime. When I sprayed it and rubbed off all the dirt I saw it was a barber dime, a little worn but I could still make out the date to be 1907 with my magnifying glass. Yes sir...I now have two IH's a SL-Q and now a Barber dime. At this point you couldn't have took the smile off my face with a jack hammer. I was almost done with the area I had gridded of though had maybe 15ft to go. Well, I finshed off the area and didn't make another find. Oh, sure I found a few pieces of junk but not the old money I was looking for.
I moved over to where the front porch of the place was and decided I would sweep maybe a 10-12ft wide area straight across the entire front of the place. I started with the side of where the steps were and off to the left of the house. I may have been maybe half hour into this hunt when I got my next hit. This one was only at 6in and was reading as a quarter up there around 87-88. I got really excited about the possibility that I may have another SL. When I got down to my target I saw the silver laying in the hole to my right side. I reached down in it picked it up and it didn't look anything like the last quarter I had. It was really dirty so I sprayed it off real good and wiped it a few times and sprayed again and wiped again. This little piece turned out to be a Barber Quarter. I wiped again around the area of the date and took my maginfying glass out trying to make it out. With a little more cleaning I saw it was a 1915. Sure was a purdy one! I went back to detecting to find yet 2 more IH's (four total for the day) and 3 more Barber dimes (1893,1912 and a 1910). The 1893 was my oldest find for this year. As you can see by the pics of the finds, the dates showed up rather well after some light tooth brushing and rinsing. I know this place has much more to offer and I will undoubfully be back. My shoulders were hurting a bit from my having to lie under my utility trailer yesterday as I installed a lift kit to raise it up a bit. I hate having to work laying on my back. If I am going to be on my back, I think of other stuff to be doing vice working. ;-)
It was a great day and the finds were solid as they come. The T2 showed me that regardless of depth it will seek them out so long as you have her set up right. For this particular hunt I was in the F3 mode vice F2 as I will normally run due to the amount of electrical interference I get in some of the places I detect. I know at the settings I was using I probably missed a barber nickel or something in the lower ranges, but that too is all good since I will be back to work them settings when I get a chance to do so. Today I was looking for silver oldies and did ok. I even manged to come away with four IH's so all is good. Well let me go and see if I can post them pics for y'all to enjoy. Later!
3-26-06 Went to a old homestead that I have been eyeballing for awhile. Did ok with two nice old coin. For the article on these click over to my What's New Page and scroll down to the 3-26-06 date. You can also view the Pics of the finds on the My Photo's Page 5. Gotta love that silver.
3-31-06 Well the month of March is over and April will be here at the stroke of midnight. The month was good to me with many rings and old coins to be had. I went and got permission today to detect four more homesteads I have been keeping my eyes on. Had no problem asking and the farmers that owned the places were just as nice as could be. I believe they were happy to just have someone stop by and talk to them and take a interest in the old places. Most were out in the fields on their tractors harrowing up the ground so when I drove up that gave them an excuse to take a break. Even offered them a cold one or a cup of coffee. Amazing that all opted for the cold ones. ;-) Anyay, I closed out the month well with a collection of jewelry and got a good bit of old coins. I even managed to break even at $68.00 in clad and 200.89 for the year thus far. Not bad considering. Between the T2 and my TR how could I lose. :-)
8-23-06 Aloha, I finally made it back to my site to let everyone know that I am about to get back into the game. Since tragically losing my grandson this past Easter holiday I have had a real tough time accepting his passing. I think I have come to grips with it now and with our Lords guidance will do ok. I apologize for not answering any emails but the truth be told I just either didn't feel like it or never had the time considering all that is going on in my life at this time. Much had happened in my daily life since I was last here and I won't bore anyone with a long drawn out explanation but I do feel I owe all an apology for not answering my emails or even visiting the forums to interact with y'all. My email account got deactivated due to my not using it and I lost all my contacts email addee's and everything else I had store there (lots of research data). My intentions are to get back into detecting this fall since it is too hot for me right now and because of some things that is still going on in my personal life with my mother-in-law. It has been a daily touch and go situation with her and we don't anticipate having her with us much longer. Her health and body is shutting down rapidly. My brother came from the islands to live with us as well and he too was in real bad shape financially and health wise. We finally got his health together and are working on his financial situation. He'll be moving into our guest house in the next month so that is a good thing. God saw fit to bless us with a new grand-daughter while I was absent from the boards, she was born Leilani Marie Belinc, 7lb 6oz and as beautiful and healthy as ever. She will be making a month old on the 27th of this month. Anyway, just wanted to drop a line and say aloha to all and let you know that though I was absent from the boards my heart and thoughts have always remained.
1 Sept. 06 I'll just update the the above and let you know that my grand-daughter is now a solid 10lbs and doing great. I spent a little time getting rid of some of the spam that had infiltrated my website though am still working to get rid of the rest, hope to do so this evening. Haven't been detecting yet just to dang humid and hot out there. I was TDY to Iraq for 30days and it was just as hot there. My right foot has been giving me fit due to a heel spur that has developed. I was taking some medication to reduce the inflammation though that seems to not work anymore so my options are to get some cotisone shots or have the operation to remove it. If surgically removed that will put a damper on the detecting I was planing for the fall/winter months. May just hold off till after the new year all depends on the level of pain. Some days I am good to go, others I can hardly stand to walk on it. Well lemme go and y'all take care.
12-08-06 Aloha all, sorry I haven't been back in my site to do any updates or cleaning up. Things are still rather hectic for me and not going all that well as I would like it to be. Still having foot problems since I haven't been to the doctors to have my operation so I am still hobbling around. I have though turned my attention to wood carving since it doesn't demand as much walking/standing time. Will soon be loading a lot of pics to My Other Hobbies page where y'all can see the work I have been doing. Have since evolved from just making Cyprus Knee Tiki's and Wood Spirits to making Wood Staffs, Walking Sticks and Canes. Have added some embellishments to them as well as leather work in an attempt to make them more demanding.
My fish business continues to thrive and have sold many since I have last talked to y'all. Haven't detected since April though the desire is there my foot won't allow for it. Not to say I haven't got out there and tried but those times that I did try I found that I couldn't last an hour without experiencing severe pain that would last for days after so I chose to give it up till I actually get my operation. My work schedule though has been hectic as the Govt is trying to get all they can out of me before I retire this coming year. They even went as far and authorized me to hire on my replacement a year in advance whereas I can train him/her up and provide him/her a years transition time. I think it is great they did so since much of the corporate knowledge I possess relative to my job is locked in my head and not on paper. I have written an SOP for the standard work but all of the other stuff that is so pertinent to my job and being successful at it is stored in my head.
I do miss detecting immensely and hope to have surgery sometime after the first of the year schedule permitting. Till then I just have to find solace in knowing that there are many other things for me to do to keep busy. I am also considering writing a book on detecting based on my own experiences and knowledge which has been on my mind for sometime now, don't know when I will get started on it but am sure when I do it shouldn't take long since I have most of what I want to say captured in once place or another. Will just have to cut and paste a lot of it and assure the format flows as should. Well lemme go and get out to the shop to finish up some of my walking staffs that I worked on earlier this week. Just need to apply the leather embellishments and that will finish them out. Y'all take care and keep visiting the site. Mahalo!
15 Apr 07 - Aloha everyone. It's been awhile since I last updated this site as many of you may well be aware of. Today marks the 1yr aniversary of the passing of my grandson Nathan ("Pihole") Daniel Belinc, it has been a long year and though his loss still plays a sad tune in my heart I feel more comforted knowing he is at home with Jesus Christ and now has both Kimo and Chichi (two of my dogs) to play with and watch over him. I know to some that may some somewhat corny but to me I know that Kimo was Nathans best friend like he was mine and now they are together for all eternity.
My brother that lives next door to me now just got through having another surgery to open some blockages he had in his arteries (the ones on the side of the neck going to the brain), one was 98% collapsed and the other about 70%.
He is doing much better now and is looking forward to getting out and doing more. I on the other hand haven't done any detecting of any sort though do plan to do so now that the year of mourning has passed. My email account is still on the blink since I really haven't done anything to fix it. I'll probably get it fixed next week when I get back from Virginia. Yes I am still traveling a lot and am glad in a way I am doing so. I am in the process of not only training my replacement but have expanded that to my entire team. I've basically acquired a whole new team with the exception of my lead Equipment Specialist and my Logistics analyst. The rest of the team are relatively all new to the field so I felt the need to train all of them in their respective fields before retiring next Jan. Keeps me busy and on the road a lot.
I have been reading the posts in my guest book and thank all that have written and apologize for not responding as I should have. I'll try and play catch-up with that aspect of this site in the very near future. I feel as though I have let y'all down by not interacting more and hope to remedy that real soon. I still have yet to have that surgery on my foot for the heel spur though it doesn't pain me as much as it used to since I have been using alternative medicines if you wish for a lack of better terms to treat it. I am still doing my wood carvings and even opened a store (well actually I reanted some space in a consignment shop). I just got through breeding my Shubunkins, Calico's, Comets, Obaki's, Rassahs, and a few of the other exotic goldfish family species that I raise and sell. I probably have at least 50k fry fish swimming around in my ponds and in another two months they should be ready for sale. I just took the eggs from my Koi pond out to hatch off and expect they will be by the time I return from Virginia this Friday. Judging from the number of eggs on the breeding filters I expect a good hatch. It'll be in the neighborhood of 50k to 100k of fry if I get the 85% hatch ratio I am expecting. They too will be ready for sale by August. All of my plantings/cuttings are doing well and expect I will be selling them too off in the next month or so. One might say I have expanded into the nursery business too. 
Always looking to make a buck.
Most the cuttings and plantings are fruit trees (various Plums, Apples of various types, Pears of various types, Oranges, Lemons, Grape fruits, Star fruit, Passion fruit, Kiwi, 
Grapes various types, etc.., red tips, bird house gourds (my daughter and I cut them out for the birds (primarily purple martins) them paint them with various sceneries), privet hedges, and various garden vegetables. Well, that's my update on what I have been doing and hope to hear from y'all. Though my personal email addee is down, you can still write me at chris.duponte@usmc.mil . Y'all take care and hope to hear from some of you soon. Oh, I almost forgot......I still do lots of fishing whenever I get the chance. Haven't been doing too well though because the river and lakes around here hasn't stabilized as they should. Not to say I haven't filled a freezer or two either. Well, lemme go and y'all take care....as we say in Hawaii'nei.....Malama Pono.
14 Mar 08
Well, I finally made it back in here and was able to save my entire site.
Been a long time since I was able to come in here and edit/fix anything. You'd think with my writing the help desk that hosts these sites they could have assisted me in getting it fixed. Not happening, they didn't even acknowledge my emails. 
Nevertheless I am here and hope to start getting this site straightened back out.
I happen to be off from work today and will be going on a hunt wih both my brother and my daughters father-in-law. The site we will be detecting will be that of the old toll bridge in Newton, Ga. Back in the late 1800's there was such a bridge and a road for that matter that was used to cross the Flint River at the Newton stagecoach stop. There too was a ferry there that the old timers paid a toll in order to take their various cargo/livestock across the river. The site is now owned by a private citizen and because Andy is the city's Fire Chief, he knows the owner well and has gained permission for us to hunt the site. Will be using three detectors today (BH TimeRanger second generation, Fisher Coinstrike, and my Teknetics T2). All of these are proven detectors that will get the job done! There is no telling what we may find since the Flint has flooded many times since and the worst being back in 1994. I am not so optimistic that we will find what I would love to find, but any hunt is a good hunt and it will be all a matter of where I decide to concentrate my efforts. My plan is to find the largest trees in the area and work the downstream side of them right up as close as I can get to them. I'll also work the flats that seems to lend themselves as historical markers for the observant. You can see where time has evolved by viewing the layering of these flats up against the mighty Flints banks. I have found some nice stuff over the years crusted into these flats. This will be a challenge though since the water snakes will be competing for these same area's no that Spring is trying to come in. They will be out their sunning and challenging anyone that tries to claim their territory. No problem though all one needs is a water pistol with some ammonia in it. This will get them to high-tailing it and if you shoot a line on the ground with this stuff they will not cross it (sorta like building yourself a safety perimeter). The best part is this is all environmentally safe and it doesn't hurt the wildlife.
Well let me go and get my gear ready, we're supposed to meet in another two hours, need to get my batteries off the chargers, PM my gear and make sure my truck is loaded with all I'll need and Moki (My pit-bull, Kimo's grand-daughter), is fed and ready to go. She reminds me of Kimo so much and how he loved to play around while I did my thing. Will let y'all know how I made out later. Take care!!
Apr. 03, 2008
I finally have a chance to come in here and update a little and tell you how my last hunt went. Well, to tell you the truth.....the river landing/toll bridge was a bust! We got there ok and hunted the place for nearly two hours. The place has been purchased by some guy that decided he was going to till the entire place over and plant a bunch of rye grass so the only place you could actually detect was right along the waters edge. With the river having gone up and down over the years whatever may have lied there is gone! I managed to scrape up a few clad coins but nothing to be proud of. I saw where some folks had been fishing and decided to hit them spots thus the few coins I managed to come away with.
We packed it up and went to another spot that had connections to the great flood of 1994. It was an old bar that has since been vacated/abandoned. My brother took one side of the bar, Andy another and I took the front where the parking lot had been. I figured this would have been the most productive so I claimed it right away. I was a good choice too since I managed to weed out at least $16.00 of loose change about 3-4 inches deep. I also found a small zodiac key chain thing that had one of them Dodge Rams on it. It was an Aries so I gave it to my daughter upon returning home and cleaning it up. It was in real good shape for having been underground for that long.
The hunt itself was enoyable since about ever 10-15 minutes or so you'd hit something. I passed over god-zillion pennies both zinc and copper. I didn't feel like digging them on this particular day since the dimes, nickles and quarters were too plentiful. The digging was easy since the ground was pretty loamy and soft. I predominately used my T2 and can tell you it didn't let me down. Did pull up a few rusted bottle caps but I would say that was my fault since the signals did tell me it was iffy though close enough to the be worth the dig. Had this been hard ground I would have not done so.
My brother didn't do well at all since he is still new to this game and is half blind and can't hear to well either. He gave it up about two hours into the hunt and decided to pull soem old flora that was growing in the area. Andy on the other hand did ok. He was pulling more dimes than I did though I had the dibs on the quarters.
Was planning on doing some detecting this weekend though the rain had other ideas. Tomorrow's forecast looks promising so maybe I'll try it then. Till the next time heres wishing y'all full pouches and great digs! 4-04-08 While reading through my guestbook last evening I came across this one email from one of my visitors that I felt I needed to pass along for those that may have passed it over. It has to do with numismatic terms glossaries. Here's the link Chuck provided me and I hope it helps all those that love this stuff. www.telecoins.com/gloss.html Hope y'all enjoy it as much as I did. Thanks, Chuck!
4-05-08 UPDATE I posted a note about my email addee chrisduponte@hotmail.com having been down for almost a year now. Well, I pleased to annouce I have it back up and running. Don't hesitate to send any emails or just to chat. Aloha!
7-21-08 It's been quite awhile since I have been in last. I am hear to tell you things have not been going well for me much less affording me time to detect or even come in here and post stuff. We lost my Mother-in-law last week at the ripe age of 82. She had been battling alzheimers, diabetes, heart congestion, and a myriad of other afflictions. for the last several years so her passing in my eyes was for the best and we take consolation knowing she is fnally resting in peace with no pain along side of our heavenly father and all of our loved ones that has passed before her. I on the other hand also suffered a broken (severly fractured in two places) ankle and tore tendons. I was off-loading a riding mower from the back of my truck when the ramp fell off to the side and I had to catch the weight of the mower as it started to slide down the one ramp that was still in place. I already had a sprained ankle from a couple of weeks before that so that didn't help. Anyway, I just got off the cane two weeks ago though the area is still sensitive and not condusive to metal detecting if you know what I mean. I have four to five old homestead sites that I have gotten permission to detect though will have to wait till the foot gets a little better. I've also been invited on a treasure dive down in the Florida keys but again, I'll wait till my foot heals completely. At my age I can't risk a lasting injury that would put me out of the detecting business for good. Love the stuff too much to risk it. My job too has been demanding and has caused me to be out of town at least two 1/2 weeks per month. By the time I do get back home it's only to prepare for the next trip and hit the road again. Can't wait till JAnuary of 09 when I finally do retire and dedicate more time to what I really love to do and enjoy doing. I used to love my job and truly enjoyed going in and traveling the country and world, but you know that gets old after 30+ years of doing it. I am ready for the change and have financially planned for it so the wife and I can enjoy ourselves and not worry about any bills and stuff like that. The kids....well, I truly believe at their ages they need to fend for themselves and the grandchildren. We'll be there should they need us in the case of an emergency but can guarantee you it had better be AN EMERGENCY! All is not lost though since while sitting in the motel rooms I have been able to scope out the various forums and reading all the different posts and looking at the pics and can tell you I am ready to get out there and start up again. Haven't posted anything since there really hasn't been anything for me to say.....can you believe that, me quite? 
Well lemme run and I'll try to drop in here again the next chance I get to give y'all an update.
8-03-08 Well, I got to get out today and do some detecting. I took one of my detectors with me and decided to hit some parks just to get some run time on my T2. I actually went yesterday also after pouring about two yards of concrete early in the morning. I was give out and tired when done, but after about a two hour or so rest I was ready to go as was both my BH TR's. Yesterday I went and hit four boat landing ramps in the general vicinity and did ok I guess, no jewelry but lots of clad. I worked it for about three hours and came away with 16.48 in change. Found a few lures and other fishing stuff but nothing to get excited over. I basically just went to run the detectors and make sure I don't forget the VDI numerics on them since all my detectors differ in the numbers. The three hours did not include driving time to and from each landing, this was strictly detecting time.
Today I put in right at 4 1/2 solid hours of detecting. Again nothing in the way of jewelry though did better at the clad. This time I came away with 21.67 in clad, two dog tags, couple of jacket zippers (copper types), 3 keys (house/car), and one padlock. Like I said both days were nothing to jump for joy over but I enjoyed myself, my dog loved getting to run all over the place, my detectors got a work out as did my pin-pointers, and I got a lot of exercise. I can tell you one thing it was hot and humid and was sweating a dang dog. I put a couple of cool wraps around my neck and it helped some but the humidity was a killer (drank lots of water). It threatened to rain a couple of times, but never did. Yesterday was much cooler since I did my detecting a lot earlier. I would have gone out earlier but because of my having to pour and mix all that concrete I decided to that that during the early morning hours instead.
Life is good and still looking forward to retiring and buying another place on the beach. We're keeping the place here though are looking for a small place on the beach as a get away from here. I'm basically looking for a lot that's maybe a 1/8 acre of so big where I can easily take care of it (I don't want a big lot like I have here) and have room enough to have a decent size shed/storage building/shop to house all my tools, fishing supplies, detecting gear and stuff that I would need there, our RV to house ourselves, and my boats to so I can run the lakes/creeks/rivers and salt water fish/dive. Well y'all take care and remember it isn't the how expensive the detector is that makes the real difference, It's the man/woman at the end of that money stick listening to what it is telling them that counts.
01-03-09 For those that have been here before and may have even conversed with me via email or by phone you know that I haven't updated this site for quite some time. What you didn't know is that I am now officially retired and am getting back into detecting again. I made a new entry in my What's New page so go there to see what I posted! Thanks for all that have been visiting this site!
02-28-10 Aloha, well it's been some time since I have been on this page.........if you look at my last entry it's been just over a year. This is not to say I haven't been detecting in the last year because I have, it's just saying I haven't been tending to my site as I should and I apologize for that. I just have SO much going on I really haven't found the time. I'll try to make an additional effort this year. Y'all take care and get-r-done!!
