My old hunting buddy agreed to go detecting Saturday morning and after putting my E-Trac and a couple loaner detectors in the car, I gave him a reminder call that I was on my way. He wasn't ready yet, and asked if I could swing by in a couple hours. With the timer on my kitchen pass ticking, I decided to make a quick stop at an old park and take advantage of the previous days rain moistening the ground.
I had the E-Trac out for a grand total of 15 minutes and thought that if I could quickly remove some of the mid-depth pull tabs from an area I was hunting, I might turn up something good. I went back to the car and grabbed my Hole Hog and returned to what I thought was a 6" deep tab. I pulled a 6" deep plug, the pistol probe indicated the target was still in the hole. I reach in and OUCH ! ! ! ! ! ! I think I just cut open the end of my middle finger!
Sure enough, I cut the pull tab with the hole hog leaving a razor sharp edge right on the bottom of the hole. That is the first cut in 25 years of doing this.
Back home for triage and some sort of covering so that I didn't have to bag the rest of the day. Result, cloth finger tip bandage, antibiotic ointment, and reinforced packing tape. Perfect.
I picked up my buddy and off we went to an older house that was scheduled for demolition in favor of a new road. We pull up to the house eyeing the two cars in the driveway, the construction stakes, orange ribbon everywhere and nobody answers the door. They're home of course, just not answering the door. Well, we are a ways from home and now have nowhere to hunt so we hop in the car and start looking for some likely house. I knocked at three houses only to find nobody home. A downside of going out on a Saturday.
Finally, at the fourth house, the lady of the house answers and we get permission. And it is a great looking yard as well. The house was built in 1910, there an old brick outbuilding behind the house, there are a few very large trees on the side yard. Perfect.
Now my hunting buddies 6000 Di Pro SL detector crapped out on him about 4 yrs ago after a very long term of service. And due to the complexity and costs of the newer detectors, he never replaced it. So I have brought along a couple loaners in hope of getting him interested enough to hunt.
I turn on the E-Trac and in the first few swings finds the lead head of an old toy cowboy complete with cowboy hat sitting about 5" deep. And a minute later, a tiny brass lipstick container comes to the surface. Looks like it is going to be a great yard. My friend selects the old Eagle I over the CZ-5 and heads for a section where the grass has been removed from the parking strip. Suddenly, the lady at the house is standing in front of me with a very concerned look on her face and indicates that she didn't know that we were going to be looking IN the grass.
She suggests we hunt an old abandoned wooden building around the side that used to be a bunkhouse of sorts originally and somehow or other rumor had it that it had been a 'secret' gambling house back in the 30's. 
There is no grass around the area, so we are ok to hunt around the old building. Almost nothing.
Some clad coins and an old ear tag from when they used to run sheep in the area. ( I am not going to post a picture of the ear tag or everybody and their sheep would know where we were! 
)
We head out to visit a friend in the area who gives us permission to hunt an old camp area that pre-dates the town. It is going to be planted soon, so we should stop by now. We swing by and ....... it has already been planted.
I think this is strike 3 or 4 by now, hard to keep track. So we hop back in the Landcruiser and start the trip home yaking about past trips and places that we've hunted. He tells me about an old picnic site he has permission to hunt but being detector-less has never bothered going back to. The area was in the same family for generations and the last time he was there, the farm owner told him he ought to hunt their old picnic area. When he was a kid, they would have dime tosses and all sorts of stuff should be up there. My friend found 6 Merc dimes there with his old whites when he was there last. He never went back.
It is starting to sprinkle when I turn on the detector. I soon start turning up bits of melted metal from the firepit. I am searching carefully for signs of any lost dimes. Nothing. It is getting colder. Then I get a zinc penny reading 14/37, 14/38. At five inches I decide to go ahead and dig it. Up pops a corroded penny. But it doesn't look right to be a zinc'er. A closer inspection of the back shows the classic wreath and shield from an Indian Head penny. I flip it over and sure enough, portrait of a Indian. But man is it corroded. Brushing away the dirt reveals an 1880; one of the older coins I have found in Utah except for around some of the old ghost towns in the west desert.
The area needs a revisit as I was out of time. The dinger on my kitchen pass went off. That was a lot of day and effort for a single penny. But at least it was on old one.
Rich (Utah)
I had the E-Trac out for a grand total of 15 minutes and thought that if I could quickly remove some of the mid-depth pull tabs from an area I was hunting, I might turn up something good. I went back to the car and grabbed my Hole Hog and returned to what I thought was a 6" deep tab. I pulled a 6" deep plug, the pistol probe indicated the target was still in the hole. I reach in and OUCH ! ! ! ! ! ! I think I just cut open the end of my middle finger!
Sure enough, I cut the pull tab with the hole hog leaving a razor sharp edge right on the bottom of the hole. That is the first cut in 25 years of doing this.Back home for triage and some sort of covering so that I didn't have to bag the rest of the day. Result, cloth finger tip bandage, antibiotic ointment, and reinforced packing tape. Perfect.
I picked up my buddy and off we went to an older house that was scheduled for demolition in favor of a new road. We pull up to the house eyeing the two cars in the driveway, the construction stakes, orange ribbon everywhere and nobody answers the door. They're home of course, just not answering the door. Well, we are a ways from home and now have nowhere to hunt so we hop in the car and start looking for some likely house. I knocked at three houses only to find nobody home. A downside of going out on a Saturday.
Finally, at the fourth house, the lady of the house answers and we get permission. And it is a great looking yard as well. The house was built in 1910, there an old brick outbuilding behind the house, there are a few very large trees on the side yard. Perfect.
Now my hunting buddies 6000 Di Pro SL detector crapped out on him about 4 yrs ago after a very long term of service. And due to the complexity and costs of the newer detectors, he never replaced it. So I have brought along a couple loaners in hope of getting him interested enough to hunt.
I turn on the E-Trac and in the first few swings finds the lead head of an old toy cowboy complete with cowboy hat sitting about 5" deep. And a minute later, a tiny brass lipstick container comes to the surface. Looks like it is going to be a great yard. My friend selects the old Eagle I over the CZ-5 and heads for a section where the grass has been removed from the parking strip. Suddenly, the lady at the house is standing in front of me with a very concerned look on her face and indicates that she didn't know that we were going to be looking IN the grass.
She suggests we hunt an old abandoned wooden building around the side that used to be a bunkhouse of sorts originally and somehow or other rumor had it that it had been a 'secret' gambling house back in the 30's. There is no grass around the area, so we are ok to hunt around the old building. Almost nothing.
Some clad coins and an old ear tag from when they used to run sheep in the area. ( I am not going to post a picture of the ear tag or everybody and their sheep would know where we were! )We head out to visit a friend in the area who gives us permission to hunt an old camp area that pre-dates the town. It is going to be planted soon, so we should stop by now. We swing by and ....... it has already been planted.
I think this is strike 3 or 4 by now, hard to keep track. So we hop back in the Landcruiser and start the trip home yaking about past trips and places that we've hunted. He tells me about an old picnic site he has permission to hunt but being detector-less has never bothered going back to. The area was in the same family for generations and the last time he was there, the farm owner told him he ought to hunt their old picnic area. When he was a kid, they would have dime tosses and all sorts of stuff should be up there. My friend found 6 Merc dimes there with his old whites when he was there last. He never went back.It is starting to sprinkle when I turn on the detector. I soon start turning up bits of melted metal from the firepit. I am searching carefully for signs of any lost dimes. Nothing. It is getting colder. Then I get a zinc penny reading 14/37, 14/38. At five inches I decide to go ahead and dig it. Up pops a corroded penny. But it doesn't look right to be a zinc'er. A closer inspection of the back shows the classic wreath and shield from an Indian Head penny. I flip it over and sure enough, portrait of a Indian. But man is it corroded. Brushing away the dirt reveals an 1880; one of the older coins I have found in Utah except for around some of the old ghost towns in the west desert.
The area needs a revisit as I was out of time. The dinger on my kitchen pass went off. That was a lot of day and effort for a single penny. But at least it was on old one.
Rich (Utah)
It wasn't gory enough to be cool either. Just a pain.
The fingertip is healing with the help of a bandage and some Neosporin. Rotten place for a cut especially for digging in the dirt. The packing tape worked great. It is the super sticky clear boxing tape with reinforcing strands going thru it. Held up real well and didn't allow any dirt down into the bandage. I started at the second knuckle, ran the tape lengthwise down the back of the finger, over the bandage and back on the bottom side, neatly folded in the edges and away we went.