CZconnoisseur
Active member
I know there are places in the US right now that are MUCH colder, but for around here it's pretty darn frigid...but at least the ground was soft and digging was fairly easy. I could have picked a rental house or two, or could have visited other old parks in the city, but what sold me on MLK Park today was ease of digging, age and history of the park, and recovery speed!
I spent almost four hours at the south end of the park where I found an Eagle button a few months back, and hunted using almost no notch whatsoever. I wanted to hear the iron targets, and there were plenty of them, but mixed in was a generous amount of pulltabs, ring tabs, can slaw, and foil which made finding good targets a real challenge. The temp didn't get over 25*F today, and the wind was steady at 10-15 mph. We had sleet and freezing rain last night, however the roads didn't ice up too bad...there was more ice on grassy areas than anywhere else and this made for an interesting day of detecting!
One of the first good targets was a small likely turn-of-the-century button that set the pace for the day. All of the brass items were found in the first leg of the hunt, and I stayed inside a 50' X 50' box concentrating on masked targets and deep targets. I dug almost every "nickel" indication, and almost every one of those were pulltabs or pieces of pulltabs. The first coin of the day was a toasty 1901 V nickel, and it sounded like any other piece of trash and I almost didn't dig it! Was only 3-4" deep and was a welcome change to all the aluminum already dug. Not 10 feet from where I found the Eagle button last year, I happened upon an old skeleton key and a suspender buckle - items that were mixed in with a lot of iron grunts. Right before lunchtime I received a nice 74-75 target which was a smooth 1919 S Wheatie from about 4-5" deep. I remember the ground surrounding the coin was a little discolored, and at this location I've learned this is a good sign that "you're getting close!" while digging it out...
After lunch I tried my luck on another fairway without the control box since it got dirty from the first half of the day, but it was simply too exposed to the constant unrelenting wind, and I got TOO cold after trying to cope for about 45 minutes. I walked closer to the car onto another fairway that was luckily shielded from the wind...MUCH, MUCH BETTER comfortwise! Shortly thereafter I got a faint high-ish tone, and from about 5" deep came a zincoln...hmm, time to move on...I found myself almost dead centered in the fairway but the wind was not blowing. I slowed down and gridded a small area close to where I dug a couple of Indians a few months back. Then out of nowhere I get a high tone "70s hit" and not 4" deep I see a green disc and more discolored dirt. A lovely green 1893 Indian cent with a smooth, even patina had found a new home! A few minutes later I get a solid "zinc cent" tone, but the signature was a little too large for a penny - was really surprised to pull a dropped .54 cal 3-ringer from 8" down!
It was a good day as far as finds go, but the cold and the wind was a little too much even with handwarmers and a lot of coffee. I really hope we all see warmer weather soon, and I'm surely not the only one...
Will post video once it's ready...
I spent almost four hours at the south end of the park where I found an Eagle button a few months back, and hunted using almost no notch whatsoever. I wanted to hear the iron targets, and there were plenty of them, but mixed in was a generous amount of pulltabs, ring tabs, can slaw, and foil which made finding good targets a real challenge. The temp didn't get over 25*F today, and the wind was steady at 10-15 mph. We had sleet and freezing rain last night, however the roads didn't ice up too bad...there was more ice on grassy areas than anywhere else and this made for an interesting day of detecting!
One of the first good targets was a small likely turn-of-the-century button that set the pace for the day. All of the brass items were found in the first leg of the hunt, and I stayed inside a 50' X 50' box concentrating on masked targets and deep targets. I dug almost every "nickel" indication, and almost every one of those were pulltabs or pieces of pulltabs. The first coin of the day was a toasty 1901 V nickel, and it sounded like any other piece of trash and I almost didn't dig it! Was only 3-4" deep and was a welcome change to all the aluminum already dug. Not 10 feet from where I found the Eagle button last year, I happened upon an old skeleton key and a suspender buckle - items that were mixed in with a lot of iron grunts. Right before lunchtime I received a nice 74-75 target which was a smooth 1919 S Wheatie from about 4-5" deep. I remember the ground surrounding the coin was a little discolored, and at this location I've learned this is a good sign that "you're getting close!" while digging it out...
After lunch I tried my luck on another fairway without the control box since it got dirty from the first half of the day, but it was simply too exposed to the constant unrelenting wind, and I got TOO cold after trying to cope for about 45 minutes. I walked closer to the car onto another fairway that was luckily shielded from the wind...MUCH, MUCH BETTER comfortwise! Shortly thereafter I got a faint high-ish tone, and from about 5" deep came a zincoln...hmm, time to move on...I found myself almost dead centered in the fairway but the wind was not blowing. I slowed down and gridded a small area close to where I dug a couple of Indians a few months back. Then out of nowhere I get a high tone "70s hit" and not 4" deep I see a green disc and more discolored dirt. A lovely green 1893 Indian cent with a smooth, even patina had found a new home! A few minutes later I get a solid "zinc cent" tone, but the signature was a little too large for a penny - was really surprised to pull a dropped .54 cal 3-ringer from 8" down!
It was a good day as far as finds go, but the cold and the wind was a little too much even with handwarmers and a lot of coffee. I really hope we all see warmer weather soon, and I'm surely not the only one...
Will post video once it's ready...
Thats nice work, we are sitting here all frozen in and have to rely on you guys for some posts! Once this weather breaks, it will be one heck of a hunting spree this Spring!
