Got a call this morning from my pal in the sheriff's department. He said they needed my service as an avid detectorist and asked if I could attend a briefing at 1 pm concerning a murder. Got there and was fascinated to see a real police sit down. I was asked to comment about the possibility of using a metal detector to find a pistol that had been allegedly dumped along a short stretch of road. I asked what equipment they had and was surprised that it was pretty meager. I ended up doing the search myself with two minders to make sure I didn't mishandle any evidence. I set my 2500 for iron up to around nickel and tested several pistols. They all gave an overload signal up close and an iron signal from greater than around 2 inches. The site was about 250 yards along a two lane highway. There was a cliff to one side with just enough area to do one real good swing. The other side bordered a river and was between 10 and 20 feet wide and heavily overgrown. Some of the overgrowth was impossible to get into. They had also just replaced the guard rails on that side and when the DPW did so they just pushed the old wires down on the ground. That made a long narrow portion of the area unsearchable. The river was frozen when the weapon was allegedly dumped but had broken up along the bank since yesterday. It's tidal. I went at it for just over 2 hours and found three hubcaps, a set of keys, a wallet (empty), a bicycle pedal that sure looked like a pistol for a second, about a hundred cans, tons of large iron garbage, no pistol. I did a thorough job of it. It was the lead detectives opinion that it was either in the drink or not dumped there in the first place. I got a few thank yous and I suppose I earned a few brownie points with the city and county cops involved. They invited me to their cop hangout for cocktails but I decided after the Super Bowl that my liver needs a break. Some of them hang out in the bar I work at too including the sheriff. Good day. No coins. No photos. I'm not counting it as a hunt. I pocketed the found keys and lost them when I slipped near the river. Ker-plunk. Glad they weren't mine.
Chris
Chris
Happy Hunting!