Looking for coins - might have found a meteorite :cam:

[Dimesworth]

I have been hunting all winter for meteorites - did not find any. I must have moved 5 tons of rock from rockpiles and restackted them. We got five decent days in this great state of Minnesota - in between snow storms. I was out in the rodeo grounds finding coins and bottle caps and pull -tabs. Then I'm standing by a chemical toilet swinging my Vaquero and get this clear target sound. Noticing that my signal is over this dark rock each time I kick it a few inches, I take out my little magnet that I always carry and the rock jumps about a quarter inch and bonds to the magnet. It's just a fragment, about one and a quarter long by three quarter wide and a half inch deep.

I read in about three different articles that to hunt meteorites you must have a detector with manual ground balance. Automatic balance will, on most occasions, track the meteorite out. I have a White's GMT with auto and manual balance. On auto balance, after a few swings the signal leaves. On manual it stays. The Vaquero signals the rock the best of all my machines. The GMT picks the signal good also. The Ace 250 is fainter but picks it up in all - metal. My Infinium LS will not sound off over the rock. I asked Garrett by phone and they said that the LS will track out a meteorite immediatly like it does a hotrock. So, maybe I found something and maybe I didn't. (Any way, my sweet grand - daughter is showing me how to place pictures on the forum. I suppose she's thinking this is like trying to teach algebra to a toad. But here they are - hope they're focused good.)

 

[Pap]

hey you learned your lesson well on posting the pictures. Hopefully what you have is a meteorite. On that subject i am not knowledgeable.
Pap

 

[Tinfoil]

n/t

 

[Gunnar of bradford MN]

I think its a chunk of some iron ore swept down from the iron range some of the iron is very pure in my pottery i use magnets to seperate the iron from the feldspar a meteore would have pock marks but it is possible ive found some strage rocks in the rum river gravles that set off my detector and they wher magnetic to talk to you later and hope you find one for sure

 

[Dimesworth]

Tinfoil - good thing that you brought the subject up. I guess in my zeal to post the pictures, I didn't type every thing that I was planning to.

One has to hunt in all metal, any discrimination and you wouldn't pick one up. I can get hits on bolts and other metals below iron disc., but not on this rock, which leads me to believe that it's a meteorite. I ground the end of this rock slightly on my grinder; it was very hard. One can't see it very well on the first picture but there's tiny silver spots on the second pic., that looks like nickle. Where I ground the rock on the end, I think it looks like the widmanstatten pattern when placed under lights. I will let someone at the University of Minnesota test it and see if my hopes are correct.

Thanks also to Pap and Gunnar for your opinions, and any one else who posts on this subject. Dimesworth

 

[GaryL]

Gunnar of bradford MN is on the right track, should show some signs of pock marks, and some really shinny specks of other minerals with a jewelers lope. Meteorites are hard to ID fer sure.
Hope ya got one, however the other stuff that looks to be mixed in leaves some doubt.

Good Hunting!!

GaryL ....