Mike Moutray - St.Louis MO
Member
Found out Thursday morning from the boss that we would close down the shop Fri-Sun for a 3 day weekend. Hmmmmmm.... the wife and kid are out of town, what will I do with 3 days of free time??? - Road Trip!
I decided to head north into Iowa to hunt some sites that were good to me in past trips. I didn't expect a lot of finds because I know the wave of Explorer users have been through everywhere up there, but it didn't matter much - I just needed to get out of town and the weather was looking to be nice.
I concentrated mainly on town squares as these are my favorite sites to hunt. Lots of trash and iron and not much ground to cover ensured that I wouldn't have to work too hard.
I still came home in pain and virtually crippled from all the bending and digging I did. By the end of the trip I was passing up some good iffy targets because my knees were to the point where I could hardly kneel on the ground, let alone get back up. I'm sure I left some goodies behind, but I have to be able to get out of bed and make it to work Monday.......:veryangry:
It rained all day Saturday so the hunting suffered - even on Sunday the wet ground played hell with all the iron falsing and It was tough to get the iron to sound bad and the coins to sound good. Most sites produced little to any good signals, the combination of the weather and the thoroughness of the Explorers didn't make anywhere easy! Out of about 2 dozen sites I tried 3 of them produced nearly all of the finds.
Twice I ran into other detectorists from the forum and I was shocked and flattered that they knew who I was before asking. I guess I spend too much time up there...... I had a good time chatting with them though. This will probably be my last road trip up there, so I wont be raiding their goodies anymore!
Most of the finds were tough signals... one place I found 6 mercs at in a 2 hour span and not one of them read dime... they bounced around penny and iron because the ground conditions were so bad. I only dug them because the grass was pretty bare and it was easy digging. Most sites up there have an unbelievable, almost bulletproof carpet of thick, thick turf and cutting through that stuff was hell. The spring rains sure helped grow that stuff thick
All the barbers came from one place - a site I had almost been run out of before. It was technically illegal to hunt that park, but with talking to the police chief and demonstrating my digging skills, I was granted permission to hunt anyway. I know about 3-4 sites around the midwest that have been shut down to detecting since the 1980's and if you talk to the right people, you might be able to get back into them to hunt again.... those types of places are in cities where hardly anyone remembers the laws against detecting from that far back and a little persuasion and demonstration can get you into a sweet spot - always worth a try!
The results of this trip were pretty good, and the pics are as follows:
The tribe of indians (1878-1907) with the big chief in the middle 1937D.
[attachment 131914 04jul09indians.JPG]
I also included a pic of the 62 wheaties, which I normally don't do, but I feel it was warranted as my knees and back creaked and popped copiously with digging each one. No big surprises with the dates, the usual 1909, 1914, 1931 dates without the proper mintmark
..........
[attachment 131915 04jul09wheats.JPG]
And now for the shiny stuff! 1906D Barber Quarter 1898, nice 1901O, 1907, 1912 Barber Dimes 10 Mercs from a beautiful 1920D to 1944 and 4 Roosies
[attachment 131916 04jul09silver.JPG]
Also a couple other finds.... silver pin from Disabled American Veterans (the top fell off in the hole and I was lucky to see it), silver pin "For Progress In Writing", and a Marines pin
[attachment 131917 04jul09misc.JPG]
Well I've gone on long enough, hope you've enjoyed the pics.... now I have to go hobble off to work :veryangry::veryangry::veryangry::veryangry::veryangry::veryangry:
Take care and HH, Mike.
I decided to head north into Iowa to hunt some sites that were good to me in past trips. I didn't expect a lot of finds because I know the wave of Explorer users have been through everywhere up there, but it didn't matter much - I just needed to get out of town and the weather was looking to be nice.
I concentrated mainly on town squares as these are my favorite sites to hunt. Lots of trash and iron and not much ground to cover ensured that I wouldn't have to work too hard.
I still came home in pain and virtually crippled from all the bending and digging I did. By the end of the trip I was passing up some good iffy targets because my knees were to the point where I could hardly kneel on the ground, let alone get back up. I'm sure I left some goodies behind, but I have to be able to get out of bed and make it to work Monday.......:veryangry:It rained all day Saturday so the hunting suffered - even on Sunday the wet ground played hell with all the iron falsing and It was tough to get the iron to sound bad and the coins to sound good. Most sites produced little to any good signals, the combination of the weather and the thoroughness of the Explorers didn't make anywhere easy! Out of about 2 dozen sites I tried 3 of them produced nearly all of the finds.
Twice I ran into other detectorists from the forum and I was shocked and flattered that they knew who I was before asking. I guess I spend too much time up there......
I had a good time chatting with them though. This will probably be my last road trip up there, so I wont be raiding their goodies anymore!Most of the finds were tough signals... one place I found 6 mercs at in a 2 hour span and not one of them read dime... they bounced around penny and iron because the ground conditions were so bad. I only dug them because the grass was pretty bare and it was easy digging. Most sites up there have an unbelievable, almost bulletproof carpet of thick, thick turf and cutting through that stuff was hell. The spring rains sure helped grow that stuff thick
All the barbers came from one place - a site I had almost been run out of before. It was technically illegal to hunt that park, but with talking to the police chief and demonstrating my digging skills, I was granted permission to hunt anyway. I know about 3-4 sites around the midwest that have been shut down to detecting since the 1980's and if you talk to the right people, you might be able to get back into them to hunt again.... those types of places are in cities where hardly anyone remembers the laws against detecting from that far back and a little persuasion and demonstration can get you into a sweet spot - always worth a try!
The results of this trip were pretty good, and the pics are as follows:
The tribe of indians (1878-1907) with the big chief in the middle 1937D.
[attachment 131914 04jul09indians.JPG]
I also included a pic of the 62 wheaties, which I normally don't do, but I feel it was warranted as my knees and back creaked and popped copiously with digging each one. No big surprises with the dates, the usual 1909, 1914, 1931 dates without the proper mintmark
..........[attachment 131915 04jul09wheats.JPG]
And now for the shiny stuff! 1906D Barber Quarter 1898, nice 1901O, 1907, 1912 Barber Dimes 10 Mercs from a beautiful 1920D to 1944 and 4 Roosies
[attachment 131916 04jul09silver.JPG]
Also a couple other finds.... silver pin from Disabled American Veterans (the top fell off in the hole and I was lucky to see it), silver pin "For Progress In Writing", and a Marines pin
[attachment 131917 04jul09misc.JPG]
Well I've gone on long enough, hope you've enjoyed the pics.... now I have to go hobble off to work :veryangry::veryangry::veryangry::veryangry::veryangry::veryangry:
Take care and HH, Mike.
