Tomorrow is the big day

[Mike Hillis]

Nope, not a long planned hunt, but rather an outing with friends for a picnic at a park.

We did this Memorial day before last and they have been hounding me to do again this year. Me and many of my friends will be getting together for a picnic tomorrow and after lunch, thats when I bring out the detectors, give a little training and turn them loose. It's always a good time and fun. I spend lots of time running back and forth from one group of people to another mostly to help them retrieve targets so I doubt I will get to do any detecting tomorrow myself but everyone else will be having fun

I sweep this park pretty regularly, so I think I'll get a roll of dimes and seed a large area so folks will actually find something.

Looking at 6 detectors split up among about 18 people.

That reminds me... put the camera batteries on the charger

Hope you all have a good Memorial Day.

HH

 

[Anonymous]

Good luck to you Mike,

Enjoy and have fun with your friends

Old Cal,

 

[don wyo.]

Mike,
Sounds like you and paul both have big days planned. good luck and enjoy...

don wyo

 

[jeff@middlesex]

n/t

 

[Mike Hillis]

I got there about early about 9 AM and set up some tables to reserve the best shade, then enjoyed my breakfast burrito I had bought on the way. First one I'd ever tried from that particular place and it was Good. It was pretty nice sitting in the early morning shade listening and watching the birds while enjoying some suprisingly good food.

I had brought the Cortes with me to kill some time with and scout out the area the rest of the folks were going to be detecting at after lunch. There seemed to be a fair amount of coin signals so I didn't feel the need to do any seeding. The primary reason I got another Cortes (I had one once before) was to hunt low conductors, so I killed about an hour hunting for and digging signals that read nickel range or lower while getting used to the machine again. It hunts just like I remembered from my first one but the TID numbers were different from that one. I'm going to send it into Tesoro and get it re-calibrated and upgraded to current production and keep it. I like it.

When the wife showed up and had the normal discussion of whither this was the best shade or not. It was and I did't move anything ok..I didn't move anything much then I went back home to gather all the rest of the detectors and cooler and such. By the time I got back folks were starting to show up.

Spent some time just sitting around in the shade visiting until lunch. Funniest thing. One of my buddies brought his really nice stainless steel table top propane grill and not one of us there had a match or lighter. Finally broke down and went to the store to buy a match after we got full eating all the rest of the stuff and I think he managed to cook one batch of hot dogs before everyone stopped eating.

After lunch I brought the detectors into the circle and gave a short explaination of each one, then let folks chose the one they wanted to use. Once they got one, I sized it, turned it on, gave another one-on-one training and turned him/her loose and went on to the next one- to do the same thing until there were 6 detectorists swinging about.

Then I moved from person to person helping to explain signals, pinpointing techniques, and sometimes using the Little Wizard to help a recover a target. Folks took turns and shared machines and it was a good time for all. One of my friends found a pretty good pocket spill, $1.40 with about 15 coins in one hole and everybody get real excited and started sweeping with vigor. Seeing a bunch of newbies fired up with that extra special zeal is something to see

The T2 found the only ring, costume, but still a nice find. Everyone found something, some more than others, and they all enjoyed metal detecting. The machines survived the outing in perfect condition for which I am thankful and I think two more folks got bit by the detecting bug

Afterward we threw the fresbee around. This middle aged fat man thought he was a teenager again then. Today he is feeling about 60 and stiff as a board, and sunbroiled as well since I forgot my hat.

It was a good day with friends.

HH