Monday, August 31, 2009

White's Presents Arrive

I was awakened by the UPS guy at 10am today, joy! I'm not being sarcastic either, I was hoping he'd be here soon with my goodies from White's... and here he was!


At first the box seemed rather light, I know I had requested like 7 things with my certificate, and iunno, figured the box might have a little weight to it. But it didn't, and everything was inside, so all is well. On to the goods.


The first item I slapped on was the coil cover I got for my XLT's 950 coil. The machine was used before I got it, and well, i just decided to finally slap a cover on the coil to keep any more potential wear from occurring.




Next is an item I felt was a must have, the coil stabilizer. I find myself pushing down the coil and adjusting the shaft to keep the coil perpendicular to the ground quite often. Now with this, I can be assured it will stay that way. AND I should be able to use it for my beach machines too, which will do wonders in the water.




When I got my XLT, the arm cuff was bare, though it did have a velcro strap. Well, it's actually painful and I wanted to fix that. I picked up the foam arm cuff pads, and immediately it feels 100% better.




Inclement weather does not usually keep me from hunting, unless it's REALLY bad. But for those misty days, or otherwise muddy damp days, I felt I'd finally get a rain/weather cover for one of my machines. This nylon cover is by no means waterproof, but it will surely keep a light rain from getting into the speaker or other crevices, and definitely keep dirt out.





Lastly, the jacket and hat. The hate fits great, real nice quality. It feels exactly like my Minelab hat, only it says White's, haha. The jacket, where to begin with that thing. It's amazing! One of the best quality jackets I've ever seen from a company. Soft, warm fleece lining with an inside pocket really make it special. Fits perfectly too!


Sunday, August 30, 2009

Back for More at Atlantic Shores

It was huntin' time again this evening. At 7pm I had two hours to get packed, drive the 1000ft or so to Atlantic Shores and bring home the goods until TrueBLOOD was to come on. I love that show, can't believe season two is almost over!!!



Anyhow... after my last hunt when I was cherry pickin' quarters, I decided to actually hunt that area in full this time. I also wanted to get some use outta my 4x6 BlueMax DD. So I started with that coil. Not sure I'll ever get used to it. It worked out fine, don't get me wrong, but having that little thing down there just doesn't seem right. I was able to score a few coins and some trash with it. I really need to find where it will benefit me the most to use. Because, as it is, the VDI seems to be pretty good, but the depth is so off you need to start saying to yourself 1.5" whenever you see 4.5".



After 30 mins of that I went back to the trusty 950 coil and started to reel in the coins. Quarters once again were poppin'. And would you believe it, about 10 ft. from the +90 double quarter hit the other day... I got another! Same thing. You can see in the pic where the two quarters were together keeping those parts shiny. Never would have thought something like that would happen to hunts in a row! 28 coins @ $2.92.



Lastly, I found this ring today in the Taco Bell parking lot... same place I found the .925 charm bracelet a while back at. It's a junk ring, but it's still a ring. I "beep'd" my hand over it and the g/f looked at me like I was crazy.


Saturday, August 29, 2009

52nd St.

Today was a great day, it really was. Friday afternoon Ash had been talking with my sister-in-law Maria about getting together for the beach. Perfect idea IMO.


Anyhow, we got ready and met up at my brother's dad's timeshare condo type thing just off the beach on 52nd St. in Virginia Beach. Parked halfway on the walkway back to some other residents, but there was no place else. Walked over to the beach, setup, and off Taylor and Coral went, they had a blast. I got in the water a few times, it felt nice. Super strong underwater current though, while on the surface it seemed alright. I even took Ash's McTavish surf board out and got my ass handed to me by the current... within 5 mins I swear I was a quarter mile down the beach.


Oh, and ECSC was going on, along with Danny fueling the waves, surfers everywhere!


Enough talking, enjoy the pics!



















Thursday, August 27, 2009

Still Made It Out - Atlantic Shores


In spite of that rain that came through, it was short lived. Only maybe an hour or so worth of wetness. So around 9p I decided to head out, with lightning on the horizon.


I was once again trying out my "Nickel" program in an area I've hit with success a few times before. I told myself there was no way I was leaving without finding at least one. My first signal for the evening was a 3" quarter, must have been one I missed on the previous trips.


The going was slow, very slow. I ended up getting a weird signal at one point that I told myself I had to dig. About 2" down my Vibra-Probe 570 was going off, but I just couldn't get the target. After searching around in the muddy hole I finally pulled this out... I was excited at first... but as you can see, I shouldn't have been... it's AVON.



Not long after I got another weird signal down there in the nickel/foil range that I couldn't resist. This time I have no clue what it might be, but as you can see in the image, there's some gold color under there... I wonder?



Anyhow, I kept hunting the old area and had found just over $1.00 in clad, plus my nickel, and was about to head out. But there is so much area here, all the way around the church, that I decided to head around back for a bit... and glad I did! Quarter city. It was like swinging here the very first day. I cherry picked only dimes and above and landed one after the other. Then I got it, a +90. I told myself, "No way!" It was a solid signal, 3" deep, wasn't bouncing around... could it be my first half? Nope, but it was in the same amount... 2 quarters sandwiched together in the hole, haha. I had heard of this happening to others, but this was a first for me.


Anyway, on the walk back to the truck I spied two little amphibious friends enjoying all the wetness outside. Usually the school behind my apartments is swarming with frogs/toads and I never remember to get a pic.




So here's the totals for the night, 28 coins @ $4.13... that makes about $20 I've pulled from this church.


Walking Out The Door... RAIN



I was just about to head over to my once honey-hole with the XLT and my new "Nickel Finding" program when I thought I heard some thunder. Sure enough, as I open the door I can hear the downpour.



I thought it was TS Danny, but it still seems a bit far away to be acting up this much. A quick view from the NHC NOAA site shows that.


Wednesday, August 26, 2009

The Roof is On Fire


Ha, no not really. But I did spend about 15 minutes up on a roof today of the g/f's parent's house. Yup, the same one that has yielded quite a bit of wheat and silver for my over the past few months (I dare say it's hunted out now).


Did a favor for her old man and climbed up there and attached two flue caps to keep the water out. He said over the 50 years they've lived there, no significant amount of water has ever come down it from a storm... but that all ended last week when we had some killer rains. But now these should help.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Half Hour School Hunt, Muddy

The other day while driving around I spotted a local elementary school I've never been too... and it had construction going on in the back. I was stopping by a house of someone who lived nearby and they said their development was built in the 70's, so the school probably is no older than that. Boo.



We have had some monsoon type rains so I was hoping for some nice soft soil to sink the Lesche into it. Well I got more than I asked for. The ground was super saturated, and I sank in it while walking. My flip-flops didn't have a chance. Definitely was the day to be wearing some boots and socks as my feet got all muddy and nasty.



The hunt itself wasn't much better. The tot lot was clean, no finds to speak of. The surrounding areas had to have been picked before. I found a recently dropped quarter and a few dimes, but not much else.



I did find one thing of interest and something that I feel better about myself now for finding. An old knife. Many members on FMDF have found lots of these, and well... I never have, until now. 8 coins @ $0.68.


Saturday, August 22, 2009

PSA: Don't Cook w/o A Shirt On!


I made the mistake and now have this lovely burn on my stomach from a cookie pan I had been toasting some garlic bread on... using the broiler... so that pan was effin' hot! Proceed with caution, don't do what I did!


At least I didn't pick it up without an oven mitt this time, D'oh!

Friday, August 21, 2009

Midnight PI

Well as much as I hated not making it to the beach earlier, I gave in and headed out at 1030p Wednesday night to try and make up for it. I took the DF PI along with me this time, and hit up the same general area I recently did with the BHID. Only real difference is I spent the entire time in wet sand. The tide appeared to be heading out, and it was wet sand from life guard towers on down to the water.


I really enjoy the PI in the sand so much better. At least I know when I hear the threshold difference it's time to dig... sad that it's always a surprise though. Anyway, hit up the wet stuff from 35th to 30th... nothing really of note. I did score a neat little dune buggy hot wheel that I swear was 10" down, lots of diggin' for that one.



Most of the targets were not more than 2 scoops, except for a few coins right at the water line that I had to battle the water for. 10 coins @ $1.00, a dune buggy and a busted Timex watch. Loads of bottle caps and more bobby pins...


Thursday, August 20, 2009

Another Beach Day Lost

My day pretty much started with only one thing on the agenda, going to lunch at California Pizza Kitchen with my friend Chris. Well, it didn't stop there. Night Hawk called me and said he was heading to the beach for low tide at 230p. I was already on my way to Norfolk for lunch, but figured I could meet him there later on. No luck. I made arrangements with Ash's mom to meet her up at the house around 5pm to fix some computer issues for her. After that, our friend CeCe was supposed to make it over for some UNIX tutoring.


So I never made it to the beach. Which is sad, because for the past few times I've tried to meet up with Dave, he's scored gold, silver and other rings. I did decide to play around with my XLT though.


I went into my program I've been using to find all my silver this year and made some adjustments to hopefully make it better suited at finding things in the nickel/gold range, as the way it was, I had all but +19-+21 notched out. So I opened up my range from +10-+25 hoping I could land some items I had missed in the past.


I headed over the Ash's parents house to try it out. Yeah it was a big negative, NOT ONE NICKEL!!! I did land a clad dime at 7" and one single wheat penny (so it wasn't a complete failure). But riddle me this... how the eff does a memorial penny ring in as a +81 at 6.5"!?!?! A +81 at 6.5" to me screams something good. Well it wasn't, WTF!? At least there was the pool to cool off after doing it all in the heat.


Here's the goods, 6 coins, 15 cents, and some beaver tails.


Monday, August 17, 2009

Late Night in The Lane w/ BHID 300

Sunday evening I had arranged to spent a whole bunch of time at the beach. I had planned on meeting a FMDF fella who goes by Night Hawk down around 930a and catch low time roughly two hours later. Well that plan was busted when no one in the house was moving in time to make things happen... so I stayed with the lil one all day. Luckily, I had a back-up plan: 8pm meet up with Hollis, same spot.



I got down to the meeting spot about 745p, plenty of time to make it down there and figure the machine out in time for the hunt. Since I had a few minutes, I snapped the awesome twilight shot you see just above, as well as this fun snap of the BHID 300 resting against the sand castle at the beach entrance on 36th.



It was a truly great night to be down at the beach. About 77 degrees, the water was warm, and the beach was on its way to being empty for the night (though oddly enough when I left around 11p, there were still more people than I imagined still in the sand and in the water).



I fired up the BHID 300, ground balanced as best I could and started hunting. My first half hour I was hunting in AM, because for some reason after balancing, I forget to set the switch to discriminate. Either way, I still had found some clad and a bunch of bottle caps by the time Hollis showed up.


We had a brief conversation and went on our way. Happened to see another sand shark or two swinging away, Hollis chatted with them. I spent about 1/4 of the time in the water, hoping to land something great. I don't have the knowledge or experience in the element, so I felt pretty out of place. Not to mention the coil on the machine is super hard to keep down... you'd think the weight of the BHID would be enough, well its not. My first water find was a nice deep "green" signal, had to dig it. After my hole stopped getting refilled by the waves, I managed to get the target out. It felt really smooth, very similar to the way a silver coin feels fresh outta the dirt. Got my flashlight out and... awwww, a '65 quarter. Would have been great to land a silver coin at the beach.


As the tide was out, it opened up a small "cut", or dropoff that before was about knee deep. I hunted it for a bit and scored this sweet religious token. Definitely made my hunt for me, was just glad to not have only found clad and bottle caps.




I finished up the day, said goodbye to Hollis and went on my way for some 4th Meal at Taco Bell. Two and half hours of swinging the BHID is killer, sure works up an appetite. Here's the nut for the night. 25 coins @ $1.20.