ERBC: Chesapeake

I headed back out to the church off Sparrow Rd. in Chesapeake where I found the '46-D wheat just recently. Sadly, there wasn't much else to find this evening. The church itself has to at least be as old as the community it sits in, which would date to sometime in the 1950's, so one might think that it could be a candidate for a bit of silver coinage, even if only Rosie's and silver Washingtons.

I started in the back, towards their picnic and tot lot area. All around the play area the dimes just kept hitting one after the other... but then it just dried up. Surely the area has been hit before, but we can always dream. I did happen to find a bullet under a tree root, gave a nice hit on the XLT.

I decided to head around up front and the signals started coming back, a quarter here and there, some memorials, but nothing special. Here's the take with 17 coins @ $1.52.

Alanton + CHX Hunt

Today was a day to be away from the apartment all day. Air filters where being changed, so me and kitty had to be elsewhere. Ash took Zoe to her parents house in the morning while I headed to the bank to deposit some money, the gas station to fill up, and the to Grandma's to visit.

I hung out for a few hours chatting with Grandma about any and everything new in life. My Aunt showed up as well so it was a good visit. After, I went out in the front yard of my Uncle's house to do what I really came over for... swing and dig. The neighborhood was built in the 60's sometime, so I knew it would be iffy to find any silver, but I gave it a shot. I stayed about an hour and was teased by a '66 Quarter... and then a '50 Wheat penny. I had a few hours til 3 when i needed to pick up kitty and head home, so I ran some other errands and then ended up at a church built in the 50's along Sparrow Rd. in Chesapeake. I dug there for 45 minutes or so, landing another wheatie, this time a '46-D... not much else.

A decent hunts worth, 26 coins @ $1.58.

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.

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.

3 More Silvers, CHX

Yet another day out in Chesapeake! It was nice overcast, and warm for yet another day by the pool and grilling out in Chesapeake. And once again I brought the XLT just in case I had an opportunity to find more silver.

I started the day off in my normal sle made coin program, hunted around a bit, found a wheat or two and some deep memorials. I was then surprised to score a sweet '54 Rosie not far from where I found one the day before.

After a few more clad finds I called time and went and enjoyed a burger and dog, hit up the pool, and take some pics of the birds flying around riverside today.

I brought my machine out back. where I never find anything due to a foot or more of fill dirt that is everywhere, but decided to crank up the preamp to 4, and I hit a few memorials like this. Then I got to thinking, maybe it'll help me out front too

Sure enough, with the preamp up, I was getting an extra inch or two in depth, or so it seemed. My first score was a nice deep '53 Quarter. The signal was real nice, and with the depth I really had my fingers crossed. I headed back up the driveway and not a foot from where I had dug the previous day (I could tell 'cuz some dirt was outside the plug) I got another sweet sounding hit. BAM, another '54 Rosie

Just another great day at this site. 18 coins @ $1.05 3 silvers and 4 wheats.

More Chesapeake Silver

I slept in today, wayyy in. Didn't really get moving til near 1pm. But I had plenty to look forward to, off to Chesapeake to the g/f's parents place... and you know what that means.

I packed up the equipment, loaded up some burgers to grille and headed out. Everyone was hungry so you know food came first. The bacon double cheeseburgers I grilled up masterfully we're amazing.

Next up was metal detecting time. There is a small tree in the front yard that was sporting a little bit of shade, so I put all my stuff there to keep it close if I needed it. About 6 feet towards the house from the tree I got my first signal. And it was a good one. The same one I have come to know recently as the XLT "silver sound." Sure enough, about 5" down, my first dig was a '51` Rosie! I really wanted to take a pic of the hunt in progress, but though I had my camera, the SD card I left in the PC at home, so no dice.

My next 4 signals were all deep wheats. It's really amazing how they just keep coming up. Each time I hunt here I think I have found everything, then the next time I just find more.

I had accumulated about a dozen coins when I was about to call it a day, it was freakin' hot out. Just doing some casual swinging I heard a nice high pitched tone in my ears. I look down and don't see anything on the screen. I take a step back and give it a swing and hear it again, this time with a +81 showing up. It would only hit in one direction, but I decided to give the signal a shot. A +81 at around 7" could be promising. After a bit of diggin, and chasing the signal around a bit... there it was... a '43 Merc. A complete surprise for this yard.

After sweating for nearly an hour it was pool time. The perfect way to cool day and relax!

13 coins @ $0.49 2 silvers and 5 wheats

Hopeful Site Too Trashy, Skunked

Today was just supposed to be a nice day of doing nothing, staying home, relaxing, etc. But it was not to be. After lunch I was talked into taking the lil one over to her grandpa's auto shop to ride her bike and hang out. Knowing the area the shop is in, I figured it might be a good spot to hit with the XLT.

Well long story short, it wasn't. I knew it would be trashy, but sheesh. I couldn't land a solid signal that wasn't trash. I kicked myself for forgetting the Blue Max DD at home, 'cuz it might have made the area a little more tolerable... but the 950 just couldn't cope. I gave up after maybe 15 minutes.

The site is a grassy area between a couple brick buildings that operate as a church, and an auto repair complex. The land is owned by my g/f's uncle, so I had free reign. The larger building used to be a construction/roofing business years and years ago. Now my g/f's dad fixes up and restores cars out of it.

Being that I was skunked, I figured I'd take you on a brief visual strole around. Enjoy.

After all that I just HAD to stop by double-D for 32oz of liquid heaven, French Vanilla Iced Coffee Extra-Light and Extra-Sweet.

Father's Day Loot

What a great day for a hunt! Temperature in the 80's, nice cool breeze, overcast... perfect!

As many of you who read my blog know by now, on most holidays that I'm not on the boat, I spend at the g/f's parent's... today being no different. And every time I go over, the metal detector comes along. The last time out was two weeks ago to the day, I scored 9 wheats. I always find something neat here, be it rings, old coins, buttons... something.

Today, we arrive and the first thing I do before the cookout is crank up the XLT with my self made coin program and start working an area of the yard I've never touched. That was the smartest thing I did all day. Within the next thirty minutes I pulled a 10K ring and 2 rosies! My first of each The ring is marked UNCAS 10K G.F. which I know is "gold filled"... but still gold right? A little research hints to the makers mark as being a vintage jeweler from the 50's. So perhaps this ring has been buried for some time, as it was as deep as the length of the Lesche blade.

After eating the great food I grilled (burgers, dogs, and chicken), and the sweet pasta salad, I headed back out front just to go over all the area I've hit time and time again. And what do you know, I landed 9 more wheats and another rosie that I called from the signal. Our friend John had just come over when I got the signal and I told him, "I'm betting it's a silver dime." Sure enough, 5" down there she was glimmering back. He was pretty amazed at how I knew it before I dug it.

After pulling 20+ wheats from this yard over 4 or 5 hunts I knew there had to be some silver somewhere. Glad I finally tracked it down! Nearly all of the wheats and definitely all the rosies today were 5+" down.

Another great holiday spent digging. Ended up with 32 coins @ $1.34. The Rosie's are '50-D, '53-D, and a '56.

Great day out, 9 wheats!

Today started off the same as most any other lazy Sunday. I slept in until about 1pm. I just couldn't find the strength to get up, I was so exhausted... though not sure from what.

We all got ready, I packed up the XLT, and out to Chesapeake we went, over to Ash's parents house just to hang out and be lazy all day by the pool.

We got the grill fired up, seasoned and formed up some hamburgers and brats, cooked 'em up and had a nice lil' outting poolside with a beer.

After all that, it was time to get down to business. I started in the front yard, and was pulling a good amount of coins, not much trash, and a few wheats. I then headed around back where I found mostly trash, but did land my first toy gun. I've seen so many people dig up toy guns and now I finally feel complete having done so.

I ended up back in the front, as that is what was producing. Targets were all over, dimes and memorials were really poppin'. I also scored another nickel spill.

A good thing from this hunt was starting to be able to really tell what I might be digging. Nickels definitely hit at +20/21, any higher than that and it was never a nickel, but probably a pull tab. I was also able to see the difference between newer and older pennies. Your average memorial tended to hit in the +60s, whereas the wheats would hit higher, or come up as a dime. And about those dime hits, at 5-7" I was really hoping for some silver... no luck.

Rainy Night Out, Hunt Cut Short

So I went out tonight will full intention of putting the new Blue Max Shooter Coil to a good test. It had been raining off and on all day, so I knew it was gonna be hit or miss.

On the drive over to the church playground I had in mind, having never hit it before, the rain all but stopped... I was happy.

The first 15 minutes or so weren't bad. A few misquitos were out, and it was lightly drizzling. Having never used a small coil like this, it just felt awkward. But I got used to it and starting picking up a few coins here and there. And by a few, I mean only a few. Either this lot has been hit before, or kids just don't drop stuff here. The coil had no problem finding lots of trashy items in the +20 - +40 range though.

Pinpointing with the small coil was spot on, I was surprised at that. Not being concentric I though I'd have a hard time with that, but it was a breeze. However, the depth readings it gave while pinpointing were FAR off. A lot of 4-6" deep targets that were really 1-3" deep. No big deal, but something to take note of.

Sadly, maybe half an hour in, with only maybe $0.30 to speak of, the rain really started coming down. I had prepared the machine at home with plastic wrap and duct tape to keep water out, but even I wasn't gonna stand for the downpour.

Greenbrier Church Tot Lot

Around 930p or so last night... sounds right, it was after Reaper came on the TV. Anyway, it was that time to head out for some more diggin'. There are two tot lots on Volvo Pkwy in Chesapeake, VA I've been wanting to hit. And tonight was going to be the night I finally got around to it.

I show up to the spot, pull in, and get geared up. The area the tot lot is in is fenced in. So like, you enter a gate, and there is a large grassy area, and then the play area is sort of in the middle of it all, woodchipped.

I started swinging in the woodchips to start off. I was delighted to start hitting targets all over the place, but bummed they all seemed to be memorials. After a good 45 minutes slowing making my way around, I scored a couple Mickey Mouse Disney pressed pennies, and a bunch of quarters.

I was done there, and started the grassy area. The dimes were really poppin' here. I was landing quite a bit of targets, so much so that to keep the hunt relatively short, I left at least what I believe to be $1 or so in clad still in the ground.

It was a great night to be out hunting. Very comfortable temperature, and making this the maiden voyage of my new knee pads, my knees were feeling great. Sadly, it had been about an hour and a half, time to get back home... so I skipped out on the second tot lot a little further away. Next time though.

Another interesting find for the night was a neat 1997 Philippines 1 Piso coin. Rang up like a nickel.