From The Archive: After Dinner 8-7-08

Not waiting until it got dark this time, I went out to the school behind my place and started doing the fields. I have yet to do these, always just tore through the tot lot.

Anyhow. I started in a far corner near the fence line, and really only found twist caps and slaw. By on of the trees however I did find three bullets (appear to be 9mm after comparing to my own 9mm rounds) all within a few feet of each other, all reading a 16 on the VDI. They are unfired, but outside of the casings, just the bullet. My only hang up on them is that they have flat bases, whereas all my modern 9mm ammo is concave, so that may hint to their age.

I got bored digging slaw so I decided I'd head towards the tot lot to brighten up my day. On the walk towards it I just was swinging randomly, and hit a 32 on my VDI. That tells me, ooh, a penny. So I dig it, spot on, a penny. Within a 3 foot radius I found 17 pennies and a dime. And can I just say, the Minelab's pinpointing feature is sooooooo much better than the ACE 250s. It's always center coil and quick to target.

After diggin' all those memorials I was like, "Geez, can't ONE of these be a wheat or something!?" None were. It was getting dark and I was getting tired, so I left probably another 20 VDI 32 hits from the same area undug.

From The Archive: After Dinner 8-5-08

So it was a late night for me. It was warm out too, a little too warm. I decided to give my X-Terra 30 a rest and give the ACE 250 with the YF-1 probe a go.

I headed out to new territory, for myself at least. It was Indian Lakes Elementary off of Ferrel Pkwy in Virginia Beach.

When I drive places at night, I like to keep my truck within visible range, and it was tough at this place, since the playground I wanted to hunt was around the back of the school, but I Managed.

I was there for roughly an hour, and though I had roughly 30 digs, the place seemed as though it was not virgin, so most of the stuff I found was more than likely recent drops, and nothing was too deep. I did manage $0.16, haha, and a few pieces of crap jewelry, though the skull and crossbones with the pink stones is pretty cool if you ask me!

From The Archive: Back From Texas 8-4-08

I only really hunted for maybe an hour on two separate days. The 100+ temps were brutal while I was down there. I hunted mostly the front yard of my parents 1930s farmhouse, and to tell you the truth, I was rather disappointed. I almost felt like I was hunting wet sand. I had to set the sensitivity wayyy down and the entire yard seemed to be hitting every swing. I found tons of iron items, like nails, an old trowel shaped tool, a few license plates (wierd). A handful of 30-06 casings, along with some slag. I only found 2, yes TWO pieces of clad. A 1970 penny and a 1989 dime.



The only really two things I found worth keeping in my stash were a bent pin that either says Lucky or Luciky, and a 1991 Bacchus token from Mardi Gras in New Orleans.



Otherwise I just managed to swing around aimlessly with my X-Terra 30. I checked the places you'd expect to check an old house for... near the front steps, within a few feet of the house in the back yard, and even the nice big shady tree in the front. There just wasn't much to give up I guess. I was really hoping for at least a wheat penny if nothing better.

Oh, and when i was digging up the license plates, I think they were covering up a hole in my parents water well. Because when I got the last one out, I heard what sound like dirt falling into water, and sure enough... that's what it was. I know the front portion of their house is sinking, and is no lower than the rest of the house... hmm...

From The Archive: Made It Out To the Beach Again 7-24-08

So I had planned on getting out to the beach today, and my friend Denise joined me for an hour out there. We went down about 50 blocks past the resort area of Va Bch to around 82nd street, and didn't expect to find much, it was more to just get out.

And we didn't, only $0.15 in clad, 1 dime and 5 pennies. It was nice and cool out, but the rain was on our heels.

We did manage to meet a very friendly chap by the name of Don, or was it Dan... Don I think. He's an Excalibur owner and a member at Findmall. He came over and introduced himself, asked how we were doing, and how he wasn't doing much better after scanning about 11 blocks of the surf, haha. He told me how this past weekend down in the resort area a buddy of his found 3 silver rings and two gold... very nice. So that's my first fellow detectorist (is that even a word?) meet, very cool.

As you can see by the pics, very overcast, dreary day.

From The Archive: Old TL, New MD 7-22-08

Armed with my new Minelab X-Terra 30 and my Vibra Probe 570 pinpointer, I decided to get out in the nice cool evening and re-scan the tot lot behind Tallwood, my favorite hunting grounds, hehe.

I was getting a lot of -4 hits on the VDI, and eventually decided find out wtf it was. 100% of them were nails. And as you can see by the pic, I found plenty of them, all around 6" in depth as well. There were plenty of more I decided not to dig. But anyhow, as you can see, about 20 targets I dug that night, it was a short night. Like 3 couples of teenagers decided the elementary school playground was where they needed to be at midnight tonight. It was cooler out and it just felt nice to be outside.

I don't think any of the earrings are of anything to note.

From The Archive: Late Night w/ Silver 7-21-08

On this rather warm evening, I head over to Grace Lutheran off of Providence in Chesapeake. They have a small tot lot behind the church I felt could use a good cleaning up. When I arrived at around 730p I was surprised to see the parking lot full, the fields teaming with activity and the tot lot, loaded with little ones.

I was instantly discouraged. To pass the time, I drove across the street over to Georgetown Primary School. That was a bust. The playgrounds there had nothing to give. I ended up going to WaWa for some energy drinks and candy and returned to the church around 930p, just in time to see the last remnants of people leaving, which happened to be a group of Boy Scouts. You can see from the image there were plenty of targets to dig, so I'll give you a quick rundown.

4 x Buttons
1 x House Key
1 x "0M 03" VEPCO Plate (Virgina Electric Power Co.)
2 x Quarters
5 x Dimes
3 x Nickels (one a 1956, my new oldest coin! yay)
26 x Pennies
1 x Hoop Earring of unknown makeup
1 x Sterling Silver Crucifix
1 x Sheep/Ram with Rising Sun pin
+ Lots of trash!!!



The sheep pin, after looking up many different combinations of Sheep and Starburst etc., I have settled on it being a "Lamb of God" pin, with the lamb laying in a field with the sun rising in the background.

I did actually happen to stop at this site the night prior, but had to shit so bad I couldn't bring myself to stay and dig. So it was very little to bring back, but it gave me a taste and told me this place would be good to hunt. This image shows the meager digs from that night.

All in all, $1.73 in clad from the church.

From The Archive: Late Hunt 7-19-08

On this late night, I wanted to get over and hit up City View Park off of Kempsville, pretty much on the other side of the school behind my apartments. I had been over to the bulletin boards and stuff in the park during the day to see if there were any notices, or anything in the park rules regulating the use of MDrs in the park, and I saw none.

The parks gates are closed at night, so I felt I kinda was not supposed to be there. But I walked in through the back way by the school. This place has a few tot lots. One way out by the baseball fields, of which I have yet to check, and two others by the basketball courts that seem to get lots of use during the day. They seemed prime to give up some treasures.

Well, unfortunately they didn't. This place seemed to be picked clean for the most part. All through the wood chips I found pretty much nothing. The washers and bolt you see in the pic I found in there though. Most of the night's finds came from the sand volleyball pit right there next to the playground. In it I found my first Hot Wheels, and fittingly, it was a Dune Buggy, haha.

Ended up with $0.50 in clad for the night.

From The Archive: Almost lost more than I found 7-17-08

So I finally decided to go somewhere to hunt outside of walking distance. There is a community park with a tot lot about 3 miles from me that I pass frequently and have always wanted to hit it... so tonight from about 930p to 1030p I was there.

Brigadoon Community Park off of Lynnhaven Pkwy.

It was dark, so no one else was there... well that lasted about 15 mins until some people showed up and just sat at one of the grill areas in the dark... I could hear them talking.

I started off in coin mode and was getting zilch for hints... then went all metal and starting pulling in stuff. Wasn't a great outing as you can see, and if you didn't know, you'd think maybe I was hunting the beach by the finds, haha.

I did manage to find my first button, apparently from a modern Oscar Piel men's leather jacket.

And finally I found an earing that appears to be silver (Pic #3)... can't remember what it registered as. It has a very small Hallmark and also possibly what seems to be a .925, not so sure... I'll need a magnifying glass to really be able to see it. I can't get a good enough image with the camera w/o macro lenses to do it that way.

So now onto the title of of this thread. The cripple (my g/f) texted me and said to bring home ice cream. No problem, but when I got to the grocery store... I had no wallet. I remembered placing it on top of my truck box before I left the park... so I drove back to it, re-drove the same route... nothing. So I started thinking in my head where could it have gone? Maybe someone is returning it to me house right now... nope. As it turns out, when I put on the brakes at a stop sign, it slid forward and ended up wedged between my truck box and the back of the cab. Gosh i felt relieved to not have lost it. And better yet, I now could now buy ice cream, yay!

From The Archive: 7-16-08

On this late afternoon, I thought to myself, "Enough with the playgrounds, I'm gonna dig some dirt!"

So I started along the fence line of Tallwood Elementary, closest to the apartments. Not much going on there but a whole bunch of trash. Lots of odds and ends, nothing exciting.

After about ten or so digs I finally got a rather large, strong signal. Turned out to be a metal sign about 4" down. It was from Hampton Roads Sanitation, and had a rather ironic message on it... "Before Excavating In This Area - Contact HRSD"

Too funny.

Dirt fishing got old really quick and before I left I decided to hit up the tot lot just to brighten my day, of which it did. Left with $1.47 in clad.

From The Archive: School Tot Lot 7-12-08

Soooo... finally decided to get out for a little hunting late that afternoon. The g/f was comfortable and had ice cream, so it was my time to get out.

So I took the lil' one to the school in our backyard and decided to hit up the tot lot. She could play and I could swing, perfect! I only got around to hunting the outer 3 foot edge of the place, so I wasn't expecting to find much clad, and I didn't. My very first signal came up as a solid dime on the ACE, but after diggin' just below the chips you can see what came out, MY FIRST RING! It's crap, seems to be probly a mood ring. The band spins independent of the ring. Then I entertained the five year old for a bit, got a neat pic of static head.



The next couple hits included a zipper pull, with the head of the zipper still attached. It has a crown logo on it. Also found 2 quarters and a mid 90s penny. To fill up the rest of the order, I found plenty of foil wrappers, a couple nails, and other odds and ends. I did also dig another ring (2 in one outing, woo!)... again, crap. The neatest thing I found was a small boot charm with simulated diamonds.