More Reviews coming to Sectshun8MD

Being that I plan on having the ACE 250 and Minelab X-Terra 30 comparison written up pretty quickly after I get back on land, I figured I'd tackle a few other items.

That said, Sectshun8MD will be reviewing the following:

Treasure Products Vibra-Probe 570 Handheld Pinpointer
Sun Ray Products Invader YF-1 Target Probe
for the Garrett ACE/GTP/GTAX series
Sabre-Toothed Digger

And maybe other products as well, including a set of Headphones and a LED flashlight.

Stay tuned!

OMG: USARPS Barack, Paper, Scissors

I wish I was making this up...

Anyhow, I was searching online today for a quip about the game of Rock, Paper, Scissors (RPS as it will hence forth be known). It's a little diddy about how ridiculous it is that Paper can beat Rock. I figured just typing in RPS would give me what I wanted. Who knew I would be so wrong?

As it turns out, there is actually a US RPS League! No shitting! It's legit, and is sponsored by Bud Light. This past years champion brought home $50k AND got a trip to Beijing for the Olympics.

On their front page is one of the coolest Flash games ever. It's called, "Barack, Paper, Scissors." HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Anyway, click the image to be directed to it and play. Feel free to browse around USARPS for info as well, it's funny stuff.

Oh, and yeah I did find my quip. Going back and using the search terms, "no way paper can beat rock," I was able to hunt it down. So here it goes.

Send me your MD Blog links!

I've been scouring the net looking for some good stuff to read daily, or even weekly. It's been slim picking to say the least.

If you happen to come across this, and operate an MD related blog, or cool MD related website, feel free to send me the link so I can add it to my Blog Feed or Links on my main page here at Sectshun8 MD.

For any of you interested in podCasts, check out Dan Hughes website, http://danhughes.libsyn.com/, for new material as it's released. And while you're at it, check out his book, "The Metal Detecting Manual."

ACE 250 vs. X-Terra 30 Review Coming Soon!

I know many of you have been curious as to my thoughts since upgrading from one machine to the next. I've been kind of slow getting the review made, but the extra time will be worth it. I'm trying to make it the most in depth comparison review of two machines most any of you have read.

You all know my recent admiration of my X-Terra 30, so I'll try and keep it as unbiased as I can. I'm aiming for the second week in September for the review, so keep a lookout!

From The Archive: Summertime Award 8-9-08

After finding that WWII pin earlier in the day, I was pretty psyched about getting out and hunting again. While out driving to a cookout being hosted to a co-worker of the g/f, I noticed a good sized tot-lot at a church visible from I-64 that happens to be on S. Newtown, which I believe is technically Norfolk.

I had all intentions on heading over there when I left my apartment at 10p for what would be my last hunt during this 5 week period home. But as I left, I remembered right around the corner from me, there are two churches, with a daycare in between them that has a pretty good sized playground covered in chips.

So that's where I went, to THE SHED at Atlantic Shores Baptist.

This was a wood chip tot lot, but under the chips was hard rock solid ground and/or sand with tons of pebbles in it. And the chips were only maybe an inch deep. But I tell you what, this place sure did a number on these coins. They are all stained orange pretty much. This place seemed pretty virgin, as I was hitting all over the place. I know I left a bunch there, so it'll be primed when I'm able to get back to it, and preferably after a rain so the ground is softer.

$3.18 in clad total, as well as this neat Boy Scout National Summertime Award.

From The Archive: WWII Pin! 8-9-08

Being the weekend, the g/f wanted to go over to her parents house in Chesapeake for the day and hit up their pool... so we did. Her mom had once asked me to bring my MD over to try and find their property line pin that was in the ground, so I thought, what the hey, I'll bring it with me. I did end up finding it, it was about an 8" long metal rod that was down about 6" and rang up as a penny.

For s & g's I decided to just scan around the front a bit to see what might pop up. The first was a 1962 Memorial penny about 4 inches down, not far from the driveway. Her mom was pretty stoked to see how accurate the MD was, and how I hit it and dug it with precision. It was nice only digging three holes for the day and getting something out of each.

The next beep rang as a 32, and I was like, sweet, maybe this will be my wheat penny or something... but I found something even cooler. It came out and I immediately identified it as being military, but I didn't recognize the insignia... the g/f's mom had no clue. So a brief search online and I found it as being a WWII USAAC insignia, but could only find the Officer's version w/o the disk. And then I came across it, after about 15 minutes of searching, it is indeed the Enlisted disk version of the lapel insignia for AAC guys... very cool and easily my oldest find.

These two are examples from the web of both the Officer pin, and the Enlisted disk.



Oh, and USAAC for those who don't know is the US Army Air Corps.

From The Archive: Night Hunt 8-8-08

This day started off early actually, but ended up as a night hunt. I had originally planned on being out at my sister's house in Carrollton, VA in Isle of Wight County. I did actually go there, but my first hour in her very large back yard, which used to be a chicken farm quite some time, yielded nothing but a few pieces of can slaw.

That much was expected, as the land her house was recently built on has been used quite often for party bonfires, so there is a lot of your standard buried cans and black ashes just below the top layer of dirt... which btw was rock hard!

I saw a clearing in the tree line that seemed to lead down to the creek. So I hunted a little through there, and only found two 12g shot shell bottoms.

Being that it was getting close to dinner time, I had to drive back home to get read for Rancho Grande. After getting home from our weekly hajj to the Mexican place for dinner with the family, we got home ohhhh say around 9pm. Got the lil one in bed, tended the hamsters (yes I have pets now, WOO!) and the g/f was busy watching Law & Order.

It was almost 10pm before I got my stuff together and headed towards the spot at the school I mentioned the day before where I left all of that stuff to dig another day. Little did I know I'd end up digging nearly 100 targets, and 2 hours was over before I knew it.

What is amazing, is with digging the 64 coins in that area... THERE IS STILL MORE LEFT!!! Lots of 32s and 36s left to bring up (pennies and dimes).



I found my first Sac $1, which I was totally stoked about. No coins older than a 1967 Memorial Penny... which is sooo lame. Over the past two nights digging near 80 pennies you'd figure I was due for a wheat.

I've brought in exactly 100 coins in each of the two previous months... so bringing in 89 coins in three days is pretty sweet for me!

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...