Anybody Detecting?

Discussion in 'General Survival and Preparedness' started by Dunerunner, Jun 16, 2024.


  1. Dunerunner

    Dunerunner Brewery Monkey Moderator

    A friend got me started metal detecting about three months ago. I bought an Equinox 600 off Amaizon and dove head first into the sport. I came back from the beach yesterday with my treasures: a pull top, an old chunk of iron that I could not identify and a quarter. As I sat on the couch it dawned on me that this thing, which is USB rechatgable, could be used to find a buried cache. Of course with frigging headphones on you would need a couple of buddies to cover your six post SHTF, but a tool that might just come in very handy.
     
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  2. VisuTrac

    VisuTrac Ваша мать носит военные ботинки Site Supporter+++

    I metal detect. Garrett ATPro and a Minelab Vanquish 440, I don't run rechargeable stuff because being out in the bush and the battery dies ... way easier to have fresh batteries in the pouch. But can use rechargeable AA batteries ... just no USB cable requirement.
    mostly old farm field finds (lead, iron, square nails some civil war stuff), some old coins, lots of pocket change from ball fields and parks (coffee cans full over the years)
    and pound and pounds of copper from around old mining sites and road gravel (again coffee cans).
    Been at it for maybe 8 years.
    It's a hobby that your expenditure in equipment will most likely not be recouped via finding treasure.
    Best find ...
    IMG_20200408_190946 - Copy.
     
  3. VisuTrac

    VisuTrac Ваша мать носит военные ботинки Site Supporter+++

    Typical day in a farm field
    IMG_20200412_160959 - Copy.
     
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  4. Jerry Fisk

    Jerry Fisk Monkey

    I own the orginial property where James Black made Jim Bowie's knife. Finding old iron pieces is exciting. Along with iron locks and keys as well as other iron things he forged or discarding though there was not much of that, I found a few 1800's coins as well. But I also found an 1832 US infantry button, which proved out to be from an escort for the Choctaws on their trail of tears and finding it shifted over their " trail" 6 miles from where they thought it was.
     
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  5. SB21

    SB21 Monkey+++

    I've got a couple detectors , Etrac, Fishers , Garrett 250, Minelab 705 ,, haven't been detecting in a while ,, just have to many projects. I need to make some time to get back out there . I guess it's just the thrill of the hunt ,,, learning what the detector is telling you will help keep from digging trash ,, but until you dig it ,, you'll never know what ya got .
     
  6. Wildbilly

    Wildbilly Monkey+++

    Was there a dead Yankee with it?:LOL:
     
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  7. Wildbilly

    Wildbilly Monkey+++

    Old home sites are also good places to explore, as are sites of old country stores, you will find a lot of trash, but you could find some old coins!
    I believe that there are some old posts about marking and then locating buried caches using a metal detector. NOTE: Never depend entirely upon GPS, metal detectors, etc. to find your cache(s), always have a Plan B...and Plan C!
     
  8. VisuTrac

    VisuTrac Ваша мать носит военные ботинки Site Supporter+++

    Nah, not in Michigan. I'm too far away from where the folks mustered to take the long march south. Probably a returning soldier that survived. Old homesite.
     
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  9. Ura-Ki

    Ura-Ki Grampa Monkey

    I grew up kinda neighbors with Jim White, of Whites Electronics, so Yea, i'm into detecting, and naturally, I own a couple Whites!
    No YUGE finds, lots of old coins, car parts, tractor parts, and various rif-raf. my coolest find, and being a MOPAR guy being extra special to me at least, was a 1920's Dodge Brothers hood badge along with the top half of the grill/rad shell. It was in good shape with a few flecks of the original enamel paint, but most of the chrome had all flaked off! I cleaned it up super nice, silver soldered a couple of copper wires on the back of it and made it into a hat emblem like no other! Too bad I cant find it right now, it's likely out in the shop where I left it, but forgot where that was! LOL

    Anyways, Growing up with White, I got my first detector when I was 10 and started learning how to use it, and the Whites were constantly "Tuning" it for me, we had tons of aventures checking old mine sites, abandoned homesteads, and even old abandoned logging camps, we ALWAYS found stuff, but no gold or anything of real value, mostly old cast off junk, but cool to find anyways, and it's how I managed to find a bunch of rare and needed parts for my Old 1934 Cat 5 ton Crawler, we knew of a few old logging decks where they had a maintenance shed, so we detected the whole area and found a pickup beds worth of parts, most ended up being junk, but there were several gems including the Ganged Winch and a couple track rollers and keepers as well as a near full track with it's teeth and pins in good enough shape to use! Lots of drive sprockets and return rollers, most I left where I found them, as they were too far worn and too damn heavy to salvage!
    In the Air Force, doing what I had to do as my job, Detecting was a SERIOUS skill, one I had already mastered long ago, so Guess who got to sweep landing sites, Yup, and We had nothing but Mil Spec Whites, which by then were the only ones capable of detecting some of the IED's we would run across sometimes. I got to talk with Ol' Jim before he passed and thanked him for making those detectors, they sure saved a lot of dudes lives, and sure helped me, and all the fun times we had detecting sure paid off, literally in saving my bacon! I'll never forget the first IED I detected, we needed to land to do a rescue of a couple serious trauma victims, and the area had NOT been swept, so I had my pilot hover close enough for me to lay on my belly and extend the White's Detector out and we swept the whole LZ nice and slow, and about 30 feet into it, I got a hit, holy shit that scared the hell out of everyone, and told us just how careful we would need to be. Once we had the area cleared large enough to set down, I dismounted and started clearing a perimeter around the chopper, and then started clearing a direct path to the wounded, finding two more IED's in the process. Called the EOD team and let them know where we were and how many and I had marked the locations with pins and flags, anyways, we did our rescue and nobody else got blowed up that day! I ended up clearing something near 40 Landing Sites, and I think I found 11 more IED's in the process, Yea, i'm into detecting, but don't get much chance to do it these days, which I need to, as i'm only 3 miles away from the largest gold mine in north america, I think there might me some gold here! I di have myself a good old gold dredge I picked up last fall, it needs rebuilt and new air hoses, but I got it and I have a water proof detector, so there is no excuse not to!
     
  10. Wildbilly

    Wildbilly Monkey+++

    And Gold is $2300 an ounce!
     
  11. SB21

    SB21 Monkey+++

    Cool story about knowing the Whites ,,,and your clearing LZ's ,,,, when you mentioned Whites ,, I forgot I have one of them ,,I think it's the old Eagle Spectrum,, it's got the rainbow on the coil,,, the rainbow has nothing to do with these freaks out here today,,, it was my Dad's detector,, he had bought it years ago ,, not sure how long ago. But having to use C cell batteries in it ,, it is quite heavy ,, and you'll start feeling it after a while .
     
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  12. Ura-Ki

    Ura-Ki Grampa Monkey

    My White's all used a clip on battery, those old school pancake style with the screw tops, I converted my newest one to a twist top Li-ion and will probably switch it to a Graphene at some point! I don't know about yours but mine are really well balanced, with the battery and control box behind the hand and the wand and coils out front, it's super easy to run one handed and with out an arm brace! I haven't used anything newer then about 2008, so I don't know what if anything has changed, but I LOVE my originals and wouldn't trade or upgrade unless there was some dramatic shift forward in technology!
     
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  13. Tempstar

    Tempstar Monkey+++

    50 years worth has netted me about $11.00, a slave tag, and a hatchet.
     
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  14. SB21

    SB21 Monkey+++

    I did see some while back that there was an adapter for smaller batteries,, or li-ion conversion kit ,, just never really checked on it.
    As you said ,, the battery weight actually is behind the wrist,, but with them c-cell batteries,, you will start feeling the weight. My other detectors with the double A's ,, or the rechargeable, like the Etrac ,, is so much lighter .
    But your knowing the Whites family had to have been a big plus in learning the use of their detectors ,,, who else could teach you how to use those detectors,, than the folks that invented them . In my opinion,, that's amazing .
     
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  15. Ura-Ki

    Ura-Ki Grampa Monkey

    I was an amazing experience, such a great family and a lot of shared interests between our families, it was a great time to be a youngster and to learn from such folks! WIth as much prospecting in that area there was, learning to use a detector and being able to tell what you were detecting was really amazing, and while I never really found more then a few small nuggets, it was enough to push me to continue! Getting an inside look at what they were designing and building and then constantly perfecting and tuning was a real experience, and I would say, one of the coolest things I got to be a part of in my own small way! I need to stop in and visit, especially now that they have moved their business down stream a couple miles, much bigger building and i'm sure a lot bigger number of orders to fill, but still the same awesome folks who run it and work there!
     
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  16. Kamp Krap

    Kamp Krap Monkey++

    I got a super cheap one to find the original survey pins around the farm before I had the new survey done back in 2008 on the original 40 acres. My place used to be a bit of a community and the road used to be the main trail across Southern IN,IL, over to Cape G MO and down into AR and OK. There was a muling station, blacksmith, 5 cabins one ,was a trading post, another hotel of sorts and one a bar,food, inn. and a main house for the family than ran the whole set up. The only building that was still standing when I bought the place was the house and it was in the final stages of falling in on itself and the 3 shallow wells. And the remains of a in ground root cellar. The rest there were just the outlines of the foundations.

    So while searching out the survey pins based on the descriptions of land marks like big trees, and rocks I found a few pieces of old iron. Over the year I get the cheap detector out and go around the different old building sites. Turned up a ton of of old wagon parts like hubs and and no shortage of horse shoes, barrel rings, enough square nails to build a mansion. A couple gold coins a lot of copper and silver coins, jar lids, axe heads, bed irons.

    The whole place was abandoned around 1935 according to the county historical society when the new state road was built a mile North of my place. The oldest well has a year of 1817 etched into a block and the newest well has a concrete pad around it with 1878 fingered into it. The real treasure trove was the DUMP Lots of old bottles and broken things turned up from that hole in the ground. Most of the coins I found were in the 3 feet of sediment I cleaned out of the bottom of the oldest well. More than a few bones, bottles and various small metal pieces like brass buttons down there as well.

    When I get back home I will take some pics of the treasures I have found with the detector, digging around and turning up on the field edges with the disc.
     
  17. Navyair

    Navyair Monkey++

    Due to the popularity of cell phones they make lots of pocket sized USB rechargeable batteries/ I've got a couple that would recharge a laptop 2-3x. It would be very easy to use with his USB set up.
     
  18. Dunerunner

    Dunerunner Brewery Monkey Moderator

    A great idea that I hadn't even thought of... I love this forum!!
     
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  19. VisuTrac

    VisuTrac Ваша мать носит военные ботинки Site Supporter+++

    True, I'm more concerned with the time it takes to recharge. I can swap batteries in under a minute. I full recharge can take hours. Also, I am typically out looking for ghost towns in the UP for hours on end. I don't want a battery charge to keep me from finishing my day early. I may be a few hours back to a place where i can access a wall wart for faster charging.

    4-8 hours is longer than what I want to spend charging. Just my opinion. Also, as the lith ion polymer batteries get older, it may take even longer to charge.
     
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  20. Seawolf1090

    Seawolf1090 Retired Curmudgeonly IT Monkey Founding Member

    I have several "charger bricks", from an early 26,000mah unit up to 50,000 and 60,000 mah units. Comes in mighty handy when a bad storm knocks out power for several days! Make sure you have the correct cables too. Most of my devices charge by USB-C, but a couple older devices need the micro-USB tip. I also have solar chargers for AA and AAA batteries.
     
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