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Exiting his car he made his way over to where I was
detecting. I could see the disdain etched on his face and I knew
what was coming. Wasting no time he blurted out, " Excuse me
but could you please tell me just how much money you found in this
spot?"
I didn't want to cut this gentleman off at the knees
but I wasn't going to lie either, so I replied, " I think I
have picked up a little over two bucks and a ring."
" I don't believe it, I just covered this spot
and didn't find diddly and you didn't do anything differently than
I. Are you some kind of professional or something, and why couldn't
I find those items?"
"Well I'm not a professional per se, but I've
been at this for about 33 years and I've learned a trick or two
along the way. And probably the reason you missed these coins was
the fact you most likely were running your discriminator too high
and you missed a lot of real estate with your scanning
technique."
" Actually I was running in high
discrimination" he replied, " Isn't that what you are
supposed to do? I didn't shell out big bucks for this machine so I
could dig junk."
" Well as you can see, you didn't dig much in
this spot where I found coins, and if you are afraid to dig a little
junk then you won't be digging much else either."
To make a long story short, this gentleman and I had
a long talk, he got his detector out of the car and I showed him a
few tricks and pointed out the error of his ways. I run into him
everyonce in awhile and he has become a very successful
coinshooter with some great finds to his credit.
Running in high discrimination can cost you a lot. I
have a hunting partner who never takes his discriminator out of low
gear, gruesomely digs everything and has made some spectacular
finds. He uses a Tesoro Bandido and finds rings like a bandit,
finding at least one ring every time he goes out. He lived in Texas
for a spell and found a great many buttons and ornaments from
Spanish uniforms circa the 1600-1700's, plus Civil War artifacts.
The find he is proudest of is a 24 karat, hand made Chinese ring
pulled up from a depth of ten inches. The collector value of this
piece has not been determined but several jewelers have offered him
$500 just for the gold content. Had he been running in high
discrimination this ring would still be buried in Texas.
I find a lot of deeply buried coins that have been
in the ground for many years, well within the reach of a good
detector - but passed over by detectors in the "lazy
mode." If you don't dig some junk you may not dig much else
either and your losses could be hefty. I once found a roll of silver
quarters laying under a buried, flattened beer can. The can was full
of probe holes but all before me were just too lazy to dig it up and
find the prize it concealed. Another time in an old abandoned park I
dug down about a foot and pulled up an old pewter bank in the shape
of a cow that rattled when I shook it. When I emptied it out silver
dimes and Buffalo nickels poured out on the ground - a beautiful
sight.
Running in high discrimination will also kiss off
many tokens, valuable buttons, bronze emblems, commemorative coins
of bronze, brooches, old watch fobs, the old toy lead soldiers and
related items, etc. I walked right behind a TH'er one day and picked
up a bronze Navy medallion about two inches in diameter, circa World
War II, that his detector had danced right over in high
discrimination.
So don't buy all the hype of rejecting all junk while finding
treasure. It ain't so. Don't rely solely on your discriminator as
they aren't infallible. Marvels of electronics that they are,
detectors are not perfect and will fool you often in high
discrimination. They are just machines and you have to be smarter
than the machine to be a successful coinshooter. The only thing on a
detector capable of thinking and reasoning is the guy on the other
end of it. If you depend on your detector to think for you, then
your pouch will remain light and what you left behind will fatten
the pouch of savvy TH'ers.
If you want to see a successful coinshooter, look for the guy
with the dirty knees and dirty hands. He has been where it's at. If
you want to find goodies, turn that discriminator down, develop a
love affair with Mother Earth and get down on your knees and get
thoroughly acquainted with her and she will reward you. GOOD HUNTING
-----BR |
