I used to hunt with a $30 pinpointer off Amazon that would false beep every time I brushed against a weed. After missing a silver ring last month in a park near my house I finally coughed up $130 for a Garrett carrot. The difference is night and day. It actually tracks the target depth and doesn't scream at me for touching wet dirt. Plus the sensitivity dial lets me dial it down near iron trash instead of digging every soda tab in a 10 foot radius. My signals per hour tripled and my arm isn't sore from digging blind. Has anyone else made the switch from budget gear and seen a real gain in finds?
I started dropping my spare change into an old pickle jar 3 years ago and just counted it up - $47.32 in mostly dimes and quarters. Anybody else keep a stash jar and wonder how much is actually in there?
Picked it up near the Walmart entrance thinking it was a washer, then noticed the date and color, has anyone else stumbled across old coins in random places like that?
So I've been magnet fishing for about 8 months now mostly down at the old bridge by the creek behind the industrial park. Last weekend I finally pulled up my 100th bottle cap which I honestly didn't think I'd ever count. I keep a bucket for trash and a bucket for cool finds like old coins or fishing lures. But I started marking bottle caps with a sharpie just to track numbers and after number 100 I dumped them all out on my driveway. The thing that got me was how many different brands of soda I'd never heard of or seen before. Like there were caps from a root beer company that went out of business in the 80s and a bunch from a local soda that I guess only existed in like two counties. It made me wonder how much history is just sitting there under the muck that nobody looks at. Has anyone else kept a weird tally like this and found something unexpected in the numbers?
Ngl, I should have just walked out when he said to skip the grit stages and use sand instead. I ruined about 15 pounds of good agates I pulled from the shore near Silver Bay. The polish came out cloudy and full of scratches. Anyone else ever get burned by advice from a shop owner who was clearly just trying to sell you their own gear?
Last Saturday at Ocean Shores, I was about to pack up my detector after finding nothing but pull tabs for 2 hours. Decided to try this little patch of sand near a driftwood log where everyone tosses their shoes. Pulled out a 1921 silver dime about 6 inches down... totally changed my mind about just picking random spots. Now I always look for where people sit or drop stuff instead of open beach. Anybody else have a spot they ignored forever that ended up being gold?
A guy at the flea market last month saw me buff a 1943 wheat penny with a cloth and told me to stop. He said I was rubbing off the patina and killing the value. I switched to just soap and water with a soft toothbrush, and now my finds look way better without wrecking them. Anyone else get schooled on cleaning methods they thought were fine?
He said my vinegar soak was eating the detail off an old silver ring I found, so I switched to just water and a soft toothbrush. Has anyone else ruined something before realizing less is more?
I watched a YouTube video last night and saw a guy cutting his plug like a flap instead of the weird t-shaped hole I've been doing, and now I feel dumb for all those ruined lawns I left behind.
I was out with my detector last spring at an old park near my place in Des Moines. Got a faint signal that I almost ignored because it was so weak, figured it was just a pull tab or scrap. Dug down maybe 4 inches and found nothing, so I covered it back up and moved on. But it kept bugging me, so I went back the next week and dug a wider hole at the same spot. Still nothing after another foot of dirt. Took three separate trips over three months, digging deeper each time, before I finally pulled out a 1917 Standing Liberty quarter. Thing was sitting almost 10 inches down under a thick root. I was so mad and relieved at the same time. Has anyone else spent way too long chasing a faint signal that turned out to be good?
Man, I ruined like three Indian Head pennies that way before I learned about the hot peroxide method back in 2019. Now I just drop crusty silver in a cheap Crock-Pot with plain hydrogen peroxide for maybe 20 minutes and it lifts the gunk without scratching. Has anyone else switched their cleaning method recently or do you still use the old school ways?
I was walking out of the Walmart in Tulsa and saw something glint in a crack near the curb. Bent down and pulled out a 1943 Mercury dime, looks like it's been stepped on a hundred times but you can still read the date. Never found anything that old just walking around before, usually it's pennies or bottle caps. Does anyone else randomly spot coins in parking lots or am I just weird for always looking down?
I spotted this shiny dime near a storm drain in Austin and got super excited because it looked old. Cleaned it up and saw it was a 1943 Mercury dime, which should be silver. But something felt off so I bought a cheap magnet test kit online for $8. Sure enough the magnet stuck to it, turns out it's a common Chinese counterfeit made of steel. So I wasted $8 and got nothing but a dumb fake coin for my trouble. Has anyone else gotten tricked by these fake silver coins?