No joke, I find at least 2 or 3 keys every single hunt. People lose keys at grounds and parks like you wouldn't believe. I toss the ones I find but some strange people collect them. ie (that's a key collection from one of the detectorists I know from QLD!)
That's a great hobby auspm. I have been thinking about prospecting for a while and must admit I like your idea of going to parks instead of long travels to places like the goldfields. Think I will start looking for a cheap dectector soon.
That is the "rolls royce" tool for digging in parks, but next to useless in the goldfields. When digging in clay, quartz, ironstone and slate I use a Walco pick. Aussie made and tough enough to break through the hardest ground. They come in a few different sizes. I use the one with a 600ml handle, retail around $80.
Yeah for sure. I have no experience with anything except the park scene. Beach goers use a scoop, Gold field detectorists use a solid pickaxe, us 'softies' in the parks use a trowl. Right tools for the job, your environment and all that.
Actually on the beach I find a small goldpan and a sieve work great - usually if it's a coin it's going to be in the first sieve scoop. If not, I use the small goldpan as an oversized scoop - no need to frig around exactly pinpointing, just scoop and test each pan in front of the coil. Easy to be messy when filling your holes is just a kick of your foot. Hitting a local park tomorrow.
Auspm, out of curiosity which part of Sydney have you searched in? No need to be specific - North, South, Eastern or Western suburbs? I wonder if people in the posh Eastern and Northern suburbs lose more stuff therefore greater rewards in those areas.
Inner west Judging by reports of the other detectorists I know, parks (in general) are much better for coins where as beaches tend to yield more jewelry. But you can be pretty much assured that any 'high traffic' zones over an extended period will yield results one way or another. I actually get the most success from the smaller recreational parks and not major sporting fields, probably because sports fields certainly have high traffic but the players don't take valuables onto the pitches etc where as the casual parks have 'pissed uncle ted' kicking a footy with the kids etc It's almost like fishing in many ways, being able to 'read' the likely drop zones on a park can yield better results once you get the hang of it. There's certainly an art to it I can say. If people want to just give it a go for the first time you really don't need to jump in with anything high end. Just get an older Minelabs Xterra 30, 50, 305 or 505 (you can get these all for under $400) and you're pretty much ready to go. On the parks with just modern coins I usually just use use a filed down flathead screwdriver to find & lever out the hardy modern coins which are usually right near the surface and don't use the digging tool at all. Just get your average flathead with a longish stem and file the two squared corners so they're rounded and you'll not damage your moderns at all. ie [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4QKpLxz9rM[/youtube] (Snoops is using his Xterra 705 in this clip, a screwdriver and his pinpointer only) But I never go this route until I am sure the park I'm hunting has no pre-decimals. As a detectorist, my worst nightmare would be to whip out the screwdriver and stab a 1930 penny :/ The advantage of a screwdriver for moderns is that you don't even need to dig... it's a great tool for the park scene that most people will have in their toolbox. If the target is within a couple inches of the surface, it's pretty much a sure bet it's a modern coin, but if I get a read of 6" or below, I generally dig. Like I said, there's an art to it all that you get with a little experience and whilst I didn't have anyone to show me personally, I was able to learn from the experienced guys online and it's been great. I'd love to go out today for a swing, but it's currently pissing down here in Sydney :/
you know most keys are brass or alumin(i)um, right? Some look like steel but they're plated. might as well throw em in a jar and scrap em when you get enough. not too much trouble to do that.
Awesome thread auspm. Just curious, I assume common law applies and that you just keep finds like the above ring as opposed to handing them into the local police station and waiting out the no-claim period?
Don't know the specifics on the legal side of things Meltup. Never heard of any detectorist in Aussie being told to surrender their finds though. Unless there was very specific markings on your finds to identify them or it's of a unique design, it's almost impossible to prove ownership in any sense.
Funny you should mention that actually as there was a recent discussion on this on my MD forum. People are starting to 'keep' the scrap metal as well and after a while take it to a scrap dealer for cash. I'm going to get a few storage bins I think to start putting that scrap metal 'rubbish' aside for more cashola as I do dig more 'junk' than anything else when metal detecting. Don't get me wrong, the lewt piccies above tell a positive tale, but you do dig around 5 to 1 of this in 'junk' as well. If I can convert even that to more cash, I reckon it'll be even better!
Decided to add some info. Spent $300 on a nugget snoop pro and despite some of the negativity around cheap brands, the lightness and accuracy of this baby allowed me to find two $2 coins, a 10c coin and a home made lead sinker within my first three hunts on beaches in wet and dry sand. It is really fun! Thrill of finding stuff you can't see and all that. Very cool. I went for a cheap option as I wanted to see if I would be able to do it regularly and not get worn out by the monotony of it .. And it would be easy to get very tired by the swinging if you don't have a harness- which I don't yet. But the nugget snoop is pretty light and very easy to use. My first find was located when I was on the beach with my gf. My eyes lit up when I found ten cents.. Then soon after I found two bucks! JACKPOT! I thought.. But my expression said it all... I may as well have found holtermann's nugget! You may not make a fortune, but it's a very fun hobby!
Quick trip to the park yielded $5.65, quick run around the back yard got a 1c coin and a US dime (not silver), but the front yard yielded the best treasure - a key to the internal doors that now means we can lock our bedroom and laundry doors
Wife just pulled a 1941 penny out of the median strip in front of the house. Might need to venture down the street a little and raid the neighbours
lol, i know right? Still, its the best new thread going at the moment, most of the others seem to just turn into s#!t storms. Would be awesome if an SS group prospecting trip was put together. i can just imagine, a line of stackers storming a beach like it was Omaha :lol:
