Lowjiber
08-02-2011, 06:12 PM
My fifteen year old nephew from Atlanta has been visiting for the past week and we've been running full speed every day...many sights and events to experience in the Las Vegas area. One of the things he wanted to do before flying back home on Wednesday was to go metal detecting. I've been putting him off, as the only detecting time you can get in the summer is EARLY in the morning before the temps start rising.
Before I go any further, let me say that EARLY in the morning starts at 5am and ends around 9:30am for me...not so for a teenager. :rolleyes: Last night, I told him that we'd go when he got up, but he would need to load the Jeep before he went to bed so we'd be ready to roll...cooler full of drinks, detectors & digging gear loaded, etc. I told him there were three detectors hanging in the spare bedroom closet, and to load the gold one (F2 for him) and the black one (MXT for me)...both have Killer Bee headsets already attached and are ready to rock-n-roll.
Being the hard-nose that I am, I told him that HE was responsible for setting his alarm. (I get up at 3:30am anyway, but am trying to instill some discipline in his daily routine.) When he was still in bed at 8am ( :rolleyes: ), I gave him a swift kick in the foot...telling him he was more than a little late.
He begged forgiveness and pleaded to go anyway. Besides, how hot can it get in the morning? :rolleyes: So, I decide to teach him a lesson and off we go, headed across town to a bunch of volleyball courts that always yield a bunch of clad and an occasional piece of bling.
We arrive about 9:30, and the temp is already 91 degrees and climbing almost by the minute. I'm wearing an old man, white shirt and he's wearing a teenager black, Tap-Out tee shirt. lol Oh well, I warned him. :grin:
I park under one of the three (yes, three) shade trees that are fairly close to the courts. When I look in the back of the Jeep, I see my MXT and an Ace 250. I'll add here that yellow (Ace 250) is not the same color as gold (F2). No problem, you say? Only two, I respond. First off, he Ace 250 didn't have a headset attached. I'll remind you that the Ace 250 does NOT have an internal speaker. Secondly, the Ace 250 didn't have any batteries installed as it rarely gets any use around here, and I don't want any leakage during storage.
Fortunately, I had my V3i's spare battery pack in the glove compartment and was able to resolve the case of the missing batteries fairly quickly. However, with no headset a rookie is almost blind. So, being the wise one on the excursion, I opted to give him the MXT and I took the Ace.
After a few lessons under the tree with strategically placed coins, he seemed to get the hang of it. I removed the headset so I could hear his machine when it approached a target.
We began the hunt...me with the 250 watching the screen for a silent hit and him with the MXT tooling along in C&J mode. After thirty minutes, he was ready to head back to the Jeep for a cold drink. The Jeep thermometer read 101 and was at 102 by the time we headed back to the courts.
Another thirty minutes was about all we could both take, but I wasn't about to admit it until HE gave up. :rolleyes: When we packed up and headed for a late breakfast, the temp was pretty stable at 111 degrees.
Total take for the hour in hell...$4.56 in clad, no bling. I found the most money because I was cherry-picking only quarters and dimes...make HIM dig everything. He never noticed. lol
If you got this far, I'll add that the 250 is a great, lightweight (albeit this one has a SunRay attached) machine for volleyball courts. I notched out pull tabs and cranked the sensitivity down two notches, and it ran like a dream (albeit a silent one).
Before I go any further, let me say that EARLY in the morning starts at 5am and ends around 9:30am for me...not so for a teenager. :rolleyes: Last night, I told him that we'd go when he got up, but he would need to load the Jeep before he went to bed so we'd be ready to roll...cooler full of drinks, detectors & digging gear loaded, etc. I told him there were three detectors hanging in the spare bedroom closet, and to load the gold one (F2 for him) and the black one (MXT for me)...both have Killer Bee headsets already attached and are ready to rock-n-roll.
Being the hard-nose that I am, I told him that HE was responsible for setting his alarm. (I get up at 3:30am anyway, but am trying to instill some discipline in his daily routine.) When he was still in bed at 8am ( :rolleyes: ), I gave him a swift kick in the foot...telling him he was more than a little late.
He begged forgiveness and pleaded to go anyway. Besides, how hot can it get in the morning? :rolleyes: So, I decide to teach him a lesson and off we go, headed across town to a bunch of volleyball courts that always yield a bunch of clad and an occasional piece of bling.
We arrive about 9:30, and the temp is already 91 degrees and climbing almost by the minute. I'm wearing an old man, white shirt and he's wearing a teenager black, Tap-Out tee shirt. lol Oh well, I warned him. :grin:
I park under one of the three (yes, three) shade trees that are fairly close to the courts. When I look in the back of the Jeep, I see my MXT and an Ace 250. I'll add here that yellow (Ace 250) is not the same color as gold (F2). No problem, you say? Only two, I respond. First off, he Ace 250 didn't have a headset attached. I'll remind you that the Ace 250 does NOT have an internal speaker. Secondly, the Ace 250 didn't have any batteries installed as it rarely gets any use around here, and I don't want any leakage during storage.
Fortunately, I had my V3i's spare battery pack in the glove compartment and was able to resolve the case of the missing batteries fairly quickly. However, with no headset a rookie is almost blind. So, being the wise one on the excursion, I opted to give him the MXT and I took the Ace.
After a few lessons under the tree with strategically placed coins, he seemed to get the hang of it. I removed the headset so I could hear his machine when it approached a target.
We began the hunt...me with the 250 watching the screen for a silent hit and him with the MXT tooling along in C&J mode. After thirty minutes, he was ready to head back to the Jeep for a cold drink. The Jeep thermometer read 101 and was at 102 by the time we headed back to the courts.
Another thirty minutes was about all we could both take, but I wasn't about to admit it until HE gave up. :rolleyes: When we packed up and headed for a late breakfast, the temp was pretty stable at 111 degrees.
Total take for the hour in hell...$4.56 in clad, no bling. I found the most money because I was cherry-picking only quarters and dimes...make HIM dig everything. He never noticed. lol
If you got this far, I'll add that the 250 is a great, lightweight (albeit this one has a SunRay attached) machine for volleyball courts. I notched out pull tabs and cranked the sensitivity down two notches, and it ran like a dream (albeit a silent one).