American Detectorist Contest Giveaway Starts NOW!!!

[kpmoose]

When I was a kid, I had 2 close friends. In the warmer months, we used to fish together as often as we could. In the winter, we would play ice hockey on the same pond we would fish in the spring/summer/fall. At the time, it felt like we would be together forever. Eventually we all grew up, went to college, graduated, moved to different areas of the northeast US. Essentially our new lives took over & we drifted apart. One of these friends, Craig, was always a terrific athlete and an even better hockey player. He turned pro a few years out of college- didn't make it to the NHL, but had a very successful career in the AHL (American Hockey League- one step away from the NHL). Anyways, I hadn't seen or spoken to Craig for many years, when I had found out he was going to be in town to play a game against a local AHL team. It was late in his hockey career, so I decided to go to the game to see him play as I knew he didn't have many more years to play. I waited for him afterwards at his team bus so that I could say hi. Even though we hadn't seen each other for a good 15 years, the conversation went like we had just spoken yesterday. We kept in touch occasionally after that meeting. Unfortunately, as fate would have it, about 5 years later, Craig was diagnosed with stomach cancer & it took his life within a year.

Now I know you all must be thinking, "ok, this is supposed to be a story about something wonderful that has happened in your life." I'm getting to that part. I had not seen or spoken to our other friend Jeff for over 20 yrs. I had no idea if he was still local or if he had moved away. The town I grew up in was holding an event to raise money for Craig's family. I made the trip to attend that event. As luck would have it, our friend Jeff was there as well. Again, my conversations with Jeff seemed to just pick up seamlessly to the last time we spoke over 20 years earlier. Our memories of Craig led us to talks of our youth playing ice hockey & fishing. Since getting together on that night, 5 years ago, Jeff & I have made an annual trip to Lake Winnipesaukee every year to fish together for a week. I know I may be overthinking this, but to me, in some way, I believe that in Craig's death he found a way to bring the 3 of us together. Although only 1week a year, every day that Jeff & I fish, we spend a good chunk of that time talking about & remembering our good friend.

So to me, one of the most wonderful things to happen to me is unwavering friendships and memories that will last a lifetime. I can see many of those friendships develop right here on AD. Keep up the good work. Glad I found this hobby (thanks to Todd- Thiltzy) & this site.

Kevin

[DiggerAl]

My age is not a very large number, so I have not had a whole lot of life changing experiences or anything. I can think of only 1 extremely amazing thing. 1)My first silver. I forgot the exact date, but my dad did make a post about it. My dad bit a of research on historical maps and google earth stuff and we found a site to and exact site where and old schoolhouse was. After talking to the farmer who owned the property, we learned that the original schoolhouse, was on his property and was being used as a barn. Hah! When we started detecting this area, within the first 5-10 minutes my dad got an 80-81 (AT PRO) and it was like 2 inches so I felt that it may have been clad, because at that time i was happy to find a wheaty. My dad and I were acting as a team, because we only had the one detector with us. I got down on my legs and pulled out the pinpointer, and I was getting a strong signal with it. Again, being silly me, I thought it was clad. I pulled it out and it was shiny, and I rubbed it a bit. At the time I was very naive and i say the One Dime on the back, and I said "DAD ITS A MERC I THINK! IT SAYS ONE DIME ON THE BACK" then he said "That isn't a merc.... that's a barber!!!" and there it was, a 1907-O barber dime, our first silver coin.

[coinnut]

Some really great stories everyone. Thanks for sharing some of them with us. Still plenty of time for more members to take a shot at winning a free detector.

[tracyjm]

I've pretty much shared my life changing story in an earlier thread. I found out at age 46 that my wife was pregnant. It was my first time being a "biological" father. The first week that they did the ultrasound they said surprise it's twins! Two weeks later we went in again and they said surprise it's triplets! Needless to say I was in shock.... I had worked all the night before so I had very little sleep that morning. It was a 2 hour drive back from the clinic and I was pulled over for speeding on the interstate. I got caught in a short distance where the speed zone dropped down and didn't even realize I was speeding. Two cars in front of me were pulling away from me but I got pulled over most likely cause I was "out of state" license. It was a motorcycle state trooper. I told the trooper my wife was having triplets. He looked at me and my wife and I doubt he believed me. My wife was 44 and I was 46 at that time. I think he thought I was just trying to get out of a ticket. He probably thought he had heard some big stories in his lifetime...LOL.

[Epi-hunter]

These are great stories everyone. Keep em' coming.

I'll stick with detecting... probably everyone has heard this story by now, but it's just so statistically wild that I have to keep telling it. This was quite a few years ago. The VERY first time I took out my brand new ACE 250 (never even tried it in the yard), I stupidly took it to one of the farms I owned at the time in southwest Iowa. I say 'farm' but there was never a homestead on it - in fact it was 100+ acres of original wild prairie grass (I had it all in the CRP program so it still had never been farmed). It did have an old train track running through it though, but there were never train stops on the land or any type of dwelling.

I don't know what I expected to find. But I mostly dug up old railroad pins and pieces of train track (iron). I spent the day there though. The prairie grass was mostly really high (like almost waist high) so I could only detect in a long path that my husband- now ex-husband - had recently mowed.

I was just getting ready to leave after a bunch of hours there. Still was hoping to find a coin - any coin. (Why didn't I go to a park?) But just as I started the long trek back to the car, I got a very solid 'silver' hit on the ACE250, showing it was relatively deep. So I dug, and low and behold... it was an 1847 Seated Liberty half dollar. About six inches deep.

At the time I was thrilled but was really too stupid to know how rare that kind of find was, especially in an area with almost no population. I remember at the time that I had just joined a metal detecting forum and I posted it as my very first coin find on the first day I took it out, and I couldn't understand why I was getting lots of disbelievers.

I figure it was probably dropped by one of the people who built the railroad - probably was a whole week's pay at that time. Amazing to think that it lay in the ground all those years until I dug it up.

My very first and still my very favorite coin find. I'm sure I will never find another one.

[tracyjm]

Just shows you if you swing the coil over the right spot... Great first find!! Great life stories being shared!!

These are great stories everyone. Keep em' coming.

I'll stick with detecting... probably everyone has heard this story by now, but it's just so statistically wild that I have to keep telling it. This was quite a few years ago. The VERY first time I took out my brand new ACE 250 (never even tried it in the yard), I stupidly took it to one of the farms I owned at the time in southwest Iowa. I say 'farm' but there was never a homestead on it - in fact it was 100+ acres of original wild prairie grass (I had it all in the CRP program so it still had never been farmed). It did have an old train track running through it though, but there were never train stops on the land or any type of dwelling.

I don't know what I expected to find. But I mostly dug up old railroad pins and pieces of train track (iron). I spent the day there though. The prairie grass was mostly really high (like almost waist high) so I could only detect in a long path that my husband- now ex-husband - had recently mowed.

I was just getting ready to leave after a bunch of hours there. Still was hoping to find a coin - any coin. (Why didn't I go to a park?) But just as I started the long trek back to the car, I got a very solid 'silver' hit on the ACE250, showing it was relatively deep. So I dug, and low and behold... it was an 1847 Seated Liberty half dollar. About six inches deep.

At the time I was thrilled but was really too stupid to know how rare that kind of find was, especially in an area with almost no population. I remember at the time that I had just joined a metal detecting forum and I posted it as my very first coin find on the first day I took it out, and I couldn't understand why I was getting lots of disbelievers.

I figure it was probably dropped by one of the people who built the railroad - probably was a whole week's pay at that time. Amazing to think that it lay in the ground all those years until I dug it up.

My very first and still my very favorite coin find. I'm sure I will never find another one.

[milco]

Thanks for the contest! A big deal in my life right now involves my oldest son. He will graduate from high school in three weeks, and he just found out that he was an E. Powers Biggs Fellowship winner for 2014, for the Organ Historical Society.

[pulltabsteve]

Angie, great story and beautiful coin! Can I have it?

[don in ny]

I adopted both of my daughters from Russia. As a result, I tried to learn some Russian and took some classes both before and after adopting. Last Saturday I was out detecting in an old park. When I was leaving I noticed someone else with a detector so I decided to go say hello. He sounded Russian from his accent so I asked and he was. The rest of our conversation was mostly in Russian. He had found 2 Indians and large cent at that point and I had found a half reale, seated half dime, Barber dime and a couple of Indians. It was a good day for both of us. Adopting is great gift and metal detecting is a great hobby. You just never know who you'll run in to.

Unrelated to my story, 27 years ago I found an ID bracelet in a local school yard. I showed it to someone who knew the man named on the bracelet. It was the same town. He had lost it 50 years earlier and had tears in his eyes when I got to return it. He told me it was a gift from his mother who had passed on 20 years earlier. He might have felt great about getting that bracelet back, but not nearly as good as I felt returning it. It is certainly more blessed to give than receive.

[coinnut]

Hey everyone a correction on the contest date. I didn't notice the pages stuck on my calander, so I was looking at June. The contest will still go until the 20th of May, but that will be a Tuesday, not a Friday. Results will be posted that following weekend. Sorry about the mix up on the days. Still a lot of time for some more entries.

[BTV Digger]

Great threads everybody! Really enjoy reading all the interesting stories. In terms of personal experience it's obvious for me: the birth of my two sons. If you're a parent, nothing can really compare with the birth of a child. It changes you forever and in the best of ways. It's also extremely rewarding to see them grow up and become responsible young men. Plus my younger son (10 yrs) old loves MD so great to get out to some parks and/or easy to reach cellar holes w/him and share the experiences together. Will always remember those moments.

In terms of recent fun moment involving coins, it actually didn't have anything to do with MD. My son (mentioned above) is also an avid coin collector and has built quite the collection over the past few years including a variety of old silver, LGs, gold. He's very proud of his 1825 Half Dollar and his 1926 Quarter Eagle (family heirlooms from Grandpa as a birthday gift). However, he also likes to go by a few of our local banks and search coin rolls. A few of the tellers have gotten to know him, so one day last summer we stopped by a local branch here in town to search penny rolls. The teller spots him immediately and calls him over to say "I think I've got something really cool for you". My son got curious and it turns out the teller had received a large stock of what looked like really old penny rolls. I asked the teller how many of the old rolls she thought were in the vault and she said "Oh about 20 dollars worth". Needless to say, we (or I should say I) gave her the money and we excitedly brought the rolls home to see what goodies were inside. To make a long story short, we got $20 of 100% old wheat pennies...some 2000 of them! Nuts. Needless to say my son filled up about 3/4 of his entire wheat penny coin books in one afternoon. Tons from the 1940s/1950s of course...but a number from the teens/20s/30s as well, including several more uncommon "S" varieties. Definitely a fun afternoon for the both of us.

BTV Digger

[Vito]

TNX for this place to share this non metal detecting related story.

It all began on May, 06, 2014. Our dog Bronco became ill with fever. So on wednesday we went to the vet and he got some drugs. Firstly he did a little better but friday the 9th it became worse again. After another visit at the vet and changing the drugs it seemed to be better, but with in a few hours, from 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm Bronco was going sightlessness. Never thought about how many tears a man can build. Till now this was the most tearfull day in my life.
Saturday evening we did some calls and another vet ,who did emergency service this day, advised to observe this and if it will not get better to visit them on sunday. When Bronco was walking, he was really really careful. And this caused a lot of stress to him. When we did a little walk in the past for about 15 mins this walk now lasts 45 mins to 1 hr. And when we arrived at home, he fell asleep immediately.
Sunday morning we visited the vet emergency service and the doc offered terrible news.
Bronco was diseased with glaucoma. We have no clue how long this is. Our little buddy is now 8 1/2 yrs old and never get a sign for this. In the left eye a artery was defective and a lot of blood flew into the eye. The right eye had to be good for seeing the doc said, but Bronco did not see anything he walked right slowly and carefully and his all things coming across his way. Even a long blade of grass scared him.
Only the docs words gave some hope. With new drugs and treatment we fixed a new date for thursday to check eye-pressure and all other troubles. But all went more worse so we had to visit the doc on tuesday again. Not knowing what causes all this, the doc said could be poison, cerebral infarct, cancer or something else. All the symptoms won't fit to only one sickness. So drugs were changed again and some of them discharged completely.
Thursday Bronco was able to eat normally and we had the feel he did know where he was. Later in the day we wanted to note he was "seeing" differences between light and dark. From now on he did better every minute and yesterday evening he jumped to his place at the couch.
Today he was walking the stairs down without any help and the walk was done without any great help. He now can find his water and food and he can walk around the rooms only hitting very few parts in the way.
I'm so thankful for this healing so he can be autonomous again, even if he will not see 100%. This will be more quality life than rest in total darkness.
We're so happy about this.

Thanks for your time.

[Tom]

Probably the best day of my life was when I married my wonderful wife! We ran away to Vegas and did the wedding chapel thing. Married at the Chapel of flowers and we had a jaczzi suite at the Luxor hotel. No, we were not married by Elvis! I'll always remember when I was putting the wedding band on her finger during the ceremony and could not get it to go and she was quietly encouraging me to "push it on". Yup, I got it on and we spent a lot of happy days together...... Had some fun times out in Vegas and we returned to visit many times.

[Tony Two-Cent]

This contest is now closed.

A sincere thanks to everyone who entered. The stories were very interesting and truly inspirational!

The winner will be drawn at random this evening and announced on the forum. The drawing will be recorded on video and posted on YouTube.

A HUGE thank you to JMT Metal Detectors for sponsoring this contest and donating the brand new Tesoro Silver uMax metal detector!

http://www.jmtmetaldetectors.com/