New digger in CT

[Trooper Bri]

Hi all.

Name's Brian, I'm 45, and live in Ellington, CT.
Brand new to the hobby. A friend got a Bounty Hunter for X-mas, and I was more interested with it than him. Once we thawed out from the Polar Vortex, the bug got worse, and I finally pulled the plug a few weeks ago.
An Ace 350, Pro Pointer, 50" bag, Fiskars aluminum spade (to be replaced with a Model 31C Raptor), trenching shovel, pouch, and gloves to get me started.

Found this board when I signed up on another board last week, and got a PM from copper head stating there's more people local to me here. He wasn't kidding.
So far just been yard picking to get some practice, especially with the plugs. Got 28 cents, junk, and an oxen shoe. Now that I have the pointer, am going to hit a school tomorrow in an old section of a neighboring town for my 1'st hunt.

Also used to fish a bunch, but that's dried up to mostly ice fishing the past couple years, so a new hobby is good. Hopefully I'll get to meet some folks, learn, and dig something besides crunk.
A friend who hunts has permission to hunt private property in a forest that has some sort of uncut stone foundation. I'm psyched, as I need to learn the fine art of research and asking permission.

Thanks for reading. Looking forward to my time here!

[coinnut]

Hey, welcome aboard from western MA. There are a ton of people around you. Must be a sale on machines in CT

[kpmoose]

Welcome Brian from another CT detectorist. I've only been at it a little over a year now. I still have lots to learn too. Read as many posts as you can and don't be afraid to ask questions. There are a ton of experienced people on here willing to share their experience to shorten your learning curve. But there is no better way to get better, than to use your machine and learn what it is telling you. This takes time & I am still learning mine (White's MXT Pro). If you ever want to get together for a hunt, let me know. I live in Middletown, work in Manchester. Shoot me a PM if interested.

Also, there are some of us on here that belong to Yankee Territory Coinshooters (I just joined last month). Look into it online if you are interested.

-Kevin

[Trooper Bri]

Thanks guys!

I appreciate the info Kev, I may very well wind up there. The interweb and YouTube are great for some homework (ok, I watched a LOT of vids.), but a crew is better. And may have to take you up on your offer as well. I work in Granby behind the airport off Rt.20.

[del]

Hello Brian , welcome to the forum. I'm just a bit northwest of you in Enfield . Looking toward seeing what you find and maybe meeting you sometime for a hunt. Glad to have you here .

Dan

[OxShoeDrew]

Hiya Trooper Bri, I'm about an hour from you. Sounds like you have some nice equipment there. I look forward to your posts

[Trooper Bri]

Wow Dan, you are close.

I read your Pequot War Saga thread a bit earlier. Fantastic stuff!! I hated history when I was in my teens, but appreciate it so much more now. Look forward to meeting you as well, and would likely be clinically insane to refuse an offer to hunt with ya.

[Skamaniac]

Howdy from Washington state along the Oregon border. Glad you caught the MD bug and found this site.

[Trooper Bri]

Hi Ox and Skamaniac, thanks for the welcome.

Not sure it's worth posting elsewhere, but did my first dig this afternoon for a couple hours. Wanted more time, but I had to pull a rare weekend trip to work to assist with a pre-inventory audit.
Had a bit of time to think where I wanted my 1'st dig to be while I bought my gear, and decided on a school a couple towns away. The current school building is maybe 60 years old or so, and used for administration now. And the school itself is in one of the oldest sections of town, surrounded by houses from the early to mid 1800's.

The huge grassy field attached to the school was my target. Set my Ace 350 to zero so I could hear everything. It has the fence left over from a baseball field on one side, so for fun I started on where I thought the bleachers or maybe plank seats would have been. Got plenty of good sounding hits between the plethora of grunts, all of it slaw. Moved on, and kept getting slaw and more slaw (plus tabs). Apparently school play field is really a trashy park. But considering where I was, I was digging everything.

In between all the grunts and slaw, I managed a measly clad quarter and penny. But they were good finds because they were near slaw and I was able to pick them out of the crowd. No doubt I missed others though. Had 2 interesting tight pingers deep that got me excited. 1'st one was an old spoon standing up, a good 9 or 10 inches down. I'll have to look for a spoon site or something and see if it's old. 2'nd one was what looks like one of those j-shaped hold down stakes you get with those cheap outdoor zippered gazebos. Some sadist pounded it 8 or 9 inches down.

Not the most exciting first dig, but I learned a few things in the 2 hours out there. All-leather gloves suck, even if they were cheap. The Husky pouch I bought is too small, and the headphone cord is annoying.
I plan on going back to trashy school field due to the location, but this time will work the front by the road instead of the back. Less trash and maybe a relic if the gods a kind.

A little long winded, thanks for reading. After 5 or 6 days of rain, it was nice to get out with the new hobby.

[Timewarpdigger]

Welcome and best of luck. Safe & HH

[Digger Don]

Hello and welcome to the forum from Northern Illinois. Glad to have you aboard

[Full Metal Digger]

The trashy areas are always good to me. The trick I learned is to ignore signals in the trash "layer" and listen for targets deeper than 4 inches. That works for me since I tend to look more for older coins. Best wishes and HH (& welcome to the forum), Dave.

[giant056]

Welcome to the forum from Kalamazoo

[aloldstuff]

Another welcome from western MA. No denying it, you've got the bug. Looking forward to your future finds.

P.S. We love pictures

[Trooper Bri]

I'm trying Daddy. I've gotten maybe 10 hours with my 350, and what looks easy on YouTube wasn't so easy in trashy school, especially with an entry level model. But I learned a bunch this weekend in those few hours this weekend.

Went to a popular park in the same town Sunday morning. Didn't dig as much with slightly better results, even with the aluminum and juice pouch slaw from the soccer mom crowds. Focused my my attention around a couple old trees. One was a bust with a couple rusty nails and a few good sounds below roots though (sigh). The other tree coughed up a clad quarter and penny, a cheap sea turtle pendant, a quarter sized tin or aluminum Shakespeare Archery emblem (on a bow or quiver?), and one that sounded big and chunky. What seemed big and roundish, was. Not a cannon ball, but a rear hub and sprocket from a motorcycle I'm guessing. 7 inches down. Got something else that looks like a piece of the action from a newer rifle, but probably isn't.

Weather looks for the coming weekend here so far. Looking forward to more time to dig.

[Boulder]

Hello and Welcome to the forum from John in NJ.

[brownbeardad]

welcome trooper bri, i enjoyed looking at the what is it pages. helps to learn what may be lurking out there.

[Twobit]

Excellent! I just posted in the buddies section looking for some people to hunt with. It looks like CT is loaded. We need to set up a time and place I the near future and see what we can figure out together. Maybe one of the veterans can show up and teach us a thing or two.

[Nesdore]

Hello from southeastern Ohio

[Trooper Bri]

Thanks for the continued welcomes all! And hello Twobit.

I've already had the opportunity to meet and do a some hunting with del and OxShoeDrew. I learned a lot in one day in the woods. Looking forward to meeting more CT diggers and learn even more. Hopefully I can get access to sites and return the favor. I'm also looking forward to getting into the YTC and meet the other folks who gave me a warm welcome.