I've done a bit of lurking here over the past year trying to soak up some know how, and I thought I might share a summary of year 1.
I got my MD as a Christmas present in 2014, and then life went kind of crazy for a while so I had no chance to get out. I only managed 8 short hunts (!2---3 hours each,) but two of them turned out some fairly heavy clad finds. I used a spreadsheet to track everything and wound up with just over twenty bucks in clad, but some fairly interesting other finds.
- 1854 French 5 Centimes Bronze Coin
- Maybe the most interesting to me because I found it on my first test run out in my own yard within half an hour of taking the MD out of the box. It's in pretty poor condition, but still, how does a 160 year old french coin wind up under six inches of rocky soil in the hill country of South Texas?
- 2009 Bi-metal Mexican Peso; 1964 Canadian Quarter (N), 1997 S. Korea 10 Won, 1997 Mexican 25 Centavos piece.
- Also just weird. All of these were found along with a lot of US clad near a baseball diamond at a local park. Was there a UN game or something?
- 1 Bandera Bowl Funplex token, 2 Peter Piper's Pizza tokens, A 2002 1$ Texas Folk-life Festival token, and 12 Chuck E. Cheese tokens
- I don't always find coins, but when I do, chances are good it's a worthless token.
- 1 Silver Celtic ring
- Instantly recognized as one I bought for my daughter at the Highland Games; daughter happy to have it back.
- 1 Chunky Copper Chain Bracelet
- Instantly recognized as one my Grandmother had given me thirty years ago, and somehow wound up in my yard.
The main find this year was dialing in on how to use my gear to work a space, but my best find was a fun new excuse to duff around in the sticks with my daughters.
In 2016, I need to shift focus from how to use the gear to where to use it. I've spent (not counting the MD) $154 on other related gear, so I'm still about 85% under water, so if things don't improve, I won't break even until 2022
My obsessive compulsive spreadsheet addiction seems to be producing some amusing data, so I'll try to post it in below.
Hunts 8 Hours 16 Coins 219 Avg Coins/Hunt 27 Pennies 89 Nickles 20 Dimes 38 Quarters 63 Half Dollars 0 Dollars 0 Other Coins 9 Clad Value $21.44 Numis. Value $0.96 Total Coin Value $22.40 UFOs 33 Pull Tabs 69 Pull Tab Avg/hunt 9 Clad Value per HR $1.34 Total Kit Expense $154.48 %Recovered 14.50% Outstanding $132.08 Hours at this rate 99 Break even year 2022
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and into our community 
. The 1854 French 5 centimes is certainly and interesting find but not uncommon to see here in the U.S. , most foreign money was still widely accepted until 1857 (when it was officially outlawed). I like the spread sheet (wish i was that organized 
) , don't sweat the length of time when you'll be back in the black for that machine . the time with the kids and the exercise is "priceless" in itself plus all it takes is that one great find to pay off your machine a few times over , it can happen !! Again glad you joined up and good luck !!
This pretty much summed up my first year detecting-of course now I got insulated waders and neoprene gloves for x-mas to do cold water hunting while land is inaccessible due to snow. So I don't think it ever really ends-but the experiences of making great finds, knowledge gained, and time spent with friends or family makes it worth every penny!
Originally Posted by groundhog53946
I recommend you add the following to your tracking spreadsheet: steps taken, calories burned, # hours using Google Earth, # of holes dug, # of times your wife gives you the "look" as you are heading out the door, # of times you cuss a bottle cap, # of hours spent fondling your finds. 
