The last time I went for a hunt was Thanksgiving weekend. The following Monday the snow fell hard in Fort Collins. The temperatures dropped below 0 into the negative numbers for 10 days. This froze the ground solid and sealed the old coins into the ground for yet another year. I was content with my last find of the 1865 2 Cent piece, and quietly accepted that my metal detecting adventures were over for the year. Christmas time was soon upon us and my Wife and I readied our selfs for the annual trip over the Rocky Mountains to Western Colorado, to that magical childhood place... the place that we both refer to as Home. We were greeted with a snowstorm and about 6 inches of fresh snow. The snow was beautiful but dashed my hopes for one last hunt.
You see I had packed my V3 in the car just in case there was a chance for a hunt. I unloaded my detector and sadly stashed it in a spare room. The next day was warm and I went for a drive chasing ghost around the town reliving my childhood memories and trying to recognize the places of my past. I drove past an old park that used to be a lake. The water was drained and grass planted in the little valley left behind. This place has produced a lot of nice Silver and Wheat pennies in the past for me. Now the hillsides were covered in snow and the kids were inner tubbing down the steep slopes. As I watched them my eyes followed the contour of the park edge and low and behold on the far side, high on the bank there was a melted area about 50 feet wide by 75 or a 100 feet long.
My hopes rose and the following day, Christmas Eve, I was at the melted spot with my V3. I started swinging in my limited space. I was using the 10x12 SEF coil in the correlate mode. It was not long and up from the ground came a nice Wheat. The ground was partially frozen in spots but cut easily with my Lesche digger. Within the next hour I had 3 more Wheats and then within 5 feet of each other back to back silver Dimes. I was cold and called it a day. Unfortunately I did not have the camera or my cell phone with me, but here is a picture of the days finds taken later.
The coins were all from the 40's and 50's. It was really nice to get a little mid-winter relief and go hunting. What a great surprise finding the coins. I settled back that evening with a fine glass of spirits and relaxed by the fire. I could here the icy wind kick up a little bit as I poked at the coals and added another log.
Keep Swing'in
Jack
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Not very often you can score some keepers in late December. Good call keeping that V3 in your car .... just incase thumbsup01
