Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
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| Good Friday |
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| Grape Shot Strand Found For Sale on eBay |
I once found some grape shot along with other artifacts on a small island. I don't remember exactly how many. They were scattered around. I later determined that they came from the early 1800s.
Since I had to take commercial airlines, I was afraid to take them on the plane so I left them on the island. And even though this was well before 2001, I remember seeing a sign at the airport saying there was a $100,000 fine for taking explosives on the plane. I don't remember the exact language, but that was enough to keep me from taking any chances of that.
One thing I remember is that I placed one grape shot at the base of a tree between the roots. I returned to the island two or three years later and walked up to the tree and saw the grape shot exactly where I left it a few years before. I didn't really expect to see it still laying there is clear sight.
Anyhow, I wonder if it is still there. It isn't real easy to see since it is all rusted and sort of fades in with the dirt. Still I would have expected some one to take it.
There are more pictures of the above grape shot strand shown in the eBay listing if you are interested.
When you look at eBay, you'll see that there are thousands of artifacts for sale at a given time. And that goes on continually. Most are very common, like the many bullets or musket balls that you'll see for sale at any given time. And in my opinion those that have been dug are only a very very small fraction of those that remain in the ground and will remain in the ground for a very long time.
I just looked back through a few posts and noticed the wide variety of items that I showed.
Everything from grape shot, to diamond rings, to rocket engines, to ceramic peeing dolls. And that is just a few. There is quite a variety.
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| 18K Ring Found |
If you have more than one type of detector, select the right one for the job.
All detectors have strengths and weaknesses and one will be better for one job and another for another job.
And where you want to hunt makes a difference too. Some detectors that are very good in the dry sand are poor in the wet sand, for example.
While I like Tesoro detectors for some situations, those that I have used were very poor at ground adjusting in wet salt water sand. And they might not be the deepest seeking, but I've found them very good at detecting small gold.
Of course the differences between detectors can be mediated to some extent by learning to adjust and use your detector better. That can take some time. Experiment with the different operation modes and settings. That will help you get better results under different situations.
There are some detectors that I would not use very often, but there are specific situations when those detectors would be a good choice.
I haven't mentioned this for a while so this might be a good time. Practice, practice, practice.
Take your detector out with a variety of types of targets, throw the targets on the ground and change the settings and observe the results. You might very well learn something about how to use your detector more effectively.
Try the same thing in the dry sand and in the wet sand. You might learn that there are some adjustments to make.
Another thing you can do in the field to learn to use your detector more effectively is when you get a signal, sweep your coil over it repeatedly so that you remember the sound you are getting. Sweep one speed and then another. Sweep in one direction and then another. Then try to guess what the object is before you dig it. That will help you learn to better understand what your detector is telling you.
While a lot of NASA engineers a little way up the coast have been laid off, we paid $64 million to the Russians to give a US astronaut a round trip to the space station, and $740 to the Soviets for 12 trips total. That bothers me in more ways than one. They keep talking about the need for importing technical workers while thousands of experienced skilled people remain unemployed. Our leaders don't understand transfer of training. And our companies don't want to pay older experienced workers when they can get less expensive workers. And a lot of people in business are afraid to hire people that have done more than them. It is too threatening. We need to make better use of our people resources. A bit off topic, but not much.
On the Treasure Coast the wind is coming from the northeast now, and as a result the surf is picking up a little, but only to about three feet. The surf won't increase enough to do much good.
Low tide this afternoon will be a little after four. The tides are a little bigger than normal, but again, there isn't much surf, so there won't be much effect.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
