If you’ve tried to hunt for minerals using a metal detector, you are familiar with the challenges. Especially if you are looking for, say, silver at an abandoned mine where all of the structures have been leveled to the ground. Trash is everywhere. Old rusty nails, spikes, wire, and drill steels litter the ground and are found several feet below the surface as well. It’s enough to discourage the most motivated collector.
Unearthing the occasional artifact, like a vintage monkey wrench, or a mini-railway spike from the tramway offers some reward for the resolute (some would say, “stubborn”) collector. But nothing encourages a renewed round of digging like finding high-grade silver.
My pointers?
• Get yourself a hand-held pointer, like the Garrett Pro-Pointer. • Dress comfortably for kneeling or sitting – expect to get dirty and wet as you muck about. • Expect to find trash. Lots of it. So much so that you will begin to swear and whine and complain. • Find creative ways to toss the trash away from where you are working. Mind your collecting partner. • Perhaps sing a little mucking song to help with the tedium. • Threaten to give up and retire to the car for a nap. • Take a break. Eat an apple • Resume pointing and hitting targets and unearthing trash, trash, trash… • And then! • What’s this? • Only the highlight of your collecting career, thus far. A three-ounce nugget of silver. • Whoop with delight. • Re-bury the piece so that you can find it again and re-live the experience. • And start all over again.
