Snowy hunt

Braved the cold for my first hunt of the new year and hit a tot lot at the local river park. Frozen snow covered ground plus bitterly cold wind make for a short lunchtime hunt. Ground was really too frozen to dig much with my composite digger. (Time to upgrade) Got a good penny signal in the wood chips near the slide so I tried my luck. Came up with an 85 Lincoln. Got several other hits so I'll head back when the weather gets above freezing. Right now I'll be satisfied with my Lincoln. It was a little difficult to find though. Pennies seem to blend into the wood chips.
Until next time, HH and Keep your coil to the soil.

Toy soldier

I've only been detecting since Christmas. I'm still learning my Ace 250, but the last day of 2009 proved to be a good one. I was detecting in my father-in-law's back yard in an area he has said he lost a pocket knife. I got a good signal and pinpointed the item and began digging. Thinking I have have found the knife, he and I were both surprised when I dug up a little metal toy soldier. The look on his face was priceless. He remembered playing with the soldier as a little boy. He's in his 70s now and has lived in the house since he was 2-years-old. The property dates back to the 1800s. Now I'm in search of the toy soldier graveyard he thinks may be in the backyard, and I'm still looking for the pocket knife.

If anyone knows any history about this type of toy soldier please comment. Until next time...
Keep your coil to the soil.

Bad weather, can't detect

The weather here turned extremely cold over the last couple of days. Arctic actually. Cold enough that I'm not about to get out to try to detect. Even if I did I'd have to have a jackhammer to get through the frozen clay ground around here. So, what do you do when you can't detect? Well, I've been posting some at metaldetectingforum.com and watching metal detecting videos on youtube. Aside from that I have been researching.
Bad weather can give you an opportunity to research local history in order to find new places to hunt or research an item you have found during a hunt. While you are doing your research on new areas to hunt, go ahead and get permission from the landowner or even go ahead and get permission forms signed, that way when the weather breaks you will be ready to go.
So, until next time...
Get your research done, grab a fresh set of batteries and
Keep your coil to the soil.

Picking your detector

There are alot of schools of thought when it comes to the type of metal detector you need. I spent several months researching the types and the prices online before I decided what type best fit me. I mentioned in my first post that I received the Garrett Ace 250 for Christmas. After setting a price range for the detector I began researching detectors in that range and their features and ease of use. The Ace 250 was a fit for me. If you are in the market for a detector I recommend you do the same as me and set a budget for yourself and then research the detectors in that budget. Pick the one that fits you. Until next time...
Happy Hunting
Keep your Coil to the Soil

Welcome

First off, welcome to Coil to the soil. I'll start by saying I'm a metal detecting newbie. Just received my first detector as a Christmas gift so I'm now the proud owner of a Garrett Ace 250. Coil to the Soil will be a sort of metal detecting log book/diary for my adventures and misadventures learning to detect. Please follow me as I learn and maybe you'll learn along the way too or you can share your tips with me and I'll pass them along to the blog readers. Until next time. Happy Hunting!