If you do have you ever found anything good in Western Washington.

Just wondering, I have a cheap detector and have looked around probably 20 hours since I had it, old farms, parks the beach and found nothing but junk and some clad coins. I am thinking there is nothing left thats good...

There has to be some buried Bigfoot cock rings some where....keep looking you'll find one.

LOL

WTF was that....

Rich, been detecting for many, many years, and yes, there are some truly amazing finds to be made in W. Wa.

Unlike the east coast, we don't have the 300+ year history that they do, so if you're got your heart set on finding as seated liberty qtr., well...it could happen, but you will find coins going back to the 1880's if ya look in the right spot.

A "cheap machine" has it's limits, both in depth and discrimination. The ground here is very mineralized, so being able to ground balance is critical. A cheap machine like a low-end Bounty Hunter you bought at Fred Meyer won't get ya much, but it will go off when the coil goes over metal. A decent machine (still on the lower price end) will run you about $300, and a top-end machine can run $600-$2000. All depends what and where you want to detect.

As for finding the "good stuff", well, "good stuff" varies from hunter to hunter. If you're after relics of times past, check out old logging camps and do the research to find out where events took place back in the old days.

It's all about location, location, location.

With only 20 hrs. out, you've barely got used to the detector. It's a hobby where you can find cool stuff, but you're not going to get rich doing it.

Check out www.treasurenet.com, as they cover every aspect of treasure hunting from the Lost Dutchman to shipwrecks, metal detecting to prospecting and plenty of forums where your ideas on Bigfoot will be well accepted.

Check out this kid's YouTube channel. It's pretty good, lots of information and great camera work. He does a lot of river scanning too.

https://www.youtube.com/user/nuggetnoggin

Gotta be careful, though, where you use them. The Feds (Forest Circus) and WDFW do have regs about where you can use them and what you have to leave if you find.

Are these detectors able to detect lead? I know of a couple river spots where I can probably pick up quite a bit of pencil lead, where people have broken off from snags. But would need to probe around gravel and cobblestones to find the lead pieces. A detector would make the job easier, if they are able to detect lead.

LOL

They absolutely detect lead, and even with a cheap machine you'll hear it when the coil goes over it. You may not get great depth with a cheap machine (like 8" max) but it'll sure find it.

I have a specialized, highly sensitive machine for hunting gold, and on a trip down to Nevada a few years ago I was driven nuts by the number of .22 slugs I was digging.

What's the coolest thing you've found golddigger?

The coolest? That would be a girls compact from around 1920. It had a porcelain top on it that survived being underground for nearly 100 years. It came out of spot right next to the curb at a grade school in Snohomish, and was about 14" deep. Took it home and cleaned it up, and decided to pry it open 'cause I heard something sliding around inside, and found a 1913 Buffalo nickel.

Cumulatively, it would be the gold rings that had the most value. A few years back the wife and I were in a tight spot, and I had to sell pretty much all my good finds to make a house payment, so I gathered up all the gold rings and sold them for the gold value. There were 29 of 'em, mostly 14k, which brought over $2000 cash.

Individually, I found a rare "Green River Whisky" token that brought over $600 on it's own.

Rather than glamorize it, I should tall ya that I've dug a ton of trash over the years. Bottlecaps, canslaw (when the big mowers chop up an aluminum can) pull tabs...ad nauseum. Ya gotta dig some of the trash to get the good stuff, but decent discrimination in the machine can save a lot of that time. To me, if a signal is "iffy", I dig it anyway.

You'd be surprised at how many times I've knelt down, thinking I wa digging yet another pulltab and popped out a gold wedding band instead! Unfortunately, the signal return from a pulltab and a gold ring are very close, so, when in doubt, dig it out.

That's cool, did the compact have a design on it? Too bad the Buff nickel didn't have three legs.

It's got a pink floral design on the porcelain, but the porcelain itself wasn't in good shape. I've still got the thing...somewhere. Found it back in the mid-90's.

I found loads of silver coins, mostly Mercury dimes and Washington qtr's that were pre-64. There were also several years of nickels in the 40's that had a high percentage of silver (we call 'em "war nickels").

People always joke about the old guy on the beach with the metal detector. What they fail to realize is those many of those guys are finding $1000 a day, or more, in jewelry. I know people in Florida that can average that any time they go out, but they also know what the heck they are doing.

This fellow made a short trip to Florida just a couple days ago...

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/today-s-finds/522703-finds-short-trip-fla.html

The stuff's out there, but you do have to put in the time to find it.

BTW, they also find gold nuggets..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=237&v=oQuUhCdRAQQ

When I was a kid, which was more than a week or two ago, we lived at Natural Bridges State Park in Santa Cruz. Back when the bridges were connected to shore. The park used bring in a big piece of earthmoving equipment that screened the sand. They recovered quite a bit of change that went into the coffee fund.

Can you use one while wearing a tinfoil hat?

Started doing it with my dad back in the 70's.
Found some pretty cool stuff. There is still plenty out there to find.

Ran into a guy in 2015 working a low tide on a very popular MA 9 beach.
He had found 119 Buzz Bombs so far that year. Most were pink....go figure.
SF

Snorkeling rivers is a great way to collect stuff. I only floated a couple rivers (in the lightly fished areas) and found a number of spinners. I also know that one time when Tacoma really choked the Cowlips that folks found coffee-cans full of pencil lead.

Was the amusement park there, back then ?

Rich, are there any Big Foot detector's on the market.