April 19, 2026 Keystone Detectorists Club Meeting. What a perfect early spring day for a club meeting. Cool and sunny, the ground too frozen to even consider going out metal detecting. What better opportunity than to have a Keystone Detectorist Club meeting. I completely forgot to do an actual headcount (note to self for the next time), but the approximation is about 16 members came out. We even had a surprise appearance by Robin Pare of OK Johns Metal Detectors. Robin somehow managed to break away from other commitments and joined the meeting. Robin also donated three giveaways as door prizes that were drawn via a raffle. Randy came up with the idea of a 50/50 or door prize, Robin provided the giveaway items, and I had the raffle tickets. Club cooperation at its finest! Thanks Robin. It’s always nice to get together with likeminded people and share the same passion. Classic finds, historical stories, the price of gold, odd signals from your detector, and other lore was shared. The “New” location at 110 Creek Bend Road was ideal. However, if our group gets any bigger well… We’ll cross that bridge when we get there! It’s a newer facility and very comfortable. It’s also very easy for out of town members to get to with no city driving as the location is at a stone’s throw from the south Perimeter highway. Please keep in mind our Group Hunt; an expedition to locate the pin and brass button that marks the Principal Meridian, west of Headingley. The call to arms, or in this case detectors, will be sent out to all members once the farm field has dried out enough for us to dig and not get muddied up. I anticipate mid-May, after the long weekend. Stay posted to Metalman9.ca for updates. The finds tables were well stocked by what members brought and much was to be learned from it. One display were shell buttons and an entire collection of turn of the century buttons including military buttons and crests. I’d also like to thank the generosity of the attending members who brought in a variety of donuts and pastries and cookies. Thanks also to Lise for letting us use her condo’s meeting room. The cash donations left in the “Donation Jar” went a long way to cover other incidental expenses. Thank you all. So from here, I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves… Roger

April 30, 2026 Optimist Park in Old St. Boniface So here it is, my first outing of the year accompanied by my good friend, Monty. The first time out metal detecting is a great opportunity to re- acquaint yourself with both your metal detector and the site you choose to detect on. Location, location, location. We’ve all heard it said in regards to a wide range of situations and metal detecting is no different. I’d forgotten what city parks can be like, silly me, both the good and the bad. For being in a city park, the both of us only dug up 7 pull tabs and 3 bottle caps. Now that is remarkable. This park taught me a bunch of lessons today. Ground or soil conditions: It’s still early spring and not long since the frost has come out of the ground. The soil is moist, not wet, and the moisture is deep which means that electromagnetic conductivity goes deep too. Many of the pennies found were 3 to 4 inches in. High conductivity also seems to make objects like can-slaw “Ping” a lot harder. So here we are digging up pop can scraps because the signal sounded so good. Also to note: someone rolled up a bunch of aluminum foil, really tight, into the shape of a pellet. Wow, that lit up my detector like it was a Christmas tree. Metal composition: Now that deserves a category all of its own. Monty came across a 1988 .25c piece. It completely scrambled the signals. We placed it on the ground where there was no background noise and both of our detectors went nuts. For some reason, the metal mix in this quarter causes wide swings in readings. Some Loonies have a similar effect. Now the question is, when I come across that kind of signal, should I dig or not? Rings: Rings or better put, any “circle” of metal also has a strong effect on your metal detector. Oddly enough, a cracked or broken ring has much less. My understanding is that it’s all about conductivity and how the signal bounces back to your detector. You’ll notice several different types and sizes of rings. That teeny weeny one is copper. Copper always rings nice on a detector but talk about difficulty finding this small item in a handful of moist soil. The big plain one is aluminum and rang in like a gold ring would. One interesting find is that angular and sharp looking piece found by Monty. It’s part of a kid’s toy; a Beyblade. The find of the day has to be the gold colored King’s Crown Ring. Imagine my excitement when I saw the color, but the weight was wrong. It was too light and the final verdict ultimately went to my magnet that just sucked it right up; Iron. Zinc: Ardox galvanized nails and some cast electrical coverings will also ring hard on your machine. That one spiral nail was deep but I got obsessed with digging up a strong signal. Another strong and high value numbered signal was a zinc item, a 3 ½” long electrical half circle cover. It too was buried deep. Remember the moist soil conditions? Prizes: The joy of metal detecting comes from friends, fresh air, exercise and finding little treasures like the Santa Clause pendant and the Crown Ring. The 1951 Canadian penny was also a bonus. Most of the other coins were from the 80’s. It felt like we were trapped in a time warp. The buttons are also collectable. One says “Big Blue”, the other “R 2 Squared. And just to add to the adventure, Monty found a Geo-Cache. Cool eh! All and all it was a good day in the park. Roger Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galvanization https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyblade https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zinc