M E T A L M A N 9

M E T A L M A N 9

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May 16, 2022 - St. Malo’s Overflow Beach.

May 16, 2022 - St. Malo’s Overflow Beach

May 16, 2022 St. Malo’s Overflow Beach. Here I am, finally back out metal detecting. It’s been a long, cold and never ending winter that stretched into what should have been spring. And just when I thought I was good to go, my brother sent me this picture. Yes, the one with all the water. That is a picture of Two Little Points Farm. Hard to believe that last year I was out on that same piece of land on April 6th. It will be mid-June before anything dries out enough to detect on homesteads and river lots. But St. Malo Beach was calling. Specifically, the overflow beach on the East side of the lake. It’s small in size and I was able to detect it in its entirety with one go. This area and the campground are not yet open due to the wet conditions but one is allowed in by foot or bicycle. It’s a 10 minute walk from the main parking area, so I packed up my gear and headed out. Oh what a thrill to have access to the entire beach, all to myself, all day long. And metal detect I did. Here is a recap of the first outing in 2022. And yes, I counted them all. 29 Bottle Caps, crusty or what eh! 31 Pull Tabs, 8 of which are of a really old style, 3 Screws, 2 Nails and 2 Wood Staples, 2 Bobby Pins, 2 Lead Fishing Weights, 2 Grommets,1 Zipper Connector piece, 1 Costume Earing, 1 Piece of Glass and some nice Flint / Chert rocks and a cute little Nissan logo piece. All typical beach finds I must say. The sensitivity of the detector always amazes me. The wood staples are not big at all and even with the pointer they were a challenge to find amongst the sand once I had them in my hand, Oh and of course the coins. 1 x .05c – 1985, 1 US penny – 1974, and 5 x .01c – 1983, the others must be much more recent as they are too blistered to read. I had a bit of good luck using the wash out cuts. It gave me access to a deeper section of the beach and I let Mother Nature do the work in washing out any heavier metal pieces. These will all be leveled and filled before the season opens by park staff. I must in all fairness compliment the 3 park staff that I interacted with. They were most polite and helpful. Exceptional! Roger

May 18, 2022 - Brass Find Recovery and it’s a match.

May 18, 2022 Brass Find Recovery and it’s a match. Cleaned up real nice Eh! And what a joy to pair these two items together after what can only be decades of separation; lost on a prairie field. Oh, and the workmanship. Heavy to hold, solid and meant to last forever. One can only lament what has been lost and sacrificed for so-called progress and efficiencies in modern production methods. This is one of the joys of metal detecting. It’s coming across these timeless items and the added pleasure of matching something up like this, long after finding these on separate hunts and at separate times. My goal will be to incorporate these finds into our home décor so that this brass can proudly shine again. Enjoy… Roger

May 18, 2022 - Brass Find Recovery and it’s a match

May 26, 2022 - Near Stead, Manitoba

May 26, 2022 - Near Stead, Manitoba

May 26, 2022 Near Stead, Manitoba When Pat invited me to go metal detecting the property at his new residence and print shop near Stead, I just couldn’t say No. Pat, owner of “Impress Printers” also happens to be one of the sponsors for this website and our supplier for business cards and signs etc. Pat and his wife have a 40 acre farm site which interestingly is large enough to contain some very diverse and different types of zones as it relates to metal detecting. There are open farm fields, there’s a heavily wooded area with old growth trees, there’s a large flat area that appears to have been leveled at one time as the property once housed a car repair service, then it became a dog kennel and now it’s a print shop. There’s an area that contains a cattle run, corral and cattle chutes. Talk about barbed wire and nails everywhere. And then there’s the area where the living house is. The first house would have been built at the turn of the century and by that I mean the 1900’s not the 2000’s although there have been recent additions and that meant more nails were to be found. But hey… not a single pull tab. I often talk about the flavor or the feel of a site. This was no different. With 40 acres to detect on, every zone had its surprises. It made for a very interesting day for both Pat and I. It was Pat’s first go at metal detecting; something, like with so many of us, he’s been wanting to do since childhood. And the learning curve was steep. Did I mention nails, and oh yes, more nails with intermittent barb wire. There’s a picture with Pat holding one of his first big finds: a metal fence post complete with wood and dry grass. And yes Pat, when a tin can disintegrates over time into hundreds of pieces, your Pin Pointer will beep on every one of them. A detectorist’s nightmare. We then moved on to the forest. I love detecting at the base of old trees but this zone surprisingly yielded very little other than fencing wire and one pink Crush Raisin bottle cap. Pat had quite a bit of luck finding spent shell casings for both shotgun and rifle in the leveled area behind the print shop. Oh… and a spoon too. More on that in a bit… The farm field was also relatively quiet for detecting but eventually gave up typical farm field items like iron bolts, a cotter pin and farm machinery parts. The real excitement in my opinion was the area where the living house stands and the driveway leading up to it. Yes, spoons. One such spoon was found along the driveway buried under 8 inches of soil. It’s an oldie, made in England and marked “DON-NS Stain – Resistant” The “NS” stands for Nickel-Silver but in reality contains no silver. It’s mainly copper with some nickel and zinc added as alloy. It’s beautifully well preserved with an interesting patina pattern. Also found next to old trees near the house were two pennies, 1940 and 1945 and a 1966 silver quarter. Pat and I both found toy Hot Wheel vehicles and yes, a third buried spoon. I direct you to an interesting article that my wife found online about spoons and metal detecting. It’s worth the read. Eerie actually. You can link it here or under the website’s News Links tab: http://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=271109 I could go on for another page or two but the photos speak for themselves. The nail stuck deep in the root of a tree, an automotive coil, a fancy Coke can, and more. Thank you Pat for the great day and to Conie for serving us such a wonderful lunch. I didn’t need supper that day. Oh the fun of metal detecting ! Roger