Dayton Diggers first group hunt
August 15th was Dayton digger’s first group hunt. Put together by Steve and Ron, we metal detected Ron’s house, situated close to at least one of the early routes through the area and built in 1849 with a log home there before, the house promised some good hunting.
Everyone showed up around 9 a.m. at Ron’s house on the outskirts of Washington Court House. We walked the property with Steve and Ron showing us where electric lines and Propane lines ran on the grounds and Steve gave us a brief history. After we toured the grounds Steve had us each introduce ourselves and give a little bit of information on recent and best finds and how we got into metal detecting.
Everyone got their detectors and equipment and we started hunting, it wasn’t long before Tab found a 1929 S standing liberty quarter that got everyone excited and swinging their coils a little faster. A few finds started coming in, wheat pennies, relics and Terry Everly found a Mercury dime. Steve took time from taking pictures and running the video camera to swing his detector for a while. He hadn’t been hunting long when he found an 1876 Carson City dime! We all stood around him waiting for our chance to take a peak at it and once again it made us all forget how hot it was and we were back to swinging hoping we could make a great find like that.
We took a nice lunch break while Ron made Hamburgers and brats; we all sat around showing our finds, talking about the hobby and getting to know each other a little better. After we all got our bellies full and some more fluids in us we split up into two separate groups, one group going with Tony to an old school house while myself and others stayed behind, unfortunately another site the rest of us were going to hunt fell through for the day.
Tony and the group got back from the school house hunt with not much to show saying it was very trashy. We all hunted around Ron’s a little longer but I think the heat had gotten to us all and everyone was giving up and heading home. Terry, Steve, Ron and I were sitting around after everyone else had left, talking detecting and I was waiting for my Fiancé to show up. A few of us had tried to go in the field behind the house earlier but the heat was just to much, now that it was slowly starting to cool off somebody suggested that we try to hunt the freshly cut alfalfa field. We headed back, Steve and Terry were fairly close to one another and Ron and I were on the other side of the field. I started noticing at about half way back Steve and Terry were down on their knees often digging and we had better get over there! By the time Ron and I made it over where they were hunting Steve had found an 1825 large cent and Terry had found two flat buttons and Spanish silver! Before the heat got to us again Steve had the large cent, I had two flat buttons and some new bullets and Terry had managed six buttons and the Spanish coin!
The whole day was just great; it was nice to hunt and meet fellow dayton diggers club members, a really good group of folks and a club that you can say you’re proud to be a member of. Thanks to Steve and Ron for putting on a great hunt and giving us all the opportunity to hunt such a great and historical site!
