Fellowship Hunt

          We are having a fellowship hunt August 17th at the Yankee Springs Recreation Area. This hunt will be held at the large beach and picnic grounds. This is not a seeded hunt where targets are planted, but the area continues to produce older copper and silver coins. As you park facing Gun Lake, we will be in the first pavilion on the left. Be sure to bring your own picnic basket with your favorite food and drink. There will be both land and water hunting. You will need a day-or season-pass to get into the park. The time for this event is 9:00 am to 5:00 pm.

      The fall seeded hunt will be here before you know it! The hunt will be on Sunday, September 21st and there will be camping on Friday, September 19th and Saturday, September 20th for all those interested in camping. The fee for the fall hunt is $35.00 and, as usual, it is a members-only hunt. There will be a $5.00 late fee. So it is a good idea to get your place reserved at this month's meeting. . . then you won't need to worry about any late fees!

       Also, if you wish to hunt in only one hunt, that fee will be $20.00. That will get you into the second hunt.

SPECIAL RAFFLE

       We are going to hold a special raffle where you could win big! The prize is a free one year membership to our club plus a one year membership to the Fly Wheelers Club, and free seeded hunt pass, good for one of the 2009 seeded hunts. There will be three winners and all prizes are for the 2009 season. All of the proceeds will be donated to the Fly Wheeler's Club for their new campground bathroom project.

      The hunt-planning team is interested in having a kid's hunt again. However, they really need to know how many kids to plan for. Do you plan on entering any kids or grand- kids? We would like to know how many at this month's meeting!

     Hunt Master, John Dudley and his prize coordinators, Greg Stonerock and Mike Walker, are ready to accept any hunt prize donations at this month's meeting! Donating something for a prize is not, nor has it ever been, mandatory in order to hunt. But keep in mind that more prizes means more prize tokens, and this all adds up to mean more fun!

      Donated items do not have to be costly. They can be something that you made yourself or something that you bought. Items can be new, or in some cases, used.

     Maybe when you see those special clearance tables with inexpensive tools, you could find something for two or three bucks. Another idea would be to check out the one of the dollar stores -- there are lots of inexpensive possibilities.

     Your club board has some great plans for our 2008 Fall Hunt! There are many special events planned! Be sure to be at this next club meeting for all the details.

     Again this year, the club's fall hunt will held at the beautiful Fly Wheeler's Show Grounds located east of historic South Haven. The price for camping has been lowered all the way down to nothing--- that is, unless you use electric, then it is only $10.00!

     The Sunday morning activities will start at 8:30 and all members are invited. First, there will be a club breakfast on the grounds (8:30). It sounds like this will be a continental breakfast with coffee, juice and donuts--- maybe more.

      At 9:00, we will have a short Sunday nondenominational church service with an ever-so-slight Baptist leaning. Your Bible teacher will be the not-so-reverend Al Holden! Hey, that's me!

      I have been a regular speaker at the Kalamazoo Gospel Mission for several years. Also, I have been a substitute Sunday School teacher for both adult and children's classes, so I can promise this message will be safe for all ages!

     Remember, everyone is welcome to attend the camping, the worship service, the breakfast, and the pot luck-- even if you don't plan to hunt!

     Our famous pot luck dinner will be held at 12:00 sharp! The kid's hunt starts at 11:00 am. Just befor lunch. It is for those who are 12 years old and younger. The first main hunt starts at 1:30 pm and the second big hunt will start at 3:00.

     This is really great fun so I hope you won't miss it!

           We left for our summer vacation the day after the July club meeting. I had mixed feelings about towing our 20 foot trailer up to the western U.P., because of the high fuel prices. My wife and I decided to use our government stimulus checks to pay for our trip.

       I checked our gas mileage during the worst part of our trip. That was at the long and steep grades between Gaylord and Mackinac City. Our truck is a 2002 Toyota Tacoma four door with a V-6. Our trailer is a 20 foot light weight Jayco made for 6 cylinder tow vehicles. The mileage was between 12 and 13 miles per gallon. I figured we spent $100 for gas to get from Kalamazoo to the big bridge.

      Last year, when gas prices were much lower, I couldn't help but notice the tourist trade was very low in the U.P. I was surprised to see that it was very different this year! The stores and hotels seemed to be fairly busy! Even our favorite campground was busy.

       I took a Minelab Excalibur with me for water hunting and a Teknetics T-2 with me. I also had a little Fisher F-2 with me and, as it turned out, that was the only detector I used.

       Across the street from Deb's parent's house is a hill where the old Amasa school house used to be. The old brick school was built in 1919 and it was torn down in the 1980's. Years ago, when I first heard about this site, I was very excited about hunting it. Every year I would take a top-of-the-line detector into the old school yard with high hopes. From the first time I hunted this school ground until this trip, I was very disappointed with the results.

      My father-in-law told me that one of the local, retired, teachers had hunted the area with a Whites detector with good success. Because this took place during the mid-80's, I figured the newer detectors would find all of the goodies he had missed. I used some of the best high dollar detectors on this school ground, but each time I was very disappointed. Just to be a name dropper and so that you will get an idea how amazing this is, I will mention a few of the detectors I had used here in the past. Don't get the wrong idea-- these are all great detectors but, apparently, not the best for these conditions. I used the top models made by Whites, Garrett, Fisher and Minelab, all with little success.

       Lately the competitive focus in the detector industry has been on the entry level machines. That's a switch! Improving the low-end detectors was long ignored by the top manufacturers. Whites and Garrett had been trying to outdo each other in the high end detector market. This went on for well over a decade and they produced some amazing detectors. I guess if you were to judge who came up with the wildest features, you would have to award the winning trophy to Garrett for its talking detector! Based on a recent dealer newsletter from Garrett, it looks like they finally figured out having a talking detector was a gimmick that most treasure hunters didn't place a lot of value in. I say that because in the recent dealer newsletter they say that feature is no longer available on the GTI 2500. The newest GTI 2500 will have the meter back light switch where the "Treasure Talk" button was.

      During this ten to fifteen years of ignoring their entry level models, the lower priced stuff wasn't very exciting. One of the companies took full advantage of this situation and that company was Bounty Hunter. Bounty Hunter started producing entry level detectors with the features people wanted. Folks would come into my store after seeing the Whites TV ad for the XLT, with a couple hundred dollars to spend. They wanted to buy that detector that boasted in the TV commercial, "What is in the ground is on the screen." When the customers saw the nearly $800.00 price tag, it was a big let-down. But they perked right back up when I showed them a $249.00 Bounty Hunter that could also ID targets.

       And so it went, year after year, until 3 or 4 years ago. Finally, the Whites and Garrett people woke up! Just think what they had been missing out on; the gift market and the Christmas trade. In Michigan, where this hobby is so seasonal, if I don't have a good Christmas gift season, I'm sunk! Especially now with a couple new dealers in the area.

        The little Bounty Hunters, like the Quick Draw II, really sold like hotcakes! They were light weight, easy to use and very affordable. But now Whites and Garrett wanted a piece of the action, so both companies scrapped their entry level detectors, then started designing some new stuff, all the while targeting the Bounty Hunter models.

        Whites was the first to come out with their new detectors, named the Prizm series. The Prizm detectors replaced the old Classic series. Isn't it strange that one of the mail-order companies is advertising a Whites Classic 5 in their magazine ads? As far as I know, Whites never made a Classic 5.

        The Prizm series consists of four models: the Prizm II, III, IV, and the top of the line-up, the Prizm V.

       The sale prices ranged from $199.00 up to $499.00, with an in-store $50- off coupon.

        Then, a very short time later, Garrett introduced two new detectors that replaced their old Freedom Series-- the new Ace 150 and Ace 250. That put a total of 6 new entry-level detectors on the market and they are all good detectors! This really cut into the Bounty Hunter sales at my shop. Of these six new detectors, the one that really became the most popular is the Garrett Ace 250.

        The Ace 250 was both good news and bad news. The good news was that it really worked great and had very respectable depth. Also, with a price tag of just over $200.00, it was a real bargain. It featured visual target ID, tone ID, instant depth reading and unlimited notch discrimination, as well as non-motion pinpointing. The bad news was that the detector was so good it seriously hurt the value of many used detectors. I have used machines in stock that, based on their condition and what they originally sold for, should have been worth $400.00 or more-- used. Well, not anymore! They are not worth much over $200.00 because the Ace 250 is a better choice.

       Another bad side to the Ace 250 is that it takes about the same amount of time to sell as it would a more expensive unit, yet with far less profit.

       As many of you know, the parent company who owns Bounty Hunter purchased the Fisher Metal Detector company. When this happened I really didn't know what to think.

       This new Fisher company designed its new entry level detectors after getting a good look at what they had to compete with in the Ace 250. When I saw their newest entry level detector, the F-2, my first thought was that it sure looked like a Bounty Hunter Design -- rather toyish.

      However, what Fisher did was build a detector that would match or exceed the Ace 250's performance. They also added a feature found on the top-of-the-line Whites. Whites calls this feature 'VDI.' That means that the detector's processor assigns different targets different numbers to different targets.

      For example, a nickel is assigned number 18 on a Whites M-6 and pull tabs range from 28 to number 34. I have a large gold 14-K ring that nearly every detector made calls a pull tab and you get no further information. With the VDI system my ring is number 42, which is way too high a number to be a pull tab.

      This neat feature gives a more defined target description. Many of the old-timers were disappointed when the industry went to the digital meters. That was because, with their older detectors they could notice tell-tale differences with the needle's position on their analog ID meters.

      Also, the F-2 Fisher has clearly discernable tone-ID sound notes.

      So here I am in this old schoolyard that has disappointed me so many times in the past. I'm thinking, "If some seasoned treasure hunter drives by and sees me using this $200.00 detector, they are sure to think I am some green horn." But this time the old schoolyard came alive!

     My first target was a good six inches deep and it was a 1905 Indian Head Penny and then every couple feet I was finding early wheat cents with that beautiful green patina. One hole I kept rechecking and, before I was done, I pulled four early wheat cents. Finally, I decided to check the hole again, only this time in the all-metal pin point mode. The hole was pretty deep and I felt that if I had turned a coin on edge, I would need that extra power of the all metal mode. Sure enough, there was another item in the hole and, to my amazement, it was a large rusty nail! I also found what I believe is a copper Indian trade brooch.

JEWELRY

1. Lady's 18K Plated Ring                                                                           By: J. Rybarczyk

2. Dowsing Pendant                                                                                   By: Billy E. Knapp

3. 1940/50's Silver Boy Scout Ring                                                             By: Ed Kaminskas

4. 8.1 Gram Men's Ring                                                                                  By: Rick Burch

5. 10K Bracelet                                                                                               By: Ron Jenner

6. Platinum Ring with Diamonds                                                                   By: Bruce Wood

7. .925 Silver Ring with Flowers                                                                   By: Steve Jellison

8. .925 Silver Necklace                                                                             By: Deb Wittkowski

9. 1970's Avon Opal Ring                                                                         By: Anna Matecun

10. 10K Gold Ring w/Diamonds                                                                  By: Mike Walker

11. Silver Ring w/ Pink Ice Heart                                                              By: Tracy Osborne

12. Belt & Buckle Silver Ring                                                                    By: Brian Matecun

13. WMU Pendant                                                                                       By: Tom Herman

14. 10K Ring w/Diamonds                                                                             By: Sally Brown

15. 10K Heart Ring w/ Diamond                                                                  By: Ron Osborne

16. Silver Ring w/ Black Onyx                                                                  By: Greg Stonerock

17. 14K Gent's Gold Wedding Ring                                                     By: John Assenmacher

Bruce Wood found a beautiful platinum lady's diamond ring that was voted 'best of show' in our Jewelry contest.
Sweet find, Bruce!

1. 1971 Eisenhower Dollar                                                                   By: John Assenmacher

2. 1893 Indian Head Cent                                                                             By: Bruce Wood

3. 1890 Indian Head Penny                                                                         By: Tom Herman

4. 1910 S Barber Dime                                                                             By: Greg Stonerock

Greg Stonerock wowed us with a super nice 1910-S Barber dime worth around $65.00! Nice find, Greg!

1. 1917 MI Chauffeur License                                                                    By: Rick Seymour

2. 1930's Swimmer's Tag                                                                             By: Steve Jellison

3. 1999 Mardi Gras Token                                                                           By: John Dudley

4. Masonic Lodge Badge                                                                         By: Greg Stonerock

5. 1864 Civil War Store Card                                                                       By: Bruce Wood

       Hey, would you look at this! It was Bruce Wood who came up to claim another prize! Bruce entered a 1864 Indiana Civil War store card. The card was circulated by "J.Decker Groceries and Provisions" from Ligones, Indiana. Nice find, Bruce!

MOST UNUSUAL

1. 50 Cal Musket Ball                                                                                 By: Ed Kaminskas

2. 1870-1890 Brass Cast Reel                                                                   By: Stephen Jellison

3. Lead Weight for Duck Decoy                                                                 By: Charlie Turner

4. Shark Bottle Opener                                                                                 By: Mike Walker

5. Brass Mooselook Fish Lure                                                                        By: Ron Jenner

6. Rosary Ring                                                                                    By: John Assenmacher

7. Lead Toy Bus                                                                                               By: Dan Clark

8. Volkswagon Convertible Toy                                                                By: Billy E. Knapp

9. Charlie McCarthey Spoon                                                                         By: Tom Belleil

10. Oldsmobile Lost Key Mailer                                                              By: Brian Matecun

11. Old Volt Meter                                                                                       By: David Kulpa

Tom Belleil was our winner with a really cool Charlie McCarthey spoon! I found that there are some Edger Bergen and Charlie McCarthey videos on the Youtube web site. Nice find, Tom!

        Since our last meeting, our good friend Ron Davis has been having some serious problems and he could use our prayers. The doctors believe that Ron suffered some sort of spinal stroke that has left a leg, arm and side paralyzed. Some of his hand movement has returned and he is currently in Battle Creek for rehab treatments.

     I heard from Joyce Frederick back on the 6th of August. John had been in the hospital for a spell, but he is home now and awaiting artery surgery.

      I don't have any update on Linda Randolph since her last knee surgery. I put in a phone call before finishing the newsletter, but I have no news to report.

      Denny Robinson has been having some serious health issues and could still use your prayers.

         Last month I mentioned that great veggi pizza and I also mentioned how much I enjoyed it. Well, at the July meeting, there were two more on the goodie table. I guess that I stirred up some interest, because they dissapeared fast! The mystery chef was Lesile Beilby and she learned about what I had said in the last newsletter just a day or so before the July meeting! She took the time to prepare more of this great treat and even took the time to print out the recipe to pass out. If I can get a copy of that recipe I'll try to remember to get it into the next newsletter. Thanks, Lesile and also thanks to each of you who brought in treats!

Our 50/50 winners were two of the luckiest guys in the club, Bruce Wood and Rick Seymour. The total 50/50 tickets sold were 82.

Our Silver Dollar winners were John Neuman and Billy Knapp.

New members and guests were David McQue from Indiana and David and Chris Kulpa from Portage, MI.

SEE YOU AT THE MEETING TUESDAY AUGUST 19

MEETING STARTS AT 7:00 SHARP, REMEMBER TO HAVE YOUR FIND OF THE MONTH ENTRIES IN EARLY