DetectingWales.com

Today we held the third Rally for Detectingwales.com and returned to Caerleon - home of the Romans! It also turned out to be the home of suspect devices!

The day started early with the troops being massed before 9am. It was good to see lots of new eager newbies including Big Chris, MelonHead, Beepy, and the lovely OzzyHead to name but a few.

After the usual heres where you can go and heres where you can't go speech, geoff mentioned that he had buried 12 tokens which if found rewarded the finder with an Easter Egg!  After that everyone was off with a flurry of swinging machines and stamping on spades.

It didn't take long though until I was summoned to a hole dug by Detector Dave. I had noticed him in the distance and wondered what he had been digging as he had been there for quite sometime. I got to be honest when he called me over, I was expecting him to show me a Roman or a nice Medieval find, but no he couldn't do that! Instead he treated me to the sight of something that for all the World looked like an unexploded World War II bomb :o. My heart rate definately quickened a beat to say the least. Luckily two of our members (who I am afraid I can not name for fear of Military Police knocking my door) work in ordanance (bomb making to you and I). They took one look and were of the same opinion its an unexploded bomb. Crickey - thats a first for a DetectingWales rally!

I promptly called the Police who were a bit startled to say the least, and I could hear the telephone operator shouting to whoever would listen "They think they've found a bomb and theres about 40 people in a field near it!"

They told me to put an exclusion area of a 100 metres around the device and then "Mark the area with a flag and get you deriere out of there!" I obliged and with the help of a few members shifted everyone well away from the area. The farmer was driving past when I was on the phone, so I told him and he replied that he had two mates visiting him for his birthday who also worked in the Munitions Factory (how strange - 4 bomb experts at one Rally!) What a birthday present for the farmer!

Anyway to cut a very long story short, whilst waiting with DetectorDave a good 100 metres away for the Police to arrive I was next startled to see the farmer driving across the field towards the device with his two "Bomb expert" buddies! I joined them at the site they took one look and both were of the opinion that it sure as Hell looked like an unexploded bomb to them! One of them then proceeded to try and clean the bomb with his Swiss Army knife - it was a struggle to make him stop as he was keen as mustard to difuse it himself! :o

Two bemused members of Newports finest eventually arrived, agreed with us that it looked well dodgy - one of them can be quoted as saying "Oh sugar" when he leaned over, looked at it and promptly started walking backwards. With their help we cleared the entire field and they told everyone to turn off their mobiles (although I believe the Nazis were not thinking of mobile signals when they made their bombs in the 1940's, but my better judgement told me not to mention this.) ;) They rang the Bomb Squad in Hereford who eventually arrived took one look and thought the same as everyone else and retired to their wagon for the most technical tools available to man - which turned out to be a pick and shovels! ;D

I was in another field while they excavated "the bomb" only to find out from Geoff we had all been wrong and it was in fact a feeding trough from a cowshed! What that was doing in the middle of a field is anyones guess.

Anyway panic over - back to the fields which were turning out loads of signals, just nothing much of any historical interest! The oldest coin until right at the end was a 1700-s George III penny, a cartwheel penny and an interesting bell shaped thing found by Casa Dos. Then right at the end the Find of the Day surfaced, once again to Ancient Pat. It was a hamered silver coin of Elizabeth dated 1582. Well done Pat!

As for the token hunt only 2 were found and as TaffLaff said

" What chance have we got of finding anything old if we cant even find twelve tokens that were planted this morning!"

The day was over and it was an eventful time even if the finds were a bit on the sparse side. Well done to Rob for getting the farm, Geoff for arranging it and DetectorDave for scaring the life out of me!

Theres another Rally coming soon, but if anyone wants to pitch in with land for a DetectingWales.com rally just let Geoff or I know.

I'm having a well earned G&T and resting my shattered feet -  what a day.

Thanks everyone
Neil

A dodgy device

More

Finds

Find of the day - Ancient Pat

It's Eliz.1st threepence 1582 Fourth Issue. I've had better.!!!

                                          Pat. 8) 8)

Good report as usual Neil, nice find Pat , the only hammered?
A video taken of detectordave on his way to the rally.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcW_Ygs6hm0 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcW_Ygs6hm0)

Hahaha  ;D  Very good vid. Great write-up of the day as well. Nice to see the hammered emerge.

Congrats on such a fun day, guys. I'm sorry I couldn't make it. I wouldn't have
been able to keep my eyes open after being up all night with one of my grandkids
anyway!

Best,
Bob

Newports finest arrive.

Closely followed by Herefords finest.

Mean while on detecting wales dot com cctv a possible suspect is spotted.

Well organised rally and good to see the organisers take our finds seriously by laying on not 1 but 2 FLO's .... yes 2 and highly specialised FLO's experts just for our rally


Poor detectordave ... he can not claim best find of the day because the FLO's confirmed the find was not of German origin 1940's and in fact worthless junk.

Hey boys next time get us Finds Liason Officers not Flaming Large Ordinance experts.

LOL

Another fine day. Ok the finds were a bit sparse but thanks Rob, Geoff and Neil i really enjoyed my day and cant wait until the next.    :) :) :) :)

My first rally and I really enjoyed it, already looking forward to the next one. Thanks to the organisers and every one else who made me and my brother Melon Head (not his real name ;)) feel welcome. I was so looking forward to posting a pic of my finds but I guess two bottle tops, a bent nail,  a couple of shell cases and pile of medicne tubes isn't as interesting as the BOMB (Big Old Metal Bowl).
I did find however find the other treasure I went looking for after the rally finished... a tupperware box hidden in the base of tree a mile and half away  ;D.
Thanks for an interesting day
Jo
took a couple of pics I'll upload them when I find out how to do it

well, trust me to miss all the fun !!!.. :o..how long did it take for the police / bomb squad to arrive?....i hope all who attended enjoyed the drama and found something to make up for the lost time....lol......byron

Don,t worry Ozzy, looks like you found more than a lot of us. Glad you enjoyed it and you will find the good stuff to.   :) :)

Ozzy Head - I dont get the obsession with tupperware boxes - whats that all about?

I am sure I have a few you can have if you want them!

Pics are easy to post - just click on "Additional Options . . ." when making a post. You may have to Re-size them in Paint or something like that to make them 25% or so of their original size. Just float over one of your pictures and it should show you their size.

Byron - it took the Police about 20 minutes and the Bomb Squad a good hour to arrive - interesting day for everyone and I'm sure it will make a good article in June's Treasure Hunting magazine.

A very strange day for me.

Neil

thanks for that neil...i'm sure it did'nt spoil the enjoyment of all who attended.....byron

Its geocaching (hi-tech treasure hunting) you use a gps to find caches (tupperware/ammo cans/35mm film canisters) hidden at various locations. When you find them you sign the log book take/leave a trinket, return the cache and post your find on the web site. I found my 360th today  ;D

Thanks to everyone who came to today's rally. It certainly turned into an interesting one, but not for the reasons we would have liked!

My wife Liz, who came with me this morning specially to bury the tokens for the Easter egg token hunt, could not believe that only three were found. She has been bending my ear about it all evening. She insists that she made it really easy for you to find them. They were buried flat (not on end) two inches deep.

I have to say, metal detectorists' reputation for finding buried items has hit a new low in my household and this is saying something, given my lack of success in coming home with decent finds from metal detecting outings in recent months.   ;D

I hope everyone will make a special effort to restore the pride of metal detectorists next time we hold a token hunt  ;D ;D

Thanks to Neil for helping with the organisation and Tafflaff (Rob) for finding us the land and negotiating with the farmer.

What was in it ozzy? , who hid it?

It was hidden on the 3rd of this month by another geocacher and I was finder number nine. In the box was a log book and pen and a few swaps coloured pencils keyrings etc. Sometimes you get geocoins or travel bugs which have to be moved from cache to cache clocking up miles and stories along the way. If you go to geocaching.com and type in your postcode  theres probably one hidden within a couple of miles of where you live.
Jo

Sounds like slim pickings at this rally; especially as the other two were quite productive; and a bomb which actually wasn’t, bit of excitement though at least.  I hope all had a good day regardless.   :D

Shame your wife gave you an earbending Geoff  ;D I have been to rallies in the past where there were token hunts, just a thought but if you buried them in just one field and point out the field I feel sure the results would be higher.
It was a really well organised great day out and thanks for all of the effort you and Neil have put in (and your wife  ;D).
Rob it was a memorable day, thanks for finding the land!

Nice one  :)great to see fellow detectorists enjoying themselves  ;D  unfortnately due to unforseen circumstances  ??? I could,nt attend so I decided to go to one of my new sites instead things are looking up a couple of georgian or roman have ,nt cleaned them yet also a roman minin which some  finding amongst the Iron other bits and bobs also a very large heart shaped horse brass which I gave to the farmer  at one point I thought I,d found a small coin hoard or bronze axe head at a depth of two feet at least I found a bracket off some farm machinery you never know next time  ??? it could be the big one  ;D good luck every one mole

true to form the day made headlines as it should .poor Dave  he was so close to blowing away the field with his find but was watered down by continuous investigations.
dangerdave as he may well now be known will be well remembered and what a way for the farmer to have a birthday he had everything  you could think with an ''almost explosive'' atmosphere being created by the rally audiance lol
fair do's first signals can be tricky to deal with but that may be the trickiest you ever come across for a while.

not to many finds at the rally on Saturday but still enjoyed it ,got to correct Neil as i did say i thought it was not a bomb  ;D, but we had to report it anyway. thanks to Neil Rob Geoff again for getting the rally there.and if anyone wants to borrow headphones off me at the next rally its going to cost you £5 hire ........... only joking guys  ;D..... nice bunch of guys and galls  at the rally and great that everybody gets on ,

at the rally on sat, can you spot yourself !!!!!!!!!! ;D

Enjoyed the rally despite not finding much. Thanks to all those who organised it.
I think that the reason for not many tokens being found was because 2p coins were used. 2p coins are iron cored (try a magnet on them) and most detectors discriminating against iron will not pick them up.
But hey, who cares? It was still a good rally.

I found a two pence piece no sticker on it though .JUST MY LUCK >:(

I found an actual Easter Egg...which was strange cos I was discriminating against foil  ;)

I found the missus car keys in me pocket.  ;D   Boy did i get cursed when i got home.

Only the later 2p pieces are ferrous cored, Imnotin. The earlier ones are copper alloy. My wife, liz spent the evening before with a bag of 2p pieces and a magnet making sure that all the tokens were of the non-ferrous variety. Anyway next time we have a token hunt we'll plant loads of tokens.

Geoff

Think we may have to Geoff - they found very few!

Neil

Thanks again for the great company and day out.
Jim :)

A pic of the Rally

jonola at is first ever rally on saturday , thinking " kev you told me there is roman stuff here " ;D

here is a great website.. especially for detector dave  LOL   LOL   LOL

http://www.millsgrenades.co.uk/germanbombs.htm (http://www.millsgrenades.co.uk/germanbombs.htm)

Nice one Malc.   ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D   I do feel sorry for you though Dave.

I don't think we'll be safe from them on the beach. Anyone identify my latest find  ???

Over to Detectordave on this one i think. Hee Hee  :D :D ;D :D :D

Being on the beach and the shape it is could it be a seal matrix?

Went to tesco Cwmbran today and noticed Detector Dave was in as well. Hee Hee  ;D :D ;D :D ;D

Detector Dave, Neil , Geoff at an early Detecting Wales.Com Rally........ Leave something behind guys? ::)

Check the Tash on the farmer!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0MrxahZ0cA (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0MrxahZ0cA)

Thats tash not toosh ;D

Another nice day scanning ground in an interesting area, although finds were few, still enjoyed, you never know what will turn up anywhere really, thats whats exciting.
Thanks, Neil, geoff and anyone else involved in organising the rally.

soft top

being a newbie sunday was also my first rally, a good day out which i enjoyed,i attended with crashland and willowtree so i knew i was in for a laugh whatever the outcome.. (hope you found home in the end, crash.) i found myself an old 10p, and what looked like old "silver", broken spoon, which i was happy about. i had good fun cleaning it up to get at the stamp marks. and its interesting researching the maker etc..turned out it was silver plated, date betwen1892-1920., never the less i liked looking for the info on it.  i was impressed with willowtrees find, i think it was a half hammered as you say first ive seen in the flesh, great find and a victorian sixpence in mint cond.   crashland will have to let me know what coin he found, as we couldnt tell in the field. thanks to the guy who sold me a spade!, and thanks to the chap from bristol (sorry,forgot your screename) for his humor.  ;D  looking forward to the next one.

cool glad you liked it, but this rally was 7 months ago LoL