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 March 2024The Newsletter of the Shore Seekers Artifact & Recovery Club Vol. 34, No. 2 

From Andy's Desk

Fellow Members,

Another month of nasty weather has come and gone. While not especially cold, it sure has been wet, limiting how much people have been going out. Luckily, the club hunt was favored with clear weather and I am glad that members were able to get out and commune while finding some neat coins and relics. Much thanks to Phil Kemmerlin for stepping up to provide the hunt site. I just wish I could have gone but was restricted due to prior commitment. Luckily I got out earlier in the month and got a few goodies, but one of my old spots that I wanted to revisit is wet even in dry weather, so all this rain has just made it impossible. I am hoping it dries up before the bugs come out. 

I have been watching videos and trying to keep up with trends in detecting and it seems that the top companies are going to the opposite ends of the price spectrum to attract buyers at all levels and this is a good thing for the hobby. It's a crying shame that no US company has produced a new machine in over 3 years (the Garrett Ace Apex was the last I recall), while foreign companies like Minelab and Nokta have offered lots of new machines, from the dirt cheap and worth every penny Minelab X-Terra to the way above my pay grade Minelab Manticore, which has some of the niftiest features of any machine on the market and probably has the best display screen. Nokta Makro debuted the Score and the Double Score in the mid-range market (around $400) and the Double Score seems to be a great beach machine, being waterproof and multi-frequency, unlike the old Simplex, which was single frequency and waterproof. I have learned that Detect-Ed from Australia has come out with some fantastic waterproof wired headphones for the Equinox and Deus II, so you might want to check out their website. For all your other detecting needs, our treasurer John Rebman has promised to match any online price for members. 

March and April are liable to be our last hurrah for field hunting before the heat and bugs set in, and I am hoping to get to the beach more this year than last  year, but nobody can predict the future. Meanwhile, keep your batteries charged, your coils tightened, and your kit ready to go because there are still plenty of goodies out there. That's it for now. If I don't see you at the meeting, maybe I'll see you in the field.

Your President,
Andy Nunez

Club Minutes

The last meeting of the SHORE SEEKERS Artifact and Recovery Club was held on Thursday, February 8, at 7:00 p.m. at Christ Church.

OLD BUSINESS

Minutes were approved as distributed.

The Treasurer gave his report.

Guests were Mike Walker and Dan ? of Fairmount. Tony Brown was a returning guest.

We are still deciding what to do with the free detector a distributor gave to John Rebman.

NEW BUSINESS

Andy talked about the need to decide what to do as a club: trip, hunt, speakers, etc. He feels that we need to do something to make meetings more meaningful. Please think about it and we'll discuss it more at later meetings.

There was also talk of some new pinpointers and other machines. Andy and others mentioned various YouTube people. Someone recalled learning how to date pipestems by the diameter of the hole in the stem (older ones have bigger holes)

. Members also talked about prospecting, looking for gems, sharks' teeth, etc.

We had a remembrance of Anna Mae Wilkerson. We sent a card to Doug and family on behalf of the club.

Marty reminded everyone of the snack sign up list. Thanks to those who have already volunteered.

Tony mentioned upcoming planetarium shows at Parkside in April. He will pass info to Julie to send to members.

John Rebman feels that we need to revisit the issue of club hunts again. Many agree. Someone would still need to contact owners of old sites and get out looking for and obtaining permission for new places.

While speaking about this topic, Phil Kemmerlin volunteered that he has a site for a club hunt. He has scheduled this for February 24 and will give all the info to Julie to share with club members. Thanks, Phil!

Penny to a Dollar winners: Phil McCutcheon, Marty Pratt, Tab Brannock (2), Andy Nunez, Dan Spielman, Mike Walker and John Rebman

Thanks to Marty, Tab and Julie for the snacks.

Our raffle winners were Susan Martin (50/50), Ed Donovan (silver half dollar), John Peregoy (WWII coin set) and Susan Martin (attendance).

Julie Pryor,
Secretary

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