Recently, I had a chance to take the F5 on a short hunt in the woods. Since this was my first woods hunt with the F5, and my first time detecting this particular property, I sampled several spots around an old homestead while trying to narrow down the most likely productive areas. It was towards the end of my hunt that I was working a grassy area along a creek got a zinc sounding signal. Up to that point I had dug several trash items, but this signal sounded different, and definitely good enough to dig.

I was thinking that maybe someone had lost a coin or two back in the day while sitting on the bank, so when I heard the zinc tone I thought there was a good chance of finding a coin. I was running the Fisher F5 with the Gain at 85 and the Threshold at -3, and Disc set at 22 (Discriminating Iron, and lower foil while leaving higher foil signals) The reason for setting the disc at 22 is that I have dug a gold ring that was a solid 23 on the Fisher F2. These settings kept the F5 stable amongst the trash and the F5 was able to separate this target from the surrounding farm junk.

The Sample Stores were Sam Walton’s stores prior to opening the first WalMart in 1962. This token is scarce with less than 50 known to exist.

The token is actually aluminum, and in rough shape, but it’s a neat find nonetheless.

Not every homestead hunt is going to be filled with goodies. Sometimes you have to scout the area first and figure out what the lay of the land was back then.

Finding this token and other personal artifacts in a concentrated area tells me that spot is more than likely where the house stood on the property.

Now I know where to begin next time. 🙂