St. Petersburg Beach, FL -- There were some frightening moments Thursday morning on St. Petersburg Beach when a treasure hunter sweeping the area with a metal detector got far more than he bargained for: hand grenade.
It happened at about 10 a.m. as the man was sweeping the sandy bottom in waist-high water behind the Sirata Beach Resort
It turns out it was an old military grenade, and had probably been there for quite some time. Inert, say sheriff's deputies.
But the men who found it had no way of knowing that when they pulled it out of the water.
"This definitely makes for the most interesting day of metal detecting, yeah," said Cliff Vogan, 61.
Vogan has been treasure hunting along Bay area beaches for about five years now, and has found some odd things before including a bicycle, even a fire extinguisher, he says.
» Read MoreMost weekends you’ll find Dave Rees out in the countryside with his metal detector, sweeping the ground and waiting for a tell-tale beep.
The moment there’s a promising tone he’s down on his hands and knees, eagerly scraping away at the surface of the ground with a trowel.
The 66-year-old recently unearthed a 2,000-year-old Roman coin in a field in Wiltshire, to add to his small collection of ancient finds.
» Read MoreJerry Barbee can’t begin to count the number of rings, Civil War relics and coins he’s collected through his four decades of metal detecting, but he can certainly remember the first silver coin he found.
His daughter Libby lost her half dollar in the yard on her way to the bus. With his metal detector in hand, he was able to find the coin and return it to his daughter.
“I’ve always been interested in discovery and the anticipation of discovery,” he said. “I love to discover things, especially older things.”
» Read More
Finding good sites to metal detect is hard work. Finding them without research is near impossible. In this comprehensive book, we’ll guide you to wonderful resources and show you useful skills to aid you in your quest. Research isn’t easy, often confusing. You will have to work to get excellent results, but if you’ve found this site, you clearly are working to improve your skills.
If you are like me, you want to find good sites to hunt, and rule out crappy ones. Not only will you learn how to find good leads, you will develop skill to throw some of those leads out based on primary and secondary source criteria. You’ll learn how to spot “iffy” sources and recognize author bias. Best of all, you will develop critical thinking skills.
Read More