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Annual Hunt
The Midwest Coinshooters and Historical Club holds an annual Fall Hunt for its members each year on the Sunday following the September meeting. This is the big event of the year for the members and lasts all day with several types of hunts held. It is held at Turner Camp Park in the south St. Louis, Missouri area. A pot luck picnic lunch, with members providing food dishes and snacks to share with others there, is included. The club provides sodas, hamburgers and hot dogs. Hunts typically include a Main Hunt with silver coins and prize tokens buried for the members to find. There is also a Surprise Hunt with all kinds of targets hidden in the field such as coin caches, jewelry, foreign coins, silver coins, gold coins, and many other suprises. Raffles are also held to give out prizes donated by members or bought by the club with prizes such as metal detectors, gold and silver coins, and other metal detecting related items. Check out the photo gallery page on this site to see photos from past Fall Hunts.
When the club treasury allows for it, a Spring Hunt is also held each year. While this is typically done on a smaller scale than the Fall Hunt, it is still a very enjoyable event and many members participate in it.
2009 Fall Hunt
MIDWEST COINSHOOTERS 2009 ANNUAL FALL HUNT
The Midwest Coinshooters and Historical Club of St. Louis, Missouri held their annual Fall Hunt on September 20, 2009. Though it hadn’t rained in the area for almost three weeks, the forecast for the day of the hunt included rain and possible thunderstorms. It did rain heavily on the way to the hunt site early in the morning and continued until about 10:00 AM, just as the first hunt of the day was beginning. Of course, the day before the hunt, the weather was just fine as thirteen volunteers arrived at the hunt site to bury the targets for the next day’s event. A big thanks goes out to those that helped with this endeavor that included burying almost three thousand targets in three different fields. Time was also spent cleaning up the barbeque area and getting everything set for the next day. Each volunteer received a silver quarter for their effort. Upon arrival Sunday morning, the prizes for the Main Hunt, Surprise Hunt, and Main Raffle were arranged by volunteer, Lisa Smith, and others readied the barbeque pit for the cooking of the hamburgers and hot dogs to be served at lunch. The registration area was set up with the sign-in sheets and the raffle ticket selling area was completed. Members began arriving for the 9:00AM registration and the day’s events were set into motion with fifty two hunters and another ten family members attending to provide moral support. Thanks to Lisa Smith, Dorothy Cords, Kevin Howe, and A. J. Phillips for their help with the registration and raffle tickets sales. Members busily readied themselves for the first hunt by checking out their detectors, donning appropriate gear for the inclimate weather, and discussing their hunt strategy with others. Anticipation of the start of the first hunt, the Numbered Target Hunt, grew as the 10:00 AM start time neared. Members walked to the field and formed the mandatory ring around the perimeter of the field with their detectors on and held high. Huntmaster, Drew Smith, gave the start signal and the members began to hunt for the over 1000 targets that had been placed in the field the day before. Each was hoping to find at least one of the forty special “gold pennies” that would reward them with a five dollar cash prize. Though everyone was prepared for the rain that had been falling, raincoats were soon discarded as the hunt progressed and the rain stopped falling. As the thirty minute hunt ended, members returned to the main gathering area and prize money was presented to those turning in gold coins. Robert Bierce found the special token that awarded him with a Garrett Pinpointer. The second hunt, the Surprise Hunt was nearing start time and members quickly headed to the hunt field where nearly 900 targets consisting of silver coins, rings, jewelry, coin caches, medals, tokens, and many other good targets awaited being found. One special target would award the lucky finder a Garret pinpointer. Dan Forth found this special token and other members found numbered tokens that gave them a chance for one of the prizes available such as a Minelab logo hat, a Garrett hat and apron, or a digging tool. Following the Surprise Hunt, members gathered back at the picnic area to participate in the pot-luck picnic lunch. Members Mike Moutray and James Wurth had worked hard at building the cooking fire and preparing the hamburgers and hot dogs to perfection. The dishes of food that each member brought to share were set out and a line formed to begin the meal. There was plenty of good food for everyone and as the meal was consumed, many of the members shared stories of their finds from the Surprise Hunt. The final hunt of the day, the Main Hunt, started about 1:30 PM with almost 900 targets consisting of silver dollars, halves, quarters, and dimes awaiting discovery. Almost 100 special numbered silver dimes representing prizes the club bought, donated prizes, and other goodies would soon be found by the participants. One token was good for a Garrett Pinpointer and it was found by member A. J. Phillips. Prizes in this hunt included U. S. Proof coin sets, watches, collectible coins, headphones, large detector bags, coin albums, digging tools, and many other great prizes. The club wants to thank all those members who generously donated prizes for this hunt. When all the Main Hunt prizes were handed out, the raffle drawings began. During the day, member Tom Hale had been creating a lot of excitement among the members as he sold tickets in mini-raffles for a chance to win a silver dollar, a Walking Liberty half dollar, or a nice proof Washington quarter. Thanks to Tom for his help and to all the members who generously bought chances and by doing so, helped our club treasury pay for the day’s activities. The first raffle ticket was drawn for the 50/50 raffle and Marge Guthrie took a nice amount of cash with her to her home in Columbia Missouri. The Guthrie family, as many of you know, recognizes their father, Charlie, who was a long time club member and has since passed away, by donating a wonderful old coin in the Main Hunt in memory of their father. Don Davis found the token in the Main Hunt for this great prize. Members voted at this time for their favorite food item served during the picnic lunch and Joyce Kountz won a nice half dollar prize for her always delicious gooey butter cake. The Garrett GTP 1350 detector raffle was held next and member, Libory Truetken, became the proud new owner of a detector. The final raffle of the day, the Main Raffle, began with the top prize, a nice 2.56 carat opal, donated by members, Mike and Mary Lauri, which was won by none other than Huntmaster, Drew Smith. Member, Leonard Maierhoffer, won the next prize of a Bounty Hunter detector donated by member Joe Wyhs. The fourth Garrett Pinpointer was won by Paul Cords. The raffle continued with various members winning prizes such as Minelab detector carrying cases, full size electronic keyboards, silver collectible coins, Garrett accessory bags, trowels, aprons, and hats, and one of several circular saws and jigsaws donated by Dave Rayburn and Mike Heisler. Thanks to all those who donated great prizes for the Main Raffle. With the completion of the raffles, members began to gather up their detectors, all their finds, their prizes and leftover food items and packed them in their cars for the trip home. The area was cleaned up and the day was now complete. Huntmaster, Drew Smith, did a great job producing the hunt and a great deal of thanks goes to all those members who volunteered throughout the day to help with the raffles, the registration process, the food cooking, and all the other tasks that had to be done to make the Fall Hunt the success it was. Thanks to all those who generously bought raffle tickets not only on hunt day, but throughout the year at the club meetings, and to those who donated prizes for the hunt, and gave graciously of their time to help bury targets, and prepare the area the day before. A special thanks to Garrett Metal Detectors of Garland, Texas for helping save money on the purchase of the GTP 1350 detector and four pinpointers and their great hunt package. Thanks also to Minelab USA Inc for their generous donation of detector carrying case, digging tools, hats, and accessories. Everyone left at the end of the day, hopefully with some nice finds, some great prizes, and some great memories of sharing time with good friends who all share a common interest in the hobby of metal detecting. We all left looking forward to the annual Fall Hunt to be held next year with the hope and expectation of perhaps an even more exciting and enjoyable experience. I have made a photo album of the Fall Hunt and will have it at the October club meeting and I hope to include some of the photos on our club website when I get time to upload them.
Created on 01/29/2007 09:53 PM by admin
Updated on 10/08/2009 11:08 AM by admin
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