Often, the idea of living in New York State conjures visions of bumper-to-bumper traffic and soaring skyscrapers…images of people making some of the hardest decisions in life---which year and vineyard to pick from the wine list, or which gourmet restaurant to select in order to impress your brunch guests. Here in upstate New York it’s an entirely different world from the New York most people imagine.

It’s a world of rugged, evergreen covered mountains…a world of beautiful rivers and lakes…a world filled with the sounds of flights of geese and the haunting evening howling of coyotes. It’s a world where a small group of men stand on the shores of the Hudson River, beside a roaring campfire, pop a few beers, and talk relic hunting.

There’s no wine list, and our meals, cooked on the open fire, usually range from such gourmet delights as Dinty Moore beef stew to smoked kielbasa. That small section of shoreline is a place of treasure hunting tales and laughter, of strong friendships. It’s a form of escape for those who arrive nightly to share the warmth of the fire, and usually the only thing which really impresses us are the shared relic recoveries which might have been made earlier in the day. The word usually in the last sentence is an important one, because around mid-year of 1998, we were really impressed!

This revelation and transformation began with a simple field test of a newly introduced metal detecting unit. Within two months, and to a man, each of us was using this lightweight powerhouse as our primary detector and our former units were designated as "back-up" units, or as in most cases, consigned to closets. We had found the equivalent of an equipment common denominator for our group---we had found the SHADOWx2!

Living in the Hudson Valley, a truly historic corridor, gave our team many opportunities to relic hunt using the new SHADOWx2, and there was never a weekend which went by, that a group member didn’t come down to the shores with a handful of colonial relics and other interesting pieces of our nation’s past.

Since that first cannonball, recovered on the first day I used the Shadow, it has been the only detector I’ve had in my hand, and during the course of the last eight months it has helped me recover scores of musketballs from the American Revolution, and Minie balls from the Civil War era…colonial pewter buttons and brass shoe buckles…flintlock ramrod tips, large cents, and King George coppers…but, mine is only one of the success stories the SHADOWx2 has woven.

"Cannonball" Jim and Rocky usually show up at the river with their hands and pants covered with dried mud, and they wear that caked mass of soil with the same pride with which Soviet generals are given to medals…they’re hardened relic hunters and deep diggers.

Within the last few months, using their Shadows, they have been able to amass a large and interesting assortment of relics from the 18^th and 19^th centuries. Only a portion of a long list of recoveries would have to include dozens of colonial buttons including some rare British regimentals, several ax heads from the 1700s, and a handful of large cents and colonial coins, and currently, a total of over five hundred Minie balls from the Civil War era musket range!

Gene Salvino has been a relic hunting partner for well over a decade, and was with me on the memorable day of the SHDAOWx2 field test…before the end of the week he had his own Shadow to swing in the fields, and it’s been one success story after another since the detector arrived. French marked cannonballs, British Brown Bess musketballs and gun parts, and a wide assortment of early coinage can be listed among the finds he has made in the last few months. The fact that the Shadow breaks down to fit into a backpack, it’s simplicity of use, and raw power are only some of the Shadow aspects which have made this unit Gene’s primary detector!

Let’s not forget Roger Maben aka "The Cellar Hole Kid"… "The Prince of Serendipity"… "The Parrot"…Roger’s had almost as many titles conferred upon him as he has had different detectors. I can’t think of one major brand of detector which Roger hasn’t owned, used, or won at competition hunts. He’s always been the kind of guy who’s carried Lady Luck on his shoulder…but he seems to be a lot luckier since his headset has been plugged into a Shadow!

Roger’s favorite type of sites are the numerous cellar holes which are sprinkled among the tall pines in the deep forests of the Hudson Valley. Each of these sites usually produce one major search difficulty in the form of small ferrous debris. I think we’re talking a large quantity of nails here. With the "blanking" capabilities of the Shadow, Roger now has the ability of searching "up close and personal" and digging only the large iron relics and non-ferrous targets he wants. Within recent months Rogers sites have produced a number of War of 1812 era militia buttons, musketballs, two-tined forks, several gold rings, and an assortment of coins dating back to the 1700s.

The power, stability, and iron masking capabilities of the Shadow has sent Roger back to sites he never believed he would ever return to…and he’s always left those old sites with a smile on his face and an additional number of recovered relics in the bottom of his collecting bag!

These are only some of the success stories the introduction of the SHADOWx2 has helped accomplish for our team of relic hunters. We’re in the shadow of another winter at this point in time, and the books and research are consuming what used to be our relic hunting time…but, each one of those new sites we are able to uncover, will be yet another search area to witness the depth and power of the SHADOWx2!