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Finding Musket Bullets / Balls On Fields With Equinox 800?


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I want to ask for tips and advice regarding finding old bullets from muskets in fields (from the 18th century, about 300 years old, from an old battlefield), using the Equinox 800. The site has not been searched, but farmers with tractors have plowed the field over the years.

Bullets something like those:

s-l1600.jpg

In a field like this:

hay-bale-on-a-farmers-field-15339727092Y

Any tips on what settings and tricks one should use on the metal detector? Any special frequencies? Any special things to think about, or something else?

If there is also an powerline nearby, is there anything special one should think about?

Thanks.

 

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I don't find them any harder to find than any other chunk of lead. I run in multi and "all metal", usually Park 1, sometimes Field 2. Other settings will depend on the site and personal preference.

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I do a lot of hunting for round ball and have probably dug near 600 of them from various 17th and 18th century sites. Fields can be tricky for the Equinox, especially if plowed. I use gold 2 , but if takes some getting used to. Otherwise the field modes work well. I'm in MA. We can have some odd dirt sometimes. The larger ball are not usually an issue. Set recovery speed to 3 and hunt slow and steady. The smaller ball, under 40 caliber, can come in spotty and vague sometimes. Dig iffy targets in the lower number range to make sure you do not miss the small shot. If there is too much EMI switch to 20khz or 40khz. Good luck and let us know how you do.  As a side note, if you have a GPS, try recording the round ball you find to get an overall picture of how they are dispersed.

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Thank you very much for the information Cudemark, FloridaSon and schoolofhardNox.

I am very new to using metal detectors, so I have a lot to learn.

But when I use fields and parks, it's like sometimes it makes sounds all the time, even when there is no metal under the ground. And most recently it sounded over some stones, why does it do that? Should it not be automatically set the ground balance etc, in those modes, to remove such sound that is not metal? And should it not automatically remove soil etc, that might otherwise sound and fool one? And also i tried, laid out a coin and tried field and park, sometimes finding only on the field mode, but not the park mode. How can that be?

 

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Hello, the best advice is to read the manual a few times. 

Power lines can cause a lot of interference. Using the single frequencies instead of Multi might help quiet it down.

Good looking field. There should be some nice coins and relics out there. Musket balls are pretty common. Every field has them. You don't need any special settings to find musket balls.

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1 hour ago, Badger-NH said:

Hello, the best advice is to read the manual a few times. 

Power lines can cause a lot of interference. Using the single frequencies instead of Multi might help quiet it down.

Good looking field. There should be some nice coins and relics out there. Musket balls are pretty common. Every field has them. You don't need any special settings to find musket balls.

Thank you Badger-NH. So all modes are as good at finding musket balls on fields, would you say?

Just using single frequencies near powerlines, and use Field mode or Park mode, it does not matter, would you say? No special settings needed, no ground balancing or noise cancelling or the like?

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13 hours ago, schoolofhardNox said:

I do a lot of hunting for round ball and have probably dug near 600 of them from various 17th and 18th century sites. Fields can be tricky for the Equinox, especially if plowed. I use gold 2 , but if takes some getting used to. Otherwise the field modes work well. I'm in MA. We can have some odd dirt sometimes. The larger ball are not usually an issue. Set recovery speed to 3 and hunt slow and steady. The smaller ball, under 40 caliber, can come in spotty and vague sometimes. Dig iffy targets in the lower number range to make sure you do not miss the small shot. If there is too much EMI switch to 20khz or 40khz. Good luck and let us know how you do.  As a side note, if you have a GPS, try recording the round ball you find to get an overall picture of how they are dispersed.

Thanks again schoolofhardNox. Cool that you found so much of them! From some war?

Some questions.

What do you mean, that  "Fields can be tricky for the Equinox, especially if plowed" ? Does it become more difficult to find objects then? Why?

What would you say are the benefits of using Gold 2, over Field 1 or 2 when looking for musket balls in the fields? Does it work better or as well as field modes, would you say?

Sorry, what is MA?

Sorry for my bad english, but what do you mean with this: "Dig iffy targets in the lower number range to make sure you do not miss the small shot. "?

" If there is too much EMI switch to 20khz or 40khz."  If it's interference from powerline, then I go from multi to a single frequency, I understand what you mean here I think.

When it's EMI, how do I know? How does the equinox-800 react then, to tell me that there are disturbances? Is it when it beeps all the time on everything?

Do you know how close to a power line the metal detector needs to be to be disturbed by it? Is it if you stand under it, or a few meters away or is it a longer distance as well?

Thank you.

 

 

 

 

 

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3 hours ago, Hello said:

Thank you Badger-NH. So all modes are as good at finding musket balls on fields, would you say?

Just using single frequencies near powerlines, and use Field mode or Park mode, it does not matter, would you say? No special settings needed, no ground balancing or noise cancelling or the like?

 

Hello, I was adding my advice to what had already been posted.

You should always Noise Cancel and Ground Balance. They aren't settings. You don't set them. The NC and GB procedure will set them for you.

My Equinox will pick up EMI from power lines as far as 500 feet away depending on how much electric current is running through them. I generally find I can set my sensitivity higher near power lines using the single frequencies.

If Multi is too noisy, 15 kHz is a good all around frequency to use. 10 kHz leans more towards silver. 20 kHz leans more towards gold or lead. If necessary, pick the frequency that is quietest. The differences are minimal.

Looking at your field, I would use Field 1. Set the Sensitivity as high as it will go as long as the detector remains fairly stable and quiet.

Use a Recovery speed of 4 to 6. Setting it at 4 will get more depth but if there is a lot of iron or hot rocks, you may need to raise it to 5 or 6 for better separation. If there is an extreme amount of iron, like multi iron targets within every square foot, you might need to raise it to 7 or 8.

Hot rocks can be a nuisance. Ignore them as best you can. If they all ID the same, you could notch them out.

Lowering the sensitivity will give you less chatter from the ground but will also lessen your depth.

I don't recommend Gold mode until you know the machine better but by all means give it a try. Use Gold 1, Multi-IQ, single tone, all metal off, Tracking GB off. If I find I'm digging too much trash, I like to raise the discrimination to 10 or even 20 sometimes. Gold mode gets great depth and the targets really jump out at you, but it takes some getting used to and isn't appropriate for all sites. I use it in the woods where there is very little iron trash. Occasionally fields.

MA stands for Massachusetts.  I'm in NH which is New Hampshire. They are both states in the USA.

What part of the world are your fields located?

 

 

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2 hours ago, Badger-NH said:

 

Hello, I was adding my advice to what had already been posted.

You should always Noise Cancel and Ground Balance. They aren't settings. You don't set them. The NC and GB procedure will set them for you.

My Equinox will pick up EMI from power lines as far as 500 feet away depending on how much electric current is running through them. I generally find I can set my sensitivity higher near power lines using the single frequencies.

If Multi is too noisy, 15 kHz is a good all around frequency to use. 10 kHz leans more towards silver. 20 kHz leans more towards gold or lead. If necessary, pick the frequency that is quietest. The differences are minimal.

Looking at your field, I would use Field 1. Set the Sensitivity as high as it will go as long as the detector remains fairly stable and quiet.

Use a Recovery speed of 4 to 6. Setting it at 4 will get more depth but if there is a lot of iron or hot rocks, you may need to raise it to 5 or 6 for better separation. If there is an extreme amount of iron, like multi iron targets within every square foot, you might need to raise it to 7 or 8.

Hot rocks can be a nuisance. Ignore them as best you can. If they all ID the same, you could notch them out.

Lowering the sensitivity will give you less chatter from the ground but will also lessen your depth.

I don't recommend Gold mode until you know the machine better but by all means give it a try. Use Gold 1, Multi-IQ, single tone, all metal off, Tracking GB off. If I find I'm digging too much trash, I like to raise the discrimination to 10 or even 20 sometimes. Gold mode gets great depth and the targets really jump out at you, but it takes some getting used to and isn't appropriate for all sites. I use it in the woods where there is very little iron trash. Occasionally fields.

MA stands for Massachusetts.  I'm in NH which is New Hampshire. They are both states in the USA.

What part of the world are your fields located?

 

 

 


Thanks for the info Badger-NH.

The fields are located in Sweden.

I should always Noise Cancel and Ground Balance?

But I read on the manual about park 1-2 and field 1-2: "Field 1 Multi-IQ processes a lower frequency weighted multi-frequency signal, as well as using algorithms that maximise ground balancing for soil, to achieve
the best signal to noise ratio. "

It maximise ground balance and gives the best signal noise ratio? Does it not mean that it performs ground balancing and  Noise Cancel automatically if I select these modes? Why do I need to do Noise Cancel and Ground Balance then?


How do I notch the noise from hots rocks out? Aha from Recovery speed 4, to 5-6 to notch the noice from hots rocks out?

Hmm, I want ta have as much depth as possible, because I do not know have deep the bullets may be, if they are still there after 300 years. But as you wrote if the noise is to much, and make noise about everything, then I guees it will be hard finding it anyway. How much depth do you think I will loose by lowering the sensitivity?

Sounds good about Gold mode, would you say it will go deeper than the field mode?

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