Civil War Relic Hunt In Virginia

[abenson]

Earlier last month I attended Diggin in Virginia. It's an invitational relic hunt that takes place around Culpeper, VA that about 200 people attend. The ground is very hot there, as many know, so the detectors of choice are usually PI machines like the TDI, ATX and GPX. Some VLF's work but get significantly less depth than the PI's. I have taken my Deus, Equinox and Tarsacci and found stuff with all of them. This time around I used the GPX most of the time but did pull out the Tarsacci on a rainy day for about 7 hours. I'll give a more detailed report about the Tarsacci in the Tarsacci section at a later date. I also meet up with forum member Hugh Campbell so maybe he'll add some details when he has time.

Some of the highlights of the hunt you will see in the pics below were shell frags, an 1863 IHP, complete 3 piece Shaler bullet, star based .58 minie from the Washington arsenal, Schenkl combintion fuse and Eagle I cuff button.

[Tom_in_CA]

Nice photo spread !

I attended one of those relic shootout hunts a few years ago.  Where hundreds of guys descend on 1000 acres or whatever.  And As for the discussion of the pulse versus the VLF on those type hunts :  I talked to a fellow who was intending to use a pulse machine.  And his & his co-hunter's rationale was exactly as you say : That they get "significantly more depth", and the VLF gets "significantly less depth".   

However, on this particular site, was a few zones where some CW era homesites had been.   Which, as you can imagine, were a giant spread of iron, nails, etc....   Lo & behold, not a single one of the pulse users could hack this area.  They would get driven bonkers by the iron, and "leave for greener grounds".   Yet those of us with standard discriminator machines could wade into this, and pick out conductive targets.  

So there's much more to the discussion of simply "depth", as you can see.

[abenson]

Yes Tom agreed, it's all about using the right tool for the job. A year and a half ago I got into an area just like you described. I always have my Deus in my backpack at these hunts and when I hit this area everyone else was avoiding I pulled out he Deus. Below is the finds I made in a half a day of hunting a very trashy hillside.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

28 minutes ago, abenson said:

Yes Tom agreed, it's all about using the right tool for the job. A year and a half ago I got into an area just like you described. I always have my Deus in my backpack at these hunts and when I hit this area everyone else was avoiding I pulled out he Deus. Below is the finds I made in a half a day of hunting a very trashy hillside.

 

Stunning !   That's the type site that dreams are made of !