Popular Post Calmark Posted October 30, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted October 30, 2022 I've finally gotten back into doing some coin-hunting with my XP Deus 2 using the 9in. coil. I've been out for 4 short trips this past month now that the weather in Northern California is cooler and a rainstorm this past month having given us 1in.+ of rain so the soil isn't quite as hard. I hadn't been out since May and to get back into "the swing of things", I've experimented some by branching away from mainly using P4 "fast". Dabbling with Program 3 using full tones was nice for a change. A few hours of using it and I got a pretty good sense of the tones and conductivity range of the targets I dug. It seems a good program for hearing everything and then choosing what to dig. In my soil, things quickly get muffled as I get generally half a bar of mineralization or up on the meter. A good program for quickly targeting shallower, more enticing signals. Due to a few popular posts of late about success using the "Silver Slayer" D2 program, I decided on the spot a few days ago to watch the video while in a park, and save the program to one of my custom slots. I got a quick feel for it at this park about 40 minutes from home for about 45 minutes. It did let me skip the big volume of junk and hone in on a few copper Memorial pennies and a couple of dimes and quarters. The much shorter target response was tough to interpret at first, but I just started to listen for the high sounds and then slowed down to investigate further. Yesterday after fooling around with several programs and settings I decided to use the Silver Slayer program at an old field, but with plenty of current use (and trash) nearer to home. Its the one where I found my 1866S $2-1/2 gold coin and around 60 wheat cents and 4 silver dimes over the years. Even though I felt really guilty notching out targets in the gold zone, I can say the SS program works! Here are 2 dimes I found in about 2.5 hours. ID# were 90-91 and I had reactivity at 2 for the mercury dime and 1.5 for the Barber. I generally run it at 2.5 to 3 in this soil, but pushed the limits more this past hunt. Previous to yesterday, I'd only ever found 4 silver dimes (2 Roosevelt, 2 Mercury) at this location over the span of 25 years. I used to see other detectorists here regularly 20-25 years ago and the easy stuff is long gone. Depth was about 5 inches on both, which is close to maximum in my hot soil. 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phrunt Posted October 30, 2022 Share Posted October 30, 2022 That's a great report. This SS program is intriguing, but stop! stop making me want a Deus 2. 2 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F350Platinum Posted October 30, 2022 Share Posted October 30, 2022 3 hours ago, phrunt said: That's a great report. This SS program is intriguing, but stop! stop making me want a Deus 2. First off, Congrats Calmark! Beautiful coins, bravo for the trip down the rabbit hole... 🤣 I feel as guilty as you using Silver Slayer. The SS program is really good, but it has a tight niche. It's clever. It pushes out all the iron falsing on the high end, but allows you to hear it on the low end. Iron, iron, iron, BLAM. Good coin. Most really good coin targets are in the 90 and up zone, it allows a thin margin for nickels, and the break for iron falsing can be adjusted down a bit for some pennies. How it works is you have to listen to the tones, if you hear a high tone and see an ID in the 90s, despite iron sounds with it, you better be digging that. 😀 If you also want relics, Forgeddaboudit. Better have something else up your sleeve. It will hit some but buttons and stuff are out unless you hit a dandy button. It's a special program for special use, period. I use it when my relic program is throwing nothing but iron at me. I've got some interesting things with it thus far but not silver 😀 where I hunt silver is rare. One of these days I'll use it for a whole day... 😏 If you want an extremely light, completely waterproof, and versatile general purpose detector, the Deus 2 is well worth the outlay. It doesn't beat the Equinox, rather compliments it. That should do it... 🤔 🤣 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPT_GhostLight Posted October 31, 2022 Share Posted October 31, 2022 Great saves, Calmark, well done! Yes, that SS program on the D2 is a special kind of magic. I've been playing around with the notches and it actually performed a bit better for me than the Relic program did at a ghost town last week, so don't be afraid to experiment with it, there is a lot of potential there. 😎 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calmark Posted October 31, 2022 Author Share Posted October 31, 2022 The Silver Slayer program was definitely the hero of the day. I felt bad knowing I was missing all of the old pennies since those were notched out. Also, basically no chance at gold either unless the piece falls into that narrow nickel band of ID# range. I'll open up the top notch and give that area another pass and hope to find any deep pennies I missed next time. And I can agree its important to listen for those high-pitched squeaks and then investigate. You do hear iron falsing when sweeping over the squeaking target too. I actually left several with both iron sounds and the "squeak". Some were targets that pinpointed to the side of the squeak, which usually indicates iron. I did dig a lot of iron nails on this outing while targeting the deep silver. I'll definitely need to go back and check out more of those mixed target signals if they are high-pitched with iron. One mystery is what damaged the xx12 Barber dime? It looks like it was sliced by a lawnmower blade to me. I really can't figure out how that could have happened. Maybe it was dropped circa 1920 and a mower hit it way back then? One thing I can say is after immediately noticing the missing chunk of dime while still in the whole, I thought, "great, now I won't even get to see how old this thing is." Luckily the "12" was still there to date the dime properly at least. I guess I actually found .19c of silver in face-value that day. 😂 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F350Platinum Posted October 31, 2022 Share Posted October 31, 2022 24 minutes ago, Calmark said: Luckily the "12" was still there to date the dime properly at least. If the coin was much older I would have speculated it was cut for "change". I once found a half of a half reale that had been cut leaving the last two digits. The other thing great about SS is not digging junk metal like can slaw and pull tabs, unless you get a whole beer can, which will hit the 90s. I have a few spots this will be very useful. It's a great addition to the Deus toolbox. I moved the top end of the second break down to 84 I think, resulting in an IHP find, but it allows for some large iron as well. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GB_Amateur Posted October 31, 2022 Share Posted October 31, 2022 On 10/30/2022 at 1:43 PM, Calmark said: Its the (site) where I found my 1866S $2-1/2 gold coin.... If I were you I'd be using the GCS (Gold Coin Slayer) program there. 😄 What a fantastic feeling that must have been! 1 hour ago, Calmark said: One mystery is what damaged the xx12 Barber dime? It looks like it was sliced by a lawnmower blade to me. I really can't figure out how that could have happened. Maybe it was dropped circa 1920 and a mower hit it way back then? I think Barber coins were still in circulation after WWII, probably disappearing around early 1950's. (I need to query an 86 year old cousin who I think was collecting coins back then.) Looks like an odd damage to be from a rotary mower and way less likely from a reel type mower (I don't know when the latter came into existence). People sometimes mangle coins just for the fun of it. I'm thinking that is more likely. The apparent wear-condition makes me think earlier drop than post WWII, though. At least it's a fairly common date+mm. If a key date+mm, that would really be a punch in the gut. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calmark Posted November 1, 2022 Author Share Posted November 1, 2022 On 10/31/2022 at 12:14 PM, GB_Amateur said: If I were you I'd be using the GCS (Gold Coin Slayer) program there. 😄 What a fantastic feeling that must have been! I think Barber coins were still in circulation after WWII, probably disappearing around early 1950's. (I need to query an 86 year old cousin who I think was collecting coins back then.) Looks like an odd damage to be from a rotary mower and way less likely from a reel type mower (I don't know when the latter came into existence). People sometimes mangle coins just for the fun of it. I'm thinking that is more likely. The apparent wear-condition makes me think earlier drop than post WWII, though. At least it's a fairly common date+mm. If a key date+mm, that would really be a punch in the gut. I took a look at the coin's damage with a 10x loupe and it looks pretty much exactly like cuts I've seen on other coins from a lawnmower blade. It may have been from a gas-powered edger too. A sidewalk area isn't too far away and it was recently renovated in the past 10 years. Construction work may have caused the damage. We will probably never know for sure, but what's done is done. Thankfully it was "just" a 1912S, and NOT the 1913S key-date Barber. I like your idea about a Gold Slayer program. I was actually thinking about doing this very same thing while out using the SS program. Maybe notch out under ID# 40 and over #80 and dig the most probable gold range. It might be a hard program to stick with for too long though.... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GB_Amateur Posted November 1, 2022 Share Posted November 1, 2022 2 minutes ago, Calmark said: Maybe notch out under ID# 40 and over #80 and dig the most probable gold range. Does a Double Eagle ($20 gold piece) have a higher dTID than 80? OK, what are the chances there's one there, but I sure wouldn't want to miss one! I don't think those were carried in people's pockets but rather used between banks, etc. No law ever against it, though, and Westerners back then despised paper money. (Just back then? ) I wonder how bank/stagecoach/train robbers laundered their loot. Seems like a grubby guy walking into a bank and asking for change for a twenty might not be the smartest idea. Saloon/hotel/brothel/poker game probably safer. Well maybe not the poker game if cheating was as widespread as claimed in today's stories.... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calmark Posted November 1, 2022 Author Share Posted November 1, 2022 I guess I'll have to rethink my future Gold Slayer program some. I wouldn't want to miss those "pesky" $20 gold pieces. 😂 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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