Jim in Idaho

Now That WOULD make my day, Mark....LOL It's interesting that none of the coins we've found was old enough to be lost by the emigrants. That mostly ended by 1884. Jim

Gotta love those rings! It amazes me what the saltwater does to silver. Jim

I'd say we can!...LOL Fortunately for me, the alkaline soil here may turn them red, but it doesn't chew them up. The first coin I ever found was an 1889 V, and I found one other just inside the CA border from Nevada. it was laying on gravel and not in contact with the soil, so is nearly perfect. It's a1900. Jim

Had an unusual, and great day. First thing that happened was I found a silver ring...my first! 30 minutes later Dave dug his first Barber dime, an 1893 S in great condition. 30 minutes later I got a nice, clean signal, and was amazed to unearth a 14k gold ring! How weird is that on that old trail. And the stretch we were working has almost no traffic now, other than the occasional hunter. So hunting along about 15 minutes later, and the DFX gives a solid nickel reading, and out pops the 1903 V nickel. All of this in about 250 yards of road, of the .77 miles we covered today. My best day, EVER! Jim

Really nice, KAC! I found one today, too. Amazing coincidence! Jim

Total power into the ground is watts. = V x A, so the Minelabs are running about 7.2 watts, and the TDI's are running anywhere from 6 to 8. One of the main factors effecting current through the coil is the DC resistance of the coil windings. I'm not an engineer, and never played one on TV...LOL Jim

Nope...LOL I noticed it weeks ago, and almost contacted the seller to tell them, and then I decided you can't fix stupid, and let it go...LOL Jim

Nope...just that tone board. I found it in the rocks close to where they camped. I'm guessing one of the kids probably lost it, while out playing. I'd bet if we cover that camp site well ( about 3 acres) I'll find the rest of it. Jim

So far, I like the MJ 8 x 12. I'm not having any issues with GB, either. I really like the 8 x 6 Sadie, and the 7.5 DF is pretty close to the Sadie. I see no need for a larger coil for prospecting, but am starting to like the Super Pulse 8 x 14 for coins and relics. Most of what I'm searching, the targets are pretty shallow, and it lets me cover a lot of ground. Jim

Wow, that IS a nice find, Mark. Plus a quarter and wheatie...life is good...LOL Jim

Thanks Chase! No chance of it being hit with a plow blade in that location. Not much chance of shovel either. I'm wondering if maybe a hatchet when it was still on the box? It was folded over right on the cut line. After looking at it again, it looks like the cut was made from the back. So much for it being hit while on the box...LOL The lead on the back has tapered edges at the cut line. Obviously a sharp object, with considerable force, to cut through both metals. I looked all over that portion of the trail, but did not go out into the sagebrush on either side. I'll have to get to that....good suggestion! It was NOT a good place for the Indians to ambush a party....No cover closeby, and fairly flat. Jim

Just found out the medallion is a Civil War ammo box plate. Probably used on other types of boxes, but ammo was what I found. I had noticed some small rusty nail, or fastener remnants on it, in one spot. Now I'm wondering if it was used as a "seal" across a joint in the box, to show if it was tampered with. I wonder if that is why it's got the big tear in it....hurriedly removed? Makes my day finding that! Jim

Ya know guys, that "rim" that shows around the edge is just decorative. I'm sure it's a medallion of some sort. It's a double layer, Mark. Bronze on the front, backed by lead. So, it could be somewhat "formed" by bending it. In fact, when it came out of the ground, it was doubled over, and completely flat.....LOL...probably run over by hundreds of wagons back in the day. It may be a belt buckle, or off a saddlebag, or saddle? I've also found out that, for the most part, the emigrants had muzzle-loaders. There were very few centerfire firearms during that period of time. The Jeffery-Goodale cutoff was used by 70% of the emigrant trains starting in 1862, and running until emigration slowed to a trickle by 1884. After that, the trail was still used by stages, , and various travelers, and freight companies. There were a couple of rimfire metallic cartridge rifles used during the civil war, however. It would be nice to find one of those cartridges. So, none of the cartridges I've found would have been handled by an emigrant on a wagon train. Jim

Rick, I really like my DFX, too. I really don't need a detector this capable, as most of the stuff out west isn't very deep. But the two frequency correlate mode is a big help in trashy sites. The DFX does all I need in coin and relic hunting. Jim

Incredible finds! I'd kill to find a large cent out here...LOL Jim

Just me and Heidi. Found a bunch of cartridges, Six .30 Remington in one small area. (obviously a lousy shot...LOL) One .38 Special...all modern stuff. Then a 40-60 Winchester (black powder) unfired, with bullet intact in case, but the case was broken in two. Primer is not dented.; a 38-56 Winchester (black powder); a .44WCF; Two .45 Colts, but one has no headstamp. An unfired 25-20 by UMC; A flattened bullet, and the best find...some sort of medallion with U S on the front. The front is bronze, and the back is lead about 1/8" thick. If anybody knows anything about this item, I'd really appreciate some help. I used the DFX, Settings were "Coins & Jewelry", Best Data, with the 6 x 10 DD coil. It smoothly ignored all the iron.

Your only hope is to go down in coil size. Larger coils see a bigger chunk of ground, so that ground looks like a bigger target. I'm guessing that if the ground is that bad, you'll need one of the little 4 x 6 coils, if you can find one. Or maybe a Coiltek 5". One of the "made for Australia" 7 1/2" mono coils Whitess ells might also get the job done. Jim

Aah man, really sad to hear that! he was a good guy, and I enjoyed his posts and info. He'll definitely be missed. Jim

We were looking for stage-robbery loot along a stage road that was also an emigrant route. The desert road mostly follows the stage road, but here and there, the emigrant wagons cut a really deep gouge into the soil, and the desert road deviates to avoid those spots. We don't generally hunt the road, as there's too much modern junk, like .22 shells, but yesterday we did hunt the deep sections of the old route, and found a bunch of interesting items. I found an old pocketknife, with only one sideplate, but the plate was mother-of-pearl, which is pretty rare. I also found an unfired .38 S&W round, and a .38 case with no headstamp. Also, the business half of an old hatchet. But the best was the last thing I found....my first Barber dime...a 1902 in excellent condition once I cleaned off the accumulated crud. The places Dave and I hunt, coins are really rare. We also located the encampment location where they spent the night. Lots and lots of trash. We'll be getting to that spot in the future. They couldn't make the spring on the Butte in one day, so stopped at roughly the same place as each wagon train went through. Dave found a pile of stuff, too, but no coins. His finds included a nice obsidian arrowhead, which he left where he found it, of course. He also found a really old spoon, that had broken, and had been repaired by wrapping wire around the neck of the handle. The crushed cartridge is a .44 of fame and legend...LOL I imagine that cartridge with no headstamp is also really old. I was using the TDI SL, and the SP 350 8 x 14 coil. I was running in ALL, but only digging the high conductor signals mostly. Digging low conductor signals results in wasted time...just too much small iron junk. Jim

I'd happily take gold for my machining services, or sweep jigs, gem jigs, or anything else I make and sell. Jim

Try going to the supermarket and buying anything with your stock market shares...LOL That argument is meaningless. Jim

I appreciate the kind words from you all. My machining skills are just OK, and my welds looks like something a dog leaves behind, but it all works well enough to use....LOL I'm reasonably competent, but no more than that, and I completely suck at finding gold with a detector, despite my best efforts...Ha! Jim

I'm wondering if the actuator could respond fast enough, Jon. Or do you mean as a means to make the adjustments? It may be possible with a solenoid, but getting a solenoid to move fast in one direction, and then slower in the reverse direction, and doing it 350 times/minute may be difficult. I don't know of a single commercial table that uses that type of drive, though there are jigs that use a hydraulic drive to accomplish the same thing, though with speeds that are 1/3 of a Wilfley table. Jim

Along with working on the house this winter, I finally got around to drawing-up, and building a new driver for my shaker table. I really like Wilfley's designs, and wanted my driver to have the same adjustments as his. Working about 4 hours/day, it took me about 2 months to get it drawn and built, along with a few modifications that arose during the build. Finally finished yesterday, and made a video. I'm still polishing up the plans, and will probably have to disassemble it to take pics for the build instructions etc. I'll be selling the plans and, instructions at some point this spring, for the DIY clan. Jim

When I first tried mine, I was not impressed. But last summer, searching for stage robbery loot, I was amazed at the relic finds I was making. Same this spring. Air testing on a 1 grain gold bar is around 3"....every bit as good as the 12"DF. I'm starting to think this is a pretty decent coil, but need to do more testing in my test garden. Jim