schoolofhardNox

I used to belong to a forum many years ago that had a bunch of (retired) detectorists, retired meaning they didn't get out much or go to different places. They also never learned their machines or bought anything new in probably 20 years. If someone posted an Indian Head cent, they would call them liars 😅 I never posted much there and eventually left. I have been accused (not here or not to my knowledge 😄) at local club meetings and digs, as well as competitive forums. I stop visiting them sites. So I try and look carefully at You Tube videos and make sure I don't write anyone off too early. I used to be suspicious when I first saw the Hoover Boys, but after watching them carefully I am satisfied they are real. But for every one real video, I question 3 or 4 others. Some people just need to show things they did not find for emotional reassurance. Sad really.

10 hours ago, F350Platinum said:

That's a real honor to be digging those buttons, congrats! Despite my area being settled very early, it was very much a farming community and I wouldn't be surprised if all hands had to be on deck at the farm so to speak.

Your unknown button seems to have scrolls and tools on it, maybe a later quartermaster or historian? 🤔

It definitely is an honor to be digging there. We just started detecting and one guy popped the first button. It was like 20 seconds into the hunt.😄 The unknown button unfortunately may be newer than the Rev buttons, since it's a two piece. I wish I took a picture of the back. Besides the scroll, we weren't sure what the circular thing was. We are leaning towards maybe cartography, with the scroll being a map?

Great hunt. 2 halves is not very common in one hunt, especially Franklin halves.

So, I get a call to help out at a Revolutionary War camp site.... I declined 😥 Hell no 😄. So 4 of us spent the day working with Archaeologists doing the metal detecting survey for them. Total Regiment buttons were 10 plus 3 round ball. This place has been hunted twice before with detectors, so we did pretty good, considering the grass was really tall and there were cow droppings everywhere. 💩 I ended up with 5 Regiment buttons and 2 round ball, plus other good stuff. I only used the GPX 5000 since the grass was so high and iron was rather light, considering the present occupation. I also found a large colonial copper & a small copper coin -  both unreadable - and a odd 2 piece button that I can't figure out what the heck it is. Pictured are 3 of the Rev War buttons, since they are the only readable ones, plus the odd button. If anyone has ever seen that odd button before, I would appreciate any info on it. I've detected a lot of cellar holes and other old locations in my life, and have found quite a few military buttons, but these are my first Rev War buttons ever. Nice to get that monkey off my back.

14 hours ago, rvpopeye said:

The silver pile would make me smile ,,well just one would do that right now and the gold wouldn't hurt me either !You're earning all that while swinging a heavy GPX !!!!

😵

I went out for a little over 4 hours , in 3 shifts between doing Easter with mom and just taking a long break to warm back up !  I'm pretty sore today , was using the 15x12  , back and elbows mostly. for just one ring of possible bling , no markings..  But it was my 1st ring ! Testing required . Now  I come here and your finds make me hurt more just imagining how much pain if I had done your day in the loose sand ! That stuff kills my legs  ! Mick Jagger was right , "What a drag it is getting old " 🙄 and that was in the 60s when he was a kid !

But then I think I'd still do it for that pile you scooped today ..... WTG !

I can't think of a better way to self inflict pain than to go detecting 🤕 People all over the world go to the gym to get the same pain I get. But I never see any of them walk out the door with silver or gold in hand 😊 It doesn't matter how long you get out, as long as you had fun doing it. Congrats on your ring. Hope you get another soon. As for Mick, it must be a real drag getting old when your bed is made of $100 bills 🙄

You can't magic marker a VDB on that baby? 😄 What a nice coin! Any S mint mark on early wheats is a great find. Now you need the S Indians.

22 hours ago, mn90403 said:

8 hours!  I can't imagine that long of a hunt right now for a couple of reasons.  Family and sanded in beaches.

Your results are worth the effort.  We'll miss your beach posts once they kick you off.

Mitchel

Sanded in beaches suck 🙄 I could never detect longer than 2 hours on one. Luckily the beaches I am usually on have no protection from the waves, so there might be some sections that is not sanded in. I'm getting pretty burnt form the long drives, so if the season ends early, that's ok with me 😄

21 hours ago, Rick N. MI said:

Sweet gold and silver. I like the big square nail and iron next to it. Can't tell for sure what it is.

Not sure what the big wedge piece of iron is. The big spikes are fairly common with all the docks and boardwalks that have been in the area for many years. They build them and the ocean breaks them up. The cycle of life 😅

15 hours ago, TampaBayBrad said:

They have seasons that you can't use a detector on the beach? Where is that and I hope the idea doesn't spread!

Good hunt, earing saves the near skunk. 😄

Yep, most state run beaches do not allow detecting during the season. This is because we have smaller beaches than some of the other coastal areas down south and out west. If you have a beach here that is a half mile long, that's a big beach. 😥 I would have been very happy with just the silver from the hunt. But gold does make me much happier. 😉

6 hours ago, Sirius said:

Too lucky! You find more gold and silver with that GPX than your manticore I would say. Can you search the wet with the GPX or is it not water proof?

You can search the wet sand if you want, but the GPX is not waterproof by any stretch of the imagination. It works best in dry sand or wet areas that have exposed rocks. Doesn't help much if the beach is sanded in. I rarely do wet sand unless I see some evidence of exposed big rocks or a very steep slope. I have to admit, my GPX has taken some hits from waves that snuck up on me. Luckily, it never went under.

5 hours ago, CPT_GhostLight said:

Wow, well done again and congrats on the silver and gold! The GPX and your endless energy delivers again! I need a nap after just looking at all those digs! 😎

Thank You. I need a day off after digging that 😄 Without the GPX, my beach hunts would be very boring. I would probably relic hunt or hit parks with the Manticore

Beach hunt # 32 was a switch back to the GPX for the day. Originally I was going to start on my favorite beach and then head out to another beach for low tide. As usual, I rarely end up doing what I originally planned. Because low tide was in the afternoon, I had a decent amount of time to just focus on areas I did well on in the past. Beaches can be funny sometimes. I started in an area that was extremely good to me for silver many years ago. I really considered this place dead, but it was on my way to the section I really wanted to hit, so I started there. Signals were sparse but I finally got one and it was a silver dime. Targets are fairly shallow, probably 9” maximum followed by some tiny red brown(iron stained?) pebbles and then gray clay. Doesn’t sound like much but it gives machines a hard time, ground noise wise. After that find, I just followed that path across the beach for about a quarter mile. I was happy just getting all that silver but again targets got sparse, so I hit a lower wet sand area. Targets there were very sparse, with only the occasional iron and zinc cents. I hit a big iron piece and thought I heard a second tone during the discriminator blanking effect. So, I came from a different angle and there was a low conductor target close to the iron. Digging it up I see a glint of gold and was rewarded with the 10 K earring. But there was still a target in the sand I dug out. Maybe the matching earring?????.......or a zinc cent. 🙄 Zinc cent always wins  😢 Definitely not the hunt I was expecting, but very grateful I stayed put at that beach. I’m not sure if this is going to be my last beach hunt until fall. I may have some short project work coming up for the next couple of weeks. One is on a 17th century meeting house lot and possibly a day trip to a Revolutionary War camp. If they are postponed, then I’ll be back at the beach until opening day - Memorial Day. Always nice to beat yourself up digging the beach. 😊

There are a lot of tiny targets still waiting to be found, mostly because there are even more tiny bits of crappy aluminum also left to be found 😄 that's a great little charm you have there.

Great find considering how small it is. Hard to locate small targets in all that sand sometimes. I've found a few partial plates (2 or 3 teeth) before and some gold grills as well. Not very often considering how many targets you can dig before finding something like that. It's easier to find a gold ring than dental gold.

22 hours ago, oneguy said:

Yeah...that 3- legger came out in pretty nice shape?  Did you ever run it to the coin shop to see what it may be worth despite the slight cleaning and environmental condition? Country I live in is very "young" so not many real old coins compared to back east. It breaks my heart to see OLD coins from back east totally shot like many are?  I do clean all my nickels except war nickels with a hard rub with steel wool as they all come out of the ground looking like a brown turd. Generally speaking they are all worth only a nickel anyways unless you find that one rare coin in good condition....

I just left Missoula today (chemo sessions again) and was noticing quite a few of the areas I used to hunt when in town and it brought back some fond memories of many of the great finds I made from the coin shooting days.....

Take care SofHK and glad you're happy with the coin...!!!!!!!

I never did get to a coin shop, but I'm assuming at least 40% of normal value? I don't care really about value, just happy to have a nice example of that error coin. We may have an older history here but finding a half cent of a capped bust large cent in poor condition hurts more than the fun of finding it. That's why when we get a good looking coin from sandy or slope location soil, we are overjoyed. I use the #0000 steel wool sometimes as well and it makes a difference in helping to ID some of the coppers we can't see. You take care as well from your trips to Missoula, hope everything goes ok.

EMI is a killer no matter what machine you have. Even a pulse machine is affected. And EMI can change even if you stand still. You never know when more EMI is produced, whether it be from from military, aviation, or just an increase in house hold electric usage. I've even notice that sometimes are better to hunt that others depending on the sun. I love late afternoon hunts vs early morning (sunrise) hunts. Maybe just coincidence, but I do better in the late afternoon. I wonder if guys that hunt at night can tell the difference from a day hunt?

That was me 😄 Gorgeous 3 leg Buffalo. Thanks again for that. I want to move to Montana and detect there. Come on down to MA if you want to dig corroded nickels 😄. Your area produces pristine nickels compared to anywhere around me. Great looking coins! Nice collection of nickels.

On 4/2/2023 at 5:30 AM, TampaBayBrad said:

Man, that's a lot of digging. I'm not sure I'm in shape enough to do 8.5 hours anymore.

Sounds like the beach area was more productive, but I know you wanted to learn the machine in the fields.

I'm glad we don't have that hot sand to deal with here in Florida. Great hunting....

You'll get used to digging a lot after a while 😄 The fields have more non ferrous targets and better chance for silver. The beach gets hit a lot and only small areas open up every once in a while, like the one I did at the end of the day.  You guys have tame sand but that means everyone has good depth from their machines, so you have to get deep to get the gold.

On 4/3/2023 at 11:46 AM, GB_Amateur said:

So could just about everyone with access to one.

Good to hear that, and it shows that with so many combined settings options (way more than the Equinox, for example) that your earlier statement is correct.  I recall previously that you had not yet found a combo of settings that allowed you to detect in those difficult ferrous conditions.

I was thinking similarly to GPT_G regarding your trash collection.  I also note that two of your three silver coins from the grass/turf show signs of salt damage.  So (probably not surprising to those of who live near the ocean) you were hunting in some intermediate zone between true dry-land turf and true beach conditions.  At least that's this land-lubber's viewpoint.  😁  Thanks for your typical thorough report.

Yeah, I wish Minelab would just release a lot of machines rather than trickle them out. Many other people have way more time than I do to hunt, so they could learn the Manticore a lot better and faster than me. Most of the fields have nice, dark dirt, except as you get closer to the beach. The banks don't protect the fields during Nor'easter storms, so there is always some mix of dirt and salt/sand. There you will get the usual effects of tarnishing the silver.

On 4/3/2023 at 11:37 PM, rvpopeye said:

Just looking at your hunt finds posts wears me out !🤔

Keep posting though , I can use the exercise and the workouts are building up my scrolling finger. 🥸 

 

But seriously , It's hard to tell the difference between your Manti-hunt and a GPX one.  It seems you have the new box figured out pretty good.  👍 

 

 

 

Yeah, the beach produced a lot of iron that reads funny with the black sand. There were times the discriminator was not convincing that I was digging a non ferrous target. So I dug almost everything. Some non ferrous did read iron. It's going to take me a while to get what I want from it on a beach. I'm fairly sure it's doable, I just have to figure out how. On land it's a lot easier to get comfortable with it.

On 4/4/2023 at 6:26 AM, F350Platinum said:

Gotta say this one freaks me out a bit, was it an exercise in assimilation (digging everything to understand the detectors' discrimination capability), or habit, because with your PI you usually dig it all? 🤔 I like the black sand advantage using gold mode. This feels like a noob question but I thought I'd go for it anyway 🤣

Interesting hunt as usual, definitely more like one would expect from a PI than the new SMF machines. 😀 I'm glad you always show the "real deal". 👍

 

I always dig more in tricky situations. The black sand smeared the discriminator sometimes making some iron sound good and some non iron sound bad. I should go by tone more and leave the 2D screen alone during those situations. On normal sand, the 2D discrimination works really well when combined with pinpoint, 90 degree turn, double beep, and quality and tone of the target. I think I would have passed on more targets had it not been for that 925 knot ring. They always get you to dig more when they throw you a bone  😄

On 4/4/2023 at 9:32 AM, strick said:

I think what he was doing was digging real deep stuff on purpose. I'd be willing to bet that most of the trash/iron was well beyond the discrimination capabilities of most vlf's and just gave a iron false type signal. Beach guys will often dig everything in hopes of deep gold or silver turning into  real signal as they get closer to it. Being the good samaritan that Hardnox is he figured out what he had once he got close enough to it but instead of just leaving the in the ground he removed from the beach. Just speculating lol. I'll be in Pismo in less then 10 days and the Manti will be first at bat but if the targets are sparse then out comes the TDI pro with clean sweep coil 🙂 

strick 

I do dig a lot to double check that I am not blindly assuming the discrimination works evenly, everywhere I go. In tough ground, I dig more.  I rarely ever leave a target in the ground once I start digging. On large, unmovable targets, I have to leave them only to dig them up again and again on different hunts 😄 Good luck when your Manticore comes in. I think you will like it a lot. It hits hard on solid targets like coins and rings. But it hits little crap too.🙄

13 minutes ago, CPT_GhostLight said:

Dang, SohN, looking at the trash page, I thought you were using the GPX! 😉 Nice haul and congrats on the silvers. It looks like you're getting Mandy dialed in nicely. Well done!

 

😄 Yep, it looks like GPX material. Almost all of the iron and all the aluminum foil was found on the beach. Only a couple of pieces of iron were from the field hunt. Almost all of the aluminum cans were from the fields though. The short beach hunt had targets very close together. You didn't have to swing far to get the next target and most were within 4".

Beach hunt # 31 was an all-day hunt with the Manticore. I need more time on the Manticore, so I took it back to the fields that surround one of the beaches I do. After about 6 ½ hours of doing the fields, I was close enough to the beach to see that there was a section that looked like it had some big waves scramble it around a bit. So, for the last 2 hours I did that section. The fields I did will definitely give you some experience hearing targets close together. I used 5 tones for this as I am not too interested in hearing every variation in the tones like all tones would give you. I’m basically hunting for silver, but any high tone will do. I did manage 3 silvers there, each one being fairly deep and having a slightly different difficulty factor in hearing it. One had a soft but solid response, while the other two were harder to hear, but repeated enough to pass the “I’m not iron” (hopefully) 😄 test. I’m definitely better at ID’ing deep iron on grass vs the beach. So, 3 silvers dimes from the grass and also the usual bunch of clad and copper cents, that the other guys ignored. After being tired of hearing all the pull tab low tones, I ventured out on the beach. I quickly noticed that the purple/black sand was all over the place. That’s usually a good sign since I usually get some rather shallow coin signals there. But as usual for me and the Manticore, it struggled with that sand. So, I figured the Goldfield mode was my best chance. I lowered the sensitivity but found that I could use up to 19 as a sensitivity setting. I ran recovery speed at I think 6 or 7. It chirped a bit but handled the sand quite well. A couple of junk targets and then a nice small silver knot ring. More clad as well. I’m just happy that I could hunt that sand and I’ll try to tweak the machine a little more the next time I’m in that situation. Nothing spectacular showed up but I’m grateful for the 4 silvers I found.

Beautiful find. I wonder just how many chains are still in the sand just inches away from being heard. Nice to see that the chain was gold and not modern junk!

Almost looks like an antenna from something.  Weird stuff we find 😄

3 hours ago, GB_Amateur said:

Something doesn't *sound* right.  😏  6.9/6.25 = 1.1.  If coin silver has a specific gravity (s.g.) of 10.3 then multiplying by 1.1 results in an s.g. of 11.3 which is the s.g. of *pure* lead.

If the fake is larger in some dimension (e.g. thickness) than the standard coin, then the s.g. might be lower as my conversion calculation assumes all dimensions are identical.  Another possibility, assuming it's a lead alloy:  what is the density of that alloy?  In theory it's possible it could have the same as or even higher s.g. than lead.  The obvious lead alloys are solders and they have a lower s.g. than pure lead.  Bullets have antimony in the alloy, I think, but I don't know the resulting s.g.  There are untold possibilities.

Maybe it's just an experimental piece -- someone playing around rather than trying to make money off of this.  I'm also trying to think of a gambling game where it would be an advantage to have a heavier quarter than standard, but off hand I'm not aware of one.

A nice hunt, regardless of this head scratcher.

Yep it's weird. It's the same size as a regular quarter. It's tarnished to look just like most silvers we find on a beach. I agree it's for "can I do it" purposes and not monetary reasons. Very well made. Whatever the composition, lead will likely be one of the components. Someone tried to get the weight similar enough to not make it noticeably different from a regular silver. It may just have a tiny amount of silver, some lead and who knows what other combination of metals. I'm just wondering if it was struck or cast? I had a friend who struck his own copies of colonial coins (replicas) in his back yard. He traced and engraved the dies, touched them up a bit and used a screw press to make his coins. So there are people out there that just want to test their talent out a bit. I'll take that coin over all the silvers for the day!

Beach hunt # 30 had some surprises in store for me. After last week’s disastrous hunt, I figured the super low tide would deliver some goods. The car seems to be starting fine, so I decided to take the chance and go back to the last beach. I was originally going to hop 2 beaches, but the first beach didn’t want that. So, since low tide would not be for about 5 hours, I figured I’d use the GPX and hunt the upper areas hoping for a silver, but would be happy just digging a lot of deeper clad. Well it didn’t take that long before I found a silver dime, and then another, and more after that. I guess it was going to be a good day after all. Lots of copper cents showed up and then a silver quarter. Funny I thought it read low conductor but was happy to see that grayish silver look. I glanced at the date, and it looked like 1974. I scratched the side, but no sign of copper, just a very shiny silver reeded edge. Perplexed I thought it must be a 1944 and I just misread it. Continuing on until low tide, I decided to swap to the Manticore. I expected to see a more torn up lower beach, but instead it looked very sanded in. Bummed out, I saw a small section of rocks exposed in the usual area. Another detectorist joined me and we covered that patch back and forth for about 2 hours. I did get a silver dime out of it, but not much more. That area is constantly hit when the rocks show up, so I’m lucky to find any silver there. Driving home, all I could think about was that ’74 quarter. Could it be a mistake silver planchet dropped in when minting????  Finally I made it home, unpacked and looked over the quarter under a magnifier.. That edge looks silver, not clad. The color is definitely the gray color of silver. Out comes the E Trac and the scale. Scale weighs the quarter at 6.9 grams. That’s way more than a normal silver which is 6.25 grams, and a clad which is 5.67 grams. What does the E Trac say ??? (it never lies) regular silver quarter reads 11-46, this quarter reads 12-16. It’s counterfeit. I can’t believe someone would counterfeit a silver quarter. It must have just enough lead in it to make it worthwhile, but not too much so that it makes a thud when dropped on a table. It still has somewhat of a nice ring to it. No gold, but still a great beach day and a lot of fun.

Nothing you could do. Eventually, after finding nothing for an extended period of time, he may realize everyone was right. God help us if he inadvertently stumbles on to a gold ring or chain in one of his holes 😄

Awesome hunt. So that is what gold looks like? 🤔.......😄

Beach hunt # 29. This happened over a week ago, but I was too busy (lazy?) to post it. 🙄 Not much to say about this one. Very late start – car issues (x2) Got to the beach late and left early hoping the car would start. So, a very uneventful hunt. I was going to hop beaches, but I stayed put. I didn’t want to get stranded 2 hours from home. Not much of a low tide, so I hunted the top for a while. Better luck next time! 😄

Nice cut silver. Now you know what the cross is for 😄 That large cent is toast. If it a braided hair, your soil must be super toxic to copper. They usually hold up the best from all the different types of large cents in my area. The silver is worth all the hunting you did that day.

Beauties ........😍😍