F350Platinum

Thanks Rick, For me the 13" does a great job picking out targets in spots that have a mild amount of junk, and allows me to cover a lot of ground fast, but it's great to use the 9" when it's extreme. I suspect that in at least two areas of this farm there were structures that pre-date maps. Ground Balance was set at 75 and stayed there, for once I was surprised at how small an object I'd find with the machine properly balanced. Some times you'll see G. ID at a different number than set, but this time it didn't change. I enjoy extremely mild soil.

Thanks Daniel, I hope you're getting a chance to get out now and again, I know y'all had a drought for a while and now it's cold.

Thanks Sinclair! Consider this: does depth really matter in heavy trash? I heard as many as 10 separate sounds with every sweep of the 13", it would have been a symphony in full tones. Relic has 2 - good and bad. I use high square which helps me identify some aluminum. You can set tone breaks, but really you're going for any good stuff in the crap, luckily in this place I know that any good signal is either false or a good find. The coin was only about 2cm deep, I did get some stuff as deep as 20cm and there was iron always with it or nearby. I don't often have to worry about depth anyway with only ~400 years of history, but a smaller coil gets you between things. It is why I would like XP to give us a 9x5 coil.

Thanks VL, Sorry about your cold, and the cold where you are. Weather has kept me in more than I'd like, but I had hand warmers and other things to get by. I hope you get a chance to get out there.

Thanks Doc, Hope nobody gets tired of my frequent posts. 😬 These cut coin bits are everywhere here, I have a few that were my first finds. They generally have to be picked out of heavily trashed spots. I'm particularly a fan of the Tombacs, both examples are very nice and one still has the shank, an odd find for a 300 year old button.

Thanks JCR, I didn't know what an oyster knife was until I moved here, I still don't like oysters but am interested in the history of any knife. If what I suspect is true, this may be a very early one and would possess more historic interest than the coin.

Thanks Colonel, Well you can always rave about the pull tabs... 😏 The one I dug was almost a relic. 😉 One of the things both Chase and I have enjoyed about these places is that despite their being heavily detected in the past, there are still tidbits to be found. Thankfully older machines of many types did not have the capabilities of the latest, and also skill is a factor. Some of the things I find, especially silver, make me wonder. I feel I still have a long way to go, but sticking with one machine and learning every capability gives me an edge.

Thanks! Down by the river they are more likely Native, but the river is pretty far from this farm, not in miles but mostly deep ravines. Forgot to include the trash, i dug some copper from a copper pot, and could tell there was a lot of kettle iron there as well, it has a certain sound. The V2 update made the Relic program a real killer, but some iron manages to get by. I always come home with large square iron nuts. I'm pretty sure the blade looking thing is part of an oyster knife, very similar to those in use here today.

Cold and cloudy day today, but I wanted to continue looking around where I was last post. Today I brought both my Deus 2's with me, one with the 13x11" and one with the 9" coil. I was using a slightly modified Relic program on both. In one spot I used the 9" for a while, I've been over it with the 13" but it's very trashy, I wanted to see if I could find anything else with the smaller coil. I managed to get a small button and a piece of decorative horse tack amongst the iron, very impressive. I got the 13" rig and walked other places with less trash for a while, and headed over to a spot I've been over before. It had lots of iron as well, so I retrieved the 9" again. While I was searching this spot I noticed a lot of oyster shells, and when I dug more came up. Seems to me there was a lot of activity here many years ago. Oyster shells are a really good indicator of gatherings in a farm here. It was a pretty good day, got some really old tombacs, one broken brass button, and what I think is the blade of an old oyster knife that came up from a hole that was nearly all shells. Looking around this area, carefully analyzing every signal finally produced an 81 ID in the midst of other iron, and I got my find of the day: Half of a 1728 King Philip V silver 1 Reale with excellent detail. It was almost on the surface. This is what the whole coin would look like: The "S" is Seville mint I believe. Always a thrill to get the old stuff, and the coin pretty much dates everything else. Here's the trash, some bits of copper pot, some nails and the ever present lead. Also found a 6,000 year old pull tab.

Thanks LS, I'll probably never know, but I haven't looked everywhere yet, gotta go over the button book. Right away I knew it was something special, so I took great pains to spray it to get the dirt off, then daubed it a bit with lemon juice, but since it didn't get any clearer, I coated it with Renaissance Wax to at least slow the bronze disease. This is as far as I got.

Hi Lulu, welcome to the forum. 🙂 The Legend seems to do quite well for people in most situations, I've never used one but all the feedback here and other places I frequent is positive. If you want to go straight to the top you need look no further than in your own country, the XP Deus II. It is the lightest and most waterproof of all, and a 5 year warranty is unmatched as well. I have not seen anyone who has complained about water intrusion with the Legend, and their service is good. Both are going to have a bit of a learning curve due to their complexity, but that's what we are here for. GL, HH 🍀

Good point, JCR. 🙂 I was chasing down a solid 82 on the Deus, when I got to about a foot the shells kept on coming. I've found quite a few kettle bits in this area, there are a few spots here where oyster shells were buried with iron shards. Oysters get to be kind of fragrant if they're not buried. Just throwing them in the nearby ravine probably wouldn't do 😏 I'll have to return to that spot with a good spade and carefully dig it out, you're right there could be some old bottles in there. Didn't see any glass in my initial dig and never found the iron causing that signal. Most times I'll lift and bypass something like that anyway. I can imagine what has washed into or been thrown into that ravine as well, problem is it's a precipitous 60' drop straight down, I think I saw a deer path going down into it further away. An adventure for sure.

Thanks VL, For some reason the farmer put a hold on hunting in the area, so it's a lot safer than previous years. I wish it was a bean field but it was all corn. They mentioned they may use a "ripper" this year, a device that digs 14" deep. 🥳 Looking forward to that next fall! It should be beans again too.

Thanks kac, Using a version of Relic similar to what Chase uses, it takes a bit of getting used to but it's a killer. Even with reactivity at 2, the 13" can focus on objects that could be on edge, I've been over that spot a few times with my other programs but managed to sniff out a few more. Very little false on iron, but sometimes I checked the iffy stuff with another program. If it's a big chunk it will be a solid good tone. The 9" might be a good candidate for some really slow hunting. There was a barn or building in that spot that never made the maps, it was probably before mapping. Lots of horse activity and I found a couple trash pits full of oyster shells. I'm hoping for some lost jewelry, 😏 I'm two for two now in spots like that 😎

Thanks Doc, That's something I don't find a lot of here, but it's great to add buttons from the transition to my collection. It's really thick brass.

Thanks Colonel, I'm really hoping that is a GW button but it may be wishful thinking. 🤔 Chase and I have always thought one would turn up, I hope the next one is better. 🤣 It's great to find the really old stuff without having to go too far away. 😎

Wow, scored some relics again! 👍 Like the cross pendant and the vine looking thing in your trash photo, and the Ray Bans are cool 😎 Nice handful of silver too! Are those buffalo nickels?

We had two really nice days here, yesterday and today. Yesterday it got up to 75 which often happens in January, and today it got up to about 60. Yesterday I only had a couple hours out, I took advantage of the warm weather to get some stuff done, but I got out in the afternoon. Just a quick random walk around the field in front of my house, got a few interesting finds: An unusual chrome plated tire valve cover that says "Schrader" with a patent number, an interesting milk glass button, probably one of the oldest 4 hole buttons I've ever found that says "special order" on it, a typical brass button with backmarks, a cufflink with some of the link and some blue enamel on it, and a wing bolt with the manufacturer name on it. Here's a closer look at the cufflink: Pretty cool that the enamel was still there. Today it was a bit cooler, I went to a nearby huge field where I've found lots of really old relics, and today was no exception. This farm is over 150 acres of open field with a road through the center. I've posted lots of hunts from this place, I always seem to find something interesting here. Here's today's finds: A large brass object I've found quite a few of in different sizes, I forget what it is. Another ladder buckle piece, below it a brass screw with a drilled out ball head, an ancient buckle half, a pistol ball and interesting bullet, 5 buttons, 3 of which are tombacs, a small half circle with chain attached, a shoe buckle fork, and a 1940 Jefferson nickel. The stars of this hunt were the old buckle, this nice cast design Tombac button: And this button that scares me, it might be a George Washington button but it's pretty far gone: Looks like it could say "Long Live The President" in the second circle from the center, it's not this one but it gives you the idea. I'm really glad my wife didn't mind me getting out there, warm days are a bonus! Edit: forgot the trash. Day 1 Today:

Yep, about a year ago I was in a field and dug this: It's pretty similar. There was a saddlery in the area that probably attached these, early 1800s.

All my Deus 2 coils are on SteveG lowers and I also have enough XP lowers for them all. Simple quick change in the field.

Ok man, now you're just showing off 🤣 That is awesome. 119 coins? That's like a day or two at a campground without the old stuff. That storm must have dug deep! I hope it didn't send the gold even lower... 🤔 Fantastic job!

Excellent day Chase! 🏆 Glad you could come down, guess this trip was really worth it. 🤣 It's nice to hit a completely un-hunted field, we've had that opportunity before but probably not quite as rife with well, everything. I was really happy with the farmer's enthusiasm, it's a blast to talk to these people, and they're so generous. Gotta say I hope I look half as good as him when I'm his age. It's the land, and we're in it. It's odd, despite the fact that no Civil War events ever took place here, we still do find stuff from that period. You could probably go to a few DIV events and not score a block-anything button, congrats. Now I don't feel so bad about the block C I got way back when. 😁 You really followed some great hunches there, and I'm happy to have ya down. 👍

Thanks! We get what we get, that's for sure. A couple of Civil War relics turned up, I wondered why I found a Yankee bullet there, but everybody probably brought back stuff. The "Chicken leg" is threaded inside the bell, so we ruled out a snuffer, unless an actual lower part was attached. Too bad it got so mangled, I would like to find out what it was. 🤔

Thanks for the additional bits, JCR! The handle also has the initial of the first family that lived in the house in the field, we talked a bit with the elderly gentleman that lives there now, and he knew all the history of the families that owned it, he used to farm it himself. He was thrilled to have us out there and told us to have fun! 😎

🫡 Thanks Colonel, I'm glad someone is going to work with the waveguide, I could have gone to a local beach yesterday, but the lure of relics was stronger. 😀 It doesn't add much weight, and even seems to help counterbalance the 13" coil a bit. I was able to swing it for 7 hours yesterday without regretting it too much today. 😅 The field has all sorts of patches of relics from colonial to modern, it's a really interesting place, and big. Both challenging and easy. Looking forward to your review, good luck out there! 🍀