F350Platinum

🤣 Yes, especially when I looked it up and saw it was low mintage. Found it looking for the landowner's gold ring, there was an old road that ran through the place according to an 1891 topo map. 👍 going to hunt the rest of the property that road ran through, been finding these old roads to be very productive. Thanks GB. 🙂 I was sad it came up toasted.

Yet another beautiful day here in sunny VA, it got up to about 67 again. I had been talking to Chase about some new mapping Intel I got on the farm we've been hunting, located some roads and a large field way out back that was used for something and seemed to have a cellar hole and some foundations. I got there first and found some newer relics at a site where a "staff" house was. Interesting point, this farm is the oldest of my permissions, found out that it dates back to the mid 1600s. The possibilities here are as enormous as the farm. There were indentured "staff" here until Emancipation. Here's the gratuitous big picture, the farm is huge, and today I had my trusty Equinox 600 with the Coiltek 10x5. Chase thought we should hit this place with the Equinox to see if we were missing stuff with our Deus 2s. I haven't used mine in months so I was up for that! He brought his new Equinox 900. (We both had Deus 2s with us in our backpack vests, can't get too far away from totally wireless 😏) Absolutely monster hunt today, we walked almost 6 miles over nearly 8 hours. This is a 400 acre farm so it's huge! We went to the farmhouse location, checked over where we detected, and found literally nothing. Tells us both the Equinox isn't going to do any better than the Deus 2 here. After that rather disappointing event we decided to cross the winter wheat to where the entrance to the field was, the last time it was visible was in the 60s, it has overgrown completely. It's also 80 feet lower than this field, so the paths to it are steep. We decided to save it for another time. There's Chase digging something or other. 😀 I had 3 stages of finds today, the trash was horrendous, but even with the Equinox I don't get much iron. All the usual suspects. Next the larger finds that won't fit in a display case: Some pretty cool brass, rein guides and other stuff, including an octagonal shaker top that you have to twist to open by lining up the holes. Finally the finds : A 51 caliber 3 ring bullet, dog tag, a stamped piece of something, a small button that says "PREMIER", a plain 2 piece button, two really old buttons with no backmarks, and two 4 hole overall buttons I found at the "staff" site. Not over yet though. I mentioned that at the end of a hunt you sometimes get a "Thank You for saving history" find, and today was the coolest one ever: A solid silver button. Drop it on a table and it rings like a quarter and it's just about as big. At first I thought it was engraved, but I think it's just really scratched from hundreds of years in the field. From what I hear these are pretty rare finds, so it made my day, and I bought dinner for my wife. 😀 Chase also treated me to a demo of the Axiom, that detector is incredible. I can't thank him enough for sharing his knowledge with me personally. When I got home I was treated to this rare sight, the crescent moon, Venus, and Jupiter in a row in front of my house. They aren't very clear but it was cool.

Great hunt Rod! Glad you got out there. 👍 It has been a weird winter but it's a La Niña one, northern jet doesn't always stay south. 🙂 Past couple years have been kinda mild, I'll take it! And apparently you did too. 🏆 Congrats on some killer finds! What coil were you running on the Equinox?

I got from a good authority that it is Pulse Induction. 🙂 Love the wireless connection, so used to it now I don't mind it freaking out. 😀 Sometimes it doesn't connect off the bat, but it's so accurate and quick to assist digging deeper targets I forgive that too. I run mine on 50 sensitivity all the time. I've heard it change pitch with targets 6" deep.

You can assign frequencies to tones on the Deus 2: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KXC0BCqdhvM

Great post! Love the arrow/spear heads. 👍 The second and third pictures look like a carved Seal or Manatee face. 😀

That's always been a killer combo with my 600, nailed a small gold ring in a park last summer. 👍Put it on and never took it off. It's great on the beach too. Good to see you out and about! 🙂

Nice idea Carolina! 👍 I ordered one from England that did work, it covers both the remote and the shaft holder, even with the antenna I made: It ended up costing me £21 for a £4.95 cover and took two weeks, but it works ok. I have to remove it to charge the remote, I'm considering cutting the fabric to allow the charging port to be opened. https://www.ebay.com/itm/185643161995

I wouldn't venture a guess, but I'm pulling for the D2. 🤣 It's probably the oldest one though 😁 interesting post! 👍

Yeah I haven't managed to blow myself up yet! 🤣 There are a lot of people with much greater knowledge and experience than me, but in a short time I've managed to annoy people enough that they tolerate me 🙄 I do get out a lot and have many varied places to hunt. I'll certainly jump in where I can, I do have just about every accessory (sometimes duplicate) for the D2, and I'm an enthusiastic (and broke) user of it. I started with the Equinox 600 a couple years back, but kinda outgrew it. 🙂 I'm retired so I can spend a lot of time fiddling and getting real time experience, some of my permissions are right out my front door.

Now that I got some likes I can reply. 😀 Nice detailed description! 👍 My target retrieval with the D2 is probably a bit more rudimentary, but using the MI-6 is a quite different experience compared to the Carrot. I only recently learned that the MI-6 is a Pulse Induction pinpointer. You can either make it beep as you close in on the target, or have it run in a tone mode, where the pitch gets higher as you close in. That is what I prefer. It locates targets much deeper than the Carrot. If the signal appears to be close to the surface, I'll check with the pinpointer first to see if I can locate it before digging. If not I dig a plug in a park (campground), like you leaving some of the roots attached, and search the hole with the MI-6 I'll chase the signal with the pinpointer and either dig deeper with the shovel (I typically use my Barracuda in parks because it's shorter), or use the composite trowel to dig it out. In the fields I'll just dig a big hole and retrieve the target with the composite trowel. 😀 I try not to use the shovel too much, and even though I have a few steel diggers I usually don't use them. I have used kac's Park probe to get the shallow targets if there is quality grass on the ground. I have also used his Devil's Tongue digger with great success.

There are two base options for audio, Square and PWM of Pulse Wave Modulation. Square tones are more musical, PWM tones are scratchy. Saying you use full tones in Square wave modulation means you are using all 99 tones for targets, kinda like an 88 key piano. 🙂

Welcome back! I'm a Deus 2 user, have both the RC setup with the 13" coil on it, and the WS6 Master rig with a 9" coil. I have the 11" coil too. I joined in December of 2020, have you been gone longer than that?

Interesting, I tried the hip route and they were always beating the crap out of me. 😀 Out of likes but 👍

GB, have you ever considered the Fiskars composite trowel? 🙂 I use it both in sandy loam and beach sand, it's nice and pointy and tough. They're like 5 bucks each on Amazon. It'll even help me dig something with the pointer in loose clay. Saves scratching those silvers!

Well not here, thankfully. 🤣 Mebbe half a handful of bashers, the rest have poignant and well considered remarks 🙄 Patience my friend, the update is coming that will catapult the D2 to other-worldly status 😁

What are the clamps for on all your shovels? I'll bite... 😀

Gotta agree with Badger here, I have an old Ames spade with an oak shaft and crossbar in the "D" handle that I'll take sometimes in the fields. I got all my digging practice in with it originally digging in my yard. 👍 Dedicated metal detecting shovels are expensive.

Quick update, I went back to the first farm a few days ago to look for the farmers' ring, after 5.5 miles of scouting the rest of this 100 acres and searching the spot he told me his ring was, I only got a few coins. Again the best find came from where a road passed through the farm in the late 1800s, many of these roads are gone now. Pretty toasted 1876 IHP. Went back to the house and dug some more wheats from the front yard: Tiny brass plate with "My Diary" stamped on it was the only other really interesting find. 😀 Planning on coming back again to look for that ring, I have to be careful because the spot is planted with winter wheat.

Thanks Strick! I always hit the newspaper icon and scroll through looking for new posts relevant to all my interests, I know some just read individual forums. Coins, relics and jewelry are probably more popular. Actually thought ya might miss it with your new love and all 🤣, but the D2 has been getting bashed some so I thought I'd throw it there. The more I think about it, the shield nickel may be my second, but it was what I call the "thank you for coming" find you get sometimes walking back to your vehicle, in this case about a mile away. The main gates are rarely open here so we have to come in through another permission next to it. I thought we should follow where and old road was, Chase got a Mercury dime on it. Research is starting to make random finds like these more frequent. SLQ's evaded me my first two years, the only one I ever saw was one Chase nailed in tree roots at the steamboat landing (now known as the Poison Ivy Palace) next to my house. Another place to find coins is by searching the "Turn Zone" in fields. Back then turning your animals was a stressful ordeal. It's also where the hunters stand, I've found everything from Spanish silver to King George cents to modern coins there. Hills were stressful too, it pays to hunt both the bottom and top of them.

Yeah, I wouldn't pry stuff with a scoop. Frustrating though it might be, I've moved on if the target was just a coin signal, and came back with a pry bar. To me it's not worth breaking a $350 tool to get a clad coin. 😀 You'll either curl the tip, snap a weld or crush or crack the handle. Seriously, a stainless pry bar would be your friend if you're always in that environment, I would consider one. I wouldn't use a plain steel one unless I was willing to wash it off and oil it immediately after getting back, which I do with my shovels. 🙂 Stainless will rust too, depending on the composition.

Ehhhh, I wouldn't try to move heavy rocks with a beach scoop. 😏 I also don't try to lift sunken pilings or trees. And I definitely wouldn't do it with a $600 Xtreme. 😬 Small gravel and wet sand are heavy enough, if you have those issues maybe a stainless crowbar? 🙂 https://www.steritool.com/stainless-steel-pry-bar.aspx

I've had no problems over the last 2 years with a CooB Shark V10 stainless scoop, and I just bought a carbon fiber shaft from SteveG. Expect to pay upwards of $600 for an Xtreme, if that's too much look at what Serious Detecting offers. I recently bought a titanium scoop from them. Dune. Most of the exotic metal scoops are from overseas countries that are currently having difficulties, but some US dealers have them in stock. In both cases with mine I'm very impressed by the welding, and CooB uses 2mm stainless. Dune uses 2mm titanium. @PI-Man can tell you about the Xtreme titanium scoop. 🙂

Predator Ranger is my favorite, for a longer T handle the Ultra Eagle. https://www.predatortools.com/collections/shovels/products/model-65-ranger The Ranger and Ultra Eagle both have 11" digging blades, longer "reach" into the ground. I also have the Barracuda, with a 9" blade length. The Ultra Eagle is the longest handle shovel they make. I have used them everywhere but the beach, and have never had a complaint about plugs. Always wipe down your shovel with some WD 40 at the end of the day. Many are out of stock, believe me nothing beats a Predator. Call them! They are very nice. Here's mine after 2 years of hunting and digging 2-5 times a week:

Welcome to the forum. 🙂 I dig next to no iron at all in square full tones. I have often dug a good target with co-located iron. I set discrimination at 0 and notch is off. After digging most everything for a while I can say with confidence and from experience that I trust this method. Aluminum also makes a different sound, so I dig less of that as well. Anytime you change settings radically on a detector you should dig everything until you are confident with the result.