F350Platinum

This one is for the button fan, I dug a 1926 wheat in another field but that was it for the coins. Invited Chase up for one of the last hunts here, a new 100 acre permission that I didn't find much in before, we set out to scout the other half of it that I didn't get to. It's a huge field that had beans on it last year, usually I prefer to hunt in bean stalks but this one is tough, the stalks are too tall. We ran into a farmer friend who told us this is because when they are rushing to get the beans before a rain, they lift the combine collector and don't cut them short. The stalks become really stiff by spring and are very hard to walk on, they chip at your shoes and can go through your hand or foot if you're not careful. ? We set out heading to the other side of the field, Chase went ahead and hunted around the old barn, I think he got a couple of wheats there. I walked up the center of the field not expecting anything, I had crisscrossed this field before and found literally nothing. Got a 47 and dug this rolled copper "tinkler" that was traded with the Indians: https://www.nativetech.org/metal/tinkle/tinkle.html It would be a "point" or arrowhead if it had a point, these were hung on their clothing and they jingle. I immediately went into circle mode, making a spiral around the place I found the first object, and hit 3 buttons. By this time Chase was way across the field, so I noted where I found this stuff and joined him to scout the rest of the place. We found next to nothing, I got just a few buckle bits. We decided to go back to this "hotspot" and the buttons just kept coming, I think between us we found well over 20. Small cuff buttons, medium buttons, a couple large, both brass and Tombac. They were everywhere in about an acre or so. What I thought might be a pretty bad day turned out to be a great one, I got all this: 16 buttons and a bunch of other brass stuff. Chase did as well. When things wound down we quit for the day, but there are certainly more there. Here's the trash, only a handful but I got fooled by a few bits of big iron today: I was using Relic exclusively, with the 13" coil on the Deus 2, with reactivity at 1 and Audio response 7. Some of the buttons were over 10" deep! We found other artifacts that deep too. Sadly we found no coins in that spot. We think it was an area where people got together and traded stuff in the 1600s and 1700s, and possibly with the Indians as well. This is a great example of how you really have to search a farm to find the hotspots, it takes a lot of determination and some really good guesses. You just can't give up! There may be another hotspot here, there is a part of the field we didn't go to, but we'll get there. ?

Outstanding, NC. Your coin is a 50 Sen coin, date uncertain, but it's the "Small" one. .720 silver. ? Gotta love Tekkna. ? The 9" makes a difference when there's a lot of trash.

Congratulations Steve! An enviable group of finds by any measure. ? Bravo! What sort of place were you searching?

Yes. I think that some think they're going to find stuff directly under iron by discriminating the iron. I have seen that work but only in an air test with nails on top of a coin with an old Tesoro detector, the digital machines with DD coils simply don't do it. The Tesoro had a mono coil. I have never been able to repeat that "in the wild" ?. I agree with your assessment completely. I knew that I would ruffle some feathers, thanks for playing! ? Coil size, whether larger than the target with iron surrounding it, or small enough to get between the iron, coupled with a certain response speed (reactivity, recovery) is what will win the day. If there is enough iron present it will overwhelm the coil, so technique comes into play. The Deus 2 goes to 7 reactivity, imagine using that! ? But the higher response speed, the less depth. ? @NCtoad posted a video where it was speculated that a larger coil might be just as good. I'm not a fan of Mr. Lemke but he does make a point, and NC showed us some nice finds. ? I tried it, it did seem to hit deeper stuff which I expected it would, but it also did way more down averaging than the 9" did. Air tests and even symmetric in-ground tests don't do much for me, try burying a silver dime and throw a handful of nails over it... ? Which is about as real as you're going to get. ? Seems to me the "witchcraft" of Tekkna comes from the forced conductor tone spread and reactivity. I use 2 reactivity mostly but turn it up as high as 4 when things get crazy, knowing I'm going to get more shallow targets.

Well thanks Tekkna detractors, but move on, please. ? Y'all seen to think I'm promoting this as some sort of magic bullet, it's not - but it is very useful. You are going to dig non ferrous stuff that is junk, and if there is lots of junk, you will dig lots of junk. If you pay attention to the sounds, what you won't dig is iron. I've tried the other programs posted here and they are far more useless than Tekkna. Blanking iron out completely is ridiculous, how do you know where you are? "Unmasking" is a myth that only appears in air tests. Best you can hope for is separation. That's what Tekkna is all about. If you hear a persistent mid or high tone on iron, try to isolate it. Dig it if you hear it in all directions. Simple... Gary Blackwell released a new video, and promises to post a version for the beach soon: Love dogs but I don't think I'd let mine chew my MI-6. ? I have had great success with this program, it goes where Relic needs a rest. Personally I think the 9" coil is better suited to it the more dense the trash is, but I always have the 13" with me. YMMV. Only a few more weeks until I have to give up farm hunting for 7 months ? but I'm looking forward to the beaches! I will probably take Beach Tekkna for a spin as soon as it comes out. ? GL, HH.

Well yes, but that would also make a better case for Relic. I used it in a mostly iron situation and it did find great stuff. When the targets get thin I switch to relic, because I'm heavy trash relic is too loud. I guess I didn't mind digging all that "trash" if there are precious metals and coins at stake, simply because any non ferrous stuff could be really good, and it's comfortable with iron volume at 8 or less. Rarely is a signal diggable if it doesn't produce clear tones in all directions, that is the thing to force yourself to remember when using it.

Yep, they were called "Hollywood Pin Ups", made in the 1940s. I didn't dig the Walker, that was a reference photo. I didn't dig the dime either. ?

Haha yes, I sure do. It's an aluminum clothes pin, ca. 1940s. This site has bits of a lot of them. ?

Man, back in stride! You sure needed this after the last hunt. I like the Philippines coin, not necessarily rare but not one you see often, I didn't know it existed ? Guess you should hit this beach until you can't ?

Ok, figured out the spoon guy, as best as possible. Used some 0000 steel wool. Meet Kaiser Wilhelm II, King of Prussia prior to World War 1. The stem says "Deutschland", and the Germanic eagle is at the top. The back would depict two soldiers and the German Flag at the time, but no matter how much I steel wool this spoon it won't come out. This spoon was made by the "Oneida Community" pre-Oneida Limited of New York. The "Community" was disbanded in 1881, an odd story in itself. There were two commemorative spoons made possibly to celebrate the second marriage of the Kaiser to his wife pictured above, or as an earlier tribute. This puts this spoon at the latest to be 1906, but it was probably made before 1881. Fun stuff!

Yikes! Starting? If this area wasn't so full of broken bits of everything, but had so many interesting bits as well, I wouldn't dig all non ferrous. ?

The signal corps badge is WW1 era, the screw back gives that away. ? Really like the Fleur de Lis pin, may have signified some alliance with France. Wild guess on the double ring thing, may be part of a horse bit, or an alligator teething ring ? Great finds!

Dollar coins are unusual finds in the USA, so great job. ? That half must have been a real ear popper! Well done.

Isn't that how you check to see if it's real? ? After 2 hours of walking around the field and crossing it diagonally, I had to have a bite. I heard nothing but the occasional big iron blast. ? Spent another hour in another part and found even less. Going to go back there and check the other half on a better day, that was too much walking for nothing. ? At least I had the smaller field next to it that had plenty of stuff. ?

A small update on what I thought was a lapel watch: It's a Ketcham and McDougall retractable eyeglass or pencil chain, ca. 1903-1920. Here is a nice one, this person didn't have it engraved: This one had the older logo but the newer clasp: I really like researching stuff I find, I'm pretty sure the chain is all rusted up inside.

Thanks JCR, I've found two or three of them myself lately, newer detectors seem to hit them better ? Oddly mine showed up as a 63, not the 85 the others were.

Got a new permission yesterday, a nice older gentleman approached me while I was digging in a small field I call the Jewelry Box. After talking to him for an hour (really more listening), I asked if I could detect his farm and he said that would be fine. It's a big place, 100 acres but only about half that is field. The coolest thing is that there is an old blacksmith shop sort of on the property, but the landowner doesn't own it. There were also two older houses far back on the farm, now gone. There is a much newer one there now where the owner lives. I went there today to scout it and see if there are any hotspots. I managed to find about 3 things, but man that place is clean. It was probably detected in the past. I walked for 3 hours and other than a buckle, a clad dime and a small pin on watch, all I find there was buck shot and shotgun shell ends. ? I only searched half of it today, it was warm but the wind was blowing about 20mph with gusts to 35. It was absolutely brutal, walking on bean stalks and getting blown all over the place. I finally gave up and went back to the small field next door hoping to save the day. I had both the 9" and 13" coils with me, and ran Relic most of the day but switched to the new Tekkna program when the trash got dense. This also prompted me to switch to the 9" coil. While the 13" has pretty good separation, the 9" really sees so much less ground it can pick targets a bit better. Ended up with some pretty good stuff, the last 3 hours I searched my small field and scratched a few more good finds. Here's what I dug: Some sort of famous person spoon, a large brass buckle used to hold a strap on the pin, a General Service button. Got a 1937 wheat and the small gold plated watch near the shop, the brass buckle in the back of the field. The 1943 war nickel, the incredibly detailed buckle among other things came from the small field, it was a tough but decent day. Trash in the small field was horrendous: Got a little toy cap gun, sadly broken in half near the barn.

Welcome to the forum from Eastern Virginia.

Nice hunt GB, Looks like you're doing well with the M-Core, great to see a post from you. Nice silver score!! ? Pretty good place if you got that in 3 hours. ?

Thanks RVP, Yesterday I got another big permission, the landowner came out to talk to me, a fella in his late 80s. Even offered to drive him back home but he said he needed the exercise. ? I believe this is the final piece of this huge old plantation that was subdivided many years ago. If you're sporting a smartphone, do yourself a big favor and get an app called CalTopo, it's free! You might need a cheap backup battery if you're going to track yourself. I did a small tutorial on how to use it here: This app is great, you can overlay old roads from historic maps and even see Lidar imagery. Soon you'll be seeing farmers and landowners out, strike while the iron is hot. Here is a reliable backup battery for tracking: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0B2R8YVWV ?

Thanks, this is a great idea. ? Might take a bit to find other lower priced models with an external jack for a transceiver.

I'd like to know the answer to this too, and would like to know as well why I have to loosen it with pliers when I want to recharge it no matter how much I grease it up. ?Otherwise it's the best pinpointer I own.

This will probably be the last post from me about Tekkna for the Deus 2, I might mention it in passing but I want to show y'all a typical day out using it. Brutal start today, when I got to this field I've named The Jewelry Box, one that Chase and I found a good amount of silver jewelry in it was 38 degrees, it never got warmer than 50 and the wind was strong. I've come back a couple of times, but today I really wanted to use Tekkna the whole day with both the 13" and the 9" coil, after seeing how well @NCtoad did with his 13". Sadly it didn't really work out as well as I hoped, this field is so loaded with non-ferrous junk and iron it became apparent that I had to switch to the 9" coil for about half of it. Tekkna really does a nice job of finding small stuff in iron, I can imagine if I had a spot with nothing but iron I'd be able to find a few more things there. But that's about where it ends, I can use my heavily modified Relic program too with the same end result, just varying Reactivity where necessary. I try to be very honest about the trash I end up with, here's a photo of everything I dug today that I will not be keeping: Only one piece of iron fooled every program on my machine, everything else is Non-Ferrous. Clock and Pocket watch parts, flatware, pocket knife bits, knobs, shotgun shells and bullets, along with foil and other annoying aluminum are everywhere in a portion of this field. I rue the day the Concertina was invented, I think we have found just about every reed now. ? Chase and I hit it really hard, almost all the silver stuff is gone, but I still managed to squeak a few more things out of it today: Got a brooch that is really shot through with bronze disease but it's one of the more unique things I've ever found: Even the back of it is interesting. There are multiple ages of activity in this small field, probably from the 1700s to the 1890s, and then from about the 1920s to the 60s, there are things representing both eras. It was probably cherry picked long ago because no large coins have been found here and there should be some. Regardless, the Tekkna program is great for a spot like this, but I still think the 9" coil is preferable to use with it. Bottom line is if there is a lot of non-ferrous junk, you are going to dig a lot of non-ferrous junk if there is the possibility of finding jewelry. That, it did quite well. I'll be keeping it on my machine, with the 9" coil handy. There was another bright spot, a gentleman almost in his 90s approached me in this field today, and after an hour or so of talking with him he gave me permission to his 100 acre farm next door ?

I really like those headphones, they are incredibly loud if you want them to be, and I used them all summer hunting beaches. I wish they would pair with my Deus 2, but I like the XP backphones that come with it as well because they don't go over my head. They are "on ear" too.

Thanks! ? To me a buckle like that is as good as finding an old coin. This place was established about 1670, maybe even earlier. It was a grant from King Charles I or two anyway... So it's probably one of the first things they lost ? I do have a Gnat Hat, but I already look scary enough. ? I wear that mowing at home. ? I'm used to it but my wife never will be. I'm glad we don't have the black flies you do up there, but we have deer flies and horse flies that are most annoying.