ShintoSunrise

5 hours ago, rvpopeye said:

Heya Eric

What are you interested in finding ? 

 I hear there's good gold in that area you're in...and just a bit of history buried there too !

I've heard of gold in Virginia and I know a bit of the history, but my understanding is that it is mostly in flake form and nuggets are extremely rare. Not sure if my 600 is up to the task! I'm mostly looking for relics and jewelry, though if course won't say no to interesting coins

Hey all, I'm currently hunting in Ashburn, so maybe what, an hour or so from Culpeper? 

Hey all, Eric here; Los Angeles native but long-time transplant to the DC metro area. Got back into detecting recently with an equinox 600 after a 20 year hiatus from the hobby. I have an upcoming move to the Seattle/Bellevue area in spring; anyone on this forum know how the hunting is over there? In the interim, any old hands out here in NoVa? I know an interesting spot I've been digging, but it is a challenging iron and trash infested environment that I would love to see a pro take a crack at. Cheers! 

15 hours ago, Valens Legacy said:

Even the military has used dowsing for years along with several other government agencies

Article you linked mentioned (without a source) a single application; in 1967, by unspecified parties, supposedly in Vietnam. That was the same time the CIA was experimenting with LSD and remote mind control...since we lost that war I'm going to guess this little experiment was a dud as well. 

9 minutes ago, CPT_GhostLight said:

This might be a silly question, but did you check the hole after the snakes were removed? Is it possible there were pull tabs in the locations of the snakes?

 

I never bothered to remove the snakes honestly, so this will always be a mystery to me. 

Well my advice then would be to become a second son to this guy and then tell him to call up Chevron so he can show them his moves, because he's about to become the richest person on Earth...

Imagine the multimillion dollar a month salary this dude would be making from the petrochemical and mineral industry if this was even remotely possible. These stories are quaint and cute as they tell tales of old traditions, but anyone who thinks they describe an actual phenomenon is getting sold up snake oil river. 

11 minutes ago, GB_Amateur said:

The presence of a metallic element does not mean there will be a response to a metal detectors.  Most minerals contain metallic atoms but most minerals don't set off a metal detector.  Take halite for example.  Halite's common name is rock salt -- a compound made up of a metal (sodium) and a non-metal (chlorine).  Common table salt is a pure form whereas rock salt typically has contaminants mixed in.  I just ran my Equinox over a chunk of halite maybe half the size of a golf ball.  In order to run at high gain (24) I had to use single frequency since I'm at home with lots of EMI around, even in my back yard where I did the test.   All channels notched in and 10 kHz, 15 kHz, 20 kHz, and 40 kHz (EMI quiet frequencies here) all gave no reaction with coil swing about 1 inch or less over the sample.

Metal detectors respond to two things -- ferromagnetic materials and conductors.  The mineral magnetite is an example of a ferromagnetic non-conductor and is well known to cause a signal in an IB/VLF detector.  Metal detectors are sensitive to conductors because the transmitted changing magnetic field from the detector causes an eddy current of charges to flow in the conductor.  In metals those charges are free electrons ('free' in the sense that they aren't bound to any atom).

Ions in solution are also free to move -- that's part of the mechanism in a battery.  Disolve halite in water the sodium and chlorine atoms (sodium carrying one less electron than when neutral and chlorine carrying one more -- thus meaning each one has a net charge) are available to move in solution.  Thus wet salt (e.g. a wet saltwater beach) causes problems for an IB/VLF metal detector.  That's also why some sensitive detectors sound off when you wave your hand closeby (mentioned by Jeff McC.) -- conductive ions from salts on your less than perfectly dry skin.  Damp salty ground in deserts is another example of false signals that IB/VLF's can pick up.

There is a practical limit for something that conducts to be sensitive to a detector, though.  Lightning often strikes trees because they are the least resistive path to ground in a particular location, but I don't think trees set off a metal detector, at least in general.  I swing over large roots and in my soil I don't get signals unless there are metals hiding in or under them (and that does happen occasionally 😁).

Steve H. mentioned ground voids as setting off a detector because the ground balance was matched to solid ground of more/less uniform mineralization and a void is effetively an anomaly -- some of the ground being missing.  I recall reading (can't remember exactly where) Charles Garrett mentioning this in one of his books -- that tree roots can lead to false signals since the root itself displaces ground.  I think you need rather highly mineralized ground for this to show up, though.  As I noted above, in my moderate (2-3 bars or mid-scale on the Fisher F75 and Fisher Gold Bug Pro) ground I don't get falsing going over roots.  Ditto when swinging over mole trails.

 

 

Great analysis and I agree 100%. Very difficult here to explain why the equinox would detect a snake as a matter of course without introducing metal detecting concepts that don't jive with either physics or our daily experience; I'm going to stick to my tagging hypothesis unless someone else jumps in with another explanation. I saw in another post someone stating their equinox was detecting crabs at the beach; I can only guess that is explainable by unseen tagging or the void hypothesis. At least if I had a snake handy I could settle this right now but unfortunately I am fresh out! 

Seems this thread has diverged; @Valens Legacy implies that the equinox should detect magnesium containing bones such as teeth or walrus tusks, while @Steve Herschbach points out that non-conductive items will generally be invisible to the EM search of a detector unless they coincide with a void that alters the ground signal. At the very minimum I can report that the equinox does not in fact detect my cat in any obvious way, even at the highest sensitivity. I think a third possibility exists; perhaps snakes are not generally detectable, which is what you would expect, but these snakes were tagged somehow, perhaps for research and tracking purposes. 

29 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Anything that can be electrocuted can be picked up with a metal detector if it is hot enough. Electrocution = Conductive

Makes sense to me, but begs the question of why metal detectors aren't known for detecting living creatures more generally. If we assume a sliding scale of conductivity, makes me wonder what the difference is between a snake and say, my cat, which doesn't seem to trigger a response. 

8 hours ago, Valens Legacy said:

A detector can pick up a coiled snake which is in hibernation due to the fact that they have a .31% of magnesium

contained in their bones and teeth.

So depending on how large they are one can easily detect snakes in the winter. So go get them critters and post a couple of your finds on here for everyone to see. A video would be nice to show that it is not a hoax and maybe give someone more time out there.

Rattle snakes can still be dangerous so be careful.

Damn, I have to admit I was really looking forward to being told this was just a wild coincidence; the third snake was cut right in half with my shovel and I felt absolutely terrible for days. Rather than find more and post videos, I am tempted to never dig another pulltab signal in loamy soil ever again...

Ok folks, someone please tell me this is just a bizarre series of coincidences. On three separate occasions now I've come across a good signal out in the forest here in Virginia, usually in the pulltab range, and dig only to find a hibernating snake. How in the world is that possible? Is the metal detector actually detecting the snake or are they just over a target?  I can't figure this out. Any old hands wanna chime in here?