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  1. My last coin and silver of 2021 was a barber half. Since that day I have not been out, Here in PA we had some really cold days and some snow. I thought my next hunt would be in April. Well today we had a high of 47 and the ground crust thawed enough to try a hunt. I kept having the feeling that I left something behind last time out, So back to the park I went were the barber came from. The first coin out of the ground was a clad dime followed by 2 quarters. My next great tone was by an OLD oak tree a mere 10 feet from where the barber was found. Roots galore but still no coin at 7 inches, having a feeling it was something good I slowly excavated another 2 and out jumped another 1/2, This time a really nice 1945 Walker. I ended 2021 with a total of 47 silver coins 5 of which were 1/2's, So starting out 2022 with a 1/2 might/ (hope) be a good omen.
  2. Beautiful day here in Central Texas. I drove over to a park about an hour from my house and had a very productive day. Thanks for stopping by and taking a look.
  3. Got out today to a permission that’s close by. There’s an old house on this property and from what I’ve read the house was built in either the late 1800s or early 1900s. I’ve hit this place seven or eight times already and have gotten 6 silver coins. All dimes: two barbers and four mercs. The guy that bought the place is slowly tearing down the house and I noticed he finally got the roof rafters off of it. I’ve been wanting to detect the dirt under the floor system that he tore out a few weeks ago but I was leery of going in there with the weight of the roof on those old walls. So today I got in there with the nox and six inch coil. First thing I noticed was a LOT of bottle caps. That and lots and lots of iron. I had the nox running in both park 1 and park two with custom five tones, recovery on 7, iron bias at 0 and then 6, sense anywhere from 16-21. I got two ‘45 wheats, three buffs a ‘15, ‘18 and the other is too corroded to get a date off of. Highlight of the day was a ‘36 merc, my first silver of the new year.
  4. For the 3rd time in the last four years Southern Indiana had a mild December and I was able to detect 14 days. Here are the highlights of my last 6 hunts -- bracketing Christmas -- 20-->27 Dec.: I'll start with the coins (but not in the order shown). 1929-plain Merc (never been disappointed finding a Merc!), 1943-P Warnick, 1936-D Buffalo nickel (very common date+MM), well worn Buffie with a -D mintmark, either a 1916 or 1918 (or, is it too much to ask, 1918/17 overdate?). Correction: I got a better magnification on it and it's a 1915-D (not the D/D overmintmark, just the standard die strike). I'll expound on the 1891 Indian Head Penny a little later. (Note: if you don't want to read my long-winded details of the relics, please go to the last couple paragraphs which describe the large token. I need help with that one.) The token with the hole (before I put mineral oil on it) appears to be copper due to its green color, but maybe brass on bronze. I recall its dTID on the ML Equinox was low 20's (between zinc penny and aluminum screwcap), so probably brass. One side says "THIS TOKEN HAS NO CASH OR TRADE VALUE". I've yet to figure out what is printed on the reverse but that is hopefully more revealing of its origin. At this point I think it could have been made anywhere from the 1920's all the way up to the 1960's based both its looks, patina, and depth (~7"). The tiny buckle may be from a child's shoe. It dTID'ed in the USA 5 cent 'Nickel' zone of 12-13. The two pieces of junk jewelry -- ultracheap earring and crushed gold plated copper(?) ring came it 20-21. (I was hoping for IHP's....) The item at the bottom is non-magnetic. On one side it says 'DUCKBILL' and the other side has a patent number. You can see a rusty steel pin near the junk gold-plated ring -- some kind of pivot point I think. It has an opening on the left end but nowhere else. It appears to be a crude piercing or puncturing tool. If I really want to dig into it I will need to clean up the other side so I can read the patent number and then do a patent lookup -- I've done those before. Not sure I care enough to go to that trouble, but it would give me a better idea of its age (and thus more info of the site). On one of my hunts I hit a part of the park I hadn't done any searching, thinking it was barren of old coins. In the first 10 minutes I got a Buffalo nickel (don't remember which one). 3+ hours later with little more to show (maybe a Wheat Cent or two) I was getting ready to wrap up, hoping for one more goodie. About 10 m. from where I found the Buffie I got a signal which just barely gave a 20 dTID (my first high tone bin) but mostly 18 and some 19. It was a weak enough signal that I thought it might be fairly deep and thus not a recent drop. I don't remember the depth but somewhere in the 5-7 inch range and out popped the 1891 IHP. I know others (e.g. F350Platinum) have gotten IHP's with low dTID's but mine are almost always 20-22 (as are most of my oldest Wheat pennies). Since ring tabs (missing the beavertail) tend to show 18 in my experience, I've avoided 14-18 (14 being modern 'racetrack' shape pulltabs). Whenever I get an anomalous dTID like this I wonder how many keepers I've left in the ground.... After that day I lowered my lowest high tone bin to 19 but have yet to dig another IHP (quite of the hated corroded Zincolns, though). The biggest surprise is the large token at the upper left. In the middle it says "ONE PENNY" and the rest of the printing: FRANKLIN CHAPTER NO. 20, R.A.M. CHAPTERED MAY 7TH 1858 OROVILLE, CALIF. (I didn't photo the reverse but here is what it looks like -- this photo from Google Images): A bit of internet searching revealed that 'R.A.M.' stands for 'Royal Arch Masonry' which I think is part of the well known Freemasonry, but a subgroup that has its own meetings, lodges, etc. Here's a Wikipedia writeup. From what I can tell (again from the internet), lots of chapters had these so-called 'pennies' issued with their chapter location and number printed on them as far back as the 2nd half of the 19th Century. There was (and probably still is) a fairly widespread practice of collecting them. So how, why, and when did this one travel 2000+ miles from the heart of the California Motherload to a muni park in Indiana? That I will never know. It dTID'ed in the mid-30's, consistent with a USA large cent or large USA 90% silver coin (half or dollar). Based upon that I think it's pure copper. Given its condition and where it was located -- about 6" deep and maybe 18" from a sidewalk (probably poured in the 60's or 70's, with associated nearby backfill -- I assume it's been in the ground somewhere very roughly around 30 years. I found an obituary of an Oroville R.A.M. chapter member who died recently (2019) at the age of ~90 so it was still in existence after WWII, and is maybe still in existence. Anyone know any more than that? Has anyone of you ever find a Masonic Penny while detecting?
  5. In an earlier post I stated how I almost hit the Apple Trifecta today. What are the other Trifecta or cycles should we strive for in 2022. Example: Apple trifecta: iPhone, AirPods and an Apple Watch. Coin Cycle: Quarter, dime, nickle and a penny Ring Cycle: Gold ring, Silver ring, Tungsten ring and a Platinum ring. What would be the Relic Cycle? What would be the Gold nugget Cycle? Silver coin cycle?......etc. Basketball has it's doubles and baseball has it's cycles, maybe for 2022 we should have beach, field and gold awards for the rest of us. Happy Hunting and have a safe and healthy 2022.
  6. It's been a year and a day since I joined DP. 🥳 My finds today weren't spectacular, but I did find something interesting at least. Nobody is posting relic or coin finds 🤔 Cold day today, never got out of the mid 40s. I went to a new permission, a very old place in town where not only can I hunt the main farm that was set up in the 1740s, Using old USGS topos and aerials I was able to identify 5 other sites within the 1,000 or so acres I managed to get permission to. Today I searched around this old house. It was on the 1917 USGS map, I was hoping I'd find some interesting stuff here but the place is littered with beer cans and other trash. I was able to squeak out one memorial, and a thin copper button, and in the field in front the remains of a very old lock of some kind. I'll probably go back there in the future but it's really difficult to navigate the overgrowth. I decided to go across the highway to a site right next to the old farm, again a house was there in '17 but it's gone now. After finding lots of aluminum bottle caps and poking around in general, I figured out where the house was and searched that area. Got 9 more coins. The tree on the left was right next to the house, if I looked carefully I could see where the foundation was. The tree even has remnants of an old swing. Here are the total finds for the day, 1 old thin copper button. 10 coins, the oldest being a 1940 wheat, and the newest is a 1982 memorial. I believe the house was removed in the 90s. I'll have to go back to look for silver but I have heard this place has been gone over. My most interesting find was this, it was originally gold plated: It's an "Alexander The Great" pendant. It seems old but you can still get it on Amazon for $30 🤣. I have no idea why anyone would have it or lose it for that matter. 🤷 https://www.amazon.com/Two-Sided-Ancient-ALEXANDER-Pendant-Necklace/dp/B07HBT2SWV
  7. Got a penny-ish signal today ( Fisher F19 w/ 9X5 coil ) but during the recovery it just sort of disappeared. Found it with a little difficulty. 1963 Canada nickel. Internet tells me it is pure nickel. Doing some air testing and its an odd bugger. The ID is variable with distance (sure any coin will vary nearing the max disc ID distance but this coin is very sensitive to distance changes ), ID changes with swing direction like a junk target ( likely due to slightly different distance ), as the coin gets within couple inches of coil the ID is way down, and within an inch of the coil its IDing VERY LOW in the iron range, like #1 or #10, sometimes the detector does not even respond ( yes, the disc is set at zero/ none ) and if disc is zero why wont it report consistently in the very low iron range? Still a little disc going on even at zero? Find it a little bothersome because 19khz should be hammering on pure nickel? In all metal mode consistently gets it, this coin just dont play well in disc mode. Maybe this is old news to you all but is a new one on me. Your thoughts?
  8. Was at a local park today and was able to run at 24 sensitivity. I set recovery speed at 4 and dug the good sounds. This penny sound was very faint and I would not have heard it without earbuds. It was so deep, I was about to leave the hole after digging a lot of dirt thinking it was a false signal. Most of the deep coins from this area come out around 8"-10", so this was outside of the norm. The coin was flat on the bottom and was still stuck in the dirt when I dug it out with fingers. I would not believe it if I wasn't there taking the pics. Equinox, 15" coil, Park 1, 24 sensitivity, 4 recovery speed
  9. I dug this on the edge of a basketball court this afternoon: It is half solid green acrylic, and half a very dense, non-magnetic metal. Too hard to be lead. There are two holes in the back which appear to contain tiny, rusted Phillips-head screws PS: The penny in the first photo was found in the parking lot on my way home. As was approved by this group’s consensus several weeks ago, I get to add it to my day’s tally.
  10. Finally got my Tejon up and running. Had to use some potentiometer cleaner that has a lubricant in it. I sprayed inside the pots where the pins are and not the top. I didn't want to break down the dampening grease. At first not much improved but after a day later and a good work in they run smooth. Big difference as I can now hear the nuance between iron, aluminum and good targets. My basic settings is crank the sensitivity up but still have no chatter. Next ground balance as good as I can. My primary disc set just slightly above the iron where an iron cut nail will crackle. This helps me skip past the tiny junk and run really quiet. If I hear any crackle I'll swing the coil in a couple different directions and listen for any descent tones or spikes that may indicate a masked object. 2nd disc is set at the high mark of nickel. This keeps the tiny silvers like trimes, half dimes etc. Hunting I listen for just the nice tone rolls, soft tiny ones I can use my 2nd disc as junk check to see if they are super deep or just foil. Park is really old but has a massive hill so bottom has some serious top soil where I dug a couple cans in the +14" mark. One clad quarter was past the 12". Super deep targets it can be tricky to tell cans from large silver as they are getting to the fringes of the machine. Couple Musket balls, some clad, nice rosette so far. These are from short lunch break runs so only been hitting smaller areas. The rock has iron in it and is heavy, maybe iron ore? Sounded way better than it looks 🙂 Still tons of targets and the area is right for one the old USA gold coins so I do tend to dig the small aluminum just to be sure.
  11. My 2021 New Years Resolution (and I think my 2020 one, too) was to find sites I hadn't previously searched rather than to put all my eggs on cleaning up what's left of familiar sites. (I still do some of that, too, though). This year I've already reported on four previously unsearched (by me, that is) sites, all which have produced. More on those in my year end summary in a month. Early in November I decided to make one more try for 2021 at finding some new ground and with the help of HistoricAerials.com, I found four promising locations. I'm going to simply refer to them as sites 0, 1, 2, and 3. Site 0 is the easiest to report on. From early 20th Century USGS topos it was a small (one room?) school that disappeared around 1950. A drive by showed that not only is it now a private home, but that the intersection where it was located has been seriously reworked, i.e. enlargened. At best it falls into the 'private permission' category and I'm not at all good at those. Site 1, with added help from Google searching, was an elementary school and high school back at least to the eary 30's. The HS closed in the mid 60's and the elementary school a few years later. The building is still there but there are mixed signals as to whether it's public or private. Some threatening signs indicated at least part of it is currently privately leased, but the a__holes are very vague about what is and isn't theirs. I spent 1 1/2 hours in a couple spots with promising results (see photo of good finds below) but I just didn't feel comfortable. There was a lot of coming and going by various groups (sports participants, church goers, etc.) and although no one bothered me I just didn't feel welcome. Site 2 was another small elementary school. I don't know when it was formed but it appears to also go back to early in the 20th Century. I think it closed around 1960. It's now a small public park and community center. Unfortunately both my visual (internet) research as well as detecting and viewing the site in person makes me think it's been heavily reworked since the school was torn down. First hunt there, 3 1/2 hours, produced 2 Wheaties and a sterling ring, plus a fair amount of modern coins and trash. That was my survey hunt. My second trip there was intended to focus in on a trashy but potentially less overfilled part with the ML Equinox and 6" coil, but that wasn't very fruitful. About 2 hours in I was approached by an elderly (81 year old) friendly neighbor who filled me in on some history. He said he had attended that school as a youngster (presumably around 1950) and told me that although several detectorists had been there before me, as far as he knew they had never searched a slope near one edge of the property where he said he used to play and that bulldozers hadn't bothered. Now that's the kind of info I like to hear! I thanked him and headed over there. For now I'll leave it at that and tell more in the show-and-tell portion of this post. He twice more returned and told me of some other nearby sites I should search but they all sounded like private properties. Site 3 is an active, modern elementary school which replaced an early one built around 1955. I was able to go there during their Thanksgiving recess. Unfortunately this site has been heavily reworked since the original school was razed and it also feels like it's been rather thoroughly searched. In 7 1/2 hours (two days) of hunting I only found 2 Wheats plus one other oldie (more on that shortly). OK, here is the eye candy you've been waiting for: Top two items are from Site 1 -- 1983-D nickel-clad half dollar (only my second ever) and a necklace chain and pendant which was clean but unfortunately apparently (magnetic) nickel plated copper. Both were reasonably shallow but not on the surface. Based upon these finds I don't think this part of this site has seen detectors in 2 or 3 decades. Now the finds are in pairs from lower left. Site 2 produced this sterling ring with stones (don't know if real, but they look nice to my eye, and especially to my wife who has already claimed it!). Thanks to that 81 year old former student I found the 1899 Indian Head Penny on the virgin slope where he used to play. Turns out the EMI was so bad I had to use 4 kHz on the ML Equinox and its dTID rang up in the high 20's (silver coin zone), not 20-ish where they show up in MultiFrequency. It was only about 4 inches deep. Next two (silver alloy 'Warnick' and broken piece of jewelry) were found at Site 3, showing that there are a few spots which haven't been backfilled. The broken piece showed up in the USA nickel zone (dTID 12-13 on the Equinox) and given its size I think this is high conductive composition. Both ends show that they were broken off something larger (bracelet?) and the fact there is zero copper coloring there makes me think this could be a silver alloy. Finally, the last two items on the right were found this past week in my bread-and-butter 2021 site, the 'Wheatfield', not one of these four recently reserached sites. The ring has a men's wedding band shape but is marked '925' so sterling. (My wife has claimed it, too.) The IHP is a 1901. In my two times searching there last week I found 5 Wheat pennies each day (3 hour hunts per day). I expect to spend my last few hunts this year at that site. I'm sure there are more oldies and I'm shooting for a record year (quantity) of Wheat penny finds. I only need 5 more to tie last year's 103. The above picture is the 'good'. Here are the 'bad' -- interesting (?) non-coin finds from these four sites: And if you want to see 'ugly', you'll have to await a future post.
  12. Was out today to a local park and came across a strong 32-38 signal on the Equinox. I raised the coil and it still was loud. I thought it was going to be deep junk, but there were a couple 32s that showed consistently on the screen. I was not aware that 1967 was still 40% silver. Equinox, 15" coil, Park 1, 23 sensitivity, 4 Recovery speed, All metal
  13. Trusting His Gut, a Metal Detector Enthusiast Makes a Discovery That Dreams are Made of | Page 33 of 34 | Housecoast | Page 33
  14. We've had nice weather here in the Midwest the past week or so and after getting out Wednesday I was doubling up on Thursday afternoon. The curve ball mentioned in the thread title was breaking an ML Equinox 11" coil ear when loading the car, which I described in the appropriate thread. Fortunately I have both the 6" and 12"x15" coils (but not the Coiltek 5"x10" yet). I'm detecting a park with not too much iron or aluminum trash so I figured the large coil would be OK, as long as it didn't mess up my elbow swinging a heavy coil through the deep grass. (Wet and warm early autumn hasn't met with the Parks Department's mowing budget....) First target was showing low 20's (typically an aluminum screw cap) and out popped a clad dime. Hmmm, that should have been 25-26. Was the larger coil giving different dTID's. Going back over the hole answered the question -- 20-21 and out comes a Zincoln. I don't think the two coins were touching but they were super close to each other leading to the anomalous dTID initially. 15 minutes into the hunt I get a Wheatie, not too deep (3-4 inches). That's the age coin I'm looking for. Maybe an hour later after the typical occasional can slaw, a couple rusty nails, and a few modern coins I got a nice sounding but inconsistent tone & dTID. From one direction as I swept close to the target location left-right I was getting hi-lo-hi-lo... tones (14-19 = pulltab zone is set for a medium tone whereas 20 and up are high tones; the tone was alternating between these two). This is not typical of coins in my experience by any means so I'm thinking a flattened, non-symmetric aluminum screw cap. I don't remember the exact strength indicator value but I'm sure it was at least 5, maybe mostly 6, possibly occassional 7. I also don't remember the dTID at a 90 degree compass change angle of approach but I'm sure it was at least high 20's (large, elongated can slaw?). The tone volume told me it wasn't a near-surface coin-sized object. Definitely good enough to dig. Weak(er) signal strength means take a good sized plug so about 7"-8" diameter and 5" deep was my start. The Garrett Carrot (set at max gain = 3) said I was in the right spot and switching to the fine tuning White's TRX told me I had a localized (coin-like size) target which was between 1" and 2" deeper than the current hole depth. I carefully cut about a tennis ball sized chunk of dirt centered on the TRX signal's centroid and upon removal was told the target was in that glob. Breaking it up with my fingers I saw a coin but it wasn't immediately obvious if modern clad or silver. Again, careful not to scratch I picked off a clod of dirt and saw the familiar (from dimes I've found 🙂 Barber Head. See middle coin in photo: Only my 3rd silver quarter ever and 1st Barber Quarter, others being Washingtons. (Guess I'm going to skip the Standing Liberties. ) Even better than being 19th Century date was the -S mintmark. Left coin in the photo is actually a 1919-S which I found the previous day probably less than 10 m away from where I found the quarter. So -S mint oldies in consecutive days, and neither is particularly common although neither is a semi-key. On the right is a 1941 Merc which I found last week, so three consecutive hunts with non-penny old coins. That's very good for me in my current public sites. Why the anomalous dTID from one direction? I wonder if the coin was oriented on-edge. So what's the big 'A'? Some of you recognize this as the Atlanta Braves initial. For those who don't follow our North American professional baseball, they just won the annual championship (not so modestly called 'World Series') for their first time in a quarter century. They were underdogs vs. at least their last two playoff opponents. But there is a detecting connection. I sometimes hunt in rural areas during Autumn and that is prime (gun) hunting season. I have other bright (orange) garb but I wanted a baseball cap (easier to accomodate headphones) and I saw this hat at a flea market for $5 a few years back. I wonder if I can sell it now for a profit. Anyone interested?
  15. My sister-in-law was coming into town today so my wife gave me the green light to go do some metal detecting for a couple of days. I decided to go try a couple of new spots. First one was about 45 minutes from the house the second one was about an hour and a half. Neither one panned out so I decided to drive another hour and a half to a place that had produced some silver last month. It was 1:00 when I finally got to do some serious hunting. I kept having a gut feeling to hunt a certain area so that's where I began. Within 3 hours I had five silvers and a couple of Wheaties. I hit a nice spill that had four coins in the same hole, a merk, a silver Washington quarter, a 1940 nickel and a 1936 Buffalo nickel. My little honey hole played out so I decided to do a little roaming around. I went to another section of the park, started off with a couple of Wheaties ended up scoring three more silver dimes. My goal for the year was to hit 100 silver coins today put me over the top at 103. I'm going back tomorrow to spend about 5 or 6 hours and see if I can find a couple of more hot spots.
  16. After getting a new coil for the Equinox under warranty, it had its maiden voyage today at the local football field that has been hammered by the other 15"! The dime gave a 31 signal with some iron sounds mixed in; it was down the length of the Garrett carrot. The coil works like the other one, possibly with a bit less EMI. The dime is nothing spectacular, but the conditions were good for detecting and I'll take silver any day.
  17. Detected for a little over an hour today at a local basketball court with the 5x10 Coiltek on the Equinox 800. There were 29 dimes pulled from the ground with more left there, as my legs were feeling the up-down blues. I was going for coins and ring signals in the 5-15 range. Found one wheat penny, but nothing else spectacular. The 5x10 is like using a laser in the trash-littered grass surrounding the court. Even around a trashcan, the coins were still findable among the pull tabs and foil that miss the can. The 5 yen coin was found yesterday at a park; it is worth a whole 4 cents! Takers? Park 1, all metal, 7 recovery, 50 tones, 20 sensitivity
  18. Ozzie took me out to a new site he has visited previously. It was a working farm from somewhere in 1700s, but is abandoned now. Things are grown up so badly around most of the property that even though the house is only 30 feet from the road, i bet 99% of folks have no idea its there. There was so much undergrowth, hunting close to the house was impossible, so we split up and worked on areas of what would have been fields and some yard. Pretty typical mess for around us....buried large metal who-knows-what probably up to and including farm equipment. The sun was out, but it was brisk, alternating some blowing rain squalls...jacket on, jacket off, jacket on, jacket off. Got a couple spoon parts, partial harmonica reed, lead blobs for awhile. Another really loud lead blob sounding tone, but a hair cleaner, and out pops the most likely civil war era rosette for on a bit. 30 feet further, and the nicest Indian I have gotten in a long time. love those greenies. To end the day, found the '40 merc and '43 war nickel under a nice big sycamore. A big shoutout to Calabash for the videos you make...i watched a couple of them a bunch and worked this summer on FE and FE2 settings, making sure I kept the values low enough to mask as little as possible. When digging the IndianHead, i had plenty of iron tones with it, but decided to dig because the non-ferrous was mid, and not high so was fairly certain it wasnt just falsing. first target out was a rusty blob, then scanned again for the high tone, which was still registering, got the coin out, and re-scanned and was still getting another iron object in the hole. all you folks, have fun digging!
  19. For a long time I've wondered what is a good way to search inside buildings for metal valuables hidden in walls, floors, masonry (such as fireplaces), etc. Given most wooden structures are riddled with nails, it seems like a tough task even compared to nail infested soil. Is discrimination key? Has a manufacturer ever made a detector specifically for this task? Is anyone aware of mods that can be made to standard detectors to make them easier to use in these conditions (particularly mounting of coil and control unit to be more manageable in tight locations)?
  20. The corn is harvested here, time to get out in the fields. I've been wanting to search this particular field right next to an old farmhouse where I dug some silver coins. Right up next to it I dug one IHP and a colonial button, figured there might be more in the field. I'd say it's about a half acre, don't know why they bother but a field is a field I guess. Yesterday was one of the last hot and humid days we can expect here, so why not be miserable for a few hours? 😀 The end of the field the photo was taken from is where I dug the coin and button, as you get closer to the hunt club building it's mostly beer cans. They haven't tilled this field and they probably won't, most farming here is "no till". They may run a bush hog around the edges but that's it. Used the 10x5 coil as usual, it's especially good in corn stalks. I found that swinging it ahead of me on an angle is better than back and forth. I made a short video but don't see .MP4 uploads. In 4 hours I got some clad, one coin spill gave me a quarter, nickel, and Zincoln. The other quarter was up near the hunt club. On the "good" end of the field I dug a 1944 wheat. Near that I got a 25, thought I'd get another IHP but to my surprise I dug an old brass ring. I know it's a ring because of the crown on the metal, doubt it's a compression fitting ring. Sad there was no makers' mark or inscription, but I don't want to scrape all the crud off. As it is something put a nick in it. It does not bend. Here is a closeup of the ring: And here is the trash, one iron relic looked interesting, kind of a hook with a loop. I threw all the beer cans and slaw in the handy dumpster. The shell is a high power .17 caliber. Not sure how old the ring is, so I thought I'd post it.
  21. Back at it again today, But this time, I had a definite goal in mind! To intentionally try to squeeze out a few more old coins! And, oh yeah, to get rid of my now sore "detector legs" from Friday's somewhat short hunt! A little side note question first! Am I the only one getting sore legs; and other parts, when digging a bunch of targets at the beginning of a season, or long hunt?? Or are the rest of you just too "afraid" of what the rest of us will think, to mention it??.... No matter, I'm sore, and "Proud" of it!!🤣😂 Anyway, I went out today with a more focused purpose, and more time to put it into action! Did about 5-6 hours today! Same setup, with the Vanquish, and V8 coil! I more or less wanted to repeat the other days hunt, with a wider range of coins, and some added emphasis on finding some oldies, in some curb strips! Our oldest neighborhoods are generally from the 1920's forward! And have had many roadwork and "beautication" projects, that have destroyed prime "old coin" hunting grounds! But you work with what you got!! So knowing that some of the "tree lined" streets still had their original trees, (i grew up here), I would focus on them for the oldies!! Between those, and general hunting of this park, adjacent to some of them, I should at least, be able to get a few shallower "older" coins! My V8 park hunting produced plenty more modern coins, as expected, and was good fun! But also, self-limiting, as that coil doesn't get the depth needed for those elusive oldies that may be there! The soil under the St. Augustine Grass here, tends to be very rich, and easy to dig, with lots of earthworms, so the coins get buried pretty deep, over the decades! Not unexpected, but i was jumping back and forth, from the strips to the park, so I kept the same coil on the detector the whole time! I also have the V10, and V12, so I will go back with those at some point, and test my theory! And of course, the Nox!! So, to the Good Stuff! One each from just beneath three different "parking strip" old trees! No deeper than about 6 inches, but hidden up against large tree roots! And thankfully, not grown into them!! A 1942 Silver Merc!! 💖🎊 No nail board test from Monte this time!!🤣 Two 1919 Weaties!! 💕(Same date, two different trees; weird!!) So now, I at least know that my theory; while producing only a few oldies; is actually sound enough to follow-up with, In future hunts! I can live with that!! The rest of the hunt produced alot more pennies than I wanted to dig, thanks to two fairly large "penny dumps" in two separate curb strip locations! (Over 100!!🤯) I basically just sat there with my pinpointer, and located them till my legs got numb, and I had enough!!😂 Still more in both spots for another round! I guess there are non-detectorist that hate the pennies as much as we do!!🤣 A rough count puts it around 140 coins total! And I skipped alot of penny's, believe it or not!! So I'm "Tremendously Happy" with the 2 Silvers, and 3 older Wheats, over two days! They actually give me some hope for more now! Or maybe, those where the last two Silvers left in Florida!! So I can leave now!!🤣😂
  22. The weather has been slightly cooler, and dryer here this week! (85 with about 75% humidity!) And my sore foot is manageable now! So yesterday morning I went on a sunrise beach hunt with the Nox, and 11" coil! Conditions were very sanded in, and I only found a few coins, a junk earring, and a lead weight; among the usual junk items! I didn't stay long, as I wanted to do a park hunt too, and not reinjure my foot! I didn't actually get to do the park hunt till about 4pm today! And decided to use the Vanquish and the V8 coil! I was really only wanting to dig some shallow recent drops of quarters and dimes, on the edges of the park's "weekend soccer field", in a small area, before dark! and avoid most of the trash that is there! It's not very groomed, and is full of short weeds and various grasses! When I drive by, I see the players and family's gather, like clockwork, every weekend! So there is generally a constant supply of easy clad to find, under the nearby trees, every few months! Today was really no different than any other day I've been there, other than the detector and coil I used this time! I really enjoy the V8 coil for obvious reasons, and in no time I had a decent amount of clad! I had a few iffy targets that I kept track of, and went back around to, after the initial run through! A few were mult-coin spills of a quarter or dime, mixed with some pennies, and maybe an additional quarter or dime! Those were found rechecking the hole, and I knew by the V8's response, that there were others nearby! One particular target gave me some aggravation, as it was under some weed block, and there was also a mat of small roots to dig thru! This was in a dug out area of one of those exercise stations! I initially got a very clipped "quarter" signal on my first pass, and came back to it later, when the quarter signals got to be fewer! So back to it a second time, and not wanting to dig a big hole, it took a while to locate some targets through the obstacles, and small hole! I knew I had some iron mixed in, when the first pinpoint was a rusty nail! These "targets" were roughly about 5 inches down, and being a "dugout" area, actually got me down about 10-12 inches below the sod area! So detect, dig, pinpoint, a few times, and finally locate the "Beautiful Sight" of my dodgy target! A Bright Smiling 1951 Silver Rosie! 😃 Very satisfying, as the only silver I've found here before, was a nice money clip, and some cheaper jewelry! The silver coins where "all" vacuumed up years ago, and any left have gotten deeper, or totally out of reach!! My main theory though, is that all the rusty nails had masked this one! And with my small V8 coil, and the added depth I was able to get, in this "low" spot! I found one of the few that were missed! When I got home and washed off my coins, and set them out to dry and examine! I got another nice little surprise, in the few pennies I picked up! A 1920 Wheatie (And yes, looks like i nailed it!! 😔) That was probably even more rare here, as it predates the park by about 30 years! So, nothing earth shattering by most of the standards of what you all find elsewhere! But for my area, and the start of detecting season here, this is about as good as it gets! Short of private permissions, which are hard to come by here!! The pictures include my previous day's beach finds in the upper right! All the crusty nails where around the immediate area of the Rosie! And the Wheatie is near the Rosie in the picture! I have no clue which hole that came from! That was just a bonus!!👍👍
  23. I took a day trip today, drove about an hour to go hunt a park that I've been to before. Took me a little while to finally hit a nice hot spot. The area was about 15 ft wide and 30 ft long. Every signal was either a deep wheat or a silver. As you can see my ratio of keepers to clad was extremely high today. I'm running the Equinox 800 in my cherry-picking mode, only digging anything from zinc's up. The barber quarter was an oddball, this park wasn't founded until 1925. I hunted for about six and a half hours.
  24. The dust had barely settled from yesterday's hunt. Originally I had planned to do a little water hunting, then I changed my mind and decided to go back to the park I hunted yesterday. On the road, I scrapped that plan and drove an extra an hour to another park. I'm glad I did because it paid off with another multi-silver day. When I wheeled in, I saw 2 other guys already hunting. I went across the road to stay out of their territory. The third hole of the day was a mini wheat spill consisting of three Wheaties at the 8-9" range. I asked the 2 guys that were taking a break from hunting if they wanted to see how deep the coins were. I had left one in at 8" that was sticking out of the side of the hole to show them. They both explained to me that they don't want to see or dig a deep coin 🙂 If they can't pick up the coin with their pinpointer, they leave it, volume clad hunters only is what they told me. To each their own I guess, which explains why I'm not hitting many coins in these parks, which is fine with me, it just slows me down. After digging 8 or 9 deep wheats, I'm using a Nox 800, I decided to set Park 1-2 and Field 1-2 up with all the same exact settings to see which mode hit the best, Park 1 and Field 1 did the best, although Field 1 wasn't as crisp and sharp tone wise. Park 2 and Field 2 degraded the signal to a point I wouldn't have stopped to investigate the hit. I ran the Nox in my cherry piking mode: Park 1 Recovery speed 3 Iron Bias 0 Sens 23 2 tones No disc-wide open Tone bin set at 21 Very slow sweep These small town parks are producing in a way I didn't expect. I don't do much research, I google the town or ask someone where the oldest park in town is and go from there. So far, so good, 42 silver coins, 4 silver rings and over a 100 wheats in the last 2 weeks doing this.
  25. I closed out my 5 1/2 days of hunting in Texas Panhandle today and I ended up with a few more keepers. What a productive trip it was. Since I will not be coming back to this area again for some time, my intent was to hunt for wheats and silver only. I did not want to spend most of my time digging trash chasing nickles and low conductors. I hunted 3 different parks and 1 school. I'm not sure how many hours I hunted, maybe 50 or so, but, I hunted until I could not swing the coil anymore each day The first 2 pictures are of today's hunt followed by the total's for the week. Thanks for stopping by and having a look.
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