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Coins sure are nice to find but so are balls and buttons.

Went to the low country in the heat....

Last post I mentioned I would put up a short report on a few hours with the Equinox . I haven't detected for several months due to my legs starting to break down . It was frustrating having a SDC out of use and now a brand new NOX . The surgeons report was handed down to me and I was about to have a bilateral double hernia operation . Message came through loud and clear that there would be no vigorous activities for 8 to 12 weeks after operation . Bugger I thought with 4 days before hospital , can't do much more harm to body , better give the NOX a swing . I went to an old miners camp (1850's) where I started detecting in the early 80's with a Garrett Deepseeker . Biggest rubbish dump ever for me , but occasionally I would find a coin or relic . Time to try the new kid on the block in standard field 1 . Well I got the shock of my life and my success revolved around a few very slow hours of detecting . Can't wait till I get the green light and can detect daily . In the pics there is a Australian half penny dated 1943 , I found that on the way home at a trotting track / cricket ground which closed 60 years ago . I have a further 8 weeks of rehab before the NOX comes out for round 2 !!!!!!!!! Can't wait . Enjoy the pics . Cheers goldrat

Getting ready to plan a trip near Yuma Az area digging "trash"... I have a target in mind I would like to find... The quest is to find some Apache Beer cone tops buried in trash pits in desert sands. From knowledge of others digs condition of 1930s cans has shown good promise and recovery of quality specimens of other brands has been promising. I am drawn to Yuma Arizona area because in researching old newspaper ads I found this was one of just several cities they marketed Apache Beer for 6 months in 1936. Below is a newspaper ad from 1936 and a very clean example of the Apache Beer cone top which recently sold for 28,000.00 and you can see here in link http://breweriana.com/beer-cans-cone-tops/apache-export-beer-cone-2881/ Not a typo! those old cans actually sell for insane values. My reason for posting this is to bring attention to just how rare some of this trash is to collectors and also to get some opinions or intel from anyone who might suggest areas I may find open to digging around the Yuma area. As well, has anyone else dug old beer cans and kept them or left them behind in the past?

Help ID this save. I think it is a hand cuff, but not sure of age or style name. Was found at 1800's mining town site by Lisa P with a Garrett AT. We found Seated Liberty Silvers, IH Cents, a Large Cent, Chinese Coins, Tokens, enough dodads to cover a big barn and she shows us this. How rare is this find? If a hand cuff - My family and I started detecting early 70's and non of us have ever recovered such an incredible find. I have thousands of customers across the US and I do not recall any of them sharing a photo of one. May not be worth much in actual dollars, but in rarity it is more scares than a gold coin. If you know of someone or a site that can share some light on this discovery, please share. Lisa easily gets my vote for best find. Hats off to another Lady Digger.

Anyone a Pistol Expert? I just dug this banger of a find. Minelab Equinox 800 sniffed it at only 10". Please share with your gun buddies and we'll get it figured out. It is one of my cooler Idaho digs. Oh, and if you have been lucky enough to have found a pistol or gun, please share story and photos on here.

Here is a picture of the Buckle I found in it's display case. It is always nice to dig up some history and be able to share it with others.

I hit an old sports field that had produced old coins for some of the veteran treasure hunters before me but uunfortunatelymost of it had been covered with fill so I hit the woods where people had camped in the late 1800s. It has been a while since I found a coin there but luckily I was and was reminded of the old dump while walking the creek. I found the spoon on the bank next to an old piece of tin fashioned into a plate.

So last year I am wandering around well off the beaten path in northern Nevada. I was targeting some old mapped prospects that turned out just to be natural features the mappers mistook for mining activity. Still, there is gold elsewhere in the area, and I am seeing lots of quartz scattered around. I wandered for miles swinging the Garrett ATX with one of the new 11" x 13" DD coils. This particular area had some hot rocks that were bugging my GPZ 7000 but which the Garrett tuned out entirely, so I went with the ATX. Garrett ATX in the Nevada desert Hours go by with not a single signal. Then I get this soft loud signal in the middle of nothing - no sign of human activity of any sort. It is strong but not a sharp signal, so I figure it is something large and deep. I start digging and it is deep. I am thinking maybe a meteorite? Or can I dare hope for a large nugget find - no, I tend to not let my thoughts go too far in that direction.... but still........ Close to two feet and this pops out of the ground: Looks to be an aircraft 20mm cannon round, probably WW2 era. I imagine somebody was flying around out there decades ago and fired off a round, which ended up punching into the ground where I found it. Who knows what the real story is, but it got my heart pumping and was the only find of the day.

Good day all. I found this button at an old home site where military buttons and an old eagle sword plate dating back to the mid 1800s was found and never identified it since it is worn. IT could possibly be a 2 piece button because there is a ridge on back but might be one piece as well.Thanks!

It was a Great day trying the nox out in the fields and woods

Well for me at least ? So another 2 hour hunt at the pounded out early 1700's Hole, abandoned prob around 1850 or 1860. I Kept circling in the general vicinity of the home site and found a few more buttons and lead bullets. I had a faint but audible signal which read 13/14 and from a good depth out came the little Georgian strap buckle. The buttons were reading at 9/10 in Field 2. The little buckle might not be a silver coin but I'm totally happy that I found it. I've never found one so small or seen one to be honest! I think the conical button might be militia issue as I've had them before with militia insignia on the front. I like that button because the shank is Wayyy off centre! I guess that one was made on a Friday ? I thought I might be out this weekend but its rain/thunderstorms both friggin days ? Good Luck to all who get out! I'm really starting to think this Nox 800 is going to be one heck of a ride! Oh, penny in there for scale. HH Sillllvar

Tom and I got out for a few hours after work yesterday to one of his "back-pocket" spots that's been well worked over the years. It's getting stingy with targets, but I still managed to get a few keepers, including the oldest seated dime I've found, as my previous oldest seated was an 1840 half dollar, and an 1840 seated half dime. Hunted in Field 2, auto GB, noise cancel, 22 gain, 50 tones, multi-freq, default settings for everything else. If anyone has any idea what this do-hickey is, I'd greatly appreciate an ID. It's about an inch long, and the ID of the circle at the top is about the diameter of a U.S. nickel: Big ole piece of lead was super deep (and super disappointing at the reveal), two old pieces of green copper, we find at Spanish era sites. The large piece is 4.75" long, surprised that wasn't dug up long ago, but just goes to show that there's still potential for large silver, or relics to still be there. Nice old late 1700's/early 1800's flat button: And the grand finale - lol This seated dime was deep, came in as a high tone whisper, and even the pinpoint audio was weak/soft. I've been fooled with plenty of deep iron that sounds similar, but this sounded good enough to go for, took several shovel loads of dirt to get to it, and finally the pin-pointer was sounding off as I saw a dark black disc fly by in the dirt movement. I felt around for it, and located it, and before looking at it I felt it to see if it had a loop as I suspected it was going to be a button, no loop, OK, time to check it out and it was an 1838-O seated dime!! Thanks for looking and HH, Cal

Had some business to do out in the country over the weekend and hit a recommended spot that produced in the old days. It's been hard, hard hit, so hard hit it was left to wither away. I don't mind taking a crack at those kind of sites. At any rate, I gave it a try for a few hours and was pleasantly impressed with what I was able to dig up on this site left to die. I think I may have dug a half to one of those cheap stamped brass 49er buckles, but this one is a plain Jane. Also got a civil war era eagle button but it's seen better days. Some kind of neat buckle all twisted up, but the prize was a surface find - I believe that tiny bottle is an opium bottle? And of course, leave it to me to find a merc that's likely 100 years newer then the site!!! The canslaw was punishing!! Not too many small arms shells, zero shotgun shells (amazingly!) but some BIG OLD LEAD (bottom) !!! As large as a couple of those pieces are, there could be anything from a gold coin to a silver dollar still out there IMO ? Aside from aluminum, not many conductors left! This poor eagle button: Felt good to get out!! I did a lot better at the sale I was picking stuff up from, but there's nothing like detecting old sites HH, Cal

I had intended to go to the beach today...easy and relaxing digging is just so irresistible. Last night I had readied the Equinox 800, CTX and beach scoop in my shop in preparation. During the night as I slept voices kept telling me "Screw the stupid beach and take the Equinox to the foot hills and try it out in some real dirt" Gold nuggets and relics were calling for some reason. I didn't expect to find much...mostly lead bullets etc.... maybe a Chinese coin if I was lucky. And to tell the truth I was not in the mood to dig bird shot today so I hunted mostly in field 2 and Park 2 I put the 800 in gold mode 2 for maybe 5 minutes then switched back. First came the Chinese coin...nice to get one intact...I'd dug one in pieces a few minutes earlier. Then I decided to hunt some tailing piles and I was elated to get the powder flask...an hour or so later I was hunting near a creek so I could retrieve an ax head I had dug last year and left it on a fallen tree. A solid 12 on the equinox...at first I thought I had a small gold coin due to the serrated edge... But hey i'll take a gold ring any day. This sucker is old...the Chinese mined this place and I have yet to find any silver coins here. There are gold nuggets few and far between plus the place is riddled with lead shot of all shapes and sizes. Grass was tall which made for challenging hunting. The ring came from the other side of the creek near the tree in the middle. Good luck and HH! Park 2, Auto GB, Sens 22, reactivity 6, iron bias 0 I had to auto GB often due to soil. Pic with the Sierra is a toast to the old timer before I covered the hole strick

I am loving my Equinox 800 relic machine (soon to be my Equinox beach machine and my Equinox water machine and also my Equinox park and gold machine). Hit the PA site I lovingly refer to as the relic hunter's amusement park which has been the site at which I have obtained several firsts and bucket listers including my first CW plate of any kind which I posted a few weeks ago. I have hunted it the last few times with the Equinox and it sets up well for that machine. For relic hunting, I generally favor Field 2 at the default settings. I have been experimenting also with Park 2. While the default settings for both are similar, there is definitely a difference in the underlying Multi IQ secret sauce based on the way the targets sound and also the way they hit the targets. I found Park 2 to hit a little bit harder on higher conductors, but this could just be my imagination. In this field, I like the Field 2 disc breakpoint at 2 because hot "rocks" in this field (from steam tractor coke tailings) come in at 1 consistently, and the Field 2 breakpoint is 2 vice 9 for Park 2. This is somewhat of a moot point because I generally run All Metal, but occasionally cut in disc when my brain needs a break and just listen for high tones. But the jury is still out as far as I'm concerned as to which of those modes I prefer most for relic hunting. I set up the machine to have the "main" program be Park 2, but with some Iron Bias cut in (3). I have Field 2 loaded up in the User Profile slot without modification from the defaults. In this manner I have a setup where I can quickly interrogate a target with or without iron bias with just a press of the User Profile button. Works great. I also cut in GB tracking for both modes in this hunt. The field has mild mineralizaation and Ground Phase variations typically seen in a plowed field with different crops and it worked well. Well, Equinox delivered once again. Scored a beautiful 1858 Seated Dime (she turns 160 this year, no wonder she is sitting down) and my first Rifleman's Eagle Button ("Eagle R"). Rounded out the hunt with a minie ball, a Williams Type III "cleaner" minie ball (my first Type III), and another Eagle button. Not shown are a 1936 Wheatie and various tiny non-ferrous odds and ends including lead, brass, and copper fragments. Pulled some large ferrous objects too as I had the time to chase some iffy signals and did so. Large, flat iron rings high and forces me to investigate, but in all metal, you can hear the iron grunt too and know you are likely digging some iron and not a masked keeper. But if you have the time...dig 'em because you never know... The site really helps, I have had success here with the Deus as well, but no doubt the Equinox can, will, and has delivered the goods and I gain more confidence with it in every successive outing. HH

I went back to Ohio for a week to show off our new little boy and see family. I begged and pleaded until Steph finally gave in and allowed a day of metal detecting. I took back the Nokta Impact and Fisher F22.. I'm not going to go into the F22 yet as I haven't written up an article but I will say the Nokta Impact did absolutely perfect. When I lived in Ohio I was mostly a relic hunter. Overlaying old maps and hunting in fields where old houses and other things once stood. I was really excited to see how the Impact would do. Well, it did better than I could even imagine! These sites are tough to hunt. Although little to no modern trash you have to fight the heavy iron debris to get to the good finds. Where the house or structure stood is where you will just find a ton of nails and iron, I call this ground zero. When I am hunting ground zero I have always used smaller coils with any other detector I've ever hunted with these sites. With the Impact I was able to run my 11 inch coil in even the heaviest of iron with no issues! I've talked about it a lot but worth mentioning again. The Iron volume setting is amazing! I was able to hunt with the iron volume turned way down or off. I preferred it on to know when I was in the thickest of iron but it was nice not to have to listen to it at full volume. As far as finds - I only managed a few buttons, musket balls and my friend managed a nice button and large cent. I found lots of small copper,brass and lead scrap. I have pounded the two sites I was at in the past. This past fall when I went back they were the only two fields around that the crops had been taken out of and this time they were the only two I could find that weren't flooded! I feel like I'm destined to be stuck in these two sites every time I go back!

Hit up the same site as last week. Started with the Tejon and big coil, got the Reale. Switched back to the Deus and ellptical cool, to work the heavy iron. Video coming soon.

Finally got a 2 hr trip to a cw site its slim pickins,I've put in 12 plus hrs on a football field size area and a buddy everytime.anyway I was running field 1,sensitivity 20-22,recovery 6,iron bias 1,everything else factory the bullets or lead pretty solid 18,buttons 17-18 which I didn't expect I dug a lot of junk anywhere from 12to16,17 looking for a button didn't expect same number as a bullet but that's what they were and solid.im really getting the feel of the machine and learning the chirps and beeps that grass make,a actual target definitely jumps out more than just swing noise I feel pretty confident with the nox and shes super comfy for me to swing I've heard tail of folks saying shes nose heavy but to me shes swings real nice.happy hunting,Alabama finds btw near huntsville

Dug one at a time.

A little background on this particular "test" site that I take every machine to that I've owned over the past 12 years since I got my first detector. The site has both mineralized soil, and mild EMI, which some machines handle a LOT better than others. First I tried a Fisher C$ and Minelab Sovereign, and maybe got one wheat penny (C$ was shut down from the EMI). I figured there had to be more there, but it wasn’t until I got the CZ70 that it opened up. Someone had cleaned out the top 6” of targets, so anything left there was either deep, masked or both. First trip with the CZ was like Christmas! After 5-6 trips the CZ played out. Then every new machine I got I’d take there, and see what it could find. The first few trips there with the F75 did well, took my Etrac there and only got one wheat and a maverick bakery token. Then for about three years it petered out, it would take everything I had busting my butt to eek out one IHP or wheat, but silver dried up for about three years. I still figured there had to be more. When I got my Red Racer, I did a shoot-out between it and my (at that time) beloved F75. I first detected it with my F75 LTD2, and got nothing, only iron grunts, zero conductors. Then I switched to the Red Racer and pulled two silvers, an IHP and wheatie. It was an eye opener, first silver in three years, and not one, but two AND it was on basically my first hunt with the Red Racer. Then each subsequent trip with the Racers the site was back on, and not all the old coins were deep, several were masked with iron that prevented other detectors from getting them, but thanks to Makro's world class unmasking capabilities my site was back on. Matter of fact I had my best day there with my Racer2, something like 12 period coins in one hunt including four silvers, it was simply unbelievable to me that my pounded site, that I'd practically gave up on, produced this many coins in a 3 hour hunt. As you all know these sites don’t exactly replenish themselves with period coins, so for the Equinox to do what it did this weekend is beyond impressive, eight DEEP period coins in a three hour hunt is fantastic! For this site I used Park2, and ran it hot with the gain between 22-24, even was able to run it at 25, but found it started to like deep nails at 25. By the way, this site is loaded with old square nails. The original building that was there burned down in the mid 1800's, and I suspect that they razed the burned remnants around this site, and dumped fill dirt over the razed burnt remains when the built the replacement building went up, as once you get down to around 10" - 12" you seem to hit a sea of square nails. Never have found a seated at this site, it's certainly old enough to have them, but I suspect they are beneath this sea of nails. This was a deep mid conductor signal tangled in heavy tree roots. Little did I know how deep this would turn out to be! Between my Lesche shovel and digger, and a lot of patience (and a few curse words thrown in for good measure!) I finally pulled brought this sucker back to life, it was a dateless buffalo nickel! This is what was in that monstrous 10" deep hole! Total take for this hunt (3 hours) was five teens wheaties, a dateless buffalo nickel, 1902-S Barber dime (yeah!!!), 1936-S Mercury dime, some kind of silver button (that sucker was DEEEEEP), a poppers wedding ring, DEEP civil ware era (?) two piece Navy cuff button (this thing is going to LOVE buttons), and two suspender buckles/clips. Now I will say that the non-modulated audio on shallow stiff is a major PITA for deep turf hunting, so I did dig some zincolns, and shallow clad This was my second hunt, which I did in Field2. It's a little fresh water beach area that I've pounded over the years. Haven't found a ton there, few wheats, mercs, some rings in the water, and some 1800's relics, but I love the history of the site, and figure detecting it will eventually pay off with something really good (that hasn't happened yet, but I know something really good has to be hiding out there, probably in the water though!). I've never dug this many wheaties there in one hunt, and I love the wheatie with the iron fused to it! Also got a nice antique looking sterling silver ring and a 43' silver war nickle: As I was heading back to the car, I ran into another guy detecting there with a White's MX Sport. Was a pretty friendly guy, and we started chatting. He knew about the EQ800 and said that would be his next machine. He was hunting in the turf, not the beach. I told him I was hunting the beach and he told me that I wouldn't find anything there because he'd already cleaned it out Now truth be told, I was a bit impressed with his MX Sport as he'd just dug a 9" deep merc when I came up on him. He said he's mainly a prospector and had done a lot of dredging in California but when they shut it down, he moved to Alaska. Interesting guy to chat with for sure. HH, Cal PS - I did encounter an odd issue. About an hour or so after one hunt, I powered down my detector and headphones to take a health break. When I went to power everything back up, the headphones refused to power up. I'd charged them up the previous day, so unless when I did a quick hunt little hunt the evening before, the headphones didn't get powered off and drained down, then I can't quite understand what happened. I'd get no response at all from the headphones when trying to power it back up. I plugged them in to my charger (iPad charger) for a while and they came back to life. Odd

Hi steve Herschbach Sir Hope you are good Sir i want to buy metal detector that can detect upto 15 feet I belong to pakistan Here the soil is mineralized Some people suggested me GPZ 7000 Some suggested the jeo hunter 3d dual pack (made in turkey) I have also searched the BR Royal Analyzer Basic which is launched recently in 2017 Sir i want the best detector thats why i need your help Pls suggest me the best detector . Waiting for your reply Sir

Finally got a break in the rain in not so sunny Sunnyvale, and got an invite from some detecting buddies to go explore some outback sites. First site they'd already located an old homestead but were searching for two more. After a brutal (for me) hike up a mountain, we didn't find the homestead that was supposed to be up there, but the view was spectacular, so still worth the effort. Did a total of a solid 8 hours of detecting at various spots, and lots of hiking around. I had to dig all of this: To get this: We hiked back down to the site that they'd already found and after hours of finding nothing but bullets, and shotgun butts, I finally got my coil over some keepers. First was a well worn 1886 V nickle, it was so worn that I initially thought it was a token, then a shield nickle, but then in the sun I could see the V. Just a few feet away from that I got the badge looking thing, no idea what it is, looks like a Navy or Marines insignia, anyone have any ideas? Also got a Southern Pacific RR seal: And a couple of buckles: We went to a second site, it was purportedly an old picnic grove. The day before a 1907 $10 gold eagle was dug there, and numerous other coins over the years have been dug there, from reales, seateds to barbers, one guy got a V nickle, the other guy got a toasty IHP and I got the buckle above there, it's marked PAT. MAY 2,1990. The oddball looking buckle looking thingy above it is marked PAT DEC 21, 86. I've never dug so many beer cans, I stopped counting at a case I ran the EQ800 in Field2, noise cancel, GB, SENS between 21-23, everything else default. Didn't seem like I dug any more iron then any other machine, got a couple of nails, and a couple of BIG pieces of iron. If anyone has any idea what that badge looking item with the anchor on it is, I'd appreciate it. HH, Brian