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Today was forecast to be an almost perfect day, and it lived up to the hype. It started out at 55 and went up to almost 70, got a pretty strong breeze later when it mattered. This pic probably looks much the same as my last post, went to an old farm, Manticore, M9 and stubble cover. The only difference was it was sunny and warm today. I was thinking of bringing the Deus 2 today, but decided on the Manticore just for the stubble cover. I'm not finding a lot because I've been over this farm with the Deus in the past quite a bit, and now the Manticore. I feel that if I find anything it's not because the other detector missed it, it was that I missed it. I have full confidence in both machines and still can't say which one I like the best. 🤔 I think they compliment each other. I was there about 6 hours, walked the equivalent of about 5 miles. I took up where I left off last time with Chase. Today I used a new backup battery, this thing is light and awesome, it only dropped 20% off its full charge keeping the detector at full all day. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0CB1FW5FC Right now it's only $18 for Prime users! It's a 10,000 mAh PD charger with one USB A slot, and two USB C slots, even a little flashlight. It's much smaller than the one I have been using and packs much more charging time. The battery indicator is a paw, kinda weird but whatever works. My other one would be down to 45% or less after the day. As usual the stubble cover worked great, I navigated the corn stalks like a champ. Here's the trash, more of the same, less iron and lots more lead. 😏 There are some junk bits of copper and brass among the musket and buck balls. Quite a few large pieces of lead came up too. Didn't get much overall, but I got a nice nickel plated knee buckle, a strange plated lead button that was a 20, some bits and pieces, another Throckmorton 🙄 and a 1901 V nickel. Fourth from the left second row is an object that may be an apothecary weight, it looks like it has "GS" stamped in it. My second find of the day was the most exciting, got a pretty insistent 70s ID and tone on my way to the older part of the field: Yet another 1/2 Real Spanish cob. 🥳 So, I'm back on the silver again, and have my first Spanish coin of 2026. Lots more to do at this farm. 🍀

Made a spur of the moment decision to go detecting today, it's supposed to snow tomorrow, and temperature is going to drop. This is a small field near my house, I've found a lot of stuff there with the Equinox and the Deus 2, I thought I'd give the Manticore a try. Initially I was going to use the M15, but there is a spot where I think a house burned that is loaded with iron and bits of molten metal. After a while I switched over to the M9 coil, and very soon after wished I hadn't. 🫤 It falsed on lots of iron, something I don't have a problem with using the M15. Just a slight turn tells it like it is with that coil. The M9 is great in water, I have no idea why it's not so great on land, but I found a solution; the last time I was hunting with Chase, he mentioned stabiliser. I've also seen it discussed here from time to time. The top portion of my trash is all the big iron I dug before I switched my stabiliser setting. Freestyle calls for setting it at 1 with filter on, I turned it up to 5 initially but settled on 3. From then on I didn't dig any iron. It was better at 5, but I feared the 5 setting might be too aggressive. I'm told it may not be, I'll have to try it more. There are a few copper hoof nails in there, some shards of stuff and lots of lead. I didn't get a lot of good stuff but it wasn't bad, I've really gone over this place with other detectors but really wanted to see if the Manticore could pull some things out of the iron, and it did: Got 4 buttons, some odd metal bits and part of a suspender clasp. The biggest one with the waffle pattern is a 2 piece, the best signal I got all day, 72/75. The 4th button on the right is gold plated, and had a really fancy design: But it's kind of hard to see it now. The back has gold plating and the spot where the shank was attached: Using stabiliser with the M9 made me a lot more comfortable using it in relic fields. 🍀

Got out today for a bit, it was in the low to mid 40s but the wind was steady 15mph with gusts over 35. Today I wanted to take the Manticore and the M15 to a spot that I found my oldest coin and relics, I even reunited a buckle half with its partner about 2 years ago. It had been in the ground broken in 2 pieces far apart for over 400 years. This farm is near a major river, about 200 yards away. I first went to the little beach there, but there was nothing but aluminum there despite the fact that it was heavily sanded out. I didn't bring my scoop, and the water is salty (brackish) so I won't take my steel digger anywhere near it. 😬 I hunted there for about an hour, and headed over to the field. This field is only about 5 acres, not very big. I believe it was visited by Captain John Smith in 1608, there is a creek that comes right up next to it from the river. He was mapping Indian tribes after settling Jamestown. I've hunted this field heavily with the Deus 2, here is a pic of the relics I found in one small spot: The coin is half of a 1607 Hammered silver sixpence, my oldest coin. A few coat buttons, a piece of Pewter or two, and a period spectacle buckle. I was only there for 4 hours, the landowner came by and told me they were going to kick off a deer hunt, so I had to go. Ended up with mostly trash, lots of buck balls and bullets, one shotgun shell end. My best signal was the Budweiser cap 🙄 It was not without some small success though: A small brass hook, two pistol balls, a bag seal, some octagonal thing, and yet another "Throckmorton", a saddle decoration that possibly denotes a male horse, or some clan. This really illustrated how well the Deus did here. Not much left. 🍀

What a nasty day, warmest it ever got was 45 degrees, and it rained on and off most of the morning. Manticore and M15 today, haven't used this combo here so I was hoping for some low conductors. I invited Chase down, we've been hoping to get back to this field for almost 2 years now. Too bad we had to have a day like today where everything came together, but we've done worse. I got there about 9, did recon on other permissions before going there, and made sure to check with the landowner to see if it was ok to return, he seemed almost happy to have us. Chase got stuck in Thanksgiving traffic so he didn't get there until about 11, so I stayed in the newer areas of the farm to give him an equal chance, and it worked out well for me as you'll see. Junk wasn't too bad today, no iron but all the usual stuff. The large deer slugs were 93! 🙄 Got this lovely 85 in my travels, and dug yet another of the bane of detectorists, the small bronze washer. 🫤 Hate these things. Overall I did fairly good! 3 Tombacs, a couple silvered buttons, bits of buckle, odd shaped broken stuff, some horse tack, a 1944 wheat and a clad quarter. 10 buttons total. This is my 9th straight hunt with a silver find: A Standing Liberty silver quarter with no date, it's extremely worn, even has no reeding on the side. I'm sure we will have better days to go here, all in all it wasn't bad despite the weather. 🍀

I had a strong feeling I needed to get back to a farm I dug a 1687 Spanish cob last week, so I braved the cold and high wind to visit that farm again, and wasn't disappointed. It started out in the 30s with no wind, but after about a half hour the wind came up and blew all day, about 20mph with gusts to 30. 😵 Not my favorite conditions, and the corn stalks made swinging the M15 difficult. Later in the day I had to turn all metal off, the constant pounding of iron even at low volume got to me. I never trusted turning off the horseshoe with my Equinox, but with the Manticore it's just fine, in my fields and even in the river, if something sounds good at multiple angles it's good. I may revisit the old 'Nox someday just for fun. 🤔 I heard gunshots nearby, and after a while saw this huge Buck crossing the field, the photo is crappy due to zoom, but this fella managed to escape today. 😬 I was downwind so he never saw me, I got to watch him for a while. Junk is all the usual stuff, digging buckshot and bullets is routine: Even a copper and aluminum nail. I prefer the M15 because it doesn't false as much on iron. The M9 would probably be easier to use in corn, but the field was fairly well turbo tilled. Got another star shaped button, and two more Tombac half domes, I wonder what they are for, one is engraved with a pattern. They are an 08-10 on the Manticore. Got buckle bits, a thimble, and some other small stuff. The buckle is unusual, but very strong old bronze. Most likely for horse tack. I may have the other half of the extremely fancy spectacle buckle, I'll have to look. On the way out I scored a 1906 IHP and a 1909 wheat, there is a spot a Victorian era house stood, there are a lot of old coins there I'll have to search for in the future! After I turned All Metal off I got this really sweet and consistent 53, the same ID as a lot of the lead but better sounding. It made my day despite the conditions. A Pentagon shaped silver Spanish Half Real. No date but enough marks to identify! I'll estimate it as late 1600s to early 1700s. Well worth the trip. 🍀

I'm a little late posting this, got my truck going again and had other stuff to do, but I invited Chase down to hunt a place that we've done well at, but before he got there I had to switch him up twice 🤪 The original farm we were going to hunt I was told by the farmer they were only planting barley and I could dig, but the landowner came out and told me that the barley was destined for Maker's Mark Whiskey! 😬 Well at least I only dug 2 holes. He was very nice about it, and I left immediately. It wasn't without reward, I offered him the 1902 IHP I dug, but he let me keep it. 😅 I called Chase and told him that field was out! Next I went to his other field that he let me hunt after I found his great great uncle's gold ring, all I got there was bits of a silver thimble, so I called him again and let him pick where he wanted to go. Chase picked a farm that we've pretty much wiped out, but I had got a couple of Standing Liberty quarters there recently. He also had a surprise for me, a signed copy of Andy Sabisch's Manticore book! Nice "thank you" gift. 🙂 We spent the next 4 hours hunting the farm, he did better than me, I hope he will chip in. He got a couple of great finds that made me happy for him. My finds were ok for the day, at least I continued my silver streak, there is a lot of junk there but that is expected. The main highway once went behind the house. Ended up with an odd 3 ring bullet, and a model T Ford hubcap: I did get a large dandy button at the last field, and a 1941 nickel. A huge ball button and one with a design. The round lead disc is probably a communion token. It was a fun day, these farms are so big it's always enough for two! 🍀

Today I went to a farm I haven't been to in a while, We have pounded this place with Deus 2 detectors, and found a lot of cool stuff dating from the late 1600s on. My favorite find there until today was a 1694 William and Mary twopence, I don't have it on my phone anymore. It's a huge farm, you have to park on one end of it and walk to the other. There is a small hotspot near where we park, and much larger spots on the other end. With corn stalks everywhere it's brutal to walk on, and tough to detect. They planted cover crop so it was a good idea to go there before it gets too high. Digging today was so easy it should be illegal 😅 Today was the first day of Daylight Savings Time here, so I got there early. Today I brought the Manticore with the M15, I wanted to see if it would find anything I hadn't with the Deus 2. Knowing I'd be there a long time I brought my backup battery: I was there a total of 8 hours, and walked over 5 miles. For the first 4 hours I found nothing but junk, lead, and shotgun shells. I really thought the day wasn't going to be all that great but the last 4 hours got really good. I'm happy to not dig any more iron with the Manticore: Same old same old. Here are the brass and other finds: Got two halves of and odd metal sphere, one is empty, the other filled with iron. 🤷‍♂️ A couple pieces of Saddle decoration, including what the Hoover Boys call a "Throckmorton" 😏 I think it is a badge identifying a male horse as a stud horse. 🤔 I also got a couple of cool buttons, or maybe they are saddle decorations as well: Really old stuff. At one point I got a solid 55, and I thought "oh, more aluminum". Well it wasn't, and I was thrilled: It's a 1694 William and Mary Half Cent with pretty good detail. I was just able to make out the date at the bottom. This is what it looks like cleaned up: But that's not all! I ended up beating that find with this: A 1687 Spanish cob. Sidelighting brings out the date on the reverse of the coin. And this is what this cob would look like if minted in Bolivia. It's very difficult to read that side of the coin. Two coins over 330 years old! What a day. 🍀

Last week I hunted this farm with Chase, and he asked me if the landowner owned the field all the way to an old abandoned service station. He had gone into it while I was in another place, and found some pretty good stuff. That field had an old Victorian era house on it, it is long gone. The last time I hunted there I used my Equinox 600, and found a lot of stuff. Maybe someone cherry picked the silver, but they sure left everything else. 😏 Last weekend this field was very easy to dig, but that sure changed. A week of wind and dry weather, along with the fact that the farmers planted barley using a planting machine really turned this field into concrete. I thought I'd bring my new Root Slayer shovel, I bought it last spring but too late to use. I was thinking the ground would be like last weekend, and instead of digging an 11" plug, I'd be able to dig a 13" plug. I was wrong. 😵 The Root Slayer is a really nice shovel, but it's very heavy, and is almost useless on hard pan Blue Marl ground. The point may be great for roots, but in my farms there are no roots or rocks. It's topsoil, marl, clay, and then beach sand. The marl comes to the surface a lot, and when it hardens it's brutal. Well I soldiered on, used the shovel all day, wishing I had brought my Predator Ranger. 🙄 I walked a total of 5 miles, digging mostly lead buckshot, bullets, musket balls, and shotgun shells, it took almost 2 hours to locate my first find, a 1913 wheat penny. At least the coin is over 100 years old. 🥳 Here's all the trash, if you're not digging this stuff, you're not going to find what I found. I used the Manticore with the M15 again, I'm able to skip iron almost completely with my settings, and definitely find lots of deep low conductors, I'm finding it very reliable and accurate: I finally found a small hotspot and dug 18 buttons, from a large octagonal to 12 very small ones. There are two tiny ball buttons, one General Service cuff button, and even an old 4 hole. Two of the smaller buttons are heavily silvered, at first I thought each was a small silver coin. The big chunk of copper on the left with what appears to be a hexagonal stamp in it on both sides was a 97, really shocked me. It may have lettering or symbols but it's obliterated. I'm thinking some sort of assay weight. It's very heavy. I got a box plate, and pieces of a very old shoe buckle. Next all the coins: A 1934 Buffalo Nickel, the 1913 wheat, and a 1916 wheat. The bottom coin is aluminum with a large number 3 on it. I wasn't thinking jewelry at all, but I even found that! 😅 Got a brass ring, and a small piece of silver jewelry with stones in it. I hoped to find the rest of it but didn't. The ring was my last find on the way back to my truck. 🍀 I really hope this winter isn't too cold.

It was too windy to do the yard work I wanted to do today, so I went to a farm nearby that I've been hoping would be cleared soon, and this morning it was. Got out about 12, met the farmer there and he told me his winter crop is going to be barley, and he said I could dig all fall and winter, they don't care, it's just a cover crop. Nice guys. 👍 Really well done bean field. It was one of those days where the top was dry, no mud, and below the surface it was wet enough to get that perfect one shot plug with the shovel now and again. I wasn't expecting much, the part of the field I hunted today for four hours has been pounded by me and Chase. While I was there the farmers cleared another section with sunflowers. The wind was just right so I didn't get "chaffed", almost all of the dust missed me. Today I used the Manticore and M15, I don't think I've ever used that coil here but I wanted to for its superior depth and low conductor detection. I've used the Deus 2 here for years, so a fresh take was in order. I didn't do too bad today, good enough for me in 4 hours: 9 buttons, a broken thimble, some object with a hole bored in it that looks like a cut coin, and some broken thing. One of the buttons has a tic tac toe pattern on it that may have numbers, it was the smallest button: Trash wasn't too bad, gotta say again that if you want buttons and other extremely valuable items, you have to dig buck balls, shotgun shells, and small lead. The large stuff is parts from farm machinery. I was running ATG with Neil Jones' Freestyle, I've found so much stuff with this program from gold to silver why change. I would have hit every Tombac if there were any. One thing I noticed today was that cranking the sensitivity to 30 nailed me some really deep stuff, but only by ID, not by target trace. A few of the buttons gave mostly good ID with the trace being small dots all over the place. 🤔 I named this post as such because that was my ear worm today, and it really did feel like the first time I was there, there was still much to find. It's good to be back in the farms again. 🙂 🍀

Need help in id'ing these 2 pieces. 1st one (cast lead?) is from a site near a cemetery (old & modern). Animal looks like sheep or dog. 2nd one (cast brass or bronze?) is from a site near a former winery & railroad. Any ideas?

Tried a water hunt yesterday, I didn't get a photo of the place I went because I locked all my stuff in the truck. It's a small beach, less than 100 yards. I brought the Manticore with the M9, should have brought my Thresher headphones but instead I had the ML105s, so I couldn't immerse the box. I'm under restriction for immersion above the waist anyway, so I just get what I get. I was only there 3 hours, it was low tide so I could get out pretty far, at one point I got a great signal and dug a coin that at first I thought was old silver but it ended up a disappointment. First, I got a lot of trash out of there, still need to learn the Manticore better: The bottle caps I'm good at, all were sight picks but for one which I knew was a cap but dug it to get it out. Lots of sinkers, if there was a ring I should have got it. Finds were few, .28 and a fishing lure, the penny on the right was totally gray when I dug it, so I thought it might be silver 🤬: The lure turned out to be interesting and very old. It has an old US patent number on it, it's from a company in Maine that still makes them, Al's Lures. Patent numbers are in the millions now, so one this low is a cool find. It was very deep under the sand, took a long time to dig. I looked it up and got this: I can't find any pictures of the specific lure I dug, so it is a more rare variant I guess. 🤷‍♂️ This one had two treble hooks. I'm just glad to be healthy enough to water hunt. It's the pinnacle of detecting. Difficult, tedious, but rewarding. Also got a new permission after visiting an eye doctor, he's going to contact me in the fall to detect his 200 acres that had some old buildings on it. 🥳 🍀

Sorry for the flurry of posts, but I keep finding interesting stuff, and I'm getting close to what might be a month long hiatus from detecting 😅 Got out today to finish up the grid search, again using the Manticore and the M15. I think the secret to my success is that I'm using high sensitivity and recovery speed at 6. I didn't have much left of the front field to do, I still need to grid the back one. Along the way I had a 4 foot visitor: Beautiful Black Snake, we let them live here. Black Snakes = no mice. This one let me get pretty close, but kept on its way to the woods. Last night there was a 5 foot one on my front porch! In 6 hours of hunting I dug a lot of really small trash, this stuff doesn't even amount to a handful. My friend thinks the pull tab is Viking explorer age. 🤣 A few pieces of iron got me today, it rained again last night and everything was wet. Mostly Buck balls, aluminum shards and tacks of all sizes. I've found hundreds of them in this field, there was probably a saddlery here and a lot of horse activity. They decorated saddles with them, not furniture. I did good today, mostly tombacs: Pieces of a large one, possibly from 2 different buttons, a nice concave one, two with shanks, and 2 more broken. 3 brass buttons, a fancy buckle bit and a couple pieces of pewter. The bottom thing escapes me but I saw one on here recently. 🤔 And what F350 post would be without a happy ending 😅 I got a 61, the highest signal I got all day, and it changed to a 72 when it was out. Yep, you guessed it, a cut Spanish Cob. A "Cobstareen" 🤣 It doesn't have a lot of detail but I think cobs stopped about 1750 in favor of milled coins. So yet another piece of Spanish silver in my display boxes! 🥳 🍀

Last hunt for a while! 🥲 Today I decided to finish up the grid search of about a 4 acre lot in the farm out front that has been sold, the new owner gave me permission to save as much history from there as I could. The last acre or so is the first place I dug Spanish silver around 5 years ago, I've gridded the heck out of it since but I guess there's always something else not only after farming, but as experience increases and different detectors are used. I've done well this time around, more buttons, coins, and even more Spanish silver. I got out early this morning and spent 7 hours out there, moving my markers and searching. I've most heavily searched this part of the field so I didn't expect much, but was happy with what I got. I think there was a saddlery here, I've found hundreds of saddle tacks, and today was no exception. Here's the trash for today: I've mentioned before that V3.03 on the Deus 2 has a bit of an iron falsing issue, I almost never get this much. Some of the pieces were a solid 82 so of course I dug them, but some I verified with my beach program and was able to skip them. Otherwise the new version runs very quietly. I was able to turn sensitivity up to 98 today! The higher sensitivity seemed to pick up on smaller objects as you'll see. Overall the new version is better, I'm glad they didn't change it so the 00-00 notch in relic doesn't work, that helps a lot with the silence. Iron lower than that or higher still sounds off, otherwise it becomes staccato or cuts out completely. Very helpful! I still don't recommend changing to it as yet, and I see other complaints. One YouTuber even verified my assertion that they need to do something about iron falsing, it just seems to be more prevalent than with V2. Aluminum could be better as well. Here are the finds: Got some interesting stuff today, but no silver. One big button that looks like a sombrero, a concave drilled shank tombac, and one of the tiniest buttons with a complete shank I've ever found. I can only wonder what that was used for. 🤔 Got more buckle bits, a round thing, a modern nickel, a square lead block with a circle "H", some kind of fancy miniature rein guide, and possibly a piece of a pewter spoon. Saved the best for last as usual: A completely unidentifiable but solid copper coin that is slightly larger than a nickel, it was a 96 with iron all around it, something told me to dig it (probably the 96 😁) and I'm glad I did, I just wish there was some detail. It could be a half cent or farthing. I did find an 1805 half cent in this field about 4 years ago, one of the first old US coins I found. The tiny square is an apothecary weight, it weighs .8 grams. I've found a few of these. Well that's it. 🤗 I probably won't be posting for a while. 🍀

Got out for a few hours yesterday afternoon, I went to the field out front to finish up a grid search. I used the Manticore with the 15" coil, not only does it find deep low conductors, it's incredibly good with small items. It rained 2.5" the day before yesterday, so targets and the ground were hot. For some reason it took me a while to get the Manticore to settle down, the D2 runs quiet here. 🤔 Oh well. I was running ATG with Neil Jones' Freestyle, 29 sensitivity. I tried lowering sensitivity to 23, but lost deeper stuff. I must have gridded this part of this field fairly well long ago, got way more trash than finds, but only one small piece of iron fooled the detector. At one point I got a squeaky 90s signal, and dug a huge hole about 1.5 feet down to get a 1917 wheat! Got a large round object with a hole in it that I think is just a saddle tack, a piece of extremely old buckle, a poorly made brass/tombac, the wheat, and the smallest decorated silver cufflink or button I've ever found. It was a 45 that wouldn't go away. 😅 A tiny bit broken but beautiful! It still has the shank. Here it is next to the wheat: I still have a bit of this field to grid before it gets planted with new grass and may be off limits. 🍀

There was some rain blowing around this morning, enough to keep me from mowing the lawn. I updated my spare Deus 2 with version 3.03 (still Beta) last night, so I got all my stuff together and went outside. I set up a grid search using two fiberglass poles with ribbons, the landowner told me recently he's going to disc it and plant grass, so I'm on a mission to get as much history out of there as possible. I might ask him if I can detect it once more before he puts down the seed, this spot he bought, about 7 acres, is full of relics dating back to the late 1600s. It's the first field outside my house I detected. It's literally right out front! I searched for 6 hours today, back and forth slowly, while they say V3.03 was just some stuff for the Xtrem Hunter, I'm pretty sure they fixed other stuff as well, because they said "bug fixes". 😏 I'm amazed at the new programming, it takes the D2 to a higher level of precision. It's quiet until it is over something when properly ground balanced, even up to sensitivity 95. This update also did not erase my saved programs! 🥳 I imagine though that if they make changes to finalize it, they probably will erase them. Here's the trash for today, this field is also loaded with buck balls and can slaw, and I'll have to get used to forged iron all over again: There were some pieces of iron that were "iffy", but gave enough good signal on analysis that I dug them. I'll show you why in a bit, I'm glad I did. Got a small bunch of buttons, brass and tombac, a thimble tip, and a small spectacle half. The thing in the center was a 71 solid, and appears to be either a coin or button encased in some iron. I'll have to try to chip some of the iron away to find out. I also got a very small piece of silver, apparently from a silver thimble, I hope I can find the rest of it: But of course I'm not done yet, 😅 I got an iron signal interspersed with 80s and 90s, thought it was just falsing big iron, and dug this: An 1827 large cent, a Coronet Head. I was happy to get as much date as I did! The loop in the "2" is what identified it for me. There was some iron close to the cent, so I'm not surprised I missed it when I was less experienced. I'm pretty sure this new programming helped as well, so I'll be going over more of this field this fall. I like my other detectors, but the Deus 2 is getting very refined, and I can't wait for the HF2 coil! It should be here soon. 🙏 🍀

I wasn't planning on doing any detecting this weekend, but for the last couple of days the field behind my house was cleared for construction, so after everyone left (I have permission), I grabbed my Manticore with the M15 and went back there to see if there was anything in the cleared area. It's pretty small but it took 3 hours to hunt it. I've found some extremely old stuff back here, it's right behind my house. Got a minimum of trash, just some lead and a tack: And I scored a few finds: A Type 2 collar badge circa 1919-1937, an IHP and a wheat with no dates, what looks like a watch key, and a "Paris" buckle. Probably post WW1, it was buried about a foot down. The collar badge is really nice and was a surprise. US Army 1st Regiment, the Big Red One. I was part of that when I was in the Army. I'll go back, there is probably more there, but I imagine the topmost items were pushed into the ravine. 🍀

Relic season is almost over, but I noticed a field at the end of my road was still not cultivated, so I jumped at it. It's part of a 1,000 acre permission I have, I went over it in 2022 with the Equinox and 10x5" Coiltek: Got some good stuff there including 2 Virginia buttons. Today I went back with the Manticore and M15 coil. The M15 is probably not the best choice for this field, but its separation capability is great with the right recovery speed, and its coverage and depth are as good as the Deus 2 with the 13". Today I was shopping for low conductors, and small stuff. There is a patch where a house stood that is a carpet of iron, and I wanted to see if the M15 would pull stuff out despite the nails. There is a ravine off to the side of where the house was, and I believe I mentioned it in 2002, people were dumping trash in it. I found some of the bottles I left there: And a lot more. The bottle on the far right is molded with the word "drene" on it, apparently it's a shampoo created by Proctor and Gamble in the 1930s: it lasted until 1968. This one appears to be from the 1940s. The only bottle I ended up bringing home was this one: Kind of a cool vase looking bottle, I bring my wife flowers a lot. ❤️ I hunted the place for 7 hours, it was exhausting because I dressed for the 46 degree weather in the morning, but by afternoon it was almost 80. 😵 Lots of trash, but pretty much the good kind: And here are the finds: 7 more buttons including the largest Tombac dandy button I've found: It's spun and looks to have some lettering etched at the top. The second one is patterned, the third an odd concave, the fourth was my second to last find, it says "W. Wallis Extra Rich". The William Wallis company was a button maker in England from the 1790s to 1828. Got some thin chain, a brass circle with a leaf welded to it, some corset lace bits, one of the most fragile and tiny buckles I've ever found, a drawer pull that was a foot deep that I found using One Tone, and some other bits. Of course It wouldn't be an interesting hunt without silver: Got a piece of a silver flatware that says "Holland" on it, another English company established in the late 1800s. I think I found another piece in 2002. 🍀

I know, silly title but it gets your attention and will make sense. 🤣 I really have a blast writing these posts. Hopefully it's not my last relic hunt of the season, but I'm headed to the beach for a week soon and wanted to hit a field I've been thinking about since I got the Manticore. It's part of the large property (1,000 acres) that the gentleman who I returned the gold ring to owns. The day started out cold and windy, in the low 40s. It was sunny and supposed to warm up to the mid 50s, so at least I didn't need a lot of cold weather gear. This field is on the house side of the highway, it's very small, and is thankfully protected from the wind. I have searched this field with the Deus 2, I've found a lot of really old and cool stuff. It occurred to me that while I wouldn't find a lot of big easy targets, the Manticore is so good with low conductors it might squeak out some Tombacs and other stuff that I might have skipped with the D2. I brought the Manticore with the M15, and a backup battery to keep it going all day as well as counterbalance the large coil so it would be comfortable to swing. I used the Killer B headphones to keep the wind out. I am using Neil Jones' Freestyle program which I heartily endorse for anyone who may be struggling with the Manticore. Not only do you really learn the options the machine has while programming it, it is absolutely incredible in my fields, I've found some amazing stuff with it, and today was no exception. The trick with Freestyle is to swing rather slowly, and according to Mr. Jones, you should do that anyway. He shows in some of his videos how the Manticore misses targets if you swing too fast. I swing the Deus fairly fast and don't seem to miss much, but I think I'll be slowing down a bit. 🤔 Here's the trash, you're going to dig buck balls and should not skip a single one. I must have already dug a lot of them here, but I found a good few: It really wasn't too bad at all as you'll see, I think my good finds outnumbered the trash. 😎 I'm getting pretty good with this program but still get fooled by some iron like the "chicken leg" piece at the top. Here are the things that are big: What might be a knife pommel, and an odd long piece of brass. The Manticore is an excellent companion to the Deus 2, and here's the proof: 20 buttons, all tiny except the 4 larger ones on the left, the penny is a memorial I found walking back to the truck for more water. I got brass and tombacs, I don't think a single ID was above 30 save for one that was a 53. Most were in the 10-25 range. Got some Tombac shards and some of brass bits, even an ancient nut made of brass. One of the coolest things is the buckle tongue that is 1650s all day. One of the buttons is a cufflink. Another I thought was a tack, but it had a shank, I found one of them too: But that's not all! Freestyle is fabulous for finding low conductors, but I didn't expect any of the following at all: Silver. 😎 I came away with 4 pieces today, a silver cufflink with a "W" on it, a cut pistareen, possibly from a 1 Real, a broken fragment which is thin enough to be from a Half Real but it's worn and has no marks. Last is a tiny decorated but sadly broken silver button. My next posts will be from the beach, I hope that this field is available when I get back. I only got through half of it in 8 hours. 🍀

Today I went back to finish up the field I dug the big gold ring in. It started out in the 30s but went up into the 60's today, a sign that relic season is almost over. 🥲 While much shorter than previous years, it's been a good one. I brought the Manticore with the M15 coil again, I'm using Neil Jones' Freestyle program, it really seems well suited for my area. I was hoping to finish up this field and start another next to it. That didn't happen. 🫤 I finished the field, but it was too late in the day. However, it was a really great day! I saw the landowner leaving his house in his Jeep, and waved frantically to have him stop and talk for a bit. First question I asked was if there was anyone in his family that was a Mason, and he said there was. It was an uncle or great uncle who passed in the mid 1940s, he was the Superintendent of the school system my wife and I both worked for! 🤯 That was before our time, but my wife remembers stuff that was still in the office that had to do with him. He was a Mason, and a Master of the local Masonic Lodge. Apparently he was also a Shriner. I showed him a photo of the ring, and he was extremely happy that I had found it and was getting it restored, he immediately volunteered to pay the jewelry store for the restoration. I said I would call them and have them take it from there. He told me he'd pay me for anything I was charged so far, and I said they didn't charge anything to straighten it out. I told him I was glad to give it back, it is obviously a very valuable and sentimental ring, ~$6,000 to have the Masonic ringmaker make one today. The only thing I asked him for was no notoriety, and any new permission(s) he might know of. Turned out he owns another 60 acres about a mile down the road, and he said to "help myself" 🥳 He said he knows a lot of the other prominent families in the area, but I'll discuss that with him later 🤔 So, back to the fun, I hunted the rest of the field and all I got was this old Virginia dog tax tag: Which I gave to the landowner. Aside from that I got 4 coins: A Buffalo nickel with no discernable date, and 3 wheats, 1910, 1926, and 1928. I dug an absolute crapton of trash: Everything but the kitchen sink 🙄 no iron tho. Freestyle "hears" iron well. I'm getting used to the sound aluminum makes along with the initial target trace, and of course lifting the coil helps. I hope I can get back to the next field, and scout the new one before relic season is over. I brought my wife some fragrant white daffodils I saw in the woods, it's a spring tradition. 🍀

Today was kind of a miserable day, gloomy and cold, in the 40s. I went to this field about 2 miles away, it's across the street from one of my largest permissions, but part of it. The landowner owns over 1000 acres on both sides of the road. I've been through this field a couple of times, really didn't find much so I put it on the back burner. I drive by it a lot, it's on the main road. Not a very big field, and it has a couple of really steep hills in it. It's only 50 yards wide, and about 3 acres total. I haven't been finding much in other places lately, so I thought I'd give this field a go. It's very noisy with highway traffic slowing down to go into the center of town, so today I tried out the Killer B headphones that just came back from being looked over, I want to thank @Keith Leppert for his support. I've decided I like the Killer B wireless enough to keep them, at first I thought I didn't like the audio, as it's thinner and mid-rangey as opposed to the ML105 headphones, but after a day of using them exclusively, I got used to them and definitely recommend them. They effectively blocked out about 90% of the road noise, and not having deep bass or sharp spikes ended up being quite pleasant. 🙂 They're comfortable for me, I wore them all day. At first I thought I'd zigzag the field and go somewhere else, but I kept finding coins, a memorial here, a dime there, a wheat penny or two, so I decided to stay in the field all day and make my passes tighter. It's a good thing I did! The Manticore was silent until it came upon a target, the ground was easy to dig albeit a bit muddy, and I had the M15 coil counter balanced with a battery so it was comfortable and felt almost weightless! I dug a lot of trash again today: Mostly aluminum, buck balls, bullets and wire. Unfortunately the target trace shows a solid dot in the center often on aluminum, I'm not used to it yet. Some aluminum has a ragged tone and lifting identifies it, but sometimes it doesn't. 🫤 It's going to take a while. Here are some things too large for display: A massive chunk of lead, what I think might be a bit crossbar, some sort of device inserted and clamped into a hose, and some other weird stuff. Got some modern coins: Mostly 70s stuff except for the wheats, one is a 1926. I also ended up with some nice relics: A large tombac, two pieces of an ancient spectacle buckle, some bits and a heart shaped lock. What kept my attention in this field was the fact that I kept finding silver occasionally: A silver cufflink, a 1942 nickel, and a 1939 Mercury dime. I'll explain the silver object on top in a bit. 😎 I was getting sort of close to my goal, and got a very strange signal. It wavered from the mid 30's to the mid 50's and finally sort of settled in the 40s. I thought for sure it was aluminum, but I was too far back in the field for that. Wow, was I wrong 🤯 I got this, a men's 10.3 gram 14k Freemason level 32 ring with a genuine 1/3 carat diamond! 🥳 This is the second gold ring I've dug on this property, and for sure the most gold. The little silver clasp above with the other silver was clamped on this ring to "size" it, in my experience, sized rings = lost rings. 🫤 My gain though! It's just incredible. Thick, solid - not hollow - white and yellow gold. The 32nd degree varies, either the person is a "Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret" or "Master of the Royal Secret", whatever that means. Some of my ancestors were Masons, but I am not familiar with the group. 🤔 I've seen these for sale anywhere from $800 to $6,000. Melt value is around $600. I didn't finish the field and might return, but I am very happy with the equipment I used today to find all this great stuff. I'm going to take the ring to a jeweler to have it straightened and cleaned up. 🍀

Pretty nice find by an amateur detectorist using a XP Deus at about 9” under the soil: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgzm3857emo more details and auction: https://www.noonans.co.uk/news-and-events/latest-news/1131/ As it’s scheduled to be auctioned 3/26, the website will take down the listing and backstory about it so here is the text: It was discovered by metal detectorist, Mark Sell on King Row, Shipdham in Norfolk, on a cold but sunny afternoon on November 22, 2019, and is estimated to fetch £15,000-18,000. As Mark, who is 63 years old and lives at Swaffham said: “I had been on the field a couple of times before but had not found anything of importance and had been detecting for a couple of hours with a friend, using my XP Deus metal detector, when just before it started to go dark I got a faint signal and dug down about 9 inches to find what has to be the best item I have found so far!” He continued: “I was amazed to see a thin line of gold in the clod of mud that I had dug up, and as I wiped away the mud, I could see the bezel of a medieval gold jewelled ring. I could also see that the ring was complete with all of the original jewels still in place and was in pristine condition.” Mark then reported the find to the landowner and took it to show him and his family and it was then deposited with his local Finds Liaison Officer. Norwich Castle Museum and the British Museum were also involved in the treasure process and the British Museum put the ring on temporary display while in their care, Norwich Castle Museum had also shown interest in acquiring the ring for their permanent display. He took images of the ring to a Noonans valuation day and experts dated the ring and informed him of the extreme rarity and historical importance of it. The proceeds from the sale of the King Row Ring will be shared with the landowner. Mark, who has retired from the Fire Service, has no plans how to spend his portion of the money. As Laura Smith, Jewellery Expert at Noonansexplained: “The village of Shipdham, central Norfolk, was well established by the time of the Norman Conquest, extensively detailed in the Domesday Book of 1086, and at that time recorded as being within the largest 20% of settlements in England. During the reign of Henry III (1207-1272) the Bishop of Ely built a manor house at Shipdham, the moat in evidence on 19th century maps. Also, of importance during the medieval period, this area contained a Royal deer park, owned by the See of Ely. The park, composed of Little Haw and West Haw, was in existence by 1277 but passed into the hands of the Wodehouse family between 1561 and 1584. All Saints church, Shipdham, dates from the 12th century.” She adds: “This form of medieval ring, with a principal cabochon stone, usually a sapphire, surrounded by smaller collet set satellite stones (garnets or rubies, and emeralds), can be securely dated to the late 12th or early 13th century, and is associated with the bishopric. Other similar rings include one belonging to Walter de Gray, the wealthy and powerful Archbishop of York - Archbishop from 1215 - until his death in 1255 – which is on display at York Minster; as well as the Bishop of Chichester’s Ring and the Whithorn Cathedral ring.”

I promised I was going to take the M8 coil to a small one acre patch where a house used to be. A few days ago I went over it with the M11 coil and found a couple of pennies, a wheat and an IHP. I set up a grid search using flags. This patch has an unbelievable amount of iron in it, it's absolutely the most brutal iron patch of all my permissions. So bad in fact that I haven't been back to it since 2021. 😬 I found some pretty good stuff there with my Equinox. I found my first Trime near this spot along with a Mercury dime, my first two silver coins. Before I get into it, I have a few things to mention about the Manticore: I like it, I think it has its place on the beach for sure. I do not like the battery life, many times already I've had to end a hunt because it was near zero, and I don't like running a lithium battery down that far. I have a solution for that, ala Algoforce: I bungee a big honkin' battery to it. 😅 It's somewhat heavy but balances the M11 and M15 very well. You'd think that a detector with "50% more power" would have a 50% bigger battery. 🤔 I love how light the detector is with a small coil, but I find that in March winds it gets blown off the shovel - a lot. I found a solution for that as well: Got this on eBay, it's a printed shovel magnet that will work with T and D handle shovels, especially Predator and Lesche. Here's a link to it: https://www.ebay.com/itm/186083602070 Another thing I needed a solution for was the little Velcro straps that you're supposed to use to hold the wire on, they always pop off and are just too fiddly for quick coil changes in the field, so I got some of these: Here's a link to that, not many make them, and he's only got one more set. https://www.ebay.com/itm/296636161776 I use two of them, that way I can completely shorten the Manticore without any issue. Ok enough of that. 😎 I learned something today that made me feel pretty good. I searched this area 4 years ago, and only recently found two cents... Well that was it. Other than a good portion of this junk I got nothing after a slow grid search with the M8: Aluminum, iron, brass junk and lead. The problem was that everything sounded good with the little coil, even big forged iron, and particularly the large solid brass shotgun shells. I'm going to have to find a way to make the machine more reliable with this coil, other than lifting, which I should have done more of. 🤔 I can see using the M8 coil in some of my campgrounds, but in a bean field after harvest it's like a pinball game. 😅 The day was not without its rewards, I finished the search and went "on walkabout" with the M11 coil, and got all this stuff, my last find was the 1895 V nickel: I ended up with one really nice colonial button, a small object that looks like a bell, a D buckle, a 1962 memorial, and part of a copper or bronze nail. The other round bits are not identifiable, and I dug a chrome plated buckle piece. The top left object is button like, but the back of it is all iron. I wonder now if the Deus 2 can pull anything out of this spot... 🤔 🍀

The snow is finally almost gone here, I came back from Cocoa Beach right after one snowstorm, and then it snowed again a few days later, we almost never get this much! Haven't had it snow this much in 10 years. 🙄 It only took 3 days to melt most of it, luckily Virginia is like that. Right now it's very muddy and some spots are still frozen and difficult to dig. I was stuck inside for a while, but finally decided to go out today to a field near my house: I wanted to test some Manticore programs I've copied from 2 experienced detectorists, Neil Jones' "Freestyle", and Sid Perry's (Englands History) "The Beast Programme". I've used Freestyle before and like it, it's an enhanced All Terrain General program specifically for relics, but could be put over any profile. Beast is an enhancement of All Terrain Fast, I got it put in the Manticore yesterday. Why do I use settings others have created for the Manticore instead of trying to do it myself? 🤔 Quite honestly, it took me about 2 years to get the Deus 2 the way I want it, it's deadly on the beach and relic sites. I have every confidence in it. I simply wanted to hit the ground running with the Manticore, I had a beach trip come up right after I bought it, so I didn't want to be fiddling around. I have Dankowski settings for Beach, however I've overlaid the tone curve from Freestyle rather than using the stock settings, Neil Jones went to a lot of trouble to make the Manticore sound like an Explorer. 😏 The curve is really not a curve, he uses 5 Region All Tones: I like the spread, so I used that instead of the stock tones for the Dankowski programs. Beast is a beast alright, I alternated it with Freestyle and found I didn't like the tone curve so I'll probably modify it to Freestyle so all my programs sound off on targets the same way: I didn't find it any deeper than Freestyle, and quite frankly it falsed a lot more. If I got a really high tone at first, it at least signaled something was there, but mostly the area I was in is machine gun iron, the high tones were more of a beating than the low. Subsequent sweeps told me the whole story, and when I got a mostly repeatable signal I dug it. I turned Recovery Speed down to 5 to match Freestyle as well when I found I was missing stuff with RS at 6. Today I was using the M15 coil, I wanted to get all the coverage I could get, and to be able to get a lot of area done. It's a spot I've been over with other detectors, I did a pretty tight grid search to see if I missed stuff last year when the field was all corn stalks. I didn't do too bad, found almost as many good items as the trash: The Manticore like the Equinox loves forged nails, and I ended up with a few. 🙄 That's one thing I don't dig a lot of with the Deus 2. Got 5 buttons, brass, Tombac, and the top of a 2 piece with no markings, some fancy 1600s buckle bits, a thimble, and some other bits. I decided to make a sweep out of my grid area, and got a very nice surprise: The Spanish Fleet. 🤯 I ended up with 3/4 of a 1737 2 Real coin, one fourth was broken but I got both pieces. They may not be all from the same coin but it sure looks good! You can see some knife cuts in the top left piece. Quite a while back I found a copper not too far away that had knife cuts, so I guess it was being used to cut these. At that point I had switched back to Freestyle. I'm sure I would have found all this with my Deus, nothing was especially deep, but it sure was fun to get some more time on the Manticore, and I'll be changing the Beast audio curve. 🙂 For sure the Manticore finds the small stuff! 🍀

If you've been following my posts, I've been grid searching this small hill, it's only about half an acre. Last year I got a lot of buttons and even some flying eagle cents, so I decided to use it to see whether the Manticore could find anything after a thorough search with the Deus 2. It took me a couple of trips to finish with the Deus, and today I took the Manticore there with the 11". It was an extremely windy day, 15mph with gusts to 25, typical March. The only saving grace was that it went up to 60. I set up a grid 90° to what I did with the Deus, I wanted to give the Manticore every chance. For headphones today I used this wired bone conduction headphone set with a built in little preamp, and the WM09, I clipped them to the back of the band. I call them the Frankenphonez™ 🤣 Thing is, these bone phones are true bone conduction, you can only hear them when they are in place like the BH-01 backphones for the Deus 2. They were $29 from Amazon, all I had to do was charge them up, and plug them into the WM09. They lasted 6 hours anyway! The charge light was still green when I was done for the day, they would have lasted longer. They sound really good. I'm trying to find stuff that will work well when it's hot, and it was a bonus to also have these work well in the wind. They almost "put the sound inside your head". Of course I don't like having all that stuff hanging from them! 😅 It wasn't uncomfortable, and the phones have an adjustable backband. I searched the area for 4 hours, going slow. What did I get? Nothing but one piece of iron, some tiny copper bits, and a lot more lead. Seems the Manticore loves lead more than the Deus. 😅 All this proves is that the Deus didn't miss anything good. I'm not saying it is better than the Manticore, I do wonder if I would have found all the good stuff and even more lead. 🤔 Maybe I'll reverse the process and use the Manticore first in another spot. Or actually bring them both sometime. The day was not without reward, outside the grid, and in another spot I went to, I got these: A silver or nickel plated copper whatchamacallit, a "hot rock" that is either lead or silver, it ID'd very high, and knocking a piece of it out produced a glittering inside. It's heavy so it's probably lead. I dug two IHPs, 1870, an 1867 and a 1919 wheat. I was able to pull the 1867 and the 1919 out of a spot where a house used to be, It's machine gun iron. That speaks volumes for the Manticore.

I went back to finish up the area my last post came from, it was a beautiful day, perfect weather for detecting. Today I brought my Deus 2 out for a swing. I am confident in my settings on that machine, but the day started out not so great. Ya have to have a bad day sometimes... Got out there at 9 am, and searched for almost 4 hours in the area I got all those great things in my last post, and ended up with this: Just a small handful of non-ferrous but non-desirable targets, mostly lead and junk brass. 🫤 I decided to return to a small, nondescript hill nearby, I discovered it last year and got quite a few buttons and even my first 2 Flying Eagle cents there, seems there was a house or barn there that is not on any old topographic map, but the hard sandstone rocks I find both on and below the surface belie the real story. It's just a bit of high ground, I thought there had to be something I missed because my settings are much more accurate than they were last year. I was right, as soon as I got out of my golf cart I dug a button, then another, and even got an old 4-hole on the surface. I was also rewarded with a barely legible V nickel: One shard of Tombac or pewter as well. As always I saved the best for last, at one point I got a 99 on the Deus. I dug and dug and still heard it, but big iron is never a consistent 99, not really much else except a Morgan Dollar or something would do that! After digging down over a foot, I got this: A very old silver brooch or hat pin. 🤯 I can't find hallmarks, but I'm pretty sure nothing but silver would sound off that high. Because I started late in the day, I'll have to return for more, but a bad day turned satisfying. Total trash was not much more, no iron except for the lead disc pierced with a nail. The Deus 2 is still a powerhouse relic machine to me. 🍀