Using The D2 Relic Program For Relics? More Spanish Silver

[F350Platinum]

Beautiful day today, went from 30 to the low 50s. When it's sunny, the black nitrile Milwaukee gloves I use keep my hands warm enough. I invited Chase to pick a spot and he picked a place that we have found some really old relics, and today was yet another banner day.

I've been thinking a lot lately about how I'm using the Deus 2, it's been nearly 2 years now. On a Culpeper outing Chase suggested I use Relic relatively unmodified, the main thing is to set one notch at 00-00, which essentially will make iron blank out. You cannot set discrimination in Relic, but you can crank Disc IAR to 5 which forces most iron to blank. I used it successfully and I've seen him use it with great success and moreso now with V2, XP really got things tight with that release. Granted my soil is ridiculously mild, so anything goes here. Instead of an iron brain beating, you get "blips". When you get a good target it sounds like a cat attacking a mouse, that's about the best way I can describe it. It's using the D2 to do what it does best.

All along I've been modifying various Deus 2 programs in an effort to have it act like a more accurate Equinox, and that was sort of my mistake. While I am still using my modified General program to verify some iron targets, the last 2 hunts have been exclusively using Relic, and with great results. Chase uses PWM audio, I still prefer High Square but am grateful to have a choice. The tonal nuances are still very similar. Using Relic gives me an idea of depth even with Audio Response cranked to 7.

Iron still is a small problem, when it's huge or forged it seems to fool the detector sometimes, but switching to another mode helps.

Relic has no full tones option. I guess tone breaks can be set, but why bother, it's either iron or it isn't, and where we are digging there isn't much trash. It's all really old stuff. No pull tabs, little can slaw (unless it is an ancient copper container), and very few modern tractor parts in this field.

Today I only had the 13" with me, but it still did well in iron trashy spots as long as I cranked Reactivity up from .5 to 2. I covered almost 6 miles today in 6 hours, so the 13" was my friend there.

Got quite a few interesting things, a turtle shaped boss of some kind, a bunch of buttons, a thimble, a small and large ancient buckle, and an odd "washer" of some sort that has decoration on it. Got an almost round flat piece of lead that interested me too. This stuff is mostly late 1600s to mid 1700s.

I thought I may have found one of these turtle shell looking objects before and I did, about a year ago in another field:

Of course, no one expects the Spanish to show up (old joke 😀), but indeed they did:

A 1724 "pillars and waves" cob minted in Potosi, you can just make out the entire 2, and "pillars and waves" ended in 1737, I think. I do not know the denomination, but suspect it to be a 1 or 2 Reale, as it weighs almost a gram. The "P" is the mintmark from  Bolivia.

The reverse isn't very detailed. It was poorly clipped or snapped, maybe I'll find more. Here's what it might have looked like originally:

I found this at the end of the hunt, in one of those "I think I'll go up there" scenarios. 😎 This is the third Spanish coin I've found this year, and now my fourth oldest coin.

Getting to really know the detector I have, and being lucky enough to have a place to find this old stuff is why I do so well. 🙂 It's good to spend a lot of time learning your machine, should I have used another I am less familiar with, I don't think my results lately would be as good. I'll be sticking with the Deus 2.

Forgot the trash again, merely a handful.

[JCR]

Glad you were able to get out & have a good day. It’s nice when everything comes together.

[Doc Bach]

Relic program with tweaks is hotter than a pistol.Personally I have had better success with it than any other and that includes a wide open goldfield program.Very consistent array of impressive finds as usual.

[Valens Legacy]

Great hunt again and glad you found some nice items.

Your Nox is still crying to get back out there with you, and you never know what she will find.

Good luck and stay safe out there.

[George Kinsey]

Very nice hunt.

[F350Platinum]

7 hours ago, Doc Bach said:

Relic program with tweaks is hotter than a pistol.Personally I have had better success with it than any other and that includes a wide open goldfield program.Very consistent array of impressive finds as usual.

That's for sure. I really like the audio depth indication, while nothing is particularly deep except for really large iron objects, it's great to know by ear what tools you need to use to dig the target.

There is merit to my custom programs, but to deal with less noise makes for a longer hunt. 👍

[F350Platinum]

6 hours ago, Valens Legacy said:

Great hunt again and glad you found some nice items.

Your Nox is still crying to get back out there with you, and you never know what she will find.

Good luck and stay safe out there.

Thanks VL,

The Nox may get out today, a reader posed a question that made me curious. 🤔 I'm going to go back to where I dug the cut Reale with the Equinox and the 10x5, and bring the Deus and 9" with me as well. I want to see if the Deus has found everything there was to find.

I also want to try out some APTX-LL Bone conduction headphones I got. 🙂

[F350Platinum]

3 hours ago, George Kinsey said:

Very nice hunt.

Thanks George, I'll probably never find as much Spanish silver as you have, but 3 in less than a month is really fun. 🙂

[Mark Gillespie]

Incredible finds for sure.  I've yet to find a site like yours.  I did find a 179? flowing hair cent with the White's TDI SL a few years back.  Glad the Deus is working for you.

 

[F350Platinum]

Thanks Mark,

I often wonder whether a PI would make any difference here, but we've tried the Axiom, and while it is awesome it's still pretty much a dig it all proposition. Like the D2 it's not perfect on iron. Digging a ton of junk kinda makes you run to get your Deus. 😀

Your original question got me curious, and today I'm going to take the Equinox 600 out to the field where I found the cut Reale. I'm going to search the same spot with the 10x5, if I find anything else it will show for the most part that it's a toss up other than the things I mentioned about the Deus being more waterproof and a lot more configurable.

The D2 with the 13x11" coil weighs less than the Equinox with the 10x5", so that's a plus too for a geezer like me. 🙂

I'll post something here tonight.