Karma For The Ring - Or... Tiny Buttons - Make Me Feel Fine

[F350Platinum]

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.

🍀

[Lodge Scent]

Wow, the Manticore really did shine F350! That is a lot of buttons and old silver for one hunt. That cufflink is really cool.

Lodge

[F350Platinum]

7 minutes ago, Lodge Scent said:

Wow, the Manticore really did shine F350! That is a lot of buttons and old silver for one hunt. That cufflink is really cool.

Lodge

Thanks Lodge! 🙂

I didn't think I'd get this many, and almost all of them are really small. I'm thinking I have a setting on the D2 that might be pushing the really small low conductors out, but honestly I've found plenty of them with it. 🤔

Some will say it's counter-intuitive to use a large coil particularly when looking for small stuff, but I find it works very well once you get the hang of it. There are a lot of iron nails in this field as well, apparently there was a building here before maps were made, and the finds emphasize that. Glad no one knows about it. 😏

The Manticore not only picked most of these out of the iron, but a lot of them were either vertical or quite deep. Some I got at 8" or more!

[JCR]

Your dedication and persistence is worthy of the rewards.  

I don’t believe in Karma.

[schoolofhardNox]

That's a lot of cool stuff. Congrats on the silver.

[mn90403]

That is some good stuff.  I just did my first beach hunt with an M15 this afternoon.  That coil is a lot of fun and I have to agree with you it finds small stuff just like the M11 and even the M8!  I also find it light and perhaps better balanced for low, slow level swings.

You have fun with it at the beach.  It is reminding me of the hundreds of hours I used the 3030/17.

[F350Platinum]

37 minutes ago, JCR said:

Your dedication and persistence is worthy of the rewards.  

I don’t believe in Karma.

Thanks JCR,

I don't really either, just putting a name on luck combined with a hunch that this field still had something to find. 

The jewelry store called me today to tell me the ring was repaired and looked beautiful, but I had already given them the landowner's number, so I'll probably never see it. 🫤

I like how this field gave up the goods!

[F350Platinum]

37 minutes ago, schoolofhardNox said:

That's a lot of cool stuff. Congrats on the silver.

Thanks!

A shocker for sure, my first find today was the tiny broken silver button. I worried it might have been the "30 minute skunk" 😅 until it wasn't. 

I'm sure if I could have stayed longer I'd have found more small buttons, long ago I got a half real in this field, so there was always the possibility I'd find more Spanish stuff as well. All the silver came up in 30's range, so until I cleaned it off I had no clue. That was odd but I'm fine with it. 

This small field could have had a building on it that was a shelter for horses, I haven't found a lot of doorknobs and hinges and the like, but all the small buttons indicate equestrian activity. 

It may be another 2 years before I can get back there unless the farmer starts late. 🥲

[F350Platinum]

27 minutes ago, mn90403 said:

That is some good stuff.  I just did my first beach hunt with an M15 this afternoon.  That coil is a lot of fun and I have to agree with you it finds small stuff just like the M11 and even the M8!  I also find it light and perhaps better balanced for low, slow level swings.

You have fun with it at the beach.  It is reminding me of the hundreds of hours I used the 3030/17.

Thanks!

I almost exclusively use the 13x11" coil on the Deus, so I've developed skill with larger coils. It is a lot of fun, and I get to cover a lot more ground in less time. 🙂

We're going kind of early on this beach trip, hopefully I'll find some good stuff others missed. 🤞