3rd hunt of the season - keeping it alive

[DirtFlipper]

Howdy,

I got out for two more hours today in cold, gusty winds to get my third hunt of the season. Stayed with the Excelerator coil again, and went back to the same old spot I've been poking at. And found a bit more, but nothing too exciting. It was hard concentrating on signals with the wind howling through the headphones, while leaning up against the wind. But hey, I was detecting! Pretty straightforward hunt - listened for higher chirps, see if the signal persisted through a 90-degree coil sweep, see if pinpointing kept it out of iron on the smartscreen, but mainly listened for that sweet tone. Got fooled by a couple rusty nails, but pretty good correlation overall. I only picked up five Memorials (three were 1960's) and three dimes, so the ratio of older to newer was high this time. I wasn't trying to cherry pick, but I was skipping surface signals, holding out for signals that had some 'flutiness' to them (for depth).

Managed 11 wheats and one Roosie to keep the silver alive (and even that was hard to find, whew!). Of the wheats, one turned out to be a pretty nice 20-S, and another is a 25-D with a real mushy strike. I was hoping to snag smore more Indians, but couldn't seem to snag one under the coil this time. Gives me something to look forward to for next time.

HH,
DirtFlipper

 

[MNCoinhunter]

Ahh...nothin' like fresh finds !! Congrats !

 

[howlow666]

n/t

 

[Hotcz70]

Nice finds D-Flip.

Thar site sounds like a good one.

 

[sgoss66]

Nice job!

That Roosie looks like it's in GREAT shape! That's a bunch of wheats, too -- and that "new to old" ratio is awesome!

Two questions --

One -- do you find you dig more rusty nails with the Excelerator than the Pro coil?

Two -- you implied that the "flutiness" is partly due to coin depth, which I have heard before...that's been your experience?

Steve

 

[Eddie in Poulsbo]

Very nice finds DirtFlipper. GL & HH on your next hunt.

Eddie

 

[Dave-IL]

Nice coins dirtflipper.

 

[DirtFlipper]

Two questions --

One -- do you find you dig more rusty nails with the Excelerator than the Pro coil?

Two -- you implied that the "flutiness" is partly due to coin depth, which I have heard before...that's been your experience?

Steve

As for more rusty nails due to the coil, I can't say that I've correlated that exactly. I tend to hunt with the 6x8 SEF and now only have three hunts in with the Excelerator. So just the amount of hunting I do with the smaller coils will favor finding more rusty nails with them. And I do find them, but generally only when I get wishful thinking and ignore what the indicators are really telling me (sound, ID during pinpointing, signal after rotating 90 degrees, smart screen, and more sound). The problem is, there are just enough times when there's still a good target hiding in the mix that a few more rusty nails are worth it to keep trying a few every now and then. When I hunt with the Pro coil, it tends to be more open areas where I need the depth more than target separation, and in those cases I probably tend to rely on the indicators more readily and avoid chasing the wishful signals. The combo of rotating the coil 90 degrees and listening to the sound I think really help separate the iron out reliably (but not foolproof).

And yes, to my ears, I don't get the nice flutiness on targets that aren't very deep. The tone is nice, but there's no rise or fall to it, no warbling or flutiness. If I can get that warble or flutiness, and have it survive through a 90 degree coil rotation (or at least through some amount of rotation), that's when I get the goosebumps and the big grin. That's when I look at the depth meter and confirm too (although I find I don't look at the meter too much either). It's all about the sound, and how the signal is oriented when rotating the coil.

HH,
DirtFlipper

 

[sgoss66]

Very, very interesting comments, DirtFlipper, very informative, and very descriptive. I still struggle to convince myself not to dig those rusty nails that will occasionally give me a nice tone or ID...I keep thinking there may be a silver hiding next to that nail, but it's never been the case, so far. I sure do waste alot of time doing so; maybe someday, I'll learn the difference between just a nail false, and a nail with a silver trying to hide next to it!

As for the warble, I do LOVE that sound, but I'll tell you, I'm not good enough yet that I don't get it wrong sometimes. I have heard a pretty nice, sweet sound on occasion, and dug a piece of garbage; my ears are not yet trained well enough to know for sure. But, I've heard it just enough times, and then been rewarded with that beautiful sight of a silver rim in the dirt (just like your avatar!) that I'm getting better at picking out the true goodies from those imposters that just try to sound good!

Anyway, thanks for the info. The more I use the machine, the more what you guys say and describe with words makes sense. It really helps; thanks!

Steve