Mike (Virginia Beach)
New member
I've been hunting this field right close to where I work for about 6 years...not continuously, mind you...on and off. 
But I've hunted it with 5 different machines and so have some of my friends and a few others. In that time I've seen it go from a "dig rate" of maybe 15 bullets (or buttons) an hour to maybe 1 an hour. Or less. It's close to being worked out. But most times, if you're patient, you can score.
I hit it after work today for about an hour and a half. Running the Explorer II in IM -16, Ferrous, Manual 26...steady threshold if you keep a slow to medium sweep. The ground is very clean...there is some iron, but not much. Pleasant hunting and it's right next to a cemetery, so it's real quiet.
Don't worry, it's not part of the cemetery and I have permission to be there.
So the take was one 58 caliber musketball and one 3-ringer 58 caliber miniball. And there was also a small chunk of unidentifiable scrap lead and what might be a part of a small axe head, not pictured. I was really just taking advantage of the brief softening of the ground after the hard rain we had.
Here are a few pics I took...
But I've hunted it with 5 different machines and so have some of my friends and a few others. In that time I've seen it go from a "dig rate" of maybe 15 bullets (or buttons) an hour to maybe 1 an hour. Or less. It's close to being worked out. But most times, if you're patient, you can score.I hit it after work today for about an hour and a half. Running the Explorer II in IM -16, Ferrous, Manual 26...steady threshold if you keep a slow to medium sweep. The ground is very clean...there is some iron, but not much. Pleasant hunting and it's right next to a cemetery, so it's real quiet.
Don't worry, it's not part of the cemetery and I have permission to be there. So the take was one 58 caliber musketball and one 3-ringer 58 caliber miniball. And there was also a small chunk of unidentifiable scrap lead and what might be a part of a small axe head, not pictured. I was really just taking advantage of the brief softening of the ground after the hard rain we had.
Here are a few pics I took...