Anybody Taking Their Safari to the DIV hunt this weekend?

[TomH]

Folks,

I'll be at the Diggin' In Virginia hunt this weekend with my new Safari and would be interested in sharing info with other Safari users in that bright red, powdered iron that they call dirt I had a chance to try it out in some VA red clay last weekend and got a couple of Sharps bullets but this will be the first attempt in the legendary mineralized Culpeper soil. BTW: At Berryville last week I was able to hunt under some high tension wires and the noise cancel function was outstanding. No chatter and clear signals. I don't know if I lost depth under the wires but either way, it was the only machine there that wasn't badly affected.

Later,
TomH

 

[Tinfoil]

n/t

 

[ngrelic]

TomH,

Let us know how the Safari handles the tough ground in Va. Here in Ga. I use conductive audio and reject -10, -9, -8 with sens. @ 18. seems to work well in our goofy ground.

 

[TomH]

Folks,

The safari worked well in the highly mineralized VA soil and I was able to find relics from 2 inches to a little more than a foot deep. I started out in all metal mode, auto sens, threshold one notch above audible, but changed after about two hours to relic mode, auto sens, threshold at lowest audible setting and started finding relics. One part of the field was less mineralized than the rest and I ended up with four cuff buttons (an eagle, a NY, a crushed eagle and a button back), six bullets (all dropped) and an Enfield wiper/puller. Not a bad yield for this location. The Safari performed as well as the relic hunters' favorites (White's MXT and Fisher F75) and was only beat by the new, and extremely expensive, pulse machines like the White's TDI.

One thing that I did notice was that a curved piece of iron (bent nail, semicircular fastener, etc.) read exactly like a bullet.

All in all I am extremely satisfied with the Safari and very glad that I stepped up from my Xterra-50.

Tom Henrique

 

[ngrelic]

Way To Go TomH!!!!!! Thanks for the good report.

 

[TomH]

ngrelic,

This was a great event, about 400 diggers spending three days at Hansborough Ridge in Culpeper, VA. On the ridge itself was a 2nd Corps Camp, lines of huts that produced some amazing relics. The adjacent cornfield was the starting place for the battle of Brandy Station. We found a spot where they must have exchanged coats for new ones and dug a bunch of buttons, in all states from just a back to a decent complete button. Our group of eight diggers recovered...

a US Boxplate
more than 50 eagles
about a dozen NY buttons
more than 100 dropped bullets
a pewter candle holder
a small trigger assembly and stock screw
an enfield wiper/worm

All in all the hunt produced...

more than 1000 dropped bullets including three Gardiner explosives
more than 1000 shot bullets from a large firing range
about 20 boxplates
a Federal Sword belt plate
a tongue from a VA two piece buckle
a couple of VA buttons and 1 VMI button
a leather coin purse filled with silver coins
about 100 intact bottles (everything from case gins and medical bottles to mustard and wine bottles)
a saber handguard assembly
a piece of a saber scabbard
a hotchkiss shell
and about two tons of iron debris

All in all a great weekend with a bunch of fine people.

Later,
TomH

 

[edjcox]

How much mapping of these finds is produced during these hunts? With GPS now available the finds could be mapped for future historical analysis. Would be nice to provide thatt data to the adjoining parks curator. It's really a courtesy that could improve how MD's are viewed. Often or image is tarnished and public opinion view MD's as destroying historical artifacts by removal from situ as the context of finds is lost and undocumented.

 

[ngrelic]

Sounds like a great event. Congrats on all the nice recoveries!

 

[ronaldj2]

Thanks Tom for lifting my spirits on the safari, as it can definately have its learning curves. By the way good job on the finds!!!

 

[TomH]

edjcox,

The organizing committee will record all finds and the data will be made public for anyone that wishes to review it. One of the requirements for inclusion in the event is to give information about your finds and locations. Whether the archies make use of the data is up to them. I have personally worked on a couple of projects with one of the more progressive NPS archies, Steve Potter, but frankly, most times the "pros" regard us diggers as amateurs and do not use either our services or data.

ngrelic,

This is the fifth year for this event, two digs a year. It is an invitational dig and, weather permitting, you can get up to 33 hours of coil swinging in three days, if your body can handle it The organizers go out of their way to invite personable, friendly people (I still don't know why I got invited ) and the comraderie and conversation in the field cannot be beat. The whole thing ends up with a massive pulled pork BBQ on Sunday and a "show-us-what-you-found" session at base camp.

ronaldj2,

Have faith brother! The Safari isn't the easiest machine to learn but I am certainly starting to believe it is worth the effort. The soil at Culpeper is horrid, we joke that it is powdered iron and places get nicknames like "Rust Mountain". Signals are very confusing and a target can read several different metals depending on the direction that you swing your coil. Everybody starts the day digging every signal regardless of metal type until they can dial in that particular part of the field. In some fields, everything sounds like iron, even plates!

Just to lift your spirits consider this... Three weeks ago a friend and I were working an area (private property) adjacent to Barlow's Knoll on the Gettysburg First Day's Battlefield. The soil was very wet from several days of rain and conducting perfectly. I was able to locate two bullets at more than 20 inches! The signal sounded like a very deep iron target with a slight chirp at the end that shot up to 33 on the display. It was a repeatable signal so we dug them, one federal three groove bullet and one CS Gardner patent two groove bullet.

Later,
TomH

 

[ngrelic]

The Safari is definitely deep!!! Here in N. Ga. I have been digging 3 ringers at 10 inches pretty regularly. Have dug a couple at 12+ inches. The ground here can change from moderate to heavy mineralization within 20 square yards at some locations and the machine handles it with no problem. I first used ferrous audio (relic mode) with the Safari and heard the low then high tones, that you spoke of, on deeper minnie balls. I now use conductive audio and just get the high tones that are kind of "flutie" sounding on the deep ones. Minnies at 8 inches or less give a solid high tone and lock on at 34. High tones with a negative number are always iron. I seem to hear the different tones better in conductive audio.......Still have a lot to learn about this machine.

 

[TomH]

ngrelic,

I never switched from ferrous to conductive on that hunt, it didn't occur to me to try that, doh! We just got permission to work a field west of Gettysburg and I will try switching back and forth when I get a target to see what happens. Now you have me wondering if the conductive tones might have worked better in the Culpeper soil. Hmmmmmm...

Anybody else using the conductive tones for relic hunting?

Later,
Tom Henrique

 

[Idaho-Marke]

n/t