I got back Sun from a week of fishing and some detecting up in the north central area of Minnesota. As it turned out, fishing was a good bit better then the detecting was. I caught numerous walleyes, several for eating and the rest in the "slot" of 20-26," in addition to a few smallmouth and northerns.
My detecting was done on an old fairgrounds that has seen continuous use since the 1890's. I've actually hunted this grand old site quite a bit over the past twenty or so year's of vacationing in the area for one to two weeks. Over the year's I have taken a good number of silvers, including Barbers, V and Buffalo nickels, several IH cents and the occasional gold and silver item of jewelry as well as many relics and curious. In recent year's, though, it has become quite frugal for the older varieties of coins.
The ground in that area has a decent amount on minerals. The fe,o, meter was pretty well locked onto .3 all the time. And, the site is about as trashy as any I have ever hunted. Small pieces of rusty tin, 22 shell hulls, nails, small light bulbs and the usual tabs, caps and so on.
I started out with the 5" coil and my very first coin was a 24 Merc. from about 4," but partially masked by a small nail. From there for the next three outings it was all down hill. About mid week I switched to the 11" coil to see if a little more depth might help. Once again, I promptly recovered a 57 Rosie at about 6" and a little bit later a 1906 IH cent that was about 5" deep. The IH read 59-62 and sounded in the 2nd and 3rd tones of 4h. That same outing I also dug a pewter (I think) junior police badge, with the back pin missing.
The 11" coil seemingly was the answer as except for the one Merc. all good finds were with the larger coil.
All in all, I ended up with 5 silver dimes, 2 Mercs. and 3 Rosies, 2 Buffalo nickels, 2 IH cents and 17 wheats. Besides the badge, I did get a gold plated old style clasp earring, a neat old ring with a ruby red stone and a gold (looking) earring post and a small assortment of misc. items.
I did try various settings, but for the most part was in bp, 0 disc., sen. of 75-85, 3h and 4h tones and the gb held around 70-75.
It is a whole lot more pleasant hunting up there then it now is here in W Tn.
HH, jim tn
My detecting was done on an old fairgrounds that has seen continuous use since the 1890's. I've actually hunted this grand old site quite a bit over the past twenty or so year's of vacationing in the area for one to two weeks. Over the year's I have taken a good number of silvers, including Barbers, V and Buffalo nickels, several IH cents and the occasional gold and silver item of jewelry as well as many relics and curious. In recent year's, though, it has become quite frugal for the older varieties of coins.
The ground in that area has a decent amount on minerals. The fe,o, meter was pretty well locked onto .3 all the time. And, the site is about as trashy as any I have ever hunted. Small pieces of rusty tin, 22 shell hulls, nails, small light bulbs and the usual tabs, caps and so on.
I started out with the 5" coil and my very first coin was a 24 Merc. from about 4," but partially masked by a small nail. From there for the next three outings it was all down hill. About mid week I switched to the 11" coil to see if a little more depth might help. Once again, I promptly recovered a 57 Rosie at about 6" and a little bit later a 1906 IH cent that was about 5" deep. The IH read 59-62 and sounded in the 2nd and 3rd tones of 4h. That same outing I also dug a pewter (I think) junior police badge, with the back pin missing.
The 11" coil seemingly was the answer as except for the one Merc. all good finds were with the larger coil.
All in all, I ended up with 5 silver dimes, 2 Mercs. and 3 Rosies, 2 Buffalo nickels, 2 IH cents and 17 wheats. Besides the badge, I did get a gold plated old style clasp earring, a neat old ring with a ruby red stone and a gold (looking) earring post and a small assortment of misc. items.
I did try various settings, but for the most part was in bp, 0 disc., sen. of 75-85, 3h and 4h tones and the gb held around 70-75.
It is a whole lot more pleasant hunting up there then it now is here in W Tn.
HH, jim tn