Got a hat trick - 3 personal bests.

[PokerShark]

April of last year as most of my friends here know, I got started in general purpose detecting after many years only using a gold detector prospecting. It started with a used Garrett GTI 2500 and once I was hooked in June 2011 I moved to a V3i. 2011 was a very good year. Over $100 in clad, 7 silver rings and assorted old coin finds. But my results really did not get into high gear until I got the V3i to be honest.

Well I thought I would get my 2nd detecting year started with a bang and hauled my gear from California to my boyhood home in Virginia to visit with my family and detect on their old farm. I tried this last year in June and found only 4 Wheaties in 2 days. Needless to say I went home frustrated and mad considering this old farm house and property goes back to the early 1800's. Later I discovered after I returned that my 10 DD coil had failed during the visit which explained the instability and false hits back in Virginia. Whites replaced that coil no questions asked and my machine has been perfect since, but I had to wait nearly a year for another chance to come home and hit this vintage ground.

Well I arrived late Saturday night (5/12) and hit the front yard for what turned out to be 10 minute run the next morning only to learn my battery pack needed a full charge (jet lag folks). But not before finding a trigger guard for a flintlock pistol of some type in just a few minutes.

After dinner I went out before sundown and before a planned drive to Baltimore to visit my company's headquarters for training during this work/vacation week. I raced the sun and under 30 minutes I found in this order; a 1939 Wheatie (personal best - I think) 1919-S Merc (personal best), and a 1890 Indian Head Penny (personal best). I am on cloud 9 and can't wait to get back there this weekend to hit that sweet spot with more time to hit it hard!! I only wish that 1919 Merc was a 1919-D instead of an S. My father, an avid coin collector, informs me that in the same condition as my S a 1919D Merc would have been worth $25K!!

Folks this stuff is too much fun and did I mention they have 40 acres of land? These hunts were on a little of the front and side yard - only 39.75 acres to go!!

I'll post pictures when I get back to Va. I'm in a hotel in Baltimore and still fired up with anticipation!!

The Shark

 

[Larry (IL)]

Good luck, sounds like you have a lot of hunting to do.......

 

[Rob (IL)]

Keep up the good work.

 

[triplehooked]

A great machine, and in a great area. I hope you brought it with you to md in MD!! Good huntin'!

 

[myrddin]

nice

 

[PokerShark]

Well after dreaming about getting back there I did late on a Thursday night. Had a tough time sleeping thinking about all the goodies I was going to find the next day before leaving for Calif on Saturday. I got out there at noon on Friday due to the heavy wind that morning that tapered off toward afternoon. I hunted, and hunted, and hunted for hours and found nothing worth keeping. Right off the bat I noticed my machine was acting very flaky, with random hits when I was not sweeping or just holding the coil in the air and so on. Not to mention warbling tones as well. What I did hit was not very consistent and I got very depressed. It was my last full day and my detector was doing the same things it did there the year before.

Here is what I know:
I was not close to any power lines.
There are no buried cables or pipes near where I was hunting.
This was VERY rural Virginia so I am sure no one was shooting any exotic RF or Microwave over the farm and town. Thus I came away very disillusioned with it all.

This is my 2nd trip to my VA homestead in 2 years and except for the 3 old coin find I reported in this post I have little to show for several long days of effort. I know this ground has potential and there were multiple notable old buildings in the neighborhood (1800s homes, torn down old barbershop site, remains of a country store from the 1800s, and a stage coach stop all in the area where I was hunting Friday). This is a tiny off the beaten path town with all privately held land that I have rights to hunt from the owners as well as my family. The owners assure me their land has never been hunted and has been in their possession for many generations dating back to the early 1900s. So it should be giving up more than surface junk. The one lot in the town I was told that had been hunted gave up quite a few coins from the 1800's as well as more modern silver coins. (yes the folks are lazy and not willing to hunt it themselves)

One other item to note. After the trip last year I contacted Whites and they sent me another 10.5 coil at that time and it helped my performance over the past year. Just prior to this trip I put my 4x6 V rated coil on for a hunt and it overloaded in nearly all programs when I got it close to the ground or even before I put it down. All this occurred in the stock programs with no mods at all (no delta symbol). So I am guessing it is my detector that is sick. What are your thoughts???

A bummed out Shark

 

[burlbark]

Well after dreaming about getting back there I did late on a Thursday night. Had a tough time sleeping thinking about all the goodies I was going to find the next day before leaving for Calif on Saturday. I got out there at noon on Friday due to the heavy wind that morning that tapered off toward afternoon. I hunted, and hunted, and hunted for hours and found nothing worth keeping. Right off the bat I noticed my machine was acting very flaky, with random hits when I was not sweeping or just holding the coil in the air and so on. Not to mention warbling tones as well. What I did hit was not very consistent and I got very depressed. It was my last full day and my detector was doing the same things it did there the year before.

Here is what I know:
I was not close to any power lines.
There are no buried cables or pipes near where I was hunting.
This was VERY rural Virginia so I am sure no one was shooting any exotic RF or Microwave over the farm and town. Thus I came away very disillusioned with it all.

This is my 2nd trip to my VA homestead in 2 years and except for the 3 old coin find I reported in this post I have little to show for several long days of effort. I know this ground has potential and there were multiple notable old buildings in the neighborhood (1800s homes, torn down old barbershop site, remains of a country store from the 1800s, and a stage coach stop all in the area where I was hunting Friday). This is a tiny off the beaten path town with all privately held land that I have rights to hunt from the owners as well as my family. The owners assure me their land has never been hunted and has been in their possession for many generations dating back to the early 1900s. So it should be giving up more than surface junk. The one lot in the town I was told that had been hunted gave up quite a few coins from the 1800's as well as more modern silver coins. (yes the folks are lazy and not willing to hunt it themselves)

One other item to note. After the trip last year I contacted Whites and they sent me another 10.5 coil at that time and it helped my performance over the past year. Just prior to this trip I put my 4x6 V rated coil on for a hunt and it overloaded in nearly all programs when I got it close to the ground or even before I put it down. All this occurred in the stock programs with no mods at all (no delta symbol). So I am guessing it is my detector that is sick. What are your thoughts???

A bummed out Shark

It does sound like a couple of bad coils.... The dreaded bleep bloop blop bleep sounds. Without seeing a video or being there it is hard to say. You must determine first if the coil is bad or the unit is making noise by itself. Disconnect the coil from the detector and turn it on and turn up the gain. It should not make any noise in theory. The reconnect the coil and see how high you can turn the gain up before it goes crazy again.

 

[Rob (IL)]

About your last statement you said it did it with the 4x6, but what did it do with another coil? That would be the way to determine if it is the coil or detector.

There can be a problem in VA. There may be no good finds there.

I don't remember who posted this.

Red Dirt Culpepper VA
I took the V3i to some of the hottest red dirt in the United States.....Culpeper, VA. This was for Civil War relics.
In your Audio menu put it in All Metal Mode and then increase your All Metal sensitivity. Now you basically run it like any other machine...run it as hot as you can without it falsing. The next big setting change is run SINGLE FREQUENCY. In my particular case I found the 7.5 kHz to work best. Run Manual GB and update it when the detector starts getting false signals. I found by putting the recovery delay at 40 that it made the recovery time much like a F75...REAL fast. And it gave distinct and fast double blips on nails. I actually dug my deepest relics ever with the V3i in red soil...dug Minie balls breaking into the 15" mark with the stock D2 coil and above settings.

 

[PokerShark]

Rob,

The 4x6 did not make the trip because is was malfunctioning back in California. I can tell you that I run ALL the programs stock with no changes most of the time. If I have any unusual activity with the detector the first thing I do - return to stock program settings. Kind of a running home to momma approach I guess you could say.

When it comes to the soil, the RED clay is in central to western VA. I am in eastern VA close to the Bay and Ocean. The soil is quite different there. Don't forget this machine malfunctioned in the exact same spot it had no issues with days before and the soil remained unchanged - no rain, temp, and humidity were all the same as before. One day it worked flawlessly and the next it was a nightmare of noise and false hits.

I have seen this behavior out of this detector now with 3 different coils which makes me wonder when it comes to the unit. (my original 10DD, a replacement 10DD, and the 4x6) It will not do anything unusual with the coils disconnected, but I have not tried boosting the gain with no coil connected as someone has suggested. By the way, I only have 2 coils to test with, my 10DD and 4x6. I called Whites just before my trip to VA and described what the machine was doing and they said send in the 4x6 coil. Shouldn't there come a point where the unit comes into question or is this common with the V rated coils? I bought the unit with 3 coils and the only one that has not showed signed of being defective is the 5.3 I sold not long after I purchased it,

Thank you,

The Shark