Got out for a bit yesterday and managed to score permission to a great new spot. I had noticed it the day before when the wife and I were driving around. The old house sits on top of a large hill, overlooking one of the rivers in Central Virginia. There's a good bit of CW and Rev War activity in close proximity and the majority of the houses in the area were built in the 1700s to early 1800s. This particular house was built in 1802, and was home to a Confederate Lieutenant in the Virginia Infantry during the Civil War. The land has been in the same family for 300 years, and it has seen very limited use of metal detectors. The road leading to the house is named after the the house, and the hill it sits on.
I knocked, introduced myself, and started chatting it up with the lady that came to the door. After explaining who I was, what I wanted to do & what type of items I was looking for, she gave me the OK. She said she had been mowing the lawn when her John Deere quit working. I told her I could take a look at it, and the belt had just slipped off, so I fixed it and she was so happy that she gave me a formal tour of the house and property, inside and out. She showed me Civil War pics of her Great, Great Grandfather, told me all about the family history, and showed me some of the furniture and antiques that were original to the house. Then outside she showed me all the old dump sites, the location of the privy, where the old schoolhouse use to be, the corner stones of the property, etc. The she took me over to an old Oak tree in the front yard and pointed in the bushes. She said "take a look in there".....And there sat a complete, 100 pound Civil War Naval Artillery Parrot Shell.
She gave me the OK and said "be prepared to dig some trash". Apparently this house sat unoccupied for a few decades before she obtained and restored it, and she said it was actually used as a dump site. That didn't bother me, I thought, because I have a Deus!! So, I booted up the machine and I was off. There were great, high tones everywhere. It seemed like signals ranging 60s + on the VDI were every 2 ft. I dug a couple pieces to a pocket watch, clad dime, wheat penny, Lincoln cent, misc brass, metal ink bottle, spoon, aluminium, foil, shotgun head-stamps, pistol cartridges, etc. This place had definitely not seen a detector before, or either they got fed up with the junk and moved on.
My settings were:
12KHZ
SENS -90, TX -2
REACT -2, SILENCE -1
IRON VOL -3
AUDIO RES- 4, OVERLOAD -1
3 TONES
DISC 4.0
NOTCH 6-40 & 94-99
GROUND NOTCH 85-90
Man, I got a little frustrated and overwhelmed with the amount of great signals ever few feet. I'm always worried about higher Reactivity settings and losing depth, but should I crank it up next time I go, to maybe 4 or 5 to work down the site in layers. My theory is that I may need to dig the shallow stuff first with a higher Reactivity setting, then each time I return, drop it one and get the deeper stuff. But I just hate knowing that I'm missing deep targets. There was so much junk that I was actually passing up the louder shallow signals, even if they registered in the 80's, as most of them were soda cans. This is a super spot, sure to have some old coins and buttons, but it's gonna be an adventure getting to them.
I'd appreciate any advice you guys can give on what settings you would use for a spot like this,
Thanks & HH
I knocked, introduced myself, and started chatting it up with the lady that came to the door. After explaining who I was, what I wanted to do & what type of items I was looking for, she gave me the OK. She said she had been mowing the lawn when her John Deere quit working. I told her I could take a look at it, and the belt had just slipped off, so I fixed it and she was so happy that she gave me a formal tour of the house and property, inside and out. She showed me Civil War pics of her Great, Great Grandfather, told me all about the family history, and showed me some of the furniture and antiques that were original to the house. Then outside she showed me all the old dump sites, the location of the privy, where the old schoolhouse use to be, the corner stones of the property, etc. The she took me over to an old Oak tree in the front yard and pointed in the bushes. She said "take a look in there".....And there sat a complete, 100 pound Civil War Naval Artillery Parrot Shell.
She gave me the OK and said "be prepared to dig some trash". Apparently this house sat unoccupied for a few decades before she obtained and restored it, and she said it was actually used as a dump site. That didn't bother me, I thought, because I have a Deus!! So, I booted up the machine and I was off. There were great, high tones everywhere. It seemed like signals ranging 60s + on the VDI were every 2 ft. I dug a couple pieces to a pocket watch, clad dime, wheat penny, Lincoln cent, misc brass, metal ink bottle, spoon, aluminium, foil, shotgun head-stamps, pistol cartridges, etc. This place had definitely not seen a detector before, or either they got fed up with the junk and moved on.
My settings were:
12KHZ
SENS -90, TX -2
REACT -2, SILENCE -1
IRON VOL -3
AUDIO RES- 4, OVERLOAD -1
3 TONES
DISC 4.0
NOTCH 6-40 & 94-99
GROUND NOTCH 85-90
Man, I got a little frustrated and overwhelmed with the amount of great signals ever few feet. I'm always worried about higher Reactivity settings and losing depth, but should I crank it up next time I go, to maybe 4 or 5 to work down the site in layers. My theory is that I may need to dig the shallow stuff first with a higher Reactivity setting, then each time I return, drop it one and get the deeper stuff. But I just hate knowing that I'm missing deep targets. There was so much junk that I was actually passing up the louder shallow signals, even if they registered in the 80's, as most of them were soda cans. This is a super spot, sure to have some old coins and buttons, but it's gonna be an adventure getting to them.
I'd appreciate any advice you guys can give on what settings you would use for a spot like this,
Thanks & HH
