beepsilver
Member
Went to a park with my buddy and his 10-year-old son today....it was the young man's first detecting trip and there's still enough clad in the park to learn the ropes. He found enough clad that I think he'll want to go again. After he'd had his fill of detecting, he still hovered around our holes to find out what we had unearthed--a good sign!
Although the park has enough clad to keep you busy, the oldies are scarce there and after a few hours of digging iffy signals, we moved on to a nearby church we have standing permission to hunt--a nice churchyard with some surprises left for those who listen.
I setup a little differently today to address depth and collocated nails and other iron bits:
11 inch coil (never hunted this church with the 11" before)
Full tones
Disc 2 (normally 6 for me)
12K
GB 90 (different from my usual 80 here, but couldn't tell any difference in the low mineral soil)
Reactivity 3 (normally I use 2, but I was hoping to find a masked target)
Silencer -1
Sens 92 (higher than my normal 86-88ish)
TX-1
AR 4
Notch 7-25 (forgot to change the notch to 3-25 after reducing disc)
My first target was a deep wheat penny...deep = 6-7inches at this church. In 12K it was a deep high tone (like someone said before, it's like the sound of rubbing a clean window and hearing the squeak that accompanies it). I shifted over to my almost identical 4K program and the tone was a little stronger (because of TX-3), but the pitch dropped a little which was a good thing. Today I also had an adjacent 8K program with Reactivity 1 loaded for depth, so I checked that too and the coin signal was unmistakable. Whenever I'm in an area with deeper targets, and especially when my primary program is set to Reactivity 3, I like to have a backup with lower reactivity. In 12K the soft signal would have been very easy to miss had I been going too fast or not had my volume up. But 4K and 8K firmed up my decision to dig. The tone was only repeatable from a couple of angles. Before I dug it, I called my buddy over to check it with his DFX (his son had already put his detector away). Long story short, based on his settings, he would not have dug the signal, so after I popped the wheat out, we spent some time adjusting his settings. Right away he begins to hear so much more, so that set him to digging more and a few minutes later he ended up pulling a deep wheat and a gold-ish necklace with colored stones that he's still analyzing.
Only a few minutes after digging the wheat, I got another similar deep tone in 12K and I did the checks with 4K and 8K--the numbers weren't a solid as the previous wheat but the tones were. Out popped my first Indian Head Penny from about 6 inches...I used my buddy's son's young eyes to read the date for me--a 1909! The penny was too dirty to check for the S mintmark, so I waited until I got home to discover no mintmark--darn!
Several minutes later, still working a 10 X 20 foot area, I get the same signal in 12K that came through the Gray Ghosts for the previous two coins....so I'm thinking another copper, but out pops a nicely detailed 1899 Barber Dime at 6-7 inches--yes!
My takeaway from these finds is the smaller coins at depth pretty much sound the same in all the frequencies I used. Also, slowing down and listening hard makes a big difference. I've hunted this church three times before and I keep getting surprised by what I had missed. Swinging a different direction and the 11 inch coil (not to mention many more months experience on the Deus) seems to have made a difference.
I dug another IHP a little while later--not as deep as the previous, and the VDIs showed that--the numbers were lower in the corresponding frequencies compared to the IHP from 6 inches. Although I found no nickels there, I'd almost bet they'd come in high at depth like the first IHP.
Toward the end of the hunt I thought I'd found a way-out-of-place half cent based on its size when I saw it, but it turned out to be a copper 1912 Indian Quarter from 4-5 inches--my first. When I had swept over it, it sounded like a penny with a little more pinpoint width. Surprisingly, the size didn't seem to elevate the VDI numbers.
The churchyard continues to produce, so there will definitely be a return trip after a good rain soak.
Although the park has enough clad to keep you busy, the oldies are scarce there and after a few hours of digging iffy signals, we moved on to a nearby church we have standing permission to hunt--a nice churchyard with some surprises left for those who listen.
I setup a little differently today to address depth and collocated nails and other iron bits:
11 inch coil (never hunted this church with the 11" before)
Full tones
Disc 2 (normally 6 for me)
12K
GB 90 (different from my usual 80 here, but couldn't tell any difference in the low mineral soil)
Reactivity 3 (normally I use 2, but I was hoping to find a masked target)
Silencer -1
Sens 92 (higher than my normal 86-88ish)
TX-1
AR 4
Notch 7-25 (forgot to change the notch to 3-25 after reducing disc)
My first target was a deep wheat penny...deep = 6-7inches at this church. In 12K it was a deep high tone (like someone said before, it's like the sound of rubbing a clean window and hearing the squeak that accompanies it). I shifted over to my almost identical 4K program and the tone was a little stronger (because of TX-3), but the pitch dropped a little which was a good thing. Today I also had an adjacent 8K program with Reactivity 1 loaded for depth, so I checked that too and the coin signal was unmistakable. Whenever I'm in an area with deeper targets, and especially when my primary program is set to Reactivity 3, I like to have a backup with lower reactivity. In 12K the soft signal would have been very easy to miss had I been going too fast or not had my volume up. But 4K and 8K firmed up my decision to dig. The tone was only repeatable from a couple of angles. Before I dug it, I called my buddy over to check it with his DFX (his son had already put his detector away). Long story short, based on his settings, he would not have dug the signal, so after I popped the wheat out, we spent some time adjusting his settings. Right away he begins to hear so much more, so that set him to digging more and a few minutes later he ended up pulling a deep wheat and a gold-ish necklace with colored stones that he's still analyzing.
Only a few minutes after digging the wheat, I got another similar deep tone in 12K and I did the checks with 4K and 8K--the numbers weren't a solid as the previous wheat but the tones were. Out popped my first Indian Head Penny from about 6 inches...I used my buddy's son's young eyes to read the date for me--a 1909! The penny was too dirty to check for the S mintmark, so I waited until I got home to discover no mintmark--darn!
Several minutes later, still working a 10 X 20 foot area, I get the same signal in 12K that came through the Gray Ghosts for the previous two coins....so I'm thinking another copper, but out pops a nicely detailed 1899 Barber Dime at 6-7 inches--yes!
My takeaway from these finds is the smaller coins at depth pretty much sound the same in all the frequencies I used. Also, slowing down and listening hard makes a big difference. I've hunted this church three times before and I keep getting surprised by what I had missed. Swinging a different direction and the 11 inch coil (not to mention many more months experience on the Deus) seems to have made a difference.
I dug another IHP a little while later--not as deep as the previous, and the VDIs showed that--the numbers were lower in the corresponding frequencies compared to the IHP from 6 inches. Although I found no nickels there, I'd almost bet they'd come in high at depth like the first IHP.
Toward the end of the hunt I thought I'd found a way-out-of-place half cent based on its size when I saw it, but it turned out to be a copper 1912 Indian Quarter from 4-5 inches--my first. When I had swept over it, it sounded like a penny with a little more pinpoint width. Surprisingly, the size didn't seem to elevate the VDI numbers.
The churchyard continues to produce, so there will definitely be a return trip after a good rain soak.
Great finds, great post..important info within it..subtle clues to running an 11" rig and really taking the time to pay attention and learn it...
