Lead

[DougScott]

Where would lead balls and mini balls show uo in a Mine Lab Explorer?

Thanks.

 

[Mike (Virginia Beach)]

It depends on a few things. Like how deep is it? Has the bullet been fired or is it dropped? Are you in digital or Smartfind? The short answer is that minnieballs will come up very close to where a zinc penny does and musketballs will come in a little lower, both in digital numbers and on the Smartfind...similar to where a square pulltab does. Here are some shots from ones I dug a while back. The minnieball in the second shot would have signaled a little higher than the musketball normally, but as you can see it was fired, has lost a little of it's perfect shape, and isn't 100% intact. As with anything, that will throw off your numbers and display. Like a gold ring that is solid compared to one that is either broken or bent...whole different ballgame. But When you're relic hunting, anything in the range of the stuff below is digging material. Some would say that when you're relic hunting you should dig everything...at least if you're in the woods or a clean field anyway. Cannonballs, rifles, and other items that will often be heavily rusted will not normally be found by those who only dig the "sure things". For buttons you can expect them to come in anywhere from a decent looking coin signal to in the same range as the bullets below. But more likely they will be somewhere equal to or below the numbers that we below. They are widely varied too, as you have flat buttons, two-piece buttons, small, large, in between. Hope that helps...

 

[DougScott]

This is fantastic. It is great to have people who share their knowledge with us rookies!

Thanks!

Doug

 

[ikon]

you bet doug, i like that chart mike has on his handle. nice idea. im going to have to copy that baby.
stan pa.

 

[ikon]

hey mike can you give us a clear shot of that chart. would really appreciate it.

stan pa.

 

[Mike (Virginia Beach)]

Sure. That was a short list I made to use for a little while when I first started learning the digital readings. And I cut quite a bit off of the BIG list, just wanted to have a "range" of readings for ready reference. At the bottom of this post is a link to the MS-Word doc I used to make that and I'll cut and paste the text of it for those that may not have Word.

What I did was I printed it, laminated it, and then cut it down and used a school glue stick to apply it. That glue is water soluble, so no problems when you eventually remove it.

Here's the text of my label:

Silver Quarter 00--29
Gold 20 Dollars 04--29
Gold 10 Dollars 07--07
Gold 5 Dollar 07--22
3 cent silver 07--24
1/2 dime 07--24
Indian Head 07--25
Half Reale 07--27
Gold one dollar 08--04
Gold 2.5 Dollar 08--10
Flying Eagle 08--11
Jeff. Nickel 10--06
War Nickel 09--07

 

[ikon]

n/t

 

[HanoverHoleDigger]

The thing with me on Minnie Balls is the signal jumps around in a circular fashion, in the area you show on smartfind.

I never found one where the machinge locked on perfect. My guess is the shape of the bullet throws off the signal.

 

[ED-NH]

n/t

 

[Mike (Virginia Beach)]

Yeah, that is certainly a good point. For me, I expect that there is going to be a little "averaging" going on, whether in digital OR Smartfind. What I do if I want to work a signal and really see if I can get it to lock in is I pinpoint it exactly and then get right on top of it and do a very tight "wiggle" over it, maybe an inch-wide swing at most. And I will rotate a little to get the best reading from a different angle or two. I can usually get to a point where the reading is very consistent. But in the end, if it's "in the zone" I'll dig it. Most of the places I hunt for bullets they are USUALLY at a certain depth, give or take. So if it's pretty close I assume it's a good signal and dig it.

 

[cloctor]

Mike what kind of pin pointer is in the pics? I dont hav a problem locating where to dig, just cant find the object in the dirt. Must be the bifocals? Thanks.

 

[Mike (Virginia Beach)]

That would be a Vibraprobe 560. And I hear ya man, I won't leave home without it. When you have a deep loamy hole in the woods and you're trying to find a bullet, a button, or a thin silver dime it can be a real bear.

I got mine from KellyCo. Here's a link with all the info on it.

http://www.kellycodetectors.com/vibra/vibraprobe-560.htm