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My Safari is AWESOME!!!!

C

CONDUCTOR7E

New member
Great site,the best there is on this detector! Very glad that I found you guys!I have owned my Safari for about 3 months now and can say hands down that this is the best detector that I have ever used.I hunt mostly old cellar holes in the woods here in southwest NH,(Cheshire county).I love the depth,descrimination and the handling properties of this unit.My success has been great for a newbie,5 large cents,other old coins,numerous buttons,relics ect.The success has not been without a learning curve however as it does require a bit of use to really get the knack of it.My job as a Railroad Conductor does not really afford me alot of time to detect but I do whenever possible.It seemed very frustrating at first! From what i've seen and read,it is every bit as capable as an Explorer/ETRAC but without the bells and whistles.After time,I've really gotten used to the sounds that it delivers and and I feel much more confident that something is a good target just by how the tone rings out and use the image scale as a backup.For my unit,the quarters and large cents and silver halves ring a steady 38 and the pennies/dimes tend to hover around 36/37.Buttons ring a steady 33.I've never dug anything but junk with a ''40'' reading.The last draped bust large cent,(1802,beautifull coin,VF+) that I found was very deep,11''on edge and delivered a bit of chatter to my earphones,but the scale kept jumping to 38 so I felt as though I had a digger.Very glad I did! I run usually on coin/jewelery mode and manual sensitivity around 13-15.Threshold setting is around 9 or so.I like to hear it blank out over iron because thats where the goodies tend to be. For the record,I also use a Detector pro pistol probe and think that it is a winning combo!.I have been using the stock 11''DD coil with great results but just today picked up a brand new 8'' FBS 800 coil that I feel will better my finds around these trashy sites.Does anybody have any experience with these smaller coils and are they worth the hype?
Thanks for reading,Jason
 
Jason,

Another satsified user... outstanding. :detecting:

You said that a button reads out at a steady 33, what type of buttons? Brass? Pewter? What size? The only buttons I have found so far were American Civil War cuff sized Federal buttons (mostly eagles with one NY Infantry with some gilt left) and they all rang at 12-13, mostly solid 12s.

I get the same jumping signal on deeply buried bullets, first a low raspy iron tone followed by a jump to a nice flutey tone at the end (TID jump to 32-34). If it is repeatable I dig and have found some incredibly deep targets.

Welcome aboard,
TomH
 
TomH,now that you mention it there was a difference in the buttons.I particularly remember this one button,US military,pre civil war,that appeared to be made out of copper,(turned green?), that was about as large as a dime,that rang 33,the pre revolutionary ''great coat buttons'' that i've found go 35 which are much larger and appear to be made out of brass?Maybee they're copper though???Most of the buttons are of the smaller variety though and I distinctly remember 33 as being the magic #.
 
Congrats on your new machine!! I've had mine since Feb. 09 and I love it. I hope to get a smaller coil in the near future and would also like some feedback from those who have used them. It's nice to hear you have been finding things 200+ yrs and older. I love searching the woods and old cellar holes around my area in Western MA. Keep up the good finds and WELCOME to the FORUM. This forum has been a usefull and encouraging place to both read and post there are many good and knowledgable folks around here glad you signed on. Ron :detecting:
 
Western Mass? Sweet! New England rocks for old goodies! I've thought many times about bringing my Minelab on the train with me as I work down there.We wait for other freights for hours on end at times and there are many old depots/freight houses that stand waiting to be hunted being completely abandoned and on RR property.Permission to hunt is NOT a problem!
 
Jason,

Thanks for the info. I generally work Civil War sites but with the increasing scarcity of good places to hunt I am looking at some Colonial house sites so the info on earlier buttons is welcomed.

Hoping to get back to a Federal crossing on the Potomac this weekend. It has rained so the top 8 to 10 inches is diggable again and we are itching to get out.

TomH
 
Hi Jason, Great finds ! And I agree ... please post a few photo's when you get the time. I'm also hunting on local 100+ year old foundations here in Ohio - had my Safari for a month now - making progress with it - no real old finds yet - not discouraged at all - I'm still 100% sure that the old coins there! Andy's, Mastering The Quattro book has been a very big help in learning more about the Safari.
Keep up the good work ! --- Mark
 
I found a Barber dime at the depth of the x-1 probe minus about an inch. I don't know the length of the probe cause I can't find my tape. I had the Safari set on high trash and running at 17 sen.
 
I've had my Safari since March and ordered the Minelab FBS 8" coil shortly thereafter. I haven't weighed it and the 11" coil but the latter feels lighter. Without a loop stablilizer (which I adapted from one of my green machines), if not only folds under every time you put the detector on the ground to retrieve an item, but even when scanning. Still, a small coil can be useful. Mostly, however, I'm going to stick with the 11" Pro Coil.
 
Just tried out the new FBS 800 coil today running at sensitivity 13,coin and jewelery' and found 5 buttons out of an old cellar hole that I had hit the other day.The other day I found 2 buttons and a strange piece of thick hammered copper that was about as large as a quarter and twice as thick? Got pics,but the GF's camera battery died so we will post later this week.I really like the new Minelab coil for this type of work! The numbers were no different,at least it seems,than the stock 11''.The id #s were as follows....
Badly corroded pewter button,#9
small ornate button #9
the other one was #12 and the final 2 were #23 and #33
The large button from the other day was #35 and the piece of hammered copper was a solid #36 The target depth was anywhere from 3'' up to 8''.I'm starting to see that there seems to be no rhyme or reason to the numbers as long as they do not bounce all over and not give mixed tones .The only ones that seem to always hit at a constant # are the coins,36-39.Quite honestly,I listen to the tones anyway and the display is only used as a backup.Just thought i'd share this info with you guys.
 
Folks,

I took the 15" Coiltek WOT coil to a spot on the Maryland side of the Potomac yesterday and it was great!!!! Good clear tones, excellent separation, remarkable sensitivity. It seemed that some TID numbers were one or two points higher than I am used to but most targets read with the numbers that I would expect from the stock coil, just louder and cleaner tones.

The ground ranged from damp to soupy wet, heavy clay that stuck to your boots and turned them into Bullwinkle feet in seconds. I used a modified Relic program with -10 to -7 and +40 scrimmed out, manual sens 15/16 and High trash. A bullet at 6 inches sounded like it was at the surface (solid 32, great flutey tone).

Because I am still getting used to the coil I dug everything that was even slightly iffy but still managed to get a wormed rifle musket bullet, a brass snap from work clothes (about the size of a Federal cuff button and read a clear 12) and a 1964 penny at about 6 inches, all in about 1 1/2 hours.

The biggest difference was that I covered ground in almost half the time as the stock coil. The 15" sweep made a huge difference in the big field and the weight and balance of the machine were not affected at all.

Tom Henrique
 
Sounds like an awesome day for all of you.I totally see what you all talk about now regarding '''flutey tones''' If I get one of these,I dig it.I've also learned that on good targets and you get a low numerical reading and you decide to dig,the number always goes up,as you dig and scan,whereas a trash signal always stays high and jumps around and then goes down.Sounds odd but has worked well for me.The last good coin for me was the 1802 bust largey and was the only thing that was somewhat questionable as far as tone goes,probably because it was on edge and was extremely deep?I notice when I hunt heavily iron infested sites I get what I refer to as ''squeakers'' that the detector picks up,these are rarely signals that repeat and i've learned to ignore them as such.Probably nails and ferrous trash,or iron oxide residue that surrounds such things from years of corrosion underground.These as well as heavily mineralized soil account,at least in my opinion for a great majority of false signals.Turning down the sensitivity and noise cancelling eliminates most of this but they still exist.The FBS 800 coil,from what i've already noticed,has reduced these even more due to the reduced scanning area being covered.These signals also jump around the id scale and are a dead giveaway to me.It all goes back to knowing and learning your detector.There seems to not be any one set answer to detecting,only trial and error as one gets more profecient over time with his or her machine.
 
Jason,

It was a fun day, good friends, beautiful scenery and a few relics recovered. We are sneaking up on a camp or staging area near a Federal crossing on the Potomac and have been finding relics that indicate we are on the periphery but have still not found the camp/area itself. Because of crops, we can only hunt certain areas of the property each time we go down there but eventually we will find the motherload :clap:

I know what you mean about iffy signals from ferrous trash. It seems that the more rusted a piece of iron is the more likely that the Safari will see it as a good target. I have actually found nail shaped rust stains in the dug plug that read just like a .58 cal musket ball until you break them apart. And a curved rusty nail invariably sounds like a perfect bullet signal (32/34).

The reason that I asked about the buttons that you have been digging is that the ACW buttons that I have found have been remarkably consistent. Smaller cuff buttons read 12 or 13 (rarely). Larger Shell Jacket and Coat buttons ring out at 18 to 21. These are all brass buttons, some with gold or silver gilt remnants. The brass clothing snap that I found yesterday was almost identical in size and thickness to a cuff button shell without the back and it read dead-on 12 from two sweep angles. A really nice consistent high pitched tone, but lower pitch than bullets.

Happy hunting,
Tom Henrique
 
I must say Tom that i'd LOVE to do some civil war relic hunting down south! I was stationed at Ft.Bragg NC in the 82nd Airborne,(93-96 and 98-99) and knew some of my fellow Infantrymen that did all around NC and some of the finds were incredible! Not sure why I wasn't into Metal detecting back then as there were sooo many places to hunt and the locals outside of Fayetteville were very generous!
From what I can see the buttons that i've found,for the most part are civilian and are mid to late 1700's,maybee early 1800's around southwest NH.The difference in materials would definately explain the large fluctuation in readings on my Safari right?I did find a beautifull US military button about the size of a penny,an eagle,looking to the left holding a bunch of arrows and on the back read what I beleive was ''best quality'' in sort of ''gothic''letters?Looks to be early 1800's by the style of eagle,maybee war of 1812 or pre civil war era? It is similar in design to a bust half dollars reverse,(1831) that I have.I found a beautifull 1851 Coronet head large cent about a foot from it so maybee that era would be correct?
I will admit that I do not know alot about buttons but my Safari just keeps finding them,so they have acumulated and are part of my relics.
 
Jason,

The difference in materials would definately explain the large fluctuation in readings on my Safari right?

I am guessing that would be the case, I think the solid buttons alone would read differently from the two and three piece stuff associated with the ACW. Post a photo of the Military button and I will see if I can get a positive ID. My area is not buttons but I have several reference books and might be able to match it up for you.

If you find yourself heading to the Gettysburg area drop me a line and I'll see if I can arrange a dig. No guarantees, everything around here has been vacuumed but I am always pleasantly surprised at the leftovers that my Safari is finding.

Later,
TomH
 
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