Got out briefly last Friday for just a little over an hour. I decided to go to a very pounded park to try and get some deep signals. Was running open screen, 24 ferrous line and manual sensitivity set at 24. After digging a few of the usual deep falsing nails, I hit upon a repeatable 12-30 to 12-31 signal and it was showing deep on the screen. The signal was about medium in the volume department as I was running Deep Off, so just out of curiosity I switched over to Auto +3 which was running at 20 to see if I could hit it. I could just manage a blip after trying it from several angles but I know I would not have dug it. Switched back over to Manual 24 and it was hitting on it with no problem even after raising the coil a couple inches off the ground so I went ahead and dug a plug. After getting down to a measured 9 inches, I could see that I had a nice green 1907 IHP in the hole. I was very impressed with the E-trac hitting on that deep IHP. I hunted a while longer but other than the usual coins found nothing else of significance. I was happy enough with the IHP though.
Saturday, I had plans with my friend to go and try out a new permission that covered 8 acres and was the site of a Civil War artillery camp. I'd been trying to get hold of the owner for a very long time so I was pretty excited when I finally got the permission. We had high hopes as we got our equipment out, me with my E-Trac and he had his newly acquired Nokta Impact along. As soon as we headed into the woods our enthusiasm quickly waned as the entire area had younger trees and the ground had been moved all about for a past development that never came to fruition. On top of that, we were going to have to imitate Lil' Brer Rabbit as almost the entire woods was thick with blackberry and briar bushes. It was seriously rough going and I was ruefully thinking about what I would not do just to find a bullet. Two hours later all we had to show for our efforts was a period shot gun casing that I found afterwards OUTSIDE the woods. LOL
Time to go to the backup plan. A lot in town where there used to be a turn of the century house. Things began with promise as my friend immediately dug up a 1920 Wheatie. After that, nothing, zip and nada. An unbelievable amount of trash, EMI, bad ground and not many good targets.
Now it was time to go to our back up to our back up plan (and our last one I might add). A site we had hit before with some success, a Confederate artillery camp across town on a hill opposite from the Union camp we had just hunted to no avail. For the next few hours, I walked that whole hill, top to bottom and side to side, running an open screen, TTF and manual 26. I did find some small lead and a couple fired pistol balls but not much else. I was taking a break against a tree when I noticed the town water reservoir sitting on top of the hill. I had actually never hunted on the other side of that reservoir before so I began the trek up to it. One of the reasons I had never hunted it was because it was strewn with garbage. It is a pretty secluded location with one road going up to it and close to an old college which meant one thing in this small Tennessee town, Party Central. Seems they began partying up there way back in the 50-60's as I found one antique beer can lid after another which always rang up 12-45 and 12-46. They sound beautiful and they are a ton of fun when you dig down 11 inches for them too. Happy days!
It was around 5PM and just starting to get dark as I started to head out and find my hunting partner. I hadn't found anything good all day long. My phone hadn't rung either so I figured he was having similar success; he was. As I walked through the woods, I wished for one last good signal before having to go home skunked. You know the drill, "One last good signal, then I'm done". Right on cue, I get a beautiful 12-46 (not as beautiful as it could have been since I was still in TTF) and thought what the heck, let's clean out that last beer can lid. Dug down 2 inches and it was already out of the hole. I thought I had seen something round and coin sized with a bright edge flash out of the hole and got pretty excited. I moved the dirt around and saw it. A very dirty quarter. I truly believed I had just found a clad as it was completely caked in dirt. I rubbed it just a bit at the top and quickly realized it was no clad quarter. I saw the top of the head of a Barber quarter! I was stoked. It has been a very long time since I have had a big Barber in the hole. I put it back down and did not touch it until my friend got to my spot. I wanted him to see it in situ. Once he got there, I gave it a little Foo Juice while we both were saying we hoped it was an 1800's Barber. Sure enough. it was an 1894 and it looked beautiful sitting in my hand. Funny how just one big beautiful Barber can make you forget about all the empty holes you dug that day. HH
Saturday, I had plans with my friend to go and try out a new permission that covered 8 acres and was the site of a Civil War artillery camp. I'd been trying to get hold of the owner for a very long time so I was pretty excited when I finally got the permission. We had high hopes as we got our equipment out, me with my E-Trac and he had his newly acquired Nokta Impact along. As soon as we headed into the woods our enthusiasm quickly waned as the entire area had younger trees and the ground had been moved all about for a past development that never came to fruition. On top of that, we were going to have to imitate Lil' Brer Rabbit as almost the entire woods was thick with blackberry and briar bushes. It was seriously rough going and I was ruefully thinking about what I would not do just to find a bullet. Two hours later all we had to show for our efforts was a period shot gun casing that I found afterwards OUTSIDE the woods. LOL
Time to go to the backup plan. A lot in town where there used to be a turn of the century house. Things began with promise as my friend immediately dug up a 1920 Wheatie. After that, nothing, zip and nada. An unbelievable amount of trash, EMI, bad ground and not many good targets.
Now it was time to go to our back up to our back up plan (and our last one I might add). A site we had hit before with some success, a Confederate artillery camp across town on a hill opposite from the Union camp we had just hunted to no avail. For the next few hours, I walked that whole hill, top to bottom and side to side, running an open screen, TTF and manual 26. I did find some small lead and a couple fired pistol balls but not much else. I was taking a break against a tree when I noticed the town water reservoir sitting on top of the hill. I had actually never hunted on the other side of that reservoir before so I began the trek up to it. One of the reasons I had never hunted it was because it was strewn with garbage. It is a pretty secluded location with one road going up to it and close to an old college which meant one thing in this small Tennessee town, Party Central. Seems they began partying up there way back in the 50-60's as I found one antique beer can lid after another which always rang up 12-45 and 12-46. They sound beautiful and they are a ton of fun when you dig down 11 inches for them too. Happy days!
It was around 5PM and just starting to get dark as I started to head out and find my hunting partner. I hadn't found anything good all day long. My phone hadn't rung either so I figured he was having similar success; he was. As I walked through the woods, I wished for one last good signal before having to go home skunked. You know the drill, "One last good signal, then I'm done". Right on cue, I get a beautiful 12-46 (not as beautiful as it could have been since I was still in TTF) and thought what the heck, let's clean out that last beer can lid. Dug down 2 inches and it was already out of the hole. I thought I had seen something round and coin sized with a bright edge flash out of the hole and got pretty excited. I moved the dirt around and saw it. A very dirty quarter. I truly believed I had just found a clad as it was completely caked in dirt. I rubbed it just a bit at the top and quickly realized it was no clad quarter. I saw the top of the head of a Barber quarter! I was stoked. It has been a very long time since I have had a big Barber in the hole. I put it back down and did not touch it until my friend got to my spot. I wanted him to see it in situ. Once he got there, I gave it a little Foo Juice while we both were saying we hoped it was an 1800's Barber. Sure enough. it was an 1894 and it looked beautiful sitting in my hand. Funny how just one big beautiful Barber can make you forget about all the empty holes you dug that day. HH
