Out west, these are tough to find. Blisstool v6 nabs one.

[Old California]

Out West, Bust coins are a rare find. Long overdue for one, In my career today's bust is my forth.

What makes the bust find even more special, it was dug off the old trail first used by Native American Indians. Later, 1830-1880's this same trail was used by pioneers traveling up or down central California.

Have permission to hunt here, all my old coin finds including two bust from this property have gone to the owner and several are in our county museum. Will show the owner and ask if I can keep it, I'm sure he'll be okay with it as he's mentioned before I need to start a collection for myself.

Here are recent finds from the area, mostly pistol and couple of musket balls, one ball button. Also, eye balled an indian bead on the surface.

Today, Blisstool V6 scored the 1834 Bust quarter. Soil is tough here, need a Pi to get depth. Blisstool v6 using Ore mode is great, quarter was down about 9"-10" inches. Ore mode with the V6 helps with stability, in tough soil or area's laced with iron Ore mode with v6 is great.

Thanks for looking,
Paul

 

[vlad]

Is it tuning speed or processing of the mineral in the matrix?
You ever try a Nexus--Mega says its the deepest VLF made, (identifier, or discriminator models) but they do not give them away.
How is the TDi & GPX working out in that area?

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Holy smokes, you got a bust quarter ? Congratz. It's hard to get a bust coin out here in CA, as you well know.

Post that puppy on the kinzli forum too, if you get a chance.

 

[doc holiday232]

Great finds and story---thanks.

 

[JimmyCT]

Congratulations Paul!

 

[Old California]

Hello vald,

Both the TDI and GPX are doing great, used both today same site the bust quarter came from.

Favor the GPX for relic hunting, it's deeper and better discrimination for relic hunting. Now, for deep park coins I use the TDI more than the GPX it is terrific on deep high conductive coins can't beat the TDI on park turf using high conductive feature.

Looking forward to Fisher's new PI, Will surely get one when they are available. A good PI with decent discriminatiin is needed for serious relic hunting, VLF just don't cut it for deeper targets when soil conditions are tough.

Never tried the Nexus, Mega is an experienced detectorist and if he says the Nexus is a good VLF I believe him.

Blisstool V6 is currently the flagship of the Blisstool models, Ore mode is what separates it from the latest v5 model. Ore mode speed's up the recovery speed, allows the unit to operate in tough soil conditions or areas laced with iron.

In my area, and my type of hunting I need a faster recovery speed and a unit the threshold will recovery quickly (SAT) due to mineralization or areas with a blanket of iron. A user can adjust Ore mode to suit ground conditions, look at ore mode as one operates a SAT feature on a prospecting detector. As ground conditions get tougher, increase SAT same with the v6 only increase Ore mode so threshold quickly self adjust.

As a result from having a slow recovery threshold, unit will have poor stability, excessive ground noise and masking will hid targets even targets near the surface.

About 90% of my relic hunting are using a Pi, mostly the GPX. Top end VLF are toys with no depth when mineralization effect's depth, need a good PI and so far its the GPX.

When Fisher has theirs available I feel it'll be a terrific pi for relic hunting, we need another top end PI.

Take care vald,
Paul

 

[Old California]

Hello Tom,

Once I get a few more finds from this area, will post on the kinzli forum.

My first bust came from your site, that was an amazing find back then.

With this particular area the bust quarter came from, Denny, Brent and I hunted it 3-4 years ago. I needed Denny and Brent to help me cover certain sites I felt would produce old finds. At the time, we only dug a few pistol ball's and a v- nickel that was about it. So we moved on to the next site, and recently found more information pertaining to the area was worth another look then the bust surfaced.

Take care Tom!
Paul

 

[Old California]

Thanks Doc,

The site is near two other settlements that have given up seated, bust, several powder flask and other neat find's. One of the site's nearby give up over 40 coins, just last week a vintage ladies gold ring, these three areas are within a half mile a part.

Luckily, Property owner is ok if I bring a friend or two. Hopefully go there again tomorrow, if anything good surfaces I'll post it here.

Thanks Doc!
Paul

 

[Old California]

Thanks earthlypotluck,

Appreciate the encouraging words, hopefully get our there tomorrow.

Thanks again,
Paul

 

[vlad]

Reg Sniff came up with some good mods for the TDi, too bad no one is listening. (I know of two people that built Eric's Afterburner and added it to the Whites-they say its a cannon.)
I got faith in DJ at FT-the new PI should be hot. Have you heard from (Prospector) Alan? He has been quiet for the past few years (his Gold Broom too has some Eric Foster in it too.)
(I registered Dave Emery last year here at Finds so maybe his 'Devil is still in progress)

 

[Tom_in_CA]

..... My first bust came from your site, that was an amazing find back then....

Yup. I will never forget that. A beautiful bust half.

 

[vlad]

what do you opt for, a DD or a mono-any particular size?

 

[Old California]

Prefer DD with the GPX, will discriminate down several inches depending on size of coil. Use both 11" DD and 10x5 Elliptical DD Commander coils.

Mono are deeper, but I found myself swapping coils from mono to DD too often. Strictly DD now, relic site conditions quickly change from thick iron to clear open ground conditions and the 11" DD still punches down deep.

Even hunt in thick iron with the 10x5 elliptical DD and sometimes with the 11" DD, they'll get masked targets VLF will not see. Ratio of iron is higher, but will get conductive target's VLF missed.

HH, Paul

 

[still looking 52]

Still looking for my first bust coin, Paul those bust coins are rare everywhere not just out west. Congratulations on that fantastic find.

 

[Old California]

Yes, Reg Sniff contributes so much especially with the TDI. My TDI has his mods, it's very deep and stable especially out on park turf. But for relic hunting, GPX has an edge mainly due to discrimination.

Sold my ATX, it was a good one for relics, loved low conductive but wasn't too strong with high conductive at relic sites. Overall a good pi, but for my area I need a pi with strengths on both low and high conductive.

Haven't heard from prospecting Alan, unless it's Alan Cannon you're referring too that was a year or two back. He had just returned from Oz from a long hunting trip, he mentioned the rain there is terrible. Take that back, did speak with him when he had settled in Arizona that was about a year ago.

I agree, I too have faith with FT's new pi. Don't know how much involved Dave is with the new pi but do know about a couple of Dave's pass VLF, MXT and T-2 are solid performers. I hear they have a new Pi pin pointer, think Carl is behind this one? I was going to order one Monday, FT has a strong line of engineers behind them. See good thing's are coming

Paul

 

[Old California]

Thanks stilllooking52,

They are tough to find, funny thing wasn't expecting a bust when I seen it thought it was a seated quarter at first.

Yours will eventually surface, when you lease expect it. You'll see, it'll come have patience.

My first bust was a half, Tom from Salinas was there. One of his mission era sites, Tom was about 100 yards or so up above on a hill. I get this deep weak signal down in a dry gully, a place people may have washed clothes or water livestock? Dig down and see this large dark disk, thinking I had a large silver reale call Tom with disk in my hand.

Tom races down the hill, with disc in hand not yet opening my palm to see what it was handed the disc to Tom. Tom quickly recognizes it as a Bust half, probably the most beautiful coin I've ever dug in my career. Hardly any wear, such detail. Never cleaned it, still dark in color as it was when it seen sunlight for the first time.

Gosh, all ready forgot what year it was. Think 1835, yes it was 1835 well I think it is. I'll have to dig it out, my memory is as good as a candle slowly but surely going out.

Have patience, your bust will surface.

Thanks again,
Paul

 

[lytle78]

The Fisher PI project is the brainchild of Alexandre Tartar. Working with colleagues in France, he developed Eric Foster’s basic two channel PI concepts (which also inspired Bruce Candy in OZ) into increasingly sensitive and refined PI detectors. The emphasis was on beach use, the Aqua Manta - using the two channel feature to yield usable discrimination - (without the depth loss you get on the TDI with offset GB settings to detect high conductors). The AquaManta is a salt water machine. Obviously, a land machine, able to cope with high and variable mineralization would have to operate differently.

Carl Moreland at First Texas learned of the Manta project and discussions lead to FT hiring Alexandre (and perhaps others of his group) and acquiring the intellectual property.

Carl has confirmed on various forums that work is progressing to bring the beach machine to market and develop other platforms suitable for terresteral use. The beach machine is electronically complete - according to Carl - but a mechanical package and thourough prototype and field testing will take lots more time than us impatient enthusiasts would like!

Just a thought of mine, but ....

the ML GP series are designed to detect deep large gold and were then refined to detect progressively smaller nuggets and flakes in various difficult environments. Discrimination wasn’t a high priority because all forms of discrimination introduced the possibility of “losing” small nuggets.

A PI relic machine, on the other hand need not worry about detecting fly poop sized targets. I wonder if an optimized relic machine would be doable. Great power and ferrous/nonferrous discrimination - but without the constraints, complication and weight of current PI nugget machines. The TDI “trick” of offsetting GB and finding only high conductors was almost an accident - not a design goal.

What about a machine which is actually designed to be “tuned” to a particular ground type and conductivity (and even perhaps size) target - then on a different “mission” , be tuned completely differently for the “job to be done”? And have all of this organized in the user interface - both controls and user feedback) around the various “missions”?

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Hey Paul, great recollection of that save. That was an odd site. No real buildings on the site, hence not much iron. It was a place where the indians had had an ancestral village ("rancheria") that existed up through contact era. And then when the mission period was nearing the end (mission's desecularized, and the American period was starting), some of the remaining full-blood indians went back out to live in their ancestral village spots. In their nomadic type styles (non-permanent buildings, thatch huts or whatever). This was one-such location.

I got multiple reales, a few very early seateds (1840s), multiple phoenix buttons, etc.... from there. A friend of mine got a NYL button there. And by the time you were hunting there, it was very worked out. But you wandered off ~50 or 100 yards from the "zone" and got that beauty.

 

[Old California]

Hello Tom,

Yes, You and the others did well there. That site was worked out but still gave up a few more finds, Appreciate you inviting me to hunt there, seems like yesterday.

Dug out the bust half from your site, and it's an 1836 not 1835 as mentioned above. And not in good condition as I thought it was, leaving it in a bag full of relics and iron doesn't help any.

Also, Dug my second NYL button last year. This one is in better condition than the first, was dug in your area. My hats off to those who can find one of these here in California, they are an extremely rare find.

Thanks Tom!
Paul

 

[Old California]

Today, a good friend (Denny) met me at the site the bust 1834 quarter came from. A few finds between the two of us. Denny scored a Rifleman 2-piece eagle button, backside 'Scovills & Co" and a few other finds not shown.

I'll post two pics, once of his Rifleman eagle button and a pic of my finds from today and a recent hunt same site. Not much, just a few old age indicators.

I'm beat, Will try and squeeze in one last hunt tomorrow my 4 day weekend is over.

HH, Paul