Well it's rained hard here the past few days. I got home from work and it was finally nice and sunny. I decided to give my yard another go. The soil was still wet and I was hoping it would help with the discrimination. Just to re-fresh your memory, my house was built circa 1850, and nearly 90% of my yard reads with some sort of metal. Mostly square cut nails, I believe from the wood shingle like siding it used to have on it. When the siding was removed 1000's of nails were flung all over the yard, combine that with with 150+ years of burying crap all about and you have one trashy place to hunt.
I am still fairly new to the hobby, and my Explorer SE was going nuts the last time I tried my yard. That was over a month ago, and since then I've been honing my skills. My previous attempts had me digging nothing but nails. This time around I went in all metal mode. You know that nail sound in ferrous sounds? Think that sound going off like a machine gun as I swing back and forth. I basically have to "hear" the other sounds with that ringing off non-stop. While I didn't find anything too interesting, I am happy to say I did dig objects that were not nails, and did not take the bait on the falsing but one time!!
[attachment 95175 061708HuntPics1a.jpg]So here's what I got. That's a 1956 wheatie in "great" shape for my soil. You'll notice a Morton's salt spout to the right of it, the second one I've found within the week. Different locations, go figure! The 3 nails to the right of that were the one false I followed. One of them has some odd washer looking part at the top. Standard broken pottery I usually find, a bottle cap, and a plastic wagon wheel!
[attachment 95177 061708HuntPics2a.jpg]Here's a close up of what I believe is the base to a light fixture. If I had bothered to take a picture of the center on the reverse side, you can see screw ridges, perhaps for a light bulb, though I don't know why it would be connected directly to the base. Talk about a shockingly good time changing that light bulb. Perhaps it might be part of an oil lamp?
[attachment 95178 061708HuntPics4a.jpg]Here's the back side of that spoon. I was hoping it was all silver when I dug it. It turns out to be copper, plated with silver perhaps? Pewter? The remarkable thing about this find is that the 5 nails, and fragment from a hacksaw blade (pictured close to it in the first pic) were in the hole I dug to get this spoon out!! Talk about trusting the sound you hear. Bent nail after bent nail kept coming out, yet my trusty X-1 kept on getting a sweet signal. The hole I dug actually only snagged the handle end of the spoon, it was projecting it's signal fairly well, along with being masked by the dozens of nails near it.
[attachment 95179 061708HuntPics3.jpg]Here's a close up of the makers mark on the spoon. I've seen someone post odd symbols like those next to the word Fairfield. I'm sure they would tell me exactly how old the spoon is, and what it is made of. Anyone an expert on those markings able to tell me what they mean? Have a link to a web page that does?
Well, I'd just like to say I'm really happy with my explorer, and excited that the last month training in easier locations has paid off. I'd also like to thank all of those that post on the forums with advice, settings, and tips as I've used them all to learn this machine. My best advice is to be patient, go all metal, and trust those sounds over the smart screen! (there are so many nails that my screen never refreshes unless I lift it 2 feet off the ground, I really need to trust those sounds!)
I am still fairly new to the hobby, and my Explorer SE was going nuts the last time I tried my yard. That was over a month ago, and since then I've been honing my skills. My previous attempts had me digging nothing but nails. This time around I went in all metal mode. You know that nail sound in ferrous sounds? Think that sound going off like a machine gun as I swing back and forth. I basically have to "hear" the other sounds with that ringing off non-stop. While I didn't find anything too interesting, I am happy to say I did dig objects that were not nails, and did not take the bait on the falsing but one time!!
[attachment 95175 061708HuntPics1a.jpg]So here's what I got. That's a 1956 wheatie in "great" shape for my soil. You'll notice a Morton's salt spout to the right of it, the second one I've found within the week. Different locations, go figure! The 3 nails to the right of that were the one false I followed. One of them has some odd washer looking part at the top. Standard broken pottery I usually find, a bottle cap, and a plastic wagon wheel!
[attachment 95177 061708HuntPics2a.jpg]Here's a close up of what I believe is the base to a light fixture. If I had bothered to take a picture of the center on the reverse side, you can see screw ridges, perhaps for a light bulb, though I don't know why it would be connected directly to the base. Talk about a shockingly good time changing that light bulb. Perhaps it might be part of an oil lamp?
[attachment 95178 061708HuntPics4a.jpg]Here's the back side of that spoon. I was hoping it was all silver when I dug it. It turns out to be copper, plated with silver perhaps? Pewter? The remarkable thing about this find is that the 5 nails, and fragment from a hacksaw blade (pictured close to it in the first pic) were in the hole I dug to get this spoon out!! Talk about trusting the sound you hear. Bent nail after bent nail kept coming out, yet my trusty X-1 kept on getting a sweet signal. The hole I dug actually only snagged the handle end of the spoon, it was projecting it's signal fairly well, along with being masked by the dozens of nails near it.
[attachment 95179 061708HuntPics3.jpg]Here's a close up of the makers mark on the spoon. I've seen someone post odd symbols like those next to the word Fairfield. I'm sure they would tell me exactly how old the spoon is, and what it is made of. Anyone an expert on those markings able to tell me what they mean? Have a link to a web page that does?
Well, I'd just like to say I'm really happy with my explorer, and excited that the last month training in easier locations has paid off. I'd also like to thank all of those that post on the forums with advice, settings, and tips as I've used them all to learn this machine. My best advice is to be patient, go all metal, and trust those sounds over the smart screen! (there are so many nails that my screen never refreshes unless I lift it 2 feet off the ground, I really need to trust those sounds!)
