F-75 Limited Edition and Civil War Relic Hunting

[Jason in TN]

Made a post on this a few days ago hunting in the all metal mode it is a deep as any thing out there.
I have used them all from the E trac to the Vision in all metal the LTD kicks butt relic hunting. Even out
performs my old shadow X5 was my go to relic detector. Only thing that may come close is the old mine
lab relic hawk if you can find one.

Jason

 

[Jason in TN]

I have dug a few at a honest 12" but 20" I do not see that happening.
May hit one in all metal at 20" will have to air test and see.

 

[HistoryBuff]

Hi Jason,

Here's where I am so far. I got the detector in this week and had no trouble putting it together and testing the basic functions. I like to do tests in the yard and have some small ziplocks snack size bags, and I put a penny in one, a quarter in another, shotgun shell hull, CW bullet, CW button, small piece of parbed wire, etc. I toss them out and by keeping them in the bags they don't disappear in the grass, so when you run your detector over them you can see exactly what your target is and how it sounds and how it registers on the meter.

I did a couple of yard tests like this and the bullet shows almost every time on a reading of 57-58. I took my arsenal out to an area I've hunted in the past and the grass is cut short. I tried the detector on the different ziplocked targets and they hunted about 30 minutes. I believe I am correct in saying that I set it to the Discriminator Mode with the sensitivity set to 99. I'm learning the machine and am not very familiar with the settings yet, but I believe this was the setting.

I immediately began to get signals, but most were in the 20 and below range. I did not dig these but I thought maybe some of you here could tell me what these low readings usually mean. I found a shot 30.06 hollow point that had hit and split open, fairly deep, and in an area I've gone over many times. I got another good strike and dug a deep shotgun shell hull. I didn't have a way to measure, but it was fairly deep but I doubt it was 10 inches dep though. I dug another about the same depth. Just by past experience, these were as deep as the majority of bullets I have dug. I don't remember digging holes any deeper than these on 95% of the bullets I've found in the past. This is in an area that has been pounded really hard, and these had been skipped over obviously. I never did see the meter peg at 57-58, but I saw a lot under 20, and then it showed over 90 on the meter a few times.

Is there any particular setting I should try next time? This seemed to work find and I'm sure if I had swung over a bullet it would have registered loud and clear. I'm going to try the same place tomorrow and then a known camp site on private land Sunday that has been pounded hard over the years. I'd like to know how some of you experience relic hunters set your machines to hunt a known battlefield and campground. I don't mind digging a lot, and as a friend once said, "a shovel is the best discriminator" and as another said, "dig everything on a known battlefield or camp ground."

I'm really optomistic about this machine. I don't not have all the frusrations I see some people mentioning. The detector sounded off a lot, but I didn't have the incessant chatter that some people complain about. At this point I'm 100% satisfied on assembly, controls, weight, my yard tests, and first short hunt.

I'm hoping some of you have standard settings that you always use on battlefields that you could share here.

DS

 

[SoArk]

HistoryBuff, Just a thing or so I've noticed.......... I do not have the LTD, but the F75. Hunting a pasture for CW relics that my partner and I have pounded pretty hard, I dug .58 cal 3-ringers thar registered 57-58 on the meter when they were fairly shallow..... 5 to 6 inches. But, as they got deeper, I noticed the numbers dropping..... down into the upper 30's with an occasional hit in the 50's with repeated swings over the target, and varying the direction of the swing.... while getting the high range tone on those occasions, and midrange on the 30's. All the low range tones were of iron.... if I remember correctly.

I had only used the machine 4 or 5 times on the weekends..... then ruptured my Patellar tendon and had to have major knee surgery, and have been doing therapy now for a month.... 3 times a week. I am getting back nearly a full range of motion now..... and will be working on gaining strength and muscle mass for a while yet. My gosh, it's amazing how much muscle will atrophy while in a leg immobilizer for 6 or 7 weeks!

Mercy!!!!! How much I have missed relic hunting.......and, keeping up with everyone's finds here, and reading the hunting techniques offered to you and others has kept the hunger alive! I can't wait to get back out there swinging the coil.

Thanks everyone for all the posts.... and the sharing of your knowledge!

 

[HistoryBuff]

Hi So-Ark, sure am sorry to hear about your injury. Those things can lay you up, sap your strength, and make you think life will never be the same. However in many case the surgery and recovery eventually makes you better than you were to start with. Now is a good time to do all the reading and research to help locate that next camp!

I see now what people are talking about with chatter. I don't have too much troulbe with that in the fields, but I ran my detector in the yard late this afternoon and there were constant beeps and the LED was flashing numbers all over the place. The few times I got a strong strike over one spot, I could swing back over it time and again and usually not hear it that strong, or with the same LED number. On the other hand, the LED was jumping around so much it was impossible to tell. One swing might bring 10 beeps and 10 numbers.

When I was a kid I found a three ringer by sight, just laying on top of the ground. Later on I got the old MetroTech some of you may remember. There was a pile of dirt in the yard and I tossed the bullet there to listen to what it would sound like. I did that until dark, planning to continue the next day after school. The next afternoon, to my horror, the first had been spread for "yard beautification." I've always wanted to find that bullet again and that is what I was hoping for today. I did see some LED read-outs in the mid 50 range, but I could never swing twice and get the same tone and same reading.

I hope I am setting it right, but am sure I still have a lot to learn. Are any of you able to run your machine in a city park or private lawn that has had a lot of traffic trasgh dropped through the years? My 1266X didn't have 1/5 the interference and noise I encountered today.

Thanks to all, and So-Ark, wishing you a speedy recovery. Don't rush it.

DS

 

[SoArk]

It felt so good to be doing any kind of metal detecting yesterday. I wanted to see what kind of shape I was in as far as being able to dig some stuff....... so I talked with our athletic director at the high school about hunting around the footnall field. I told him I would not hunt on the field itself, but just around it and the bleachers, etc. He said that with all the rain during the season ( 27+ inches above normal for the year) that the field was in such bad shape..... that he didn't care if I hunted on the field itself. They were gonna have to do major work on it anyway. The field has been their since 1924, and Paul "Bear" Bryant played there while in high school at Fordyce. His old home place is about a half mile from where I live. Anyhow, I took the F75 out and gave it a walk about!

I was not prepared for the experience. And, yes I was cherry picking...... I left so many "good" signals in the ground that were registering 11.... 12.... 13 inches deep. I hunted til I was wore out ( first time since the 3rd week of October)...... but made it for about 2 1/2 hours. What beautiful agony! LOL I wound up with 26 quarters, 16 dimes (1-silver, 1957), 4 nickels, and 17 pennies..... sixty one coins in all ( 4 quarters and a dime not pictured.... were in my coat pocket I forgot about taking the cell phone pic).

There is no telling how many coins and other items are in that dirt. I merely wandered around...... no real rhyme or reason to my searching. I'm a relic hunter, and don't really have a clue about how to go about hunting this football field...... what to listen for, etc. The quarters would lock in at a solid 82-83....... dimes were in the 70 - 73 range...... nickels, I believe were hitting in the low 30's, and the pennies were from mid 60's to low 70's.

I was hunting with Disc set at 21, dE mode, 2 tones, and sensitivity at 95. Has anyone any suggestions as to how I should hunt this field for even better results. There are bunches of signals, but relatively few encountered iron signals ( maybe the disc setting overlooked the iron?). I don't think this football field has ever had a detector used on it!

Sorry for the poor quality photo..... the wife's new digital camera is still under the tree until tomorrow morning! Merry Christmas all!

Thanks for the encouragement, History Buff. I had a wonderful time...... now, where's the Icy-Hot?