Gave the 17" Coil a Try Today

[C&RHunter]

I had a chance to take the 17" coil out today. My success was not so great, but have been wanting to see how the coil performs. It was very good locating both very small and coin sized targets. The depth on two of the nickels showed 10" and 11" in the FP info. However, 3 inches or so of that was actually the height the coil was above the ground. The actual depth in the ground on these two nickels was 7 or 8 inches. They sounded off very good when scanning before digging. The pinpointing takes me a little longer, but is still very accurate. I was hunting in my open pattern, it's open except the 35 FE line and a 2x2 square area in the upper right corner. I started in Manual Sensitivity at 28 but switched to Auto +3, it was running 24-29, and gain was at 24. High trash and Combined tones. This area was a race track around 1900 but is now a corn field. The field had been disc-ed about two weeks ago, and has had a couple of inches of rain on it since then to begin to mellow out the soil. I didn't have the success I had hoped for today, but if this machine is like the Explorers and E-Trac, until the loose soil begins to settle and pack, targets don't always respond like normal. My only coins were the three V nickles. I found a ton of those small lead seals. I have yet to find out what they are from. I find them in the area of the old stands of the track, they have letters of a company on them, one says St Louis on it. They look like seals from electric meters, but there are way too many of them out there for that, and this site pre-dates those anyway. I have some more areas that should open up as the crops come out, so this coil will get some more hours on it. Hopefully it will kick up some silver before long.........HH

I cleaned the nickels with a fine bristle bristle brush and household ammonia. Then put them in olive oil for a while.

 

[Digger]

Good report C&RHunter. Sounds like you're able to cover a lot of ground with that coil. Did you notice an extraordinary amount of fatigue?
As to those lead seals..... I found several at a similar site, with the short bits of wire sticking out. A couple of mine are marked Anheuser Busch, St. Louis, MO. Any chance they used them for sealing bottles of beer, back in the day?

 

[C&RHunter]

Digger, I was out about 5 hours with the coil. I did switch arms once for a few minutes. Obviously it is heavier than the standard coil, but it is manageable. I shortened the shaft to help with the balance. I would like to have shortened it a bit more, but the boots I had on have metal eyelets and the coil would pickup the eyelets when working the coil closer to my feet. I was tired at the end of the day, but at 63, I mark that up to not being a spring chicken any longer. There was an area where those seals are more concentrated. I would guess they must have helped with the sealing process of beer and/or soda bottles of the day. I found several pieces of broken COKE bottles. The old cylinder shaped bottles. I sure would like to find one of them pulled up that isn't broken, but don't imagine that is very likely.............The targets shown in the picture are all of the targets dug today. I was recovering everything except the targets with the very low "blat" of my iron tones, which I double checked with the TID location ..........HH

 

[Ralph Sun Ray]

Steve and Randy,

Those ARE the old seals from beer and soda bottles. We find them a lot up here in Iowa at old fairgrounds.

Ralph (Sun Ray)

 

[C&RHunter]

Thanks Ralph. We have talked about them before, but without you seeing what I was talking about, I don't think we were sure...I guess they are the predecessor to modern pop tops and pull tabs........

 

[ironman200081]

Nice job with the big coil. Did you have any issues pinpointing with it? I did at first, but after getting some experience I can now center the targets quite well. I have also found that extending the shaft a little more negates the weight difference. I like the bottle seals; it is strange to think that people used to drink stuff that contacts lead.

 

[MAK]

I shortened the shaft to help with the balance. I would like to have shortened it a bit more, but the boots I had on have metal eyelets and the coil would pickup the eyelets when working the coil closer to my feet.

I agree on the shaft length - I have mine 3-4" shorter than the other coils as it helps me balance the load better. I can swing it for several hours with little to no fatigue, even on an incline.

 

[C&RHunter]

Bryan, I have been able to find out very little info about those old seals. But it appears that the lead did not contact the liquid in the bottle. A cork, or some type of stopper, was held in place by wires that must have gone over the stopper, around the neck of the bottle and then had the lead seal tightly crimped onto the wire to hold everything in place. It looks like most of my seals say: T C C CO, and one with ST LOUIS on one side, and what might be the Anheuser-Busch logo on the other side. (Could be my imagination working there, however)