ironman200081
Active member
After our town's Independence Day parade, I dropped off the wife and kids for a nap and headed out in the 104-degree heat with the CTX. I met up with a buddy and we hit a block that had recently-demolished 19th Century homes on it. The iron was thick, and the soil was hard-baked clay thanks to the Missouri sun. Despite this, we pressed on and hunted for just over four hours. Thanks to some Banana Boat and a backpack full of ice water, I survived. It was, however, too hot to mess with filming, so I just took still photos of the finds from the safety of my air-conditioned home.
I used the Combine mode with Auto +3 sensitivity. On open screen, the iron grunt was relentless. I ended up discriminating out from the 27 Fe line on down for a quieter hunt. The EMI was pretty rough too, and I got around 20 sensitivity in semi-auto. I am not complaining though, because I doubt I could have dug past 5 inches due to the hard-pack baked clay. The ground was so hard that I wore open several holes in my digging gloves trying to pry the digger through the soil.
The ground was littered with broken 19th Century and Early 1900's ceramics -- a good sign. I pulled some neat items from the surface including a ceramic pipe stem, clay marble, a glass bead, a porcelain button, and a carved shell button. My hunting partner plucked two amazing clay marbles, including one made from yellow-ware.
I managed a 1936 Buffalo nickel, a 1906 "V" nickel, two 1907 Indians, one wheat, and one of those Chinese coins with the square hole in the middle. I also pulled a dropped .50 cal Smith carbine Civil War bullet and a fired round ball, a disc of lead with a hole in it a th the number "3" stamped on it (probably a weight), a lead fishing sinker, a tootsie car, brass buckle, and little wrench thingie. My buddy found several wheats and a silver war nickel.
All in all, the hunt was worth swinging through the heat. The CTX performed like a champ, but I feel like a smaller coil would have helped separate better because the iron was literally everywhere. My buddy hunted with his E-Trac and the X-5 coil, and I am sure he pulled a coin or two that I missed.
I used the Combine mode with Auto +3 sensitivity. On open screen, the iron grunt was relentless. I ended up discriminating out from the 27 Fe line on down for a quieter hunt. The EMI was pretty rough too, and I got around 20 sensitivity in semi-auto. I am not complaining though, because I doubt I could have dug past 5 inches due to the hard-pack baked clay. The ground was so hard that I wore open several holes in my digging gloves trying to pry the digger through the soil.
The ground was littered with broken 19th Century and Early 1900's ceramics -- a good sign. I pulled some neat items from the surface including a ceramic pipe stem, clay marble, a glass bead, a porcelain button, and a carved shell button. My hunting partner plucked two amazing clay marbles, including one made from yellow-ware.
I managed a 1936 Buffalo nickel, a 1906 "V" nickel, two 1907 Indians, one wheat, and one of those Chinese coins with the square hole in the middle. I also pulled a dropped .50 cal Smith carbine Civil War bullet and a fired round ball, a disc of lead with a hole in it a th the number "3" stamped on it (probably a weight), a lead fishing sinker, a tootsie car, brass buckle, and little wrench thingie. My buddy found several wheats and a silver war nickel.
All in all, the hunt was worth swinging through the heat. The CTX performed like a champ, but I feel like a smaller coil would have helped separate better because the iron was literally everywhere. My buddy hunted with his E-Trac and the X-5 coil, and I am sure he pulled a coin or two that I missed.
