CZconnoisseur
Active member
I've been busy recently hunting 2 hours here, 4 hours there; but have been finding a few goodies nonetheless!
First picture is from the most recent rental house permission - I used the "4K SILVER" program that has Reac =3, Silencer = 0, and Notch is 00-72 and 94-99. This knocks out everything below copper pennies in conductivity, and sometimes Wheats will try to sneak in when they indicate "70-71" on the VDI. Signals that are barely notched out have a chopped but consistent sound to them, and all I do is jump over to an adjacent program to see if it's something worth digging. Most of the time, these turn out to be Wheats, but I realize I'm missing some of the older "bronzy" (they come out of the ground a nice green color) which like to indicate between 61-64 in 4 kHz. Zincolns (and Indian cents) like to register around 55-61 - and many times it's hard to distinguish between the two other than just digging the signal. Managed a single Rosie and 6 Wheats - all found in the backyard - along with a little clad.
The second picture is from Saturday night's 4-hour venture to the site of the entrance of the fairgrounds where I've found the token in my avatar (c.1890-1910). I thought I'd pretty much cleared everything out of a 100' x 100' area but remembered that there was a recently sodded part I've never given much attention to. Bulldozers had done their work here very well, and scraped away the amusement park entrance and all concrete, leaving pebbly and trash-laden ground in its wake. Anything older would be at least 3" deep - so I figured "Why not?"
I started getting a lot of good signals but most of them turned out to be broken pieces of cast aluminum which sound like dynamite when scanned! You can't "drop the frequency" on targets like this since aluminum will sound and look like a keeper if you change frequencies to do the "bottlecap check". To make matters worse - most of these blasted bits of metal are coin-sized - so at 9" down you really think you are going after a deep dime or quarter
I used a "4K COINS" program which has Reac = 3 (because the fairgrounds are difficult), Silencer = 0 (I dig tons of caps but oh well - don't really care), and Notch is 00-30 and 94-99. This way, most gold items are detectable, along with nickels, tokens, and relics - while large iron and foil is rejected. I use full tones to speed the "dig" or "no dig" determination, and since it's a rocky place, the Lesche stays in the trunk. I'm usually physically done-in after 4 hours at this place but the finds make it enjoyable. I've invited locals to come hunt with me but most of the time it's just me out there
I had one come through the phones, indicating a rocksteady "88" in 4kHz. Checked it 90 degrees, still read "88". Sounded EXACTLY like a half dollar - just one of the sweetest sounding targets you'll ever dig - but my reward was the rectangular piece of sheet in the upper left of the last photo. There's nothing you can do with this kind of trash since varying sizes of aluminum will give you a good spread on the VDI - the smallest chunk of aluminum registered "64" and the largest was "89"; and they all sounded like coins - exactly like coins.
But there was literally a silver lining to Saturday night's hunt - got a slightly jumpy "81-85" and bent down looking for yet another piece of junk metal - but NO! This time a beautiful 1939 quarter came out of the hole not 12 inches from one of those aluminum bits - at about 5" deep. That discovery gave me a little hope to gridding off the area on a future hunt and just dealing with the trash. The silver grapes earring I almost threw out thinking it was junk metal - but after tumbling it all day long there was no mistake it was silver!!! I felt slightly defeated after that hunt - but the worst was yet to come!!!
Went back to the same area LAST night and mined even more aluminum bits - but also found a stained 1935 S Merc which came in solidly at "76-77". It was a confident and strong signal, and somehow I knew it would be a keeper although the aluminum sounded identical at times. Immediately after the Merc came an iffy "74-79" signal..."Here we go again with the junk metal!" I remember thinking - but got surprised to see a purplish-black Rosie staring back at me at the bottom of the hole. Both dimes were less than 4" down and should have been easy pickins for anyone swinging almost any detector - but I'm guessing that after that someone found a few pieces of junk they gave up and moved on to a cleaner area. Looks like there's about 50% of the sodded area remaining left to hunt - maybe I can pull a few more oldies out of there before trying out a different section of the roller coaster area.
First picture is from the most recent rental house permission - I used the "4K SILVER" program that has Reac =3, Silencer = 0, and Notch is 00-72 and 94-99. This knocks out everything below copper pennies in conductivity, and sometimes Wheats will try to sneak in when they indicate "70-71" on the VDI. Signals that are barely notched out have a chopped but consistent sound to them, and all I do is jump over to an adjacent program to see if it's something worth digging. Most of the time, these turn out to be Wheats, but I realize I'm missing some of the older "bronzy" (they come out of the ground a nice green color) which like to indicate between 61-64 in 4 kHz. Zincolns (and Indian cents) like to register around 55-61 - and many times it's hard to distinguish between the two other than just digging the signal. Managed a single Rosie and 6 Wheats - all found in the backyard - along with a little clad.
The second picture is from Saturday night's 4-hour venture to the site of the entrance of the fairgrounds where I've found the token in my avatar (c.1890-1910). I thought I'd pretty much cleared everything out of a 100' x 100' area but remembered that there was a recently sodded part I've never given much attention to. Bulldozers had done their work here very well, and scraped away the amusement park entrance and all concrete, leaving pebbly and trash-laden ground in its wake. Anything older would be at least 3" deep - so I figured "Why not?"
I started getting a lot of good signals but most of them turned out to be broken pieces of cast aluminum which sound like dynamite when scanned! You can't "drop the frequency" on targets like this since aluminum will sound and look like a keeper if you change frequencies to do the "bottlecap check". To make matters worse - most of these blasted bits of metal are coin-sized - so at 9" down you really think you are going after a deep dime or quarter
I used a "4K COINS" program which has Reac = 3 (because the fairgrounds are difficult), Silencer = 0 (I dig tons of caps but oh well - don't really care), and Notch is 00-30 and 94-99. This way, most gold items are detectable, along with nickels, tokens, and relics - while large iron and foil is rejected. I use full tones to speed the "dig" or "no dig" determination, and since it's a rocky place, the Lesche stays in the trunk. I'm usually physically done-in after 4 hours at this place but the finds make it enjoyable. I've invited locals to come hunt with me but most of the time it's just me out there
I had one come through the phones, indicating a rocksteady "88" in 4kHz. Checked it 90 degrees, still read "88". Sounded EXACTLY like a half dollar - just one of the sweetest sounding targets you'll ever dig - but my reward was the rectangular piece of sheet in the upper left of the last photo. There's nothing you can do with this kind of trash since varying sizes of aluminum will give you a good spread on the VDI - the smallest chunk of aluminum registered "64" and the largest was "89"; and they all sounded like coins - exactly like coins.
But there was literally a silver lining to Saturday night's hunt - got a slightly jumpy "81-85" and bent down looking for yet another piece of junk metal - but NO! This time a beautiful 1939 quarter came out of the hole not 12 inches from one of those aluminum bits - at about 5" deep. That discovery gave me a little hope to gridding off the area on a future hunt and just dealing with the trash. The silver grapes earring I almost threw out thinking it was junk metal - but after tumbling it all day long there was no mistake it was silver!!! I felt slightly defeated after that hunt - but the worst was yet to come!!!
Went back to the same area LAST night and mined even more aluminum bits - but also found a stained 1935 S Merc which came in solidly at "76-77". It was a confident and strong signal, and somehow I knew it would be a keeper although the aluminum sounded identical at times. Immediately after the Merc came an iffy "74-79" signal..."Here we go again with the junk metal!" I remember thinking - but got surprised to see a purplish-black Rosie staring back at me at the bottom of the hole. Both dimes were less than 4" down and should have been easy pickins for anyone swinging almost any detector - but I'm guessing that after that someone found a few pieces of junk they gave up and moved on to a cleaner area. Looks like there's about 50% of the sodded area remaining left to hunt - maybe I can pull a few more oldies out of there before trying out a different section of the roller coaster area.
