BarnacleBill
New member
We were hit with what's known in North America as a January Thaw this past week, and I hoped the iced in beach location I had first tried the 10.5 HF DD at and struck gold recently, might have re-opened. Being 40degF at noon off I went to scout it out. But the public beach area was frozen in solid so I was left with a choice of some slim pickin's along the rest of the shore, or a little travel time to scout another location.
You can see below that even though the ice has opened offshore pretty good , the target rich area is covered by a thick sheath. There was also quite a little cold breeze blowing as you can see by the ripples in the water.
[attachment 78169 icef2.jpg]
This is looking directly out from where the good spot is and you can see that it's pretty much a lost cause. But as I was standing there I thought to myself, " Look at those dang fools out there Ice Fishing, they're wasting a perfectly good 40degF day when they could be getting in the water and metal detecting. I just don't understand some people."
[attachment 78170 icef3.jpg]
Based on the melting pattern along the shore I thought one of my old haunts might have some exposed beach area, so I packed up and headed off for greener(less whiter) pastures. Man was I pleased when I arrived and saw this, some exposed beach, a little open water, and plenty of breakable ice. And plus there was no wind, it just doesn't get any better for January!
[attachment 78172 icef4.jpg]
I saddled up the X70 with the 10.5 HF DD and I was off in my knee highs(no waders cause the ice won't let you go that deep). First patch of sand I hit was loaded with iron and the 10.5 HF DD was doing pretty good, but my plans were to hit a certain area of the beach with it so I thought I'd move on and come back later with the 6 inch DD. So off I went and found plenty of junk targets in the area I had wanted to cover. But working my way back to the iron filled area I hit a five arrow deep ID30 that locked on amongst the iron, hmmm, what have we here, a stinky zinc? Nope up comes one very badly worn 1908 Indian Head, OK cabin fever gone!
The coin isn't worth squat, but the fun factor is worth it all!
So I reasoned, OK there may be more hiding here, what's the best tool to harvest goodies in iron? Next stop 6 inch HF DD. And then I started pulling non-ferrous items co-mingled with iron like crazy. I had to slow my sweep speed down because it was a new target for about every two inches of coil travel and my ears just couldn't keep up with all the information. I was consistently doing a half inch wiggle to probe in between the iron. Recovery took time because the spade shovel would bring up several pieces of iron mixed with the non-ferrous. It would take a couple of minutes to spread the sand piles and get things sorted out. Finding small pieces of molten/melted aluminum mixed with iron is let's just say interesting.
I have to say I had fun, lot's of fun, no wife, no kids. no work, no bugs, no tourists, just digging! The 1908 IH is just above the tiny silver ring(was co-located with a huge piece of iron). A big ol' 45-70 cartridge was very deep 10+ inches and easily found by the 10.5 HF DD, wasn't even a challenge. Lots of tiny aluminum and lead, even some rolled lead sheet pieces.
[attachment 78173 goody1.jpg]
[attachment 78174 junky1.jpg]
Below are some photos of an area I hunted a couple weeks ago and got skunked badly. And it was one cold raw day which made it worse. They can't all be great, but today was a blast!
HH
BarnacleBill
You can see below that even though the ice has opened offshore pretty good , the target rich area is covered by a thick sheath. There was also quite a little cold breeze blowing as you can see by the ripples in the water.
[attachment 78169 icef2.jpg]
This is looking directly out from where the good spot is and you can see that it's pretty much a lost cause. But as I was standing there I thought to myself, " Look at those dang fools out there Ice Fishing, they're wasting a perfectly good 40degF day when they could be getting in the water and metal detecting. I just don't understand some people."
[attachment 78170 icef3.jpg]
Based on the melting pattern along the shore I thought one of my old haunts might have some exposed beach area, so I packed up and headed off for greener(less whiter) pastures. Man was I pleased when I arrived and saw this, some exposed beach, a little open water, and plenty of breakable ice. And plus there was no wind, it just doesn't get any better for January!
[attachment 78172 icef4.jpg]
I saddled up the X70 with the 10.5 HF DD and I was off in my knee highs(no waders cause the ice won't let you go that deep). First patch of sand I hit was loaded with iron and the 10.5 HF DD was doing pretty good, but my plans were to hit a certain area of the beach with it so I thought I'd move on and come back later with the 6 inch DD. So off I went and found plenty of junk targets in the area I had wanted to cover. But working my way back to the iron filled area I hit a five arrow deep ID30 that locked on amongst the iron, hmmm, what have we here, a stinky zinc? Nope up comes one very badly worn 1908 Indian Head, OK cabin fever gone!
The coin isn't worth squat, but the fun factor is worth it all!So I reasoned, OK there may be more hiding here, what's the best tool to harvest goodies in iron? Next stop 6 inch HF DD. And then I started pulling non-ferrous items co-mingled with iron like crazy. I had to slow my sweep speed down because it was a new target for about every two inches of coil travel and my ears just couldn't keep up with all the information. I was consistently doing a half inch wiggle to probe in between the iron. Recovery took time because the spade shovel would bring up several pieces of iron mixed with the non-ferrous. It would take a couple of minutes to spread the sand piles and get things sorted out. Finding small pieces of molten/melted aluminum mixed with iron is let's just say interesting.
I have to say I had fun, lot's of fun, no wife, no kids. no work, no bugs, no tourists, just digging! The 1908 IH is just above the tiny silver ring(was co-located with a huge piece of iron). A big ol' 45-70 cartridge was very deep 10+ inches and easily found by the 10.5 HF DD, wasn't even a challenge. Lots of tiny aluminum and lead, even some rolled lead sheet pieces.
[attachment 78173 goody1.jpg]
[attachment 78174 junky1.jpg]
Below are some photos of an area I hunted a couple weeks ago and got skunked badly. And it was one cold raw day which made it worse. They can't all be great, but today was a blast!
HH
BarnacleBill
