Shovel?

[Captain Hook]

I took the wife and daughter to the beach last night to look for sea shells, I mean test out the new Safari. I only spent about an hour testing it. Wow! If you swing the coil on the each, it will find you a target to dig. I dug several coins during my test run. The deepest was a quarter that hit on +38. The depth meter showed it about 3/4's down. When my wife finally finished digging the hole, it was 18-20 inches deep. Before you guys say something, she asked to dig the hole. About half way, I offered to take over, but she refused. Do I need to rent a back hoe to take to the beach to dig targets? Just kidding, maybe just a long handled shovel....

I would like to hear from those of you that have been using the Safari at the beach. What settings and patterns are you running in? Have you made in modifications to the standard modes? I think that would help many of us on here. Also, when I walked I got alot of signals always to my left. They would disapear when I stopped to re-check. Oh yea, I was holding my sand scoop in my left hand. Maybe I need to get a plastic one, or hold the Safari out farther. Her range is unbelieveable.

 

[ngrelic]

You are right Dale, super sensitive. Easily the deepest machine I have ever used.

 

[zeekeys]

Thanks for the post Dale
I am finding the same thing here with the Safari depth on the beaches. As you said, "Her range is unbelievable." I am trying to talk myself into another $130 or so for a new 6" coil. I really want to see how she will do in the trashy areas.
thanks again and HH....Z

 

[GENE EDWARDS]

You will be real happy with the Safari in trashy areas, I'm so happy with mine I could justsmile every time it gets me a ring. Got one today 925 with stones. It's on this post with two pic's. I also have to drag my long handled scoop behind me as not to pick it up with the Safari. Gene

 

[ronaldj2]

It wasn't but a week or two ago that I posted about the beaches. And I absolutely agree with the Captain, I am 43yrs young, in good shape, but by the end of the outting I had sore arms. And yes these 18"+ depths are for real. When I found a good sized fishing lure it was from finger tips to above the elbow. At these depths you gotta try to do quick recovery as the hole tends to fill with water. I usually use the factory preset coin/jewelry for the beach, and have made no mods. When I go back(soon I hope)I may try a few different tricks that I read in Andy's book. As far as losing a signal, I have on more than one ocassion walked a little too fast, and had to back step to recheck the signal. This was usually the case for me, as I use a plastic scoop. It is a good possibility that you picked up the metal scoop as a signal. The safari is pretty quick at picking up a signal so I don't doubt it. If you keep bringing your wife to dig, then your arms should stay fairly fresh adding to the longevity of the hunt. A shovel is no substitute for a good wife. Its a great hobby when the whole family gets to enjoy it with you. In all seriousness there was not intent of wife bashing. Behind every good man is a great wife!! My family detects together as often as we can. Me, my wife, and four sons. Ron

 

[Onus]

One of the beaches I hunt has clay at about a foot down and it is really difficult to dig. So, I carry a small digging shovel make especially for detectorists. It's small enough to be unobtrusive yet will really get through the nasty stuff if need be. And I have found several decent targets down in the clay too. Seems they work their way down and stick about 4 to 5 inches deep in the clay. Last year the water was so high it washed the beach clean and I recovered a lot of clad just laying on top of the clay. It was a real mess to try to dig anything deeper in the bare clay mud, so i am hoping sand washes back in this year, as it also attracts more pleople. Onus

 

[TomH]

Folks,

For anyone in need of a well manufactured digging tool or shovel for metal detecting you might want to check with Predator Tools at http://predatortools.com/

These tools are designed and produced by George Lesche and for years his tools have been providing the relic hunting community with some of the strongest, most durable digging tools around. For us relic hunters, some models have root cutting saws built into them and most models have sharpened edges for easier digging and less strain. I use a long T-handled Model 80 for general hunting and a long T-handled pegasus for cutting large plugs in tough field grass. Plus, George is a great guy and wonderful to deal with.

Later,
Tom Henrique

 

[ronaldj2]

Thanks for the link Tom. Went to the Cape yesterday, Nauset Beach, found some clad, abig silver hoop earring, and a relic. By the end of the day I was feeling sore arms. The relic was down almost 2 feet, and every thing else was at least a foot. Will be posting pictures soon. Ron

 

[TomH]

Ron,

I do most of my digging in the Gettysburg area (private property with complete permission) with occasional trips into Maryland and Virginia. We tend to concentrate on camps and hospitals around the battlefield, hoping for dropped relics instead of the plethora of shot bullets and artillery fragments that are found on battlefields. Most of the places that we are working are considered to be fairly "dug out" since diggers have been swinging coils over these fields since the advent of the Metrotech and surplus WWII mine sweepers. The result is that pretty much everything that is less than 8 inches deep has already been vaccuumed out of these fields. There are still some places that will turn out a bunch of relics, mostly because the families have protected those lands for generations, but those are few and far between. We have been working one field that is adjacent to part of the First Day's action, private property that butts right up to the park boundary, and between the three of us that have permission we have pulled out more than 800 bullets, uniform parts, a Federal spur and a Federal cartridge box plate over the last year.
Generally though, we are finding stuff that the older machines couldn't reach so we dig a bunch of holes from ten to eighteen inches, in everything from thick clay to mineralized soil. I recently found a complete cobblestone road about four inches down in a farm field. The road was on the 1860s map we were using but all we could see was a depression at the edge of the field and assumed it had always been a dirt lane. I got a great brass signal and started digging, and ran into the cobblestones almost immediately. After a half hour of clanging away at the stones and finally getting through the road and down about eight inches I found a nearly perfect 30-06 casing!!!!! How it got under that road I will never know.
At any rate, we depend on our shovels to save some energy and get to the deep targets quickly and the older I get, the more I depend on my Lesche shovels.

The photo is a deep target gone horribly awry!!! It is from the last Diggin' In Virginia event and is the start of a "Privy Dig" that eventually ended up with a trench that was five feet wide by more than five feet deep and more than twenty feet long. It produced a huge number of relics including the most incredible assortment of unbroken bottles that I have ever seen.

 

[ngrelic]

Now That's A Hole!

 

[zeekeys]

TomH
Geez when I looked at those pictures I had to lay down and rest......Z

 

[ronaldj2]

That is what I did as a teenager, up until old bottle dumps were becoming harder to find. When we do find the dumps they are usually on private property,and its not always easy to get the owners to let you dig on their land. I don't miss the chain gang type labor. But I sure miss all the nice bottles. Metal detecting is much more relaxed and less of a beating on the body. Ron

 

[edjcox]

I have one word for that group


Backhoe......



Gee's I get tired even looking at that pit they dug.. I guess they use the CD player to play "Chain Gang" to get a rythm going...

Not for me ...

 

[TomH]

ngrelic, z, ron, ed,

I am conspicuously missing from that group as I was off surface hunting with my Safari Even at that I got in more than 30 hours of coil swinging in three days. That was the largest of numerous large holes dug that weekend including several hut sites (Federal 2nd Corps 1864/65 Winter camp) that were dug down to about four feet. I was interested in trying my hand at hut digging but kept hearing my father's voice in my head saying one of his favorite adages when I was a kid... "If you don't stop screwing around you'll end up digging holes for a living!" Somehow I convinced myself that digging a bunch of small holes instead of one giant pit actually did not fullfill his prophecy . Plus, the best huts were up on the crest of Hansbrough Ridge which has an elevation of about 6-8 vertical feet for every ten horizontal, and I wasn't up to being a mountain goat.

The rules of this dig are simple, leave the ground better than you found it. Any holes, including giant trenches like this one, have to be filled by the close of the hunt on Sunday afternoon. That particular trench was started on Friday morning and continued until Sunday at noon at which point the land owner came over and informed the digging team that he decided to let them continue digging until sundown on Sunday and that he would come out on Monday with his front-end loader to fill in the trench because he was so impressed with the effort and results. His young son was so captivated by the whole idea of digging up 140 year old relics that he spent the entire weekend going from group to group to see what we were digging and meeting the folks and was given a machine by some of the folks to let him try his hand on Saturday and Sunday.

Later,
TomH

 

[ngrelic]

Cool story Tom, sounds like a great time.