BarnacleBill
New member
Having not yet had the opportunity to try either of the 10.5DD coils I was anxious to give the 10.5DD HF a shakedown cruise. While I've seen a fair number of reports on the 10.5DD MF, I don't recall many on the HF version. I was not expecting the sensitivity to aluminum foil that the elliptical or small HF DD exhibit, so my plans were to not go after very tiny targets like gold chains. Therefore the mission of the day was to go after deep gold rings, or if none of those appeared under the coil, then deep nickels. Deep nickels in the absence of gold rings would at least give the indication whether or not the 10.5DD HF was up to the task for my intended usage.
Lately I've not had a chance to drive along several of the lakes I frequent, and so I was not sure what effect the nightly deep drops in the mercury were having. The weather guesser on TV said that today was going to be a regular heat wave with temps in the mid 30'sF. Driving to a high elevation vantage point on my first stop,revealed that two beaches I had in mind were frozen over with snow covering the ice. Arriving at beach #3 revealed the same situation as the first two, so location #4 was probably going to be it, or go back home and pout. As luck would have it beach #4 sits on the windward side of 2+ miles of open water, plus has a strong current that feeds an exit channel. This particular lake is in winter draw down with a level about 2ft lower than summertime, and the beach has a prolonged very gentle slope towards deeper water with no drop offs.
Being that the water temperature is in the low 30'sF, falling in or getting wet is obviously not a very good idea, so gearing up needs a little forethought. I had specifically bribed Santa into an early gift release of some Dan Bailey lightweight breathable waders. In the past I have not been been a big fan of waders on several counts, including reasons such as; they leak from poor quality construction, I tear holes in them and they leak(imagine that), they're heavy, they're stiff, they're hot, and I really hate the bloody safety belt you should use. I do have a 1/4" wet suit, but water in the 30'sF is a bit uncomfortable, and with dry suits I hate the gasketing around the neck. So after much consternation and research I decided to give the Dan Bailey's a try, they have side safety straps and not a belt affair, which immediately put them high on my list of desired features. They can also convert quickly to waist high pant type waders, and have integrated velcro gravel guards. So the day's adventure was to also be a shakedown cruise for the waders.
Below is the foot protection scheme for the day; poly liners as the first layer, SharkSkinz a waterproof but breathable sock as a backup in case the waders leaked, the neoprene socks of the waders, and finally a pair of 1/4" neoprene dive booties. Hand protection was to be SharkSkinz gauntlet gloves which are breathable but waterproof. This does not mean that your hands won't feel the cold, they will, especially if you get the glove wet and there's a strong cold breeze. I am considering getting some thin silk liners for these to provide a little more insulation as the SharkSkinz fit pretty tight. But your hands will not get directly wet which would make for a very cold situation and stop you from hunting. One of the secrets I have learned using these gloves is that if you do get them wet, violently shake off the water like a dog does to make keep your hands much warmer. Also keep the wet glove sheltered from the wind by positioning your body as much as you can.
[attachment 74996 Wintershoes.gif]
[attachment 74997 Handprotection.gif]
Arriving at beach #4 I geared up, waded through a foot of snow, and gingerly made my way out onto the ice along the shore till I reached open water about 50ft out. Stepping off of the wet ice and into the water is the most treacherous point, where ending up on your backside can end the days hunt rather quickly. I was carrying a D handle spade shovel in one hand, and the X70 with the big DD on it in the other, using them to steady myself as I stepped off of the ice. The weather was mixed Sun & Clouds when I arrived, but as soon as I entered the water I looked to the Northwest and spotted a major squall barreling through a mountain pass. I estimated about 20 minutes before she hit me, which turned out to be pretty accurate. Tectin' ain't tectin' without a 30mph wind and horizontal snow, tends to clear all the poser detectorists off of the beach.
This particular beach has black sand issues and the tops of the sand riffles were a nice dark/black shade. GB was centering around 9 and the sensitivity ended up at 27 for quiet operaton, while 28 would give a sporadic chirp. The area is also laced with cobbles which give many single freq VLF's fits, but the big DD ran smooth with no issues noted despite the high sensitivity setting.
Also a little side note, there were times when the Prospecting Mode with & without IM at 5 would lock onto targets better than Coin Mode + All Metal. A typical situation would be hunting in Pattern #1 with -,8,-6,-4, & +48 rejected, and a one time weak chirp would be heard. I would stop and begin to slowly try to find that chirp again, sometimes I would be able to and other times not. But by switching to Prospecting Mode those weak targets were easy to find. It seems that in Coin Mode you needed a swing path precision of about 1/2" to zero in that little chirp, whereas in Prospecting Mode about a 3"swing precision. In all cases a small very deep target was recovered, so this was not a hot rock response. I relate this difference in depth to the amount of black sand in this location
The first target recovered was a nickel, and the second was the 14K men's wedding band(complete with tape), it's nice when things go as planned.
The rest of the 3 hours were spent recovering more nickels, some very deep, a couple of coin spills and lots of lead. Some of the lead was very small and at depth, 8+ inches. Initially I had some difficulty pinpointing, that is figuring out where the center point was on the coil, but I decided that the decal location seemed to be the sweet spot and did better from then on.
[attachment 74999 stony1207.png]
The Dan Bailey waders worked very well after three hours in water that I was breaking pieces of ice away with my shovel to reveal more bottom. Oddly enough my heals are what gold coldest, it may be that I need to go up a size on my diving boots to make the fit a little looser.
All in all being in ice water swinging a coil beats sittin' on the couch!
HH
BarnacleBill
Lately I've not had a chance to drive along several of the lakes I frequent, and so I was not sure what effect the nightly deep drops in the mercury were having. The weather guesser on TV said that today was going to be a regular heat wave with temps in the mid 30'sF. Driving to a high elevation vantage point on my first stop,revealed that two beaches I had in mind were frozen over with snow covering the ice. Arriving at beach #3 revealed the same situation as the first two, so location #4 was probably going to be it, or go back home and pout. As luck would have it beach #4 sits on the windward side of 2+ miles of open water, plus has a strong current that feeds an exit channel. This particular lake is in winter draw down with a level about 2ft lower than summertime, and the beach has a prolonged very gentle slope towards deeper water with no drop offs.
Being that the water temperature is in the low 30'sF, falling in or getting wet is obviously not a very good idea, so gearing up needs a little forethought. I had specifically bribed Santa into an early gift release of some Dan Bailey lightweight breathable waders. In the past I have not been been a big fan of waders on several counts, including reasons such as; they leak from poor quality construction, I tear holes in them and they leak(imagine that), they're heavy, they're stiff, they're hot, and I really hate the bloody safety belt you should use. I do have a 1/4" wet suit, but water in the 30'sF is a bit uncomfortable, and with dry suits I hate the gasketing around the neck. So after much consternation and research I decided to give the Dan Bailey's a try, they have side safety straps and not a belt affair, which immediately put them high on my list of desired features. They can also convert quickly to waist high pant type waders, and have integrated velcro gravel guards. So the day's adventure was to also be a shakedown cruise for the waders.
Below is the foot protection scheme for the day; poly liners as the first layer, SharkSkinz a waterproof but breathable sock as a backup in case the waders leaked, the neoprene socks of the waders, and finally a pair of 1/4" neoprene dive booties. Hand protection was to be SharkSkinz gauntlet gloves which are breathable but waterproof. This does not mean that your hands won't feel the cold, they will, especially if you get the glove wet and there's a strong cold breeze. I am considering getting some thin silk liners for these to provide a little more insulation as the SharkSkinz fit pretty tight. But your hands will not get directly wet which would make for a very cold situation and stop you from hunting. One of the secrets I have learned using these gloves is that if you do get them wet, violently shake off the water like a dog does to make keep your hands much warmer. Also keep the wet glove sheltered from the wind by positioning your body as much as you can.
[attachment 74996 Wintershoes.gif]
[attachment 74997 Handprotection.gif]
Arriving at beach #4 I geared up, waded through a foot of snow, and gingerly made my way out onto the ice along the shore till I reached open water about 50ft out. Stepping off of the wet ice and into the water is the most treacherous point, where ending up on your backside can end the days hunt rather quickly. I was carrying a D handle spade shovel in one hand, and the X70 with the big DD on it in the other, using them to steady myself as I stepped off of the ice. The weather was mixed Sun & Clouds when I arrived, but as soon as I entered the water I looked to the Northwest and spotted a major squall barreling through a mountain pass. I estimated about 20 minutes before she hit me, which turned out to be pretty accurate. Tectin' ain't tectin' without a 30mph wind and horizontal snow, tends to clear all the poser detectorists off of the beach.
This particular beach has black sand issues and the tops of the sand riffles were a nice dark/black shade. GB was centering around 9 and the sensitivity ended up at 27 for quiet operaton, while 28 would give a sporadic chirp. The area is also laced with cobbles which give many single freq VLF's fits, but the big DD ran smooth with no issues noted despite the high sensitivity setting.
Also a little side note, there were times when the Prospecting Mode with & without IM at 5 would lock onto targets better than Coin Mode + All Metal. A typical situation would be hunting in Pattern #1 with -,8,-6,-4, & +48 rejected, and a one time weak chirp would be heard. I would stop and begin to slowly try to find that chirp again, sometimes I would be able to and other times not. But by switching to Prospecting Mode those weak targets were easy to find. It seems that in Coin Mode you needed a swing path precision of about 1/2" to zero in that little chirp, whereas in Prospecting Mode about a 3"swing precision. In all cases a small very deep target was recovered, so this was not a hot rock response. I relate this difference in depth to the amount of black sand in this location
The first target recovered was a nickel, and the second was the 14K men's wedding band(complete with tape), it's nice when things go as planned.
The rest of the 3 hours were spent recovering more nickels, some very deep, a couple of coin spills and lots of lead. Some of the lead was very small and at depth, 8+ inches. Initially I had some difficulty pinpointing, that is figuring out where the center point was on the coil, but I decided that the decal location seemed to be the sweet spot and did better from then on.[attachment 74999 stony1207.png]
The Dan Bailey waders worked very well after three hours in water that I was breaking pieces of ice away with my shovel to reveal more bottom. Oddly enough my heals are what gold coldest, it may be that I need to go up a size on my diving boots to make the fit a little looser.
All in all being in ice water swinging a coil beats sittin' on the couch!
HH
BarnacleBill
I take my hat off to a more addicted detectorist. (Perhaps replacing it with a beanie or 3!) The fact that you were walking on water never entered your mind; did it!
The things a guy does for his hobby.
