I'm itching bad to get out and give the 8" Tornado more of a run than the 1 hour time permitted the last time the weather was decent enough to sneak out. I'm hearing mid 40's Friday and on into next week at least, with no chance of rain for at least the first 4 or so mid 40's days, so I'm ready to rock here. The last two winters have been short due to it not getting real nasty to almost the holidays (thank you global warming- I want more!), but just the same I've got major cabin fever right now. Need to order my Plano waterproof box and mod that to my snap on back shaft extension for my stock shaft I use in the water, or before long I'll be wading on the "kiddy side" of the beach while my Excalibur friends are neck deep at times.
Got some many both private and public leads to hit this year I almost don't know where to begin. Can't remember ever having so many "We should go here or there" spots to kick around with my circle of hunters I get out with. Even some old friends who have never hunted have land I've never realized the potential of to hunt until now. Heck, even my niece is renting a house from the 1800's that I've had sitting on the back burner for a long time. Hit it for a short hunt last fall just to feel it out and dug 3 wheats right away, so I know silver awaits there. Always love hunting yards for rings too. Usually very little trash so it's worth digging every low/mid conductor you come across, and the potential for lost rings is great due to the nature of yard work and play over eons in yards.
Then there is all the old spots in the woods I've hunted in years prior to owning a GT. Pulled some great finds out of those but I know the GT will find more. Going to re-grid each one. When I first got the GT I took it to one of these spots way back in the woods. We had gridded this particular flat area overlooking a valley several times in the past and thought we dug all above iron out of there, but I was shocked to see the GT not only finding deeper stuff (expected that), but also finding shallow non-ferrous targets that should have been easily within reach of our prior units.
I suspect for two reasons- Either masking from iron, or also due to the mineralization. One particular stretch of that area I worked the snot out of with prior machines even more intensely because I knew people would be using it to get from point A to B. It was a very narrow "path" and only about 30 or 40 yards long, yet the GT was popping shallow yet old stuff that just made me scratch my head and go "How did I ever miss that?"
I remember a guy on here a year or two ago remarking about a spot he worked with his other detector, and then he went back over it with his GT and was amazed at the coins he was finding, some of which were not even deep. Another aspect, besides minerals or iron masking, is the GT seems rather good at finding coins on edge. The 12x10 and Ultimate seem to enhance that aspect of it for me, but the stock 10" Tornado was better at finding me coins on edge than any machine I owned prior to that.
Good luck to everybody in your spring excursions. Yea, the changing seasons are nice, but man there is nothing like spring and it's promise of re-birth in both mood and nature...
HH all Jim
