BarnacleBill
New member
First off I hunt sand 95% of the time. Years ago I was a park/relic hunter but have found that I just enjoying wading more than anything else, so much so that I'll break ice to hunt in the winter before I'll hunt dirt. But once in a great while with a short period of time available I'll stumble over some dirt.
So after work with maybe 40 minutes of daylight I decided to stop at a scenic view type of place for some dirt hunting. The attraction had been in use since 1929 so some deep silver was not out of the question. I had a couple machines in the car but decided to pull the X50 with the HF DD coil since I expected trash, but also wanted to cover some area as this was a scouting type of mission.
One of the more commonly held beliefs is that high frequency detectors are not the machines of choice for hunting deep silver. But as this was a short scouting mission I wasn't going to take time to change coils. The ground was a hard packed 80% gravel 20% clay mix and GB'd at 3 with sensitivity set at 16.
Trash was thick with tabs and foil everywhere, so I was working along slowly. A couple surface coins came along and then a strong audio hit sounding like a surface coin and showing 36 on the screen. I looked at the depth arrows and it showed 5 arrows deep with pinpoint indicating a small target.
So out came my knife and digging trowel. After removing a couple of inches and digging out some walnut sized rocks with my knife I re-checked the hole and still showed 5 arrows deep. I took out a couple more inches and still no change. Finally with about six inches out I had a 3 arrow reading, but I was suspicious that this was a jar lid down at 16 inches, but it continued to pinpoint small.
I had to widen the hole below ground level, because I was having a hard time digging out the rocks and getting my trowel down the hole. Another couple inches and I was thinking "come on this is ridiculous", because on the beaches I hunt the minerals cause nickels and pennies to disappear starting at about 8 inches, and by nine inches you have to be very lucky to hit one dead center to get any signal. And I have run all sorts of depth tests on those beaches with a variety of machines, and nine inches is iffy.
I finally took my pinpointer out and started checking the sides of the hole thinking I had an off angle coin with a phantom image. So I soldiered on taking up small piles of dirt with the tip of my trowel not wanting to widen the hole any further. Finally after about another inch the target came out of the hole, a 1967D penny. I didn't have a ruler with me so I took my probe and eyeballed where it was at ground level. Darkness had set in so back to the car and out came the ruler, 9 inches is how deep the coin was. I was pretty impressed for an HF DD coil to have a very solid locked copper penny at that depth. I may have to get a little more dirt under my finger nails.
HH
BarnacleBill
So after work with maybe 40 minutes of daylight I decided to stop at a scenic view type of place for some dirt hunting. The attraction had been in use since 1929 so some deep silver was not out of the question. I had a couple machines in the car but decided to pull the X50 with the HF DD coil since I expected trash, but also wanted to cover some area as this was a scouting type of mission.
One of the more commonly held beliefs is that high frequency detectors are not the machines of choice for hunting deep silver. But as this was a short scouting mission I wasn't going to take time to change coils. The ground was a hard packed 80% gravel 20% clay mix and GB'd at 3 with sensitivity set at 16.
Trash was thick with tabs and foil everywhere, so I was working along slowly. A couple surface coins came along and then a strong audio hit sounding like a surface coin and showing 36 on the screen. I looked at the depth arrows and it showed 5 arrows deep with pinpoint indicating a small target.
So out came my knife and digging trowel. After removing a couple of inches and digging out some walnut sized rocks with my knife I re-checked the hole and still showed 5 arrows deep. I took out a couple more inches and still no change. Finally with about six inches out I had a 3 arrow reading, but I was suspicious that this was a jar lid down at 16 inches, but it continued to pinpoint small.
I had to widen the hole below ground level, because I was having a hard time digging out the rocks and getting my trowel down the hole. Another couple inches and I was thinking "come on this is ridiculous", because on the beaches I hunt the minerals cause nickels and pennies to disappear starting at about 8 inches, and by nine inches you have to be very lucky to hit one dead center to get any signal. And I have run all sorts of depth tests on those beaches with a variety of machines, and nine inches is iffy.
I finally took my pinpointer out and started checking the sides of the hole thinking I had an off angle coin with a phantom image. So I soldiered on taking up small piles of dirt with the tip of my trowel not wanting to widen the hole any further. Finally after about another inch the target came out of the hole, a 1967D penny. I didn't have a ruler with me so I took my probe and eyeballed where it was at ground level. Darkness had set in so back to the car and out came the ruler, 9 inches is how deep the coin was. I was pretty impressed for an HF DD coil to have a very solid locked copper penny at that depth. I may have to get a little more dirt under my finger nails.
HH
BarnacleBill
hey bill,you done it again.that x-50 can kick butt and the coil thats really something!!!good article!