I'd planned a small detecting trip with Tom this weekend, and he bailed on me at the last minute....so, knowing that it'd likely be the last chance I'd get before the end of the year due to future commitments (work, holidays, etc), I went solo 
Back to the Western Frontier site that I posted on a few weeks ago, and check out a few new sites. This site was stingy as can be with coins, but not to be outdone by Tom and his little half dime, I was determined to eek one out! Sometimes you have to be careful what you ask for, as I managed to eek out not one, but six....sadly only one counted, the other five were a modern coin spill, like some twisted fellow played a cruel trick...but at least, the treat was saved for one of the last, but not least targets to come!
This is a tough site for a VLF machine to detect, not due to the iron, I'm used to detecting in heavy iron, it's due to the alkali soil. Tom's Exp2, as expected, handles this funky soil with ease, but there's no joy for a VLF machine. I tested both the F75 LTD2 and the Racer2 there, and for this kind of soil, the R2 blew the doors off the F75 (dirt meter was pegged on the F75, and four out of five bars on the R2).
So unless signals are large, or close to the surface, even a big 3-ringer can sound terrible. It's hard to describe, but a lot of the conductors just have a scratchy sound, numbers bounce like crazy, and you end up rolling the dice on a lot of the digs. After a while you can kind of tell if a target is going to be a conductor or an old square nail or other piece of iron pretending to be a conductor, but still get a high rate of false positives. It wears you down after a while with audio fatigue. I tired all kinds of settings, low gain, high gain, 2-tone, 3-tone, you name it, it was a mixed bag. There was no magic silver bullet setting to be found, you just had to power through it, go slow, and investigate each and everything that made a sound. The next time I detect here, I may bring my CZ70 to try out, I suspect it, or a White's V3i (or Minelab FBS) machine would do well here with the right coil. Maybe by then I'll have an Impact to try out, but I think it'll take a true multi-frequency machine to conquer this particular dirt.
Anywho, back to the finds!
I was really hoping to find a period coin (preferably GOLD
and intact Union Army accouterments, like a US oval plate, eagle hat pin, or some such display piece.
The first hunt I used the F75 LTD2. Tried both DE and BP modes and have to say that I did not enjoy detecting with the F75 at all at this site. Target counts were way down, and it was a struggle to dig non-ferrous targets. It was a struggle to try to listen to the crippled F75's audio reports. Found a couple of eagle buttons, bullets and shells, but they were all hard earned. On my second hunt, I switched to the Racer2. Still struggling, but less of a struggle then the F75 was having. Target count was increased (doubled), and I managed to make my best finds of the trip on this hunt. Initially the first 75% of this hunt I was mainly finding bullets, casings, and eagle buttons. Cool, but was kind of hoping to find something different. As I neared the end of the hunt, I dug a cool button. I figured it was some kind of artillery button with the crossed cannons on it. After cleaning it, further investigation (and reading the writing on it
showed it was a period Ordnance Corps Officers button 
Button depicts flaming bomb over cannons, intended for officers of the Ordnance Corps, who were tasked with development and procurement of weapons for the army. Neat button, I figured it might be somewhat rare considering that the Treasure Depot Button book is missing an example?
Then I moved to another area. Got a funky signal, and dug a beautiful, fully intact Hardee Hat Eagle
I cleaned it with some aluminum naval jelly, and it cleaned up nicely (could still pick a bit more dirt off), there's even a tiny bit of gold gilt left on it, I'm very happy with this find:
Not ten feet away from the Hardee Hat Eagle, I got the best signal of the day. One of those pure, five star, high number locking signals that you hope to get at this kind of site. I could just tell from the sweet, pure sound (which is unusual as heck for this site) that it was going to be something good, and likely a larger coin. I carefully dug my hole, and started pinpointing and much to my surprise as I was breaking up the soil, at about 5" down, I saw a large silver disc with lady liberty flash by. Out came a beautiful 1859 San Francisco mint Seated Liberty silver half dollar
I had to sit down for a minute and take it in. I detected for a bit longer, got an eagle cuff button, and a colt pistol drop, but decided that was a great way to end the day and called it.
Great Eagles concert duo!!
Here's all the finds (notice about the I got the handle off of a Cavalry Crossed Sabers insignia (above the Hardee Hat Eagle), got part of the saber last time, perhaps one piece at a time I'll get the rest of it:
Powder flask screw top (anyone know what that odd bullet above the little buckle is??):
Buttons:
A lot of lead:
This shell still has part of the bullet inside:
This tag looks more modern to me (says "something TUBE CO)??
Modern coin spill
and misc junk:
Big hunk of lead, some kind of colar or something. Note the tooling at the top. Any idea what it may have been for (talk about a killer signal!):
Can't wait to get back to this spot
Thanks for looking and happy hunting,
Brian
Back to the Western Frontier site that I posted on a few weeks ago, and check out a few new sites. This site was stingy as can be with coins, but not to be outdone by Tom and his little half dime, I was determined to eek one out! Sometimes you have to be careful what you ask for, as I managed to eek out not one, but six....sadly only one counted, the other five were a modern coin spill, like some twisted fellow played a cruel trick...but at least, the treat was saved for one of the last, but not least targets to come!
This is a tough site for a VLF machine to detect, not due to the iron, I'm used to detecting in heavy iron, it's due to the alkali soil. Tom's Exp2, as expected, handles this funky soil with ease, but there's no joy for a VLF machine. I tested both the F75 LTD2 and the Racer2 there, and for this kind of soil, the R2 blew the doors off the F75 (dirt meter was pegged on the F75, and four out of five bars on the R2).
So unless signals are large, or close to the surface, even a big 3-ringer can sound terrible. It's hard to describe, but a lot of the conductors just have a scratchy sound, numbers bounce like crazy, and you end up rolling the dice on a lot of the digs. After a while you can kind of tell if a target is going to be a conductor or an old square nail or other piece of iron pretending to be a conductor, but still get a high rate of false positives. It wears you down after a while with audio fatigue. I tired all kinds of settings, low gain, high gain, 2-tone, 3-tone, you name it, it was a mixed bag. There was no magic silver bullet setting to be found, you just had to power through it, go slow, and investigate each and everything that made a sound. The next time I detect here, I may bring my CZ70 to try out, I suspect it, or a White's V3i (or Minelab FBS) machine would do well here with the right coil. Maybe by then I'll have an Impact to try out, but I think it'll take a true multi-frequency machine to conquer this particular dirt.
Anywho, back to the finds!
I was really hoping to find a period coin (preferably GOLD
and intact Union Army accouterments, like a US oval plate, eagle hat pin, or some such display piece. The first hunt I used the F75 LTD2. Tried both DE and BP modes and have to say that I did not enjoy detecting with the F75 at all at this site. Target counts were way down, and it was a struggle to dig non-ferrous targets. It was a struggle to try to listen to the crippled F75's audio reports. Found a couple of eagle buttons, bullets and shells, but they were all hard earned. On my second hunt, I switched to the Racer2. Still struggling, but less of a struggle then the F75 was having. Target count was increased (doubled), and I managed to make my best finds of the trip on this hunt. Initially the first 75% of this hunt I was mainly finding bullets, casings, and eagle buttons. Cool, but was kind of hoping to find something different. As I neared the end of the hunt, I dug a cool button. I figured it was some kind of artillery button with the crossed cannons on it. After cleaning it, further investigation (and reading the writing on it
showed it was a period Ordnance Corps Officers button Button depicts flaming bomb over cannons, intended for officers of the Ordnance Corps, who were tasked with development and procurement of weapons for the army. Neat button, I figured it might be somewhat rare considering that the Treasure Depot Button book is missing an example?
Then I moved to another area. Got a funky signal, and dug a beautiful, fully intact Hardee Hat Eagle
I cleaned it with some aluminum naval jelly, and it cleaned up nicely (could still pick a bit more dirt off), there's even a tiny bit of gold gilt left on it, I'm very happy with this find:
Not ten feet away from the Hardee Hat Eagle, I got the best signal of the day. One of those pure, five star, high number locking signals that you hope to get at this kind of site. I could just tell from the sweet, pure sound (which is unusual as heck for this site) that it was going to be something good, and likely a larger coin. I carefully dug my hole, and started pinpointing and much to my surprise as I was breaking up the soil, at about 5" down, I saw a large silver disc with lady liberty flash by. Out came a beautiful 1859 San Francisco mint Seated Liberty silver half dollar
I had to sit down for a minute and take it in. I detected for a bit longer, got an eagle cuff button, and a colt pistol drop, but decided that was a great way to end the day and called it.
Great Eagles concert duo!!
Here's all the finds (notice about the I got the handle off of a Cavalry Crossed Sabers insignia (above the Hardee Hat Eagle), got part of the saber last time, perhaps one piece at a time I'll get the rest of it:
Powder flask screw top (anyone know what that odd bullet above the little buckle is??):
Buttons:
A lot of lead:
This shell still has part of the bullet inside:
This tag looks more modern to me (says "something TUBE CO)??
Modern coin spill
and misc junk:
Big hunk of lead, some kind of colar or something. Note the tooling at the top. Any idea what it may have been for (talk about a killer signal!):
Can't wait to get back to this spot
Thanks for looking and happy hunting,
Brian
