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Annual Thanksgiving hunt
crispy
Posts: 792 ✭✭✭
My family goes to my in-laws' farm every year to celebrate Thanksgiving. They live on land that has been in the family since 1863 when it was first homesteaded. We always do farm chores (splitting wood, trimming back wind breaks, fixing fence posts, etc...) but in between the work and especially when it's done, I hunt. I have found lots of coins there including a nice 1865 two cent piece two years ago on Thanksgiving so I always welcome the opportunity to detect the farm. I have to preface this by saying that I have been trying to use "ferrous" sounds on my Minelab SE rather than "conductive" which is my usual setting. This basically means you hear almost every sound and eliminates the masking lull that will accompany iron objects. As in any farm there is nothing short of a billion pounds of ferrous material scattered about including square nails, farm implement pieces and generally every weird shaped piece of metal you can imagine. I should also mention that no less than five homes (there are currently two) have occupied this land. House fires were prevalent back in the old days of candles and kerosene. I just picked up a second set of headphones and a "y" connector so that family members could share in my passion. They can't understand why such an impatient person as myself can stand to listen to the inane chatter that emits from the this machine.
Okay on to the hunting. Thanksgiving day yielded an immense amount of ferrous crud. Now I have to admit that I dig more questionable signals than I would at a park because of the possibility of uncovering family relics and such. Then I got a signal that was on the middle and bottom of the screen where nickels generally live but this target had the cursor buried below the screen. What was interesting about this signal was that it didn't jump at all. A nice "round" signal that held its ground. I dug a plug and checked it - nothing. than I scanned with the X-1 and it confirmed that the target was still farther down. Another plug and out pops a 1911 V nickel in great shape. She still has the full "liberty" on her crown. I have only ever found three other V nickels and they were in sad shape so finding one like this in such nice condition was a personal triumph. Like a little kid I went to show the in-laws and proudly collect my accolades. I ran back out and the first signal I got was that beautiful sound of silver - or a sneaky rusty square nail. Another plug and out pops a lovely '26 Merc. I do love silver. The rest of the day was a non-event. Bullets, bullet casings, square nails and other iron whatzits were the norm. The next day I got out right before dark. I got a real iffy signal that was only good from one direction and only if I wiggled the coil very minimally. The other directions were an iron fest. I decide that the good part of the signal was just juicy enough to dig. Another plug and then I get no signal with the X-1 on the coil function but it rings out on the pinpoint mode. Crud - this usually means iron nail with the halo which has now been broken up and thus no real signal. I dig a bit farther to reveal the culprit. Another square nail to add to my ever growing collection of square nails. A quick scan of the hole and joy of joys a coin sound rings out off to the side of the plug wall. I carefully dig out the side and a 1907 Indian pops put. Big grin and starting to like the "ferrous" sounds. About an hour and a half later almost the exact same scenario except this time it's a 1905 Indian next to a bent square nail. Nothing much more to add other than I am convinced that I wouldn't have found the Indians with "conductive" sounds due to the nulling/masking.
Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving.
Thanks for reading.
Crispy
Here are a few Indian cents and a Merc that I found in a local park this last month (the 1916 Merc was found in last Summer):
Okay on to the hunting. Thanksgiving day yielded an immense amount of ferrous crud. Now I have to admit that I dig more questionable signals than I would at a park because of the possibility of uncovering family relics and such. Then I got a signal that was on the middle and bottom of the screen where nickels generally live but this target had the cursor buried below the screen. What was interesting about this signal was that it didn't jump at all. A nice "round" signal that held its ground. I dug a plug and checked it - nothing. than I scanned with the X-1 and it confirmed that the target was still farther down. Another plug and out pops a 1911 V nickel in great shape. She still has the full "liberty" on her crown. I have only ever found three other V nickels and they were in sad shape so finding one like this in such nice condition was a personal triumph. Like a little kid I went to show the in-laws and proudly collect my accolades. I ran back out and the first signal I got was that beautiful sound of silver - or a sneaky rusty square nail. Another plug and out pops a lovely '26 Merc. I do love silver. The rest of the day was a non-event. Bullets, bullet casings, square nails and other iron whatzits were the norm. The next day I got out right before dark. I got a real iffy signal that was only good from one direction and only if I wiggled the coil very minimally. The other directions were an iron fest. I decide that the good part of the signal was just juicy enough to dig. Another plug and then I get no signal with the X-1 on the coil function but it rings out on the pinpoint mode. Crud - this usually means iron nail with the halo which has now been broken up and thus no real signal. I dig a bit farther to reveal the culprit. Another square nail to add to my ever growing collection of square nails. A quick scan of the hole and joy of joys a coin sound rings out off to the side of the plug wall. I carefully dig out the side and a 1907 Indian pops put. Big grin and starting to like the "ferrous" sounds. About an hour and a half later almost the exact same scenario except this time it's a 1905 Indian next to a bent square nail. Nothing much more to add other than I am convinced that I wouldn't have found the Indians with "conductive" sounds due to the nulling/masking.
Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving.
Thanks for reading.
Crispy
Here are a few Indian cents and a Merc that I found in a local park this last month (the 1916 Merc was found in last Summer):
"to you, a hero is some kind of weird sandwich..."
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Comments
De Tesoro Cazador
The mintmark on the 1916 was an "S". When I first found it, against all advice, I cleaned the edge to see what the date was. Once I realized it was a 1916 and in really nice shape, I didn't touch it anymore. I could make out a mint mark on the reverse but I just couldn't tell if it was a D or S, so I had to wait until I got home. It was pretty exciting for a while at least!
Those are some great finds you have there. I've yet to find a Indian or a V nickel. Some Day--I keep telling myself--Some Day!!!!
Congrats on the great hunt!!!