Home Metal Detecting

Hi, digpeoples.

lordmarcovanlordmarcovan Posts: 43,530 ✭✭✭✭✭
Just got a new toy (well, new to me, anyway). A Minelab.

And I have a potentially good relic site to try out, too. It's a timber clearcut, where a friend of mine found this back in the spring. They plowed the site since my friend was there. I walked over the furrows and found a concentration of pottery sherds and old glass, so I know how to pinpoint at least one vanished homesite out there. The surface clues ranged from about 1830s to 1890s.

Trouble is, it's either been pouring buckets o' rain or hot enough to fry eggs on top of your head. Or I've just been too lazy.

I'll get around to it eventually.

Keep 'em beepin', y'all! image

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Comments

  • phutphut Posts: 1,087
    Good luck with the Minelab, Rob. Sounds like a good site.
  • lordmarcovanlordmarcovan Posts: 43,530 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Good to see you here, Tim. Been a while.

    Nice to see some of the old "faces" still around.

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  • pcgs69pcgs69 Posts: 4,324 ✭✭✭✭
    Congrats on the minelab. I own one myself. What model did you get? Is this the one you'll be bringing to England when the time comes?
  • lordmarcovanlordmarcovan Posts: 43,530 ✭✭✭✭✭
    It's a used Explorer XS. I needed to get something for the England trip, because my beastly big Garrett 2500, while a great machine, is not so ergonomically friendly. Poorly balanced, weightwise, so after about four or five hours of swinging it, the tendons in my elbow joint kill me, and ache for a day. (Which is why goldrush00013 swapped me the machine originally- he had the same trouble). If five hours of detecting put me out of commission for a day or two, imagine what eight or ten hours a day for a whole week would do!

    Dunno if the Explorer is that much lighter, really. I told my relic buddy to find me a good used machine locally that would be lightweight and good for relic hunting here as well as a possible British expedition carryon. He found me this one for 300 bucks, which didn't seem too bad, considering what it no doubt cost new. It's not as featherweight as my old Troy Shadow X2, nor does it have a chestmount capability like some White's machines do (a feature I'd like to have), but it's got an arm strap and maybe the balance is better. We'll see. I've only airtested it for five seconds on the front porch, so far. There will be a learning curve with this one.

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  • rickoricko Posts: 98,724 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Good luck with the new equipment LordM.... Cheers, RickO
  • AUandAGAUandAG Posts: 24,762 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I like learning curves, they are mostly fun!

    bobimage
    Registry: CC lowballs (boblindstrom), bobinvegas1989@yahoo.com
  • pocketpiececommemspocketpiececommems Posts: 5,865 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I would take a couple of the "buckets of rain" days to go along with "Hot" ones.image
  • Good luck with the XS Rob! Thats a good machine.

    Great to see you online Tim! Hope all is well your way!
    Analog Rules! Knobs and Switches are cool!
    imageimage
  • Hey Rob,

    So is your England trip happening? That will be a lot of fun. I hope to return someday again (remember we pm'ed about that about a year ago).

    What area will you be visiting?

    Clad
  • lordmarcovanlordmarcovan Posts: 43,530 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Yes, the trip (or at least the planning for it) is still a go. I have the money now, just have to make my final decision on a tour package and pay the deposit, then go through the other stuff like booking airfare, getting a passport, etc.

    My last passport seems to have expired. image


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  • lordmarcovanlordmarcovan Posts: 43,530 ✭✭✭✭✭
    BTW, I went out to that relic site with the Minelab.

    Went towards evening, when the sun was lower in the sky and therefore the heat was merely uncomfortable instead of life-threatening.

    I even shot some video, but really all that amounted to was some vultures snacking on a flyblown deer corpse. I'd spare you the closeups. I only shot that scene to demonstrate how truly out in the boonies I was. (When you have to yield the right of way to vultures, you're pretty far out there.)

    So much sweat ran down into my eyes, I couldn't see where I was going. I stepped into quicksand and sank to my knees. Gnats and mosquitoes warbled in my ears, and soon threatened my sanity. The pressure clutch that holds the shaft to the main control housing on the detector doesn't seem to clasp completely, so every few minutes the shaft would drop out and dangle by its cord. Grr.

    I found I was decidedly NOT having fun.

    I did find a century-old fastener from somebody's overalls ("ABC" brand), some more pottery sherds, a big rectangular chunk of iron, and that was about it out there before I fled. Then I took the detector to one of my favorite parks in town to try it on familiar ground. I found a pulltab there before the gnats become unbearable.

    This is the worst time of year to try detecting down here. I find I just don't have the spiritual stamina for it. I'm not as hardcore as I used to be.

    The good news is that I was favorably impressed with the Minelab's iron discrimination - it is FAR cleaner than that of any of the Garretts I have used. On my Garretts, you notch out or tune out iron, and you'll still get some beeps. On the Minelab, it cut out nails completely, leaving little "negative signals" (quiet spots) in the threshold sound, and it only signaled on that huge rectangular iron chunk, which was bigger than an axe head.


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