OutdoorAdv
Bronze Member
- Apr 16, 2013
- 2,457
- 3,350
- 🥇 Banner finds
- 1
- Detector(s) used
- XP Deus,
GPX 4500,
Equinox 800,
AT Max
- Primary Interest:
- Metal Detecting
I just got back from my first DIV hunt and had a ton of fun. Last summer I picked up a GPX4500 to add a pulse machine to my relic hunting arsenal. Prior to the DIV hunt I maybe had about 10 hours swinging the GPX and I sort of knew what it was telling me, but I wasn't really good with it. After walking almost 20 miles, digging 100's of holes, loading my pouch with iron and lead multiple times, by the end of day 3 I think I mostly figured it out. After about half way through the hunt I knew what those deep whispers sounded like and I was able to slowly swing through hard hit areas and pick out the faintest signals that had been missed.
I dug a nice sword scabbard tip, 7 GS buttons, assorted brass, and 3 complete dropped Shaler bullets as well as a few halves and a few fired Shalers. One of those dropped three ringers is also a Washington Arsenal Star Base, which is always a nice surprise when cleaning out the base.
Before I combined everything for a group shot, I had kept my 3 days finds separate. From left to right is Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3. Something I learned on day 1 was don't be afraid to reopen someone else's plug when I got a sweet signal, reopened a plug and found a nice deep musket ball someone had given up on. The scabbard tip came to me in the same way as well as a few other relics... however I also learned that people like to rebury stuff like shotgun shells back into the plug they dug them from, so this also backfired a lot, but the nice stuff made up for it.
Sword scabbard tip, buttons, knapsack brass and a kepi buckle.
Shaler drops, fired and incomplete bits of drops.
Lots of camp lead!
I got to hunt with my friend metalev4 all three days. We worked a small camp area on this ridge for much of the second day and had a ton of fun pulling Shaler bits and brass from a small area. We had a lot of rain, but the storm in the background produced a lot of lightning and chased us back to the cars for a while. I actually saw a lightning strike many miles away in the valley that made my GPX go nuts the second it hit ground
That's a coat sized GS button at the tip of my pinpointer that just came out of the tiny pocket behind the tip. It was a solid foot from my coil, through the tall clover and dirt, down to that thing. I was amazed at the power of the GPX and it was the type of signal I learned to listen for and got excited when I heard one of them.
Another GS button right from the dirt. That emerald green patina never gets old.
Found myself stopping to dump lead multiple times a day to keep me moving.
And the final spot for my DIV finds in one of my displays. I have some partially reconstructed colonial\federal era bowls below this shelf and I actually got concerned loading all the lead on that glass. I found a good website that has a calculator where you put in the dimensions and distance between support points and it tells you how much load the tempered glass can hold. Apparently this shelf can hold more than 160lbs... so I need to find some more bullets.
One of the highlights for me was to watch trash pits open up and see what was coming out. I wasnt able to locate one of my own, but I did dig a few test holes and chased some iron signals without luck. Just seeing an insane amount of cool stuff turn up was amazing though. It was an excellent event and I had an awesome time and got to meet a bunch of great people.
I dug a nice sword scabbard tip, 7 GS buttons, assorted brass, and 3 complete dropped Shaler bullets as well as a few halves and a few fired Shalers. One of those dropped three ringers is also a Washington Arsenal Star Base, which is always a nice surprise when cleaning out the base.
Before I combined everything for a group shot, I had kept my 3 days finds separate. From left to right is Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3. Something I learned on day 1 was don't be afraid to reopen someone else's plug when I got a sweet signal, reopened a plug and found a nice deep musket ball someone had given up on. The scabbard tip came to me in the same way as well as a few other relics... however I also learned that people like to rebury stuff like shotgun shells back into the plug they dug them from, so this also backfired a lot, but the nice stuff made up for it.
Sword scabbard tip, buttons, knapsack brass and a kepi buckle.
Shaler drops, fired and incomplete bits of drops.
Lots of camp lead!
I got to hunt with my friend metalev4 all three days. We worked a small camp area on this ridge for much of the second day and had a ton of fun pulling Shaler bits and brass from a small area. We had a lot of rain, but the storm in the background produced a lot of lightning and chased us back to the cars for a while. I actually saw a lightning strike many miles away in the valley that made my GPX go nuts the second it hit ground
That's a coat sized GS button at the tip of my pinpointer that just came out of the tiny pocket behind the tip. It was a solid foot from my coil, through the tall clover and dirt, down to that thing. I was amazed at the power of the GPX and it was the type of signal I learned to listen for and got excited when I heard one of them.
Another GS button right from the dirt. That emerald green patina never gets old.
Found myself stopping to dump lead multiple times a day to keep me moving.
And the final spot for my DIV finds in one of my displays. I have some partially reconstructed colonial\federal era bowls below this shelf and I actually got concerned loading all the lead on that glass. I found a good website that has a calculator where you put in the dimensions and distance between support points and it tells you how much load the tempered glass can hold. Apparently this shelf can hold more than 160lbs... so I need to find some more bullets.
One of the highlights for me was to watch trash pits open up and see what was coming out. I wasnt able to locate one of my own, but I did dig a few test holes and chased some iron signals without luck. Just seeing an insane amount of cool stuff turn up was amazing though. It was an excellent event and I had an awesome time and got to meet a bunch of great people.
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