Detecting Road Trip... or Cannonball Run?

[Iron Patch]

Today Ironhorse and I did a little one day detecting road trip to hunt with the Patriot and our other buddy Hans. I'm not sure how many days are left to our season, but should this be one of my last it's ok, was a fun day. Can't wait until next Spring to do it again!

 

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[Hans R Dirty]

Great finds bud, glad to have you over again. I'll post my loot up tomorrow, One of my seals is the same as yours, in two different fields, amazing. Not to bad for a few hours swinging.....cheers.

 

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[BuckleBoy]

Very good finds! That 6 pounder is excellent. My 1266 would've nailed it at 30." Wouldn't have sounded like much, but I would've known to dig. 8)

Looks like one of those Colonists liked their Chocolates.



-Buckles

 

[vayank54]

Man, you all always come up with some cool stuff. WTG

 

[coinmaster2db]

Nice finds Hope you get a couple more hunts in before the ground freezes.

HH!
Cm2db

 

[cwdigger]

Great saves

Cw

 

[ModernMiner]

Well done IP. Nice finds. Great looking 1800's bird button too.
-MM-

 

[FortBedfordbob]

Fantastic Finds ! Just Love that Big Round Iron

 

[Iron Patch]

Very good finds! That 6 pounder is excellent. My 1266 would've nailed it at 30." Wouldn't have sounded like much, but I would've known to dig. 8)

Looks like one of those Colonists liked their Chocolates.



-Buckles

Here's the thing... and I totally meant to mention it above to Romeo.

Yes, there are detectors out there that can reach iron very deep, and if they go as deep as I did on that, they do very well! That said, I can cherry pick these targets and not dig any more iron all day, the canister shot, cannon ball, and one other small iron tool (?) were the only iron targets I dug the enrire day... that's 3/3. All other detectors I have used/tried you have to make the choice, chase iron and hope to get something good, or try and avoid it. For several years I chose to avoid it, until I started to try and understand it more, and now can't believe how easy it is to still dig it and not waste anytime finding the unworthy crap. (of course it's far from perfect and I only dig it at older sites) The explorer has very good disc. and the secret is knowing at what point the larger pieces break the null. I'm sure other units have their own tricks too, and maybe hit targets like that, but over all I can't imagine them being better in the sense I just described. BTW... Worthy to me is cannonball, trade axe, and larger items, I do have an interest in smaller relics like iron gun parts because I'm not willing to waste time chasing everything that size.

PS... I'd like to see what a IIb could do with a 15" coil in the right hands. (and decent ground) Also, good discrimination and digging targets in iron is much more important to me than getting 30" iron relics. But as I said, it was cool and made my day.

 

[Kirk PA]

I would take the Liard over the cannonball. No lie!

Kirk

 

[Kyle PA]

I was just reading on the internet how this one Rev War fella in my area could carry cannons that weighed in excess of 700 pounds. That is some Colonial strength that those Islanders wouldn't want to mess with.

He probably played catch with those 6-pounders.

 

[Iron Patch]

I would take the Liard over the cannonball. No lie!

Kirk

I would expect that from a broken shoe buckle lover. (4 pieces yesterday)

 

[BuckleBoy]

Yes, there are detectors out there that can reach iron very deep, and if they go as deep as I did on that, they do very well! That said, I can cherry pick these targets and not dig any more iron all day, the canister shot, cannon ball, and one other small iron tool (?) were the only iron targets I dug the enrire day... that's 3/3. All other detectors I have used/tried you have to make the choice, chase iron and hope to get something good, or try and avoid it. For several years I chose to avoid it, until I started to try and understand it more, and now can't believe how easy it is to still dig it and not waste anytime finding the unworthy crap. (of course it's far from perfect and I only dig it at older sites) The explorer has very good disc. and the secret is knowing at what point the larger pieces break the null. I'm sure other units have their own tricks too, and maybe hit targets like that, but over all I can't imagine them being better in the sense I just described. BTW... Worthy to me is cannonball, trade axe, and larger items, I do have an interest in smaller relics like iron gun parts because I'm not willing to waste time chasing everything that size.

PS... I'd like to see what a IIb could do with a 15" coil in the right hands. (and decent ground) Also, good discrimination and digging targets in iron is much more important to me than getting 30" iron relics. But as I said, it was cool and made my day.

I hear you about size--and it is true that in order to dig the gun parts and smaller iron with any detector, you have to pretty much dig it all. I cherrypick with my 1266 as well. When I am operating in "relic mode" (the disc knob turned Very low). I can Only dig big, deep iron if I want. The signal itself on a shell or deep large piece of iron is a "wah wah" signal with fuzzy edges rather than a "beep." The shallow iron hits will overload, or not pinpoint accurately compared to where the signal hits in disc mode. So I can pass on those if I wish--because shells are generally not shallow in the ground. The deep iron items pinpoint dead on. I can also raise the coil in pinpoint mode to get an idea of depth. But like you said--it's knowing where the iron breaks the threshold, and also for me it's knowing which crappy signal to dig and which to ignore. At that point, the machine is giving all it can give--and the user is the most important part of the equation. On my 1266 it took a decade of practice for me to tell the difference.


-Buckles

 

[HISPAN]

Great hunt...congrats!!

 

[Don in SJ]

Threshold? What's that LOL, I have hunted perhaps half the time over the past 9 years with my Explorer XS with no threshold tone, I usually have my Gain too high for threshold to be a softer, quieter tone, and have found out over the years, I will go over targets and click up and put threshold there and take it back off and not notice any difference. I have gotten used to hearing all rat a tat tats and never hear a null.........

Anyway, love the cannonball IP, and you sure did good on the coppers, and the seal with its yummy background! Hope winter holds off for another week or two for you.

Don

 

[The Patriot]

It was good to see you boys again and glad it was worth your while to drive that distance...

I knew that you were digging a cannonball when I seen your arm in the hole past shoulders length...Believe me guys I couldn't get over how deep that sucker was...I dug a complete iron pot at 3 feet but a six pounder isn't near the size...Patch really knows his machine. Then again I knew 4 minelabs on one field would do some damage... Did you manage to get anything off that pewter?

PS
Now to plan that 7 day hunt in the spring that I was talking about..

 

[Evan/tn]

nice finds and congrats on the deep dig on that 6lb
i got a 6 lb'er at about 15 inches years ago

 

[WhiteHunter]

Shiver ma timbers

 

[Hunthicks]

Son of a...I can't believe it! I've been trying to get together with Patriot for two years so I could get a chance to get my coil over a cannoball. That's my 6 pounder!!!!

You ask the boys how deep that thing was. I don't know what your settings are, or when your discrimination on a F75 starts to affect the depth, but TRUST ME you would need everything that machine has to get that puppy where it was. Easily 30" which might not seem to super for a ball, (6lbs isn't really that big though) but try looking down a hole that deep... it was certainlydown there. Right in the main hunting area too, so it was probably walked over before. Minelab Power!

Much better result than the 30" hole I dug to find a 6" pipe at the bottom of >.< Gotta be happy with that bugger!

 

[Iron Patch]

Threshold? What's that LOL, I have hunted perhaps half the time over the past 9 years with my Explorer XS with no threshold tone, I usually have my Gain too high for threshold to be a softer, quieter tone, and have found out over the years, I will go over targets and click up and put threshold there and take it back off and not notice any difference. I have gotten used to hearing all rat a tat tats and never hear a null.........

Anyway, love the cannonball IP, and you sure did good on the coppers, and the seal with its yummy background! Hope winter holds off for another week or two for you.

Don

Well I of course disagree with you about it not being a disadvantage not using a threshold, but that's not breaking news. Another way to put what I said above is larger iron overriding the disc. circuitry, because as you know the ploder knocks out the small stuff pretty well. Not using a threshold I don't think makes that much difference if you're going after larger iron, it's the iron mask that could prevent you from going deep, just like all over detectors.

Yeah it was a good day and all the targets were old so lots of fun.

 

[Iron Patch]

Yes, there are detectors out there that can reach iron very deep, and if they go as deep as I did on that, they do very well! That said, I can cherry pick these targets and not dig any more iron all day, the canister shot, cannon ball, and one other small iron tool (?) were the only iron targets I dug the enrire day... that's 3/3. All other detectors I have used/tried you have to make the choice, chase iron and hope to get something good, or try and avoid it. For several years I chose to avoid it, until I started to try and understand it more, and now can't believe how easy it is to still dig it and not waste anytime finding the unworthy crap. (of course it's far from perfect and I only dig it at older sites) The explorer has very good disc. and the secret is knowing at what point the larger pieces break the null. I'm sure other units have their own tricks too, and maybe hit targets like that, but over all I can't imagine them being better in the sense I just described. BTW... Worthy to me is cannonball, trade axe, and larger items, I do have an interest in smaller relics like iron gun parts because I'm not willing to waste time chasing everything that size.

PS... I'd like to see what a IIb could do with a 15" coil in the right hands. (and decent ground) Also, good discrimination and digging targets in iron is much more important to me than getting 30" iron relics. But as I said, it was cool and made my day.

I hear you about size--and it is true that in order to dig the gun parts and smaller iron with any detector, you have to pretty much dig it all. I cherrypick with my 1266 as well. When I am operating in "relic mode" (the disc knob turned Very low). I can Only dig big, deep iron if I want. The signal itself on a shell or deep large piece of iron is a "wah wah" signal with fuzzy edges rather than a "beep." The shallow iron hits will overload, or not pinpoint accurately compared to where the signal hits in disc mode. So I can pass on those if I wish--because shells are generally not shallow in the ground. The deep iron items pinpoint dead on. I can also raise the coil in pinpoint mode to get an idea of depth. But like you said--it's knowing where the iron breaks the threshold, and also for me it's knowing which crappy signal to dig and which to ignore. At that point, the machine is giving all it can give--and the user is the most important part of the equation. On my 1266 it took a decade of practice for me to tell the difference.


-Buckles

That's another point I should have made in my first couple of posts, it taking you 10 years to really get a good handle on it. Sure anyone can go to a site and dig iron until they hit the keeper, but if that's their method I hope they hunt alone because the other guys will be digging all the non iron finds. So really it's not just about the detector seeing it, it's having the ability to not chase crap until you know you got the right type of signal locked-in under your coil. There, finally I think all the main points about digging iron are on the page... now just to find something good that's not iron!