First night out, and first finds!!

[MoSearcher]

Alright everyone, tonight was my first ever attempt at metal detecting! I had class until 12:30, so at that point I went to my local metal detector dealer (owned by a member here tsgman). After starting my, what turned out to be about a 2 hour search for the right detector at a used ACE 250, and slowly working my way up until I finally talked myself into stepping up my price a little bit for a brand new Minelab X-terra 305 (and needed accessories)... I came home, put it together, and flipped through the owner's manual.

I then headed out to the back part of our land to play around with it...at first it wasn't working at all, so I had to come in and look back at the manual again to figure out ground balancing, sensitivity...all that fancy stuff, then headed back out.

Wondering aimlessly across the back part of our 5 acres, I was getting intermittent tones but nothing that I could stop and locate, it was always just on, then gone (usually these were 36-44)...so I'm guessing there aren't many coins on the parts of our land that I went to, and if they're there, they're deep! Anyways, I did manage to find what looks like 3 bullets; 1 is distorted from impact, 2 are "normal looking" and the 4th is longer and skinnier, I'm not even sure if it is a bullet or not, but it was registering the same thing as the others were (24-26). My last find, although not super glamorous, was a crumpled bottle cap, with repeating numbers printed on the top.

I have no idea how old this stuff is, I don't know if the bullets were from 1890, or 1990, but either way, I had a good time and feel that once I get the X-terra figured out it will serve me well for quite a while.

Here are some pictures (Camera isn't the best)

That's today's find...if you recognize the bullets, or the bottle cap feel free to ID them for me!!


Also lastly, I would get quick high tones but then when I looked for them I couldn't find them, I'm thinking the ground balance was probably still off, I just watched an online tutorial...so I'll try fixing that next time out...... has anyone had this problem? And if so, how did you fix it? Because I kept hearing it and freaking out to find some coins, but then I couldn't find them




Thanks for reading everyone, hopefully there will be more stuff to come!
Marshall.

 

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[What the Beep?]

Looks like a .22 and maybe a couple .38s?

 

[MoSearcher]

Looks like a .22 and maybe a couple .38s?

38s is what I was thinking also.

 

[MoSearcher]

Another thing I found interesting from what I've read of everyone on here... all of this stuff was over 6 inches, a couple were closer to 8 or 9...is that rare, or does it just depend on the location?.

 

[treasuredfinds]

MoSearcher,
The two single groove bullets you have with the rounded tops are very similar to the 17 bullets I have recovered on my property in Grimes County, Texas
the measurement of these bullets marks them as .44 caliber pistol bullets for the Lemat revolver this was a 9 shot pistol with two barrels the lower barrel fired a shotgun type shell at close range.
try using a caliper and getting the outside measurement to confirm the caliber of your bullets.

Congratulations on your first hunt and these interesting first finds

Treasuredfinds

 

[MoSearcher]

MoSearcher,
The two single groove bullets you have with the rounded tops are very similar to the 17 bullets I have recovered on my property in Grimes County, Texas
the measurement of these bullets marks them as .44 caliber pistol bullets for the Lemat revolver this was a 9 shot pistol with two barrels the lower barrel fired a shotgun type shell at close range.
try using a caliper and getting the outside measurement to confirm the caliber of your bullets.

Congratulations on your first hunt and these interesting first finds

Treasuredfinds

Very interesting! I just looked up the Lemat revolver, I had never heard of that before.. I will find a caliper and get a measurement.

 

[Metal Magnet]

Congrats! You'll be finding amazing stuff in no time. Welcome to the world's most addicting hobby.

 

[MoSearcher]

Congrats! You'll be finding amazing stuff in no time. Welcome to the world's most addicting hobby.

Thanks!

 

[vanoldschool]

good finds, get yourself some wheats and a few silver dimes and take them out with you next time, bury them about 4 to5 inches then swing your coil over them and listen to the tone and read your vdi numbers, then recover your planted coins and go search for the same tones!!, or just dig everything until you get the signals down !! good luck!!

 

[MoSearcher]

good finds, get yourself some wheats and a few silver dimes and take them out with you next time, bury them about 4 to5 inches then swing your coil over them and listen to the tone and read your vdi numbers, then recover your planted coins and go search for the same tones!!, or just dig everything until you get the signals down !! good luck!!

Thanks! I saw a guy doing that on youtube to do a review of a detector, so I'm thinking that's what I'm going to do too tomorrow after class.

 

[underarock]

When in doubt dig. Unless your worried about conserving your strength. If digging 8-9 inches gets tiring/frustrating ( especially if its deep nails ) lower your sensitivity, grid an area out, and move quickly through it. Yes quickly. I haven't owned a detector so far that couldn't find a silver dime at 4 inches on its lowest sens. setting… even the tracker IV. Once you've worked the area quickly and thoroughly you can retrace your steps with higher sens and really work it out. If your lazy like me you can focus on the most promising areas like a spot where you found nothing but wheat pennies at 1 or 2 inches. There may not be many virgin places left to detect but if you can identify that virgin spot quickly your going to maximize your finds. Taking away shallow targets first will make it easier to identify deeper targets more accurately. Especially those damn nails.

This is my personal preference of detection for large unknown spaces that I know I will have time to return to. This is not the answer to every situation.
Above all else have fun out there.

 

[steelheadwill]

Welcome to the wonderful world of Historic Recovery
As you become more skilled, you'll soon be pulling out the stunners.
(I thought those slugs looked 'different', great stuff! )
Best wishes on your digs, & HH

 

[MoSearcher]

Thanks guys! I took it out again today and was messing with the GB and sensitivity and stuff...it's still acting weird, I can't get the GB to be completely silent like they do on all the video's I've watched, I can get it close, but it always makes a bit of noise.

I did find something interesting today though, an old "Spit Fire" cap gun, it's in terrible shape and is actually broken in half, but when all I could see was the engraving on the handle in the ground I thought for sure I had found something awesome. lol

 

[sgratrider]

Congrats on what u found. Now to your ground balancing. First i have never swung a 305. But on machines i have ground balanced, you dont get it silent. You should hear a threshold. Try backing down on your sensitivity, see if that helps.

Good luck, Todd

 

[MoSearcher]

Congrats on what u found. Now to your ground balancing. First i have never swung a 305. But on machines i have ground balanced, you dont get it silent. You should hear a threshold. Try backing down on your sensitivity, see if that helps.

Good luck, Todd

Thanks I'll give that a shot!!

 

[hikeinmts]

Welcome to the club. I been at this craziness for about 35 years......doing the last 25 or so here in South Korea.
You found some good stuff, first time out. YOu might think about taking your machine back to where you bought
it and asking for some help. Usually the guys who sell them also help set them up/service them.
I personally don't like some of the newer machines, because a person needs a translator to fully understand them.
I like the KISS principle......simple, powerful. But, the ground balance will help get you deeper into hot earth.
Good luck. Keep us posted on what you are finding.

 

[MoSearcher]

It's getting better! I got it ground balanced finally and turned the sensitivity and threshold down and I only got about 3 false signals (I don't know why they do that...all were high tones still)...

I only found 1 thing that wasn't junk (I kept digging up some strange sheet metal that was a mid/high tone)....But my one find was yet another bullet! It's different than the one's I found earlier in the week.

I cleaned it up and took a few pictures of it, with comparison shots to the ones I found earlier.. It also has an indention in the side of it, and no rings around the bottom.

 

[Lost2Much]

MoSearcher, The tall skinny bullet is a 38 cal. All the others are 45 cal. not a Lemat.
I have a bunch of them and did research on the 45's, they are not defiantly Lemat, much to my
Great Hopes. They are not "white" enough to be CW bullets, they were common in 1960's & 70's

 

[MoSearcher]

MoSearcher, The tall skinny bullet is a 38 cal. All the others are 45 cal. not a Lemat.
I have a bunch of them and did research on the 45's, they are not defiantly Lemat, much to my
Great Hopes. They are not "white" enough to be CW bullets, they were common in 1960's & 70's

Excellent thanks! I was pretty sure they weren't CW (unfortunately)...but I'm confident I'll find some someday!!!

 

[filthyflyer39]

What you said about the high tones disappearing, for me it's usually iron. When the machine 'pulls off' of an iron target it often gives a little blip like it would for a coin. does this with almost all iron, including nails. Nails sound like deep silver most of the time, just something you gotta live with