brianc053
Hero Member
- Jan 27, 2015
- 985
- 3,412
- 🏆 Honorable Mentions:
- 3
- Detector(s) used
- Minelab Equinox 800
XP Deus 2
- Primary Interest:
- Metal Detecting
Hi everyone. (warning: long post. sorry in advance, I had a lot to say).
Inspired (again) by our fellow member Scolino's amazing recent finds (example: https://www.treasurenet.com/threads...reales-and-coppers.663069/page-2#post-6839677), I decided it was time to do some research on new locations and some door-knocking (two things that Scolino is a master at) in my area of northern New Jersey. I identified about a half-dozen locations and started driving; from the car I could eliminate 3 of them, but the other 3 were worth asking for permission. Site 1: "no, we already allow 2 other people to detect here." Site 2: "no, this isn't something we'd be interested in."
But site 3 was, "yes, I guess you could detect here." The owner was awesome and fun to talk with. He even guided me to where the original homesite was located (unfortunately it's located in what is now a cow pasture on a bit of a hillside with somewhat long grass, so - not the ideal digging conditions.)
I didn't detect on the day he granted permission, but I came back early the next morning (in the dark, with frost on the ground, wearing orange because he warned me there were hunters that had access to his land) and I detected for about 2 hours. It took the first hour to just get oriented; any time I'm on a new site - especially one like this, which has a ton of old iron - I find that I've got to walk around and just listen to the ground. I kind of form a mental picture of what I think the area used to be like using whatever I see (in this case: some flat areas and a few exposed rocks on a hillside) and what I hear.
I used the Equinox for the first hour, hoping that a solid mid-20's VDI would just pop out of the ground and produce a large copper (or maybe even a 30's VDI and a Real like Scolino's...), but that wasn't the case. As I've found with the Equinox in old homesite locations, I had trouble separating the iron from good signals. I dug a lot of square nails that sounded good on the Nox. I finally did get one button with the Nox (solid, separated VDI in the 16-18 range), but I decided to switch to the Deus.
And I'm glad I did. I walked some of the same areas with the Deus that I had originally covered with the Nox and it didn't take me long to find a large copper. She's toasty but after some careful restoration at home she's clearly a Draped Bust Large Cent and I think there's enough metal left in the date area to guess that she's 1803 (one of the highest mintage years).
This experience reinforced my belief that the Deus is just better than the Nox in iron-infested homesites.
I also found another button with the Deus, but I also had to wrap up and head home for my day job. Both buttons are early 1800's timeframe, which fit with the coin and give me excitement that there's a lot more 200-year old goodies in that ground.
I think I've started to narrow down the area of more human activity (which unfortunately is under the most cow poop), so I can't wait to go back this weekend!
- Brian
Inspired (again) by our fellow member Scolino's amazing recent finds (example: https://www.treasurenet.com/threads...reales-and-coppers.663069/page-2#post-6839677), I decided it was time to do some research on new locations and some door-knocking (two things that Scolino is a master at) in my area of northern New Jersey. I identified about a half-dozen locations and started driving; from the car I could eliminate 3 of them, but the other 3 were worth asking for permission. Site 1: "no, we already allow 2 other people to detect here." Site 2: "no, this isn't something we'd be interested in."
But site 3 was, "yes, I guess you could detect here." The owner was awesome and fun to talk with. He even guided me to where the original homesite was located (unfortunately it's located in what is now a cow pasture on a bit of a hillside with somewhat long grass, so - not the ideal digging conditions.)
I didn't detect on the day he granted permission, but I came back early the next morning (in the dark, with frost on the ground, wearing orange because he warned me there were hunters that had access to his land) and I detected for about 2 hours. It took the first hour to just get oriented; any time I'm on a new site - especially one like this, which has a ton of old iron - I find that I've got to walk around and just listen to the ground. I kind of form a mental picture of what I think the area used to be like using whatever I see (in this case: some flat areas and a few exposed rocks on a hillside) and what I hear.
I used the Equinox for the first hour, hoping that a solid mid-20's VDI would just pop out of the ground and produce a large copper (or maybe even a 30's VDI and a Real like Scolino's...), but that wasn't the case. As I've found with the Equinox in old homesite locations, I had trouble separating the iron from good signals. I dug a lot of square nails that sounded good on the Nox. I finally did get one button with the Nox (solid, separated VDI in the 16-18 range), but I decided to switch to the Deus.
And I'm glad I did. I walked some of the same areas with the Deus that I had originally covered with the Nox and it didn't take me long to find a large copper. She's toasty but after some careful restoration at home she's clearly a Draped Bust Large Cent and I think there's enough metal left in the date area to guess that she's 1803 (one of the highest mintage years).
This experience reinforced my belief that the Deus is just better than the Nox in iron-infested homesites.
I also found another button with the Deus, but I also had to wrap up and head home for my day job. Both buttons are early 1800's timeframe, which fit with the coin and give me excitement that there's a lot more 200-year old goodies in that ground.
I think I've started to narrow down the area of more human activity (which unfortunately is under the most cow poop), so I can't wait to go back this weekend!
- Brian
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