Probably my last hunt of the season in normal park soil and silver again!

digger27

Bronze Member
May 18, 2011
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The other day it got up to the 60's for probably the last time this year, then the arctic express rolled into Kansas and now we are in the teens to the 30's.
I think the ground is going to freeze pretty quickly and I hate digging in the cold but I especially hate digging in the cold and dealing with frozen soil too so that is probably it for me unless we get some sort of a freaky warm up which does not seem likely.

I will head into the woods when I get acclimated to the cold, the thick layer of leaves will keep the ground unfrozen for awhile, there are some old coins in there and with luck I will find some, but hunting in open parks is probably over for me till spring.

A shame too, because after fooling around with my F70 all season I finally seemed to find the ultimate settings that really work to hunt my really trashy parks with great success and find hidden coins and jewelry more easily than ever before...the last 3 hunts I had I found silver each time in super trashy areas that I have hunted many times in the the past.
Wouldn't you know it, I finally feel I have this thing dialed in and we became one and now my jewelry hunting is over till spring.
Frustrating!

Anyhoo, on my last hunt in a regular park setting I came across this thing and because it was a bit deeper than most of my jewelry targets, maybe 5-6". and more tarnished than most other silver I have found in the past I think it might have been down there for awhile.
Several decades at least.
Cleaned up nicely, and it has one of my favorite stones in it a nice big piece of polished black onyx.

An odd shape, too, but pretty unique and a wonderful surprise and reward if this was indeed my last normal open area park hunt of the year.

If you live in the north and hate cold like I do it all has to end sometime, but if it has to at least finding precious metal on the last normal hunt is a great way to go out.
 

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That is an odd looking ring but it's an awesome find. I'm with you on the cold thing, living in upstate New York I think my MD'ing days are done till spring, also. Good luck in the woods.
 

That ring has a very ominous look to it, maybe it's haunted :D
Nice recovery anyway! :thumbsup:
 

Hey Digger, What settings do you run on your F70? Do you think they would translate over to the F5?
 

Hey Digger, What settings do you run on your F70? Do you think they would translate over to the F5?

Maybe close.
I am using 1 tone...on the F5 I guess the closest would be D1 or D2 on yours.
Threshold at the lowest -2 and that gets me pretty deep, but I go as high as I can into the positive area if I don't get much chatter.
Sense between 85 and 90, disc at 4, usually, when I use the big DD coil when it comes to pop tops I can rim the edge of the coil over most of them and see them drop down low and mostly into iron and avoid them, but I can turn up the disc and evidently not lose depth at all on the F70.
Some pop tops here in my woods but not enough to matter much.

These settings are the quietest and deepest settings in my regular park sites so far in disc, and also the the most responsive and stabilized numbers and tones, too.

In woods I will be hunting soon I will keep all settings the same except the disc to start.
This area has a lot of horseshoes and horseshoe nails which aren't really an issue, but it does have aluminum and tin foil, a ton of it, and that can be a real problem.
I realized after hunting this site that foil like this does not disintegrate and go away...ever, or at least it will take much more than 100 years for that to happen.

For this reason I am planning on raising the disc to about 23 which should eliminate most of the smaller stuff.
Maybe really thin chains, too, but I am looking for old coins here and jewelry not so much.
If I do come across smaller gold rings I should still hear them, and hunting in 1 tone is way less mentally fatigueing for me than hunting this site in all metal which I have done many times in the past.

I have also used 2F tones here, very similar to your D2 I believe and that works pretty well, but 1 tone on my F70 seems more responsive and is bothered by EMI even less than 2F.
This site is up high near the top of a small mountain and pretty much in direct line of site of every phone, tv and radio tower for miles around.
I don't mind hunting with lots of noise if I have to, but I think these new settings that work so well and so quietly in normal areas of my parks will hopefully work just as well up there and just as quietly.

We will see.
I am trying to get used to the cold, and this weekend I am picking up a new Sampson 31" digger that I won in our club's annual hunt this year so that will be great for digging in those woods.
 

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Thanks Digger. Sadly I have to wait till spring to try out your settings.
 

I am about as disappointed to my season coming close to a close as not being able to see everyone else's pics until the thaw. My goal is to get at least two good hunts in a week. Today we had a light snow brushing and then the temperatures stayed above freezing. If I hold my breath long enough we will get a few 60 degree days. Our weather down here is a mix of tropics and Canada.
 

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