DIV....F19 report

Well just wrapped up day 2 of 4 in Virginia.

It has been a few yrs since I was up here and man has it changed. When I last went to a DIV hunt, anybody that had a Minelab GPX had an advantage over everyone else. Only about 10-20 people had them then and nothing else on the market could compete with it on depth. Well things have changed big time. Now I bet 300 out of 400 people have a GPX. There is no advantage anymore. The easy relics have been long licked up. Now we are having to work for them. The last time I was here on this farm, I dug 100 dropped bullets and had nearly 30 buttons plus other misc brass. Now here we are half though it and I've not hit the 5 mark on bullets yet.

But here is a little report on the F19 detector. I picked one up on the way up here and on Day 1 of the hunt, I got into a spot that was where some fire pits and winter huts sat. There were so many cut nails and ration can pieces that my GPX would just null out and over load in some areas where these things used to sit. So today I decided I would leave the GPX in the truck and bring the F19 out to see if I could work the iron and ration can pieces and maybe pull some relics out of there. I knew everybody with a GPX or TDI was running into the same thing...just big overload nulls in those areas. The first thing I did was bury a bullet at about 6 inches just to see if it would even work in the Culpeper dirt. 5 bars on the FE meter by the way. To my surprise, it not only got it in disc mode, it actually gave a good tone on it and IDed it good too. That's a shocker. But the main objective wasn't depth...but working in the heavy iron trash.

The problem I ran into was keeping it balanced. This dirt is HOT HOT HOT. Running in disc mode and not having the ability to fast grab balance it...kind of hinders it a bit. And working in the iron with all metal mode kind of defeats the purpose of what I was trying to do. Some of the nails would read into the 40s til I would dig them up and then they would go into the 20s. Not sure if that is common or just the dirt doing that. I did manage to work a Eagle "A" button out of the ration can pieces. And several small poncho grommets too. Lots of small camp lead pieces and 3 bullets. It was a pleasure swinging the thing after swinging the GPX all day yesterday. The problem is...it doesn't take long to hunt those iron laden areas and most of what is left on the farm is DEEP DEEP DEEP. Most of the guys that are finding stuff in the open fields are using the GPX with 12x15 or larger coils. But the stuff aint all deep. A guy dug a beautiful CS tongue buckle today that was not even 6 inches deep. 1600 acres is a lot of land to try and cover, and a lot of land for things to hide.

I did dig a few square nails that would give a good tone in the ground. I wasn't sure where buttons would come in so I was digging everything that even remotely sounded good.

Excellent report Daniel and happy you got the finds that you did--just keep pluggin' you could be the "guy" tomorrow. Good luck!!!

Excellent report Daniel.

Nothing you wrote surprises me in the least in re to your experience with the machine so far :-)

Can't wait for your full/final report

Good luck on your finds!

Thank you for that report Daniel. Have fun down there.

Hang in there Daniel. You're very talented. This talent will rear its head with a nice find before the hunt is over.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/27/2015 03:01AM by tnsharpshooter.

Way to switch gears,..... good strategy. Can't wait to hear what else happens...Thanx!

Good report Daniel! My f-19 is suppose to arrive tomorrow. Not sure when I will be able to use it though,overwelmed with work at moment. Good luck dude,kick ass !

Great report Daniel! I do love the TDI but would love to try the Vista Deeptech Gold in the areas that you just hit. It is awesome on buttons. I have always wanted to go to one of these hunts. Maybe I can get the time off next year. Would be great to meet some of the accomplished hunters out there that still have the youth and strength to hunt all of those days. Best of finds for you in the remainder of the hunt...Stuart

I think the F19 is going to be a really good machine. It handles this red dirt a lot better than the F75 does. So I imagine that back home in better dirt, that it should be even better. I was half expecting somebody to have a Racer or CoRe up here but I kid you not when I say everybody has a pulse detector of some kind. I've even seen 2 of those Minelab GPZ machines running around. I had some folks look at me strange while I was swinging the F19, as if they thought I had lost my marbles by even attempting a hunt with a VLF detector. I don't know how many hunts have been on this property now....it has to be somewhere around 10-12 hunts though. So you figure 300+ people have hunted these hot spots for 3 days each hunt...and with every detector imaginable. So to come in there with a VLF of any kind and pull a few relics out....that's saying a lot.

I've dug several Eagle "A" buttons on this hunt. I'm glad to get those...don't dig many of them back home. I wish I had that one big kicker find that always seems to elude me. On a side note...a lady dug a confederate Block A button not far from where I was....she was using the Blisstool detector. I've saw a couple of those out in the field. But mostly Minelab GPXs, Garrett ATXs, and Whites TDI.

Hard to aurgue with PI's in bad dirt. Keep all of us posted. Can I hunt on Saturday and Sunday only? You got me thinking hard about it. Any openings left?

Nope. This was a 4 day hunt that ends this Saturday; you have to put your name in the hat when they post the signup for the hunts. Then hope you get drawn. You gotta watch the forum a lot though because some times they will just throw one on ya.....example, they will just make a post out of the blue one day and say "first 200 to sign up get in the hunt" so if you don't have a habit of going there every day, you'll miss out on stuff like that. They are fun to go on but they are gonna have to come up with some new sites; even if it means smaller properties and less people getting to go. Brandy Rock farm still has relics on it and will never have them picked clean from it. But I think the days are gone for knocking it out of the park with everybody finding a boat load of stuff. But as sure as I say that, tomorrow they might wander into a new zone and it cough up some more of its secrets. I think with the old hot spots starting to get cold, that it is going to make more people do like I plan on doing....venturing out exploring uncharted territory. Somebody is going to hit it right on the nose while the rest wander around finding places on the farm where relics aren't. LOL

I feel the F19 is the best Mineral Unmasker FTP makes..And surely its their best Iron unmasker..

Hope you find your dream find this wek Daniel...

Keith

“I don't care that they stole my idea . . I care that they don't have any of their own”
-Nikola Tesla

Thanks for the info Daniel. Hope today will be your best ever. I just like meeting the serious detectorists whenever possible. They have so much that I learn every time I meet one of them. Fun exchanging experiences. Of course always special digging up history as well.

Here's the "A" button. Currently under a delay due to rain so I'm chillin back at the hotel.

Wouldn't it be GREAT to own that land!

Daniel I understand the guy found the CS Tongue with a F75 LTD2. Hunting buddy saw his FB post.