Last few Blisstool hunts

I've been quiet on the forums for a reason...I've been working, fishing, and digging. I have a couple new sites lined up to hunt in the future, but for the last little bit, I have just been revisiting my old stomping grounds. Most of this has came from just a couple of sites. One in particular is an older home that stood on my mom and dad's place. It has VERY bad dirt there...and is loaded with iron as well. To be honest it has been a bit of a struggle there. I've had machines that were very good in iron with smaller coils there, that couldn't handle the overall soil minerals. And I've had pulse machines in there that could handle the soil, but were a big handful with all the iron. I thought the Bliss might be a good candidate for a happy medium...maybe it could handle the soil and somewhat deal with the iron. It has been a love and hate relationship there with it. I've been running my gain really low, and doing like was suggested on the Blisstool UK forum, and running the Disc Depth 4 and lower. Well what I'm finding is that I am digging a lot of square nails that are really deep that don't have an abrupt broken tone to them like the shallower iron does...they are actually very mellow sounding targets. ALL of them are very deep though. So what I've had to do, was try different settings on the iron disc toggle. I have been running it on 3, it's least severe...and have recently been running it on 1. That seems to help a smidgen but overall I think this site is just a handful to hunt with any machine. Quite a bit has came out of it, IMO...nothing big or anything, but a lot of non ferrous targets. Mostly flat buttons and a few other odds and ends. When I get my Deus I will see how it does up there as well but that is going to take me a while to get.

The rest of the stuff has came from hunts here, there, and yonder. I have a pile of shot bullets, a few drops, and a big pile of melted lead from camp fires. Most people assume this is from the soldiers casting their own bullets. I personally believe that is not the case..since the bullets were issued via ammunition wagons in crates, I think the melted lead comes from them starting their camp fires. The Minie Ball is part of a cartridge...it was wrapped in paper, with the power being under the bullet. To load them, they would tear the paper open with their teeth, and pour the powder down the barrel, and then the bullet would go on top of that. Well to help start a fire, I think the soldiers just used what was common and readily available to them....their cartridges. They would tear the papers off some bullets, light the paper to get the fire started...rendering the bullet useless without powder. So they were either whittled upon, thrown to the side, or thrown in the campfire itself. Thus you find a lot of melted lead blobs in Civil War camps.

Here is the good stuff:



Here is some of the bad...I've already took trash off from where I emptied my bucket before, but I had half a 5 gallon bucket full of iron that I dug in my first few initial hunts with the Bliss. It's getting better but I'm still learning the sounds.

Sounds like you are getting there Daniel...

Do you think it digs less iron than the TDI..LOL!!

I like that Feather edge china..thats an early site ..Ought to be an early piece of silver there...Maybe a reale waiting on you..

That brass saddle Guard plate is unique..Might be confederate contract saddle...I think all of them ever dug were unkown..It's sure not a standard McClellan piece..

Keith

Wow, Daniel!! Now THAT"S a site fer ya!!! I get all giggly inside if I even find a non-ferrous possible relic, and your site comes out with these goodies!! Congrats, and well done on figuring out your machine. As soon as I dig all the nails out of my site(s), it/they may be ready for a Blisstool. I've got a little cash saved up now.

Keith,

That site is in the woods directly below my uncle's house. He is who tipped me off to it...when he was building a little building to cover his water well, he found what he called "an old silver coin". I asked if he still had it...and it ended up being a 1830s bust dime. It was in beautiful condition...but it was one that was holed at the top. When I came up there to hunt, I started in his old garden site...it was winter then and he didn't have anything in it. I started finding broke feather rimmed china there and I started dubbing it "the flat button site" because that's all that I ever found up there. Every time I'd go I'd find a flat button. That's not as common to do now though. I've found a few minie balls there...mostly just small caliber roundballs though. I've got one 1858 half dime that came about 50 yards from where the home site is.

Shallow iron on the bliss is no problem...with a good trained ear, the deep might not be either. I've noticed I can go hunt with it for a few days in a row, and start getting the sound down again...but when I take a break from it and go back to work, or spend time fishing or whatever else, and then try to go back to it without using it for a few days...that I'm right back to digging deep iron that sounds good to me until I get the sound back in my head. I've got about 80-90 hours on it now and still learning.

It's great to hear about these other detectors....out here in Cali,its either gold machines or the explorer. Nice finds!

I was wondering what happened to you Daniel. I thought you might have give up the hobby! When you gonna get a CTX 3030?

Harold -- Too many irons in the fire for me. I've been fishing more than anything here lately. I can't enjoy myself detecting when its in the upper 90s temp wise with 90+% humidity. We are 6+ inches below normal rain fall and growing every day. This red dirt I talk so much about, transforms into a substance with consistency harder than concrete when its dry. It can take 20+ minutes to recover a single target 10-12 inches down.

Absolute zero interest in the CTX. I'm pitching dollars to a Deus though. I'm in no hurry since it will be several months before ground conditions are MAYBE more favorable for Diggin. Until then I will be on the lakes with a fishing rod in my hand.