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A mind boggling successful two weeks with my F70!
Posted by diggwr27
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A mind boggling successful two weeks with my F70! January 29, 2015 08:32PM |
A long one because I have a lot to tell you guys but there are some pretty pictures so if you want to, just look at those if you actually have a life you need to deal with.
I have stated before that while learning and experimenting all last year trying to get a handle on my now beloved F70 and all it can do in a myriad of different sites and conditions my jaw wore out from continuously dropping and I found way more than I ever thought possible as a first year newbie with this thing.
I came far in my progress, and this year I will still be doing some experimentation but now I feel that it is time to get down and use some of that knowledge gained and just hunt.
Every time I go out I thank my lucky stars that I decided to purchase this thing, I have never made a better decision regarding this hobby and I have made several other great ones choosing detectors and tools in the past.
This year I was blocked out of hunting most of the first half of the month because of a sudden deep freeze that was too cold to hunt in and flash-froze most of my soil down several inches to boot.
On Jan 16, 2 weeks ago to the day, the sun came out and it got warm enough to actually get in some decent hunt time so even though the soil in the local park I chose to hunt was still frozen down past 2" or so, I was just out there to dig that day and any shallow, repeating solid signal was what I was aiming at because that is how I find all my good targets and especially jewelry.
Honestly, just getting out and digging anything at all was therapeutic because cabin fever was eating me up alive after even that short layoff.
I had the standard elliptical coil on board, I love the smooth response and target separation abilities it possesses, it handles pop tops like a champ and I didn't need the added depth the 11"DD coil would have gotten me in my frozen tundra.
I also have the sniper coil in the arsenal and love to use that one, but I still like changing things up to keep the boredom down.
Sense was down to 30 at the beginning but I raised it a bit to 60 and it stayed quiet.
Thresh was at -2, disc was at 21 to knock out a lot of the troublesome foil and small can slaw garbage, DE speed and I was in 1 tone because I really like the very accurate, stable smooth response I get on targets when I am in that tone mode.
In an area that I have scoured in the past in the grass between a picnic pavilion and a lake I was happily digging all solid signals that I could get to and that stayed within my rules for digging.
I recovered a few coins I had missed before, a few pop tops and can slaw pieces that came in solid and repeated, also, a couple of tabs and then I got a solid 41 and a nice sounding tone.
I figured it was a piece of can slaw because usually no kind of tabs come in at this number in this park but lots of solid signal can slaw does if it is flat in the ground and the right size.
I opened a hole and about 2" deep I saw something that could turn out to be a once in a lifetime find.
I hope not but that is for the MD gods to decide.
This is what I saw, and when I looked closely at that buttery yellow color I had hope...when I saw the 916 mark in the inside band I knew I had something special and very high karat at 22k.
6.1 grams and unusually heavy for its size when you hold it in your hand.
Well now, if this was the only gold I was fated to find this season I think I would be fine with that...I was that happy.
Two days later I was at another park I had not visited in awhile just for a change.
The warm weather had melted the frozen soil a bit more by that time and I could get down another couple of inches in the more sunnier spots and again I was just out to get some digging in and whatever I found would be just fine and dandy.
This time I switched to 4H tones just for a change, the F70 was super stable and I had forgotten how much I enjoyed using these tone settings thanks to over 1000 hours using the F2 and many hours using it on the F70 for a few months when I first got it.
In a large wide open area I dug some coins, some trash, and then I got a solid nickel signal that stayed within my tight digging rules and bent over to dig what I hoped was a nickel.
Ahhh nope, once again I had another surprise pop up when I opened a shallow hole.
6.2 grams, a 10k combination of white and yellow gold with real ice...that makes 2 lovely gold specimens in one weekend.
Is this a great hobby or what?
Ok, now I was elated, so I came back the very next day for a few hours to look for more.
No gold on this trip but right in the middle of this park is an older home that was the main house for the owners of this land that used to be a farm long ago before the parks department bought it and developed this beautiful park all around it.
It is not fenced in and open to hunt and I assume this area around the home has been pounded to death by many and I had been out there many times myself but never found an older coin.
Kind of trashy, lots of iron and other garbage and this time I decided to use the technique I learned last summer hunting another farmhouse site that was infested with iron using all metal and high power settings.
I had success at that other site after many hours of trying and learning, and at this site where I had no success in the past, old coin wise, in the front yard surrounded by trash I dug up this thing so now I know that method I learned works at other sites and is no fluke that it worked so well as I learned it.
A few more hunts as we entered a freaky January warming spell, all my soil was defrosting nicely and I was having fun digging just clad in the suddenly nice weather we were having.
6 days after finding that silver dime I was back at the huge park where I found the 22k ring but this time I was on the outskirts of this huge 1700 acre park out in the woods in the middle of nowhere looking for old coins again.
I dug a lot of older head stamps but no silver coins on this trip, and I was on my way back to civilization walking along a dirt road that actually went nowhere and I got another solid nickel signal where there was not many other signals at all to dig...even trash.
This time a 30-31 from all directions and solid with no jumping and a nice high tone because I was still in 4H.
I thought I was digging a nickel, hoped for one anyway, but evidently this was a month of surprises for me because when I opened a small hole again I was shocked when I saw the rim of something small and yellow in the clod.
This time a little 2.5 gram beauty marked 14k came up to feel the warmth of the sun after an unknown amount of time taking a dirt nap.
After my third gold ring in such a short time frame I was, well, whatever a much stronger sentiment than the term "shocked and awed", can convey.
It is almost inconceivable to me that my hunting season just barely started and I have accomplished so much in such a short time.
Just to put a little more icing on the cake on the last unusually warm day we are predicted to have for awhile I hit another park yesterday that I have not been to since early last year and I have hunted certain main areas in the past a lot but there are about 8 different picnic pavilions I have never hunted before because they are way out in the outskirts of this place.
I knew these did not have the popularity of the main ones near the entrance because there was relatively little trash around these compared to most that I have hunted in the past, but there were still a few coins and some tabs, foil and can slaw around all of them so they were used some...and if people used them some of those people could have lost jewelry there.
Pavilions 1-2 and 3 yielded nothing good except clad and I didn't spend a ton of time at each one because this was just more of a scouting trip and if I was lucky enough to find something great, fine, but luck has been with me for the last few weeks so I felt that if another ring was due me today somehow I will find it, and if not this day on another after I figure out which one of these things, if not all, I should target for a more thourough search in the future.
Pavilion 4 was the same, a little trash, a few coins, but as I worked my way up the side of the concrete pad this thing was built on at the corner about 2 feet off in the grass I got an 85, a dead on quarter signal.
That was great, I will dig copper and zinc cents all day and every day because they add up and once in awhile these can be much more than one cent coins, but nickels dimes, quarters and larger denomoination coins are better and they add up faster.
I would have bet you my truck that this was going to be a quarter, but as I mentioned this evidently was my month of surprises.
Again a small shallow hole and again in that hole was not what I expected to find at all.
My first silver ring of 2015, my first silver spinner ring as a matter of fact and a great little design on this thing to boot.
6.8 grams and you better believe I will take it even though it wasn't a golden ticket this time.
So that is where I stand at this point.
A pretty much humbled little hunter that is so glad I have the F70, so glad I put the standard elliptical coil back on to experience and help in all of this, and so very glad I took up this hobby at all in the first place.
What other hobby can give you thrills like this or even have the potential for such thrills every time you go out and do it?
None that I ever had before.
Here is hoping that 2015 turns out to be mind boggling successful for all of us.
I can tell you with all sincerity that even though it has just begun for me it already is just that.
HH
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/29/2015 09:01PM by diggwr27.
I have stated before that while learning and experimenting all last year trying to get a handle on my now beloved F70 and all it can do in a myriad of different sites and conditions my jaw wore out from continuously dropping and I found way more than I ever thought possible as a first year newbie with this thing.
I came far in my progress, and this year I will still be doing some experimentation but now I feel that it is time to get down and use some of that knowledge gained and just hunt.
Every time I go out I thank my lucky stars that I decided to purchase this thing, I have never made a better decision regarding this hobby and I have made several other great ones choosing detectors and tools in the past.
This year I was blocked out of hunting most of the first half of the month because of a sudden deep freeze that was too cold to hunt in and flash-froze most of my soil down several inches to boot.
On Jan 16, 2 weeks ago to the day, the sun came out and it got warm enough to actually get in some decent hunt time so even though the soil in the local park I chose to hunt was still frozen down past 2" or so, I was just out there to dig that day and any shallow, repeating solid signal was what I was aiming at because that is how I find all my good targets and especially jewelry.
Honestly, just getting out and digging anything at all was therapeutic because cabin fever was eating me up alive after even that short layoff.
I had the standard elliptical coil on board, I love the smooth response and target separation abilities it possesses, it handles pop tops like a champ and I didn't need the added depth the 11"DD coil would have gotten me in my frozen tundra.
I also have the sniper coil in the arsenal and love to use that one, but I still like changing things up to keep the boredom down.
Sense was down to 30 at the beginning but I raised it a bit to 60 and it stayed quiet.
Thresh was at -2, disc was at 21 to knock out a lot of the troublesome foil and small can slaw garbage, DE speed and I was in 1 tone because I really like the very accurate, stable smooth response I get on targets when I am in that tone mode.
In an area that I have scoured in the past in the grass between a picnic pavilion and a lake I was happily digging all solid signals that I could get to and that stayed within my rules for digging.
I recovered a few coins I had missed before, a few pop tops and can slaw pieces that came in solid and repeated, also, a couple of tabs and then I got a solid 41 and a nice sounding tone.
I figured it was a piece of can slaw because usually no kind of tabs come in at this number in this park but lots of solid signal can slaw does if it is flat in the ground and the right size.
I opened a hole and about 2" deep I saw something that could turn out to be a once in a lifetime find.
I hope not but that is for the MD gods to decide.
This is what I saw, and when I looked closely at that buttery yellow color I had hope...when I saw the 916 mark in the inside band I knew I had something special and very high karat at 22k.
6.1 grams and unusually heavy for its size when you hold it in your hand.
Well now, if this was the only gold I was fated to find this season I think I would be fine with that...I was that happy.
Two days later I was at another park I had not visited in awhile just for a change.
The warm weather had melted the frozen soil a bit more by that time and I could get down another couple of inches in the more sunnier spots and again I was just out to get some digging in and whatever I found would be just fine and dandy.
This time I switched to 4H tones just for a change, the F70 was super stable and I had forgotten how much I enjoyed using these tone settings thanks to over 1000 hours using the F2 and many hours using it on the F70 for a few months when I first got it.
In a large wide open area I dug some coins, some trash, and then I got a solid nickel signal that stayed within my tight digging rules and bent over to dig what I hoped was a nickel.
Ahhh nope, once again I had another surprise pop up when I opened a shallow hole.
6.2 grams, a 10k combination of white and yellow gold with real ice...that makes 2 lovely gold specimens in one weekend.
Is this a great hobby or what?
Ok, now I was elated, so I came back the very next day for a few hours to look for more.
No gold on this trip but right in the middle of this park is an older home that was the main house for the owners of this land that used to be a farm long ago before the parks department bought it and developed this beautiful park all around it.
It is not fenced in and open to hunt and I assume this area around the home has been pounded to death by many and I had been out there many times myself but never found an older coin.
Kind of trashy, lots of iron and other garbage and this time I decided to use the technique I learned last summer hunting another farmhouse site that was infested with iron using all metal and high power settings.
I had success at that other site after many hours of trying and learning, and at this site where I had no success in the past, old coin wise, in the front yard surrounded by trash I dug up this thing so now I know that method I learned works at other sites and is no fluke that it worked so well as I learned it.
A few more hunts as we entered a freaky January warming spell, all my soil was defrosting nicely and I was having fun digging just clad in the suddenly nice weather we were having.
6 days after finding that silver dime I was back at the huge park where I found the 22k ring but this time I was on the outskirts of this huge 1700 acre park out in the woods in the middle of nowhere looking for old coins again.
I dug a lot of older head stamps but no silver coins on this trip, and I was on my way back to civilization walking along a dirt road that actually went nowhere and I got another solid nickel signal where there was not many other signals at all to dig...even trash.
This time a 30-31 from all directions and solid with no jumping and a nice high tone because I was still in 4H.
I thought I was digging a nickel, hoped for one anyway, but evidently this was a month of surprises for me because when I opened a small hole again I was shocked when I saw the rim of something small and yellow in the clod.
This time a little 2.5 gram beauty marked 14k came up to feel the warmth of the sun after an unknown amount of time taking a dirt nap.
After my third gold ring in such a short time frame I was, well, whatever a much stronger sentiment than the term "shocked and awed", can convey.
It is almost inconceivable to me that my hunting season just barely started and I have accomplished so much in such a short time.
Just to put a little more icing on the cake on the last unusually warm day we are predicted to have for awhile I hit another park yesterday that I have not been to since early last year and I have hunted certain main areas in the past a lot but there are about 8 different picnic pavilions I have never hunted before because they are way out in the outskirts of this place.
I knew these did not have the popularity of the main ones near the entrance because there was relatively little trash around these compared to most that I have hunted in the past, but there were still a few coins and some tabs, foil and can slaw around all of them so they were used some...and if people used them some of those people could have lost jewelry there.
Pavilions 1-2 and 3 yielded nothing good except clad and I didn't spend a ton of time at each one because this was just more of a scouting trip and if I was lucky enough to find something great, fine, but luck has been with me for the last few weeks so I felt that if another ring was due me today somehow I will find it, and if not this day on another after I figure out which one of these things, if not all, I should target for a more thourough search in the future.
Pavilion 4 was the same, a little trash, a few coins, but as I worked my way up the side of the concrete pad this thing was built on at the corner about 2 feet off in the grass I got an 85, a dead on quarter signal.
That was great, I will dig copper and zinc cents all day and every day because they add up and once in awhile these can be much more than one cent coins, but nickels dimes, quarters and larger denomoination coins are better and they add up faster.
I would have bet you my truck that this was going to be a quarter, but as I mentioned this evidently was my month of surprises.
Again a small shallow hole and again in that hole was not what I expected to find at all.
My first silver ring of 2015, my first silver spinner ring as a matter of fact and a great little design on this thing to boot.
6.8 grams and you better believe I will take it even though it wasn't a golden ticket this time.
So that is where I stand at this point.
A pretty much humbled little hunter that is so glad I have the F70, so glad I put the standard elliptical coil back on to experience and help in all of this, and so very glad I took up this hobby at all in the first place.
What other hobby can give you thrills like this or even have the potential for such thrills every time you go out and do it?
None that I ever had before.
Here is hoping that 2015 turns out to be mind boggling successful for all of us.
I can tell you with all sincerity that even though it has just begun for me it already is just that.
HH
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/29/2015 09:01PM by diggwr27.