digger27
Bronze Member
- May 18, 2011
- 1,506
- 3,225
My first full season with the F70, used it 99% of the time and expected nothing being this was a learning year.
I only know how to learn a new detector one way...I examine every target for a long time with different settings and swing speeds, coil movements and directions and I experimented that way from March when we thawed out up till about late August, a lot less digging than usual so my year started out slow.
I hoped I would find a few cool things maybe a bit deeper or easier than before, but I had no idea what the year would really bring.
Turns out this was a great learning year for me and a surprisingly great "finding" year for me too.
After a few months I eventually settled into some favorite settings and just went back to doing a lot more digging, and then the better quality targets started to show themselves quicker.
All along the learning curve with the F70 the finds kept coming especially after I learned a few good settings and techniques and finally settled in and just hunted after months of messing around with most targets and settings.
I am especially proud of my lessons learned in hunting in a severe iron infested site because I had one I spent a ton of time at this summer and finally learned how to pick out the best signals in a mess like that and even with masking and recognize the better targets trying to hide.
I had been here before with other detectors and coils with never much luck and this site also had other hunters spend only one trip to this thing and then they were out of there forever.
I am stubborn so I tried a few new things and eventually hit on some that actually worked and managed to extract a great amount of fantastic targets from a site that baffled me before on many previous visits with several detectors and coils.
Here is a family pic of just the finds from this old farmhouse site.
The large iron is cool, some of the odds and ends are pretty neat, the coins are old and were so well hidden that it took a while but I finally figured out how to recognize and dig them.
Not everything is in these pics, I found another pocket knife and few other neat personal items not pictured here.
Finally, after a lot of practice and digging, the good stuff started to show up.
I actually spent a lot less hours hunting due to life stuff this year, and I also spent very little time traveling and just concentrated on a few public parks for the most part, parks I had scoured in the past but no site is ever hunted out as far as I was concerned and this year I had a new tool to see what that could do.
It did well...surprisingly, jaw dropping well at these often hunted by me and many others sites.
Just about everything you see in these pics were gathered up from about 1/2 dozen close to me parks.
Amazing how much is left behind no matter how careful and efficient you try to be.
Using what I learned hunting that difficult iron site I moved over to some very trashy areas in only a couple public parks I hit all the time and using some of those same settings I discovered that I could pick out some nice targets in heavy regular trash, too.
Then, after some practice, it seemed like on every hunt if I didn't come home with silver or gold something was wrong after that.
Almost.
Clad count, I started out really slow and never thought I would get to $100, but even hunting the same old sites I cleaned up before I still managed a respectable $211.32.
Once I tumble it that will buy a few nice things for me this year.
Most of the clad was just here and there, but I did hit a basketball site that was new to me and this was just the first pass through this site...pretty virgin site as far as I can tell.
Love sites where every swing is usually something good.
So the year ended up well, much better than I hoped for or expected.
Some bucket list items found:
Weird, but I never found a Buffalo or a silver war nickel before, found one of each this year.
A silver Walking Liberty half.
My first and only Walker of any kind.
My first skeleton key and a couple other cool keys.
A pretty complete Hubley Texan Jr. cap gun.
Usually I just find pieces of these toy guns.
Also a bunch of other cool stuff I never expected, but all my finds are surprises in one way or another.
I planned on finding older coins this year, never did travel far to better sites to do this but still managed to find a good amount locally and I am happy with that.
Lots were found at that heavy iron site, the rest were at different areas and parks.
My favorites...
My first Walker of any kind, the best looking IH I ever dug and these 3 IH's were found about 8" deep at a 100 year old park in a spill with an early wheaty which made the signal jumpy and in an area with very severe EMI problems, also.
Just learning to recognize these targets and dig them at that difficult area and at that depth was a great feeling.
The IH was not my oldest but it sure was my best looking specimen I ever dug.
The Walker and sweet Indian were found at that very difficult iron site so I am doubly proud to have learned to do this.
The 1954 farthing was mounted in a nice silver bezel so a jewelry and old coin find wrapped up in one.
Silver jewelry finds also started out slow this year but once they started to show up they wouldn't stop.
Standouts are this super thin and tiny silver ring found on one of my rare outings with the Compadre and this nice thick Harley ring...but every silver target was welcomed.
Gold, my favorite target of all.
Not actively looking for this metal like I did in 2013, but still ran across 5 targets and was on the ball enough to dig them because they all were around heavy trash, many were heavily masked by trash or iron, and they all came in as trash.
My favorite, gotta be the gold class ring...number 5 for me in my career.
Found in the grass area between a volleyball and basketball court.
All in all...a fantastic year for me as far as I am concerned.
Next season, with some favorite settings learned and some new techniques practiced and proven that they work who knows what I will find?
Couldn't have asked for a better experience in this learning year.
Good luck to us all in 2015!
I only know how to learn a new detector one way...I examine every target for a long time with different settings and swing speeds, coil movements and directions and I experimented that way from March when we thawed out up till about late August, a lot less digging than usual so my year started out slow.
I hoped I would find a few cool things maybe a bit deeper or easier than before, but I had no idea what the year would really bring.
Turns out this was a great learning year for me and a surprisingly great "finding" year for me too.
After a few months I eventually settled into some favorite settings and just went back to doing a lot more digging, and then the better quality targets started to show themselves quicker.
All along the learning curve with the F70 the finds kept coming especially after I learned a few good settings and techniques and finally settled in and just hunted after months of messing around with most targets and settings.
I am especially proud of my lessons learned in hunting in a severe iron infested site because I had one I spent a ton of time at this summer and finally learned how to pick out the best signals in a mess like that and even with masking and recognize the better targets trying to hide.
I had been here before with other detectors and coils with never much luck and this site also had other hunters spend only one trip to this thing and then they were out of there forever.
I am stubborn so I tried a few new things and eventually hit on some that actually worked and managed to extract a great amount of fantastic targets from a site that baffled me before on many previous visits with several detectors and coils.
Here is a family pic of just the finds from this old farmhouse site.
The large iron is cool, some of the odds and ends are pretty neat, the coins are old and were so well hidden that it took a while but I finally figured out how to recognize and dig them.
Not everything is in these pics, I found another pocket knife and few other neat personal items not pictured here.
Finally, after a lot of practice and digging, the good stuff started to show up.
I actually spent a lot less hours hunting due to life stuff this year, and I also spent very little time traveling and just concentrated on a few public parks for the most part, parks I had scoured in the past but no site is ever hunted out as far as I was concerned and this year I had a new tool to see what that could do.
It did well...surprisingly, jaw dropping well at these often hunted by me and many others sites.
Just about everything you see in these pics were gathered up from about 1/2 dozen close to me parks.
Amazing how much is left behind no matter how careful and efficient you try to be.
Using what I learned hunting that difficult iron site I moved over to some very trashy areas in only a couple public parks I hit all the time and using some of those same settings I discovered that I could pick out some nice targets in heavy regular trash, too.
Then, after some practice, it seemed like on every hunt if I didn't come home with silver or gold something was wrong after that.
Almost.
Clad count, I started out really slow and never thought I would get to $100, but even hunting the same old sites I cleaned up before I still managed a respectable $211.32.
Once I tumble it that will buy a few nice things for me this year.
Most of the clad was just here and there, but I did hit a basketball site that was new to me and this was just the first pass through this site...pretty virgin site as far as I can tell.
Love sites where every swing is usually something good.
So the year ended up well, much better than I hoped for or expected.
Some bucket list items found:
Weird, but I never found a Buffalo or a silver war nickel before, found one of each this year.
A silver Walking Liberty half.
My first and only Walker of any kind.
My first skeleton key and a couple other cool keys.
A pretty complete Hubley Texan Jr. cap gun.
Usually I just find pieces of these toy guns.
Also a bunch of other cool stuff I never expected, but all my finds are surprises in one way or another.
I planned on finding older coins this year, never did travel far to better sites to do this but still managed to find a good amount locally and I am happy with that.
Lots were found at that heavy iron site, the rest were at different areas and parks.
My favorites...
My first Walker of any kind, the best looking IH I ever dug and these 3 IH's were found about 8" deep at a 100 year old park in a spill with an early wheaty which made the signal jumpy and in an area with very severe EMI problems, also.
Just learning to recognize these targets and dig them at that difficult area and at that depth was a great feeling.
The IH was not my oldest but it sure was my best looking specimen I ever dug.
The Walker and sweet Indian were found at that very difficult iron site so I am doubly proud to have learned to do this.
The 1954 farthing was mounted in a nice silver bezel so a jewelry and old coin find wrapped up in one.
Silver jewelry finds also started out slow this year but once they started to show up they wouldn't stop.
Standouts are this super thin and tiny silver ring found on one of my rare outings with the Compadre and this nice thick Harley ring...but every silver target was welcomed.
Gold, my favorite target of all.
Not actively looking for this metal like I did in 2013, but still ran across 5 targets and was on the ball enough to dig them because they all were around heavy trash, many were heavily masked by trash or iron, and they all came in as trash.
My favorite, gotta be the gold class ring...number 5 for me in my career.
Found in the grass area between a volleyball and basketball court.
All in all...a fantastic year for me as far as I am concerned.
Next season, with some favorite settings learned and some new techniques practiced and proven that they work who knows what I will find?
Couldn't have asked for a better experience in this learning year.
Good luck to us all in 2015!
