To Dig or Not To Dig

SD51

Silver Member
Aug 24, 2016
4,832
9,957
MI
Detector(s) used
E-TRAC
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
A fellow detectorist from our conservation club said he was going to upgrade his Bounty Hunter and get the Deus. The other day, he hands me an 18K yellow gold ring with two .1 carat diamonds! He said he got the Deus and decided to dig every signal to learn the machine. Now please understand that the Bounty Hunter would have easily picked up the ring that was down just three inches, but would he have dug it?

Now I know that I'd better dig more of those signals that appear to be either round or rectangular pull tabs and anywhere in-between!!!
 

Truth

Gold Member
Apr 13, 2016
14,332
32,142
Abita Springs La....Born in New Orleans
🥇 Banner finds
2
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
EQUINOX 800
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
A fellow detectorist from our conservation club said he was going to upgrade his Bounty Hunter and get the Deus. The other day, he hands me an 18K yellow gold ring with two .1 carat diamonds! He said he got the Deus and decided to dig every signal to learn the machine. Now please understand that the Bounty Hunter would have easily picked up the ring that was down just three inches, but would he have dug it?

Now I know that I'd better dig more of those signals that appear to be either round or rectangular pull tabs and anywhere in-between!!!

I totally agree. It just wears you out. What a grind but I love it. LOL


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Terry Soloman

Gold Member
May 28, 2010
19,423
30,109
White Plains, New York
🥇 Banner finds
1
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
Nokta Makro Legend// Pulsedive// Minelab GPZ 7000// Vanquish 540// Minelab Pro Find 35// Dune Kraken Sandscoop// Grave Digger Tools Tombstone shovel & Sidekick digger// Bunk's Hermit Pick
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
You'll find just as much gold jewelry with a Tesoro Compadre ($160) as you will with a XP Deus, or Minelab CTX 3030. It is not the machine. It is LOCATION, and the willingness to dig EVERY signal between Foil and Nickel. No magic machines, no magic techniques. :occasion14:
 

Truth

Gold Member
Apr 13, 2016
14,332
32,142
Abita Springs La....Born in New Orleans
🥇 Banner finds
2
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
EQUINOX 800
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
You'll find just as much gold jewelry with a Tesoro Compadre ($160) as you will with a XP Deus, or Minelab CTX 3030. It is not the machine. It is LOCATION, and the willingness to dig EVERY signal between Foil and Nickel. No magic machines, no magic techniques. :occasion14:

Terry I alway appreciate your comments because I need to hear wisdom. I mean that.


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smokeythecat

Gold Member
Nov 22, 2012
20,716
40,795
Maryland
🥇 Banner finds
10
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
XP Deus II
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Dig everything, let God sort it out. You'll miss stuff relying too heavily on metered machines. I dug a CW nail with a bullet part stuck on the end of it a few days ago. Dig everything.
 

coinman123

Silver Member
Feb 21, 2013
4,659
5,768
New England, Somewhere Metal Detecting in the Wood
🥇 Banner finds
2
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
Teknetics T2 SE (DST)
Spare Teknetics T2 SE (backup)
15" T2 coil
Pro-Pointer
Bounty Hunter Pioneer 202
Fisher F2
Fisher F-Point
Primary Interest:
Other
I put my discrimination right above iron and will dig any signal I get. I go to colonial sites that have long been woods, and if I dig all iron signals I will never find anything. This weekend I put the discrimination at 0 I decided to dig a nail signal, 6 nails in one hole lol. Most colonial buttons I find range from just above iron to the pull tab range. My friend put his discrimination at around 80 (right below what dime would be) when he first started at a colonial location. I can't imagine how many relics he missed, he was looking for large coppers and silvers, and finding nothing. I had my discrimination low and dug everything, and found a good amount of cool colonial relics that day. My best find to date, my colonial sundial (currently on loan at a museum) was found with a Fisher F2. When starting the hunt a friend I brought along on the hunt told me that they were not going to find anything because I gave them an entry level metal detector and I got the "fancy" metal detector. I told them I will take the F2 in that case, which unfortunately had electronic problems after I used it for a very long one and a half seasons. As I remember, my friend found some trash scraps, some shotgun shells and clad. While my friend was digging a clad coin (a nickel as I remember, part of a small clad coin spill), and using my pin pointer. I started checking a poison ivy patch (focused on treasure not the itching that would affect me for days lol :)). I got a signal on my F2, after some digging without my pin pointer I dug my sundial. I thought it was a decoration from a 1930's garden and threw it in my backpack with my trowels and supplies (I cringe today thing of that). When I got home I did research and searched pewter sundial. Ironically my first result was a pewter museum reproduction of my sundial lol. Just proves that the humble F2 with electric problems has outdone the "fancy" T2.

The photo I saw when I tried to research my find :)
A Colonial Williamsburg reproduction of a sundial with a very similar design as mine. What a thing to see as a first result researching my 1930's "junk".
unusual-sundial-by-kirk-steiff-pewter-colonial-williamsburg-reproduction-cw-43-73bae55c1d8251636.jpg
 

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smokeythecat

Gold Member
Nov 22, 2012
20,716
40,795
Maryland
🥇 Banner finds
10
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
XP Deus II
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
You'll love this. Went to one of my CW sites today, before the rain. It was hunted in the 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's, 00's and so forth. As in hammered. So my lowly Cibola wanted to go today. I went back over places I had been and got a a nice Williams Cleaner type 1 bullet, other bullets, modern wad cutter bullets, can slaw, a brass shield shaped thing, some eagle buttons, several pieces of lead, a modern ring (don't know what it's made of yet) with three stones in it, a dime and a penny, shotgun shells (old paper type with the paper gone), an iron "thing", looks a lot like a cylinder to a revolver but it isn't, Got 1 iffy but semi solid tone. Started digging in bad ground, and very rocky soil. Found a piece of a ration can 3" down. Now when I was done the hole was big enough to put a whole roll of bathroom tissue in, but no larger, Still had a signal. Got another piece of a ration can, 1 small nail, using the pinpointed at this stage and got another nail and another 1" piece of a ration can, was using a knife to dig with, dislodging rocks and all, and to my amazement pulled out one of those brass folding camp tablespoons! DIG IT ALL.
 

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