I went for my 1st hunt today with my new Excal. II using the Anderson Long Stick.
Dry Land was my only real option this time.
That meant 4.5 hrs up and over steep ridgebacks where elev. varied from 490 ft. to 335 feet above sea level.
And it was a bear! Hadn't hunted this area in two years & I'd forgot how wearing Dry Land hunting could be.
By the time I was done for the day my thighs and knees were begging for mercy. Just one 15min. break for a
warm but tasty Blueberry Red Bull. The reason for this site is privacy and the locale of some small CW skirmish
action. I've found at least a 1/2 dozen Minnies here before - sadly not this time.
Total finds were: 3 quarters, 2 nickels, 10 pennies (one a corroded but older Wheatie that needs cleaning to date),
2 .380 Auto shells, 1 bullet, also .380 I think and found near the shells, 1 fired .22 bullet, and strangely a clutch of
4 .22LR shells and 4 .22LR very old but live rounds. Just a kid plinking? or Jonny Reb skirmishing? And of course, 6
bottle caps and about 30 Pull tabs. Damnable Pull Tabs!
Well, I think .22's were around in the CW era but not sure how much they were used. The skirmish has no name but it
was when the Yanks ran the Rebs out of their own camp and took it over. There are records of a running skirmish as the
Rebs were chased out and down a creek and gone. This was probably the water hole for the camp. I have found most of
my Minnies around this area too and it would've been a good area for enfilade fire against the line of Yanks advancing
into the water hole area and down from a ridgeback. No more details on location forthcoming.
Back to the Excal. II. Settings were Disc/Threshold to mild hum/Vol. Max./Sens Auto/Disc 1. Performance was impressive!
Nulls were a new thing for me but I welcomed this feature as this park is SOOOO trashy beyond belief. I did notice that
sometimes legitimate Nulls could yield a "hit" if you keep resweeping the same spot. Foil was a deep whoop sound that
was quite loud but only fooled me a few times. Pull Tabs - got me over and over. I did begin to notice though that junk
tended to sound - well, junky! But real targets like coins and ammo were always clearer, more "melodious." Shells were
less distinctive. The presence of buried old wire cable lengths play havoc with the machine and seemed to send it into
a spastic chatter that had me worried until I just raised the machine coil up and walked away from that area entirely.
It was not my CW target area anyway. I would've thought on Auto Sens. it ought to have turned that down some from
such a overwhelming target. Turning up DISC. didn't seem to help either.
I had read that Nulls reset to a buzzy sounding threshold which you cleared with another non-iron target. Brass Boot eyelets
usually worked ok for that. Annoying sound that wore my ears out. THE biggest pain was those headphones. Since I was
often laying the machine down to dig they seemed to always be trying to drag off my head and I've heard bad things about
connection cord problems. Shudder!! The Long Stick was lite as a feather, one finger control on the handle. But I also had
some clumsiness in close quarters maneuvering and may try shortening it some.
Bottom line: I have worked that area multiple times before and I have never had stronger signals or an easier time of ignoring
FE+. I have another couple acres of good ground I could work and next time I'll bring a Minnie with me to test its' tone. Hope
to find another!
Replies are welcome and Thanks for reading,
Andrew
Dry Land was my only real option this time.
That meant 4.5 hrs up and over steep ridgebacks where elev. varied from 490 ft. to 335 feet above sea level.
And it was a bear! Hadn't hunted this area in two years & I'd forgot how wearing Dry Land hunting could be.
By the time I was done for the day my thighs and knees were begging for mercy. Just one 15min. break for a
warm but tasty Blueberry Red Bull. The reason for this site is privacy and the locale of some small CW skirmish
action. I've found at least a 1/2 dozen Minnies here before - sadly not this time.
Total finds were: 3 quarters, 2 nickels, 10 pennies (one a corroded but older Wheatie that needs cleaning to date),
2 .380 Auto shells, 1 bullet, also .380 I think and found near the shells, 1 fired .22 bullet, and strangely a clutch of
4 .22LR shells and 4 .22LR very old but live rounds. Just a kid plinking? or Jonny Reb skirmishing? And of course, 6
bottle caps and about 30 Pull tabs. Damnable Pull Tabs!
Well, I think .22's were around in the CW era but not sure how much they were used. The skirmish has no name but it
was when the Yanks ran the Rebs out of their own camp and took it over. There are records of a running skirmish as the
Rebs were chased out and down a creek and gone. This was probably the water hole for the camp. I have found most of
my Minnies around this area too and it would've been a good area for enfilade fire against the line of Yanks advancing
into the water hole area and down from a ridgeback. No more details on location forthcoming.
Back to the Excal. II. Settings were Disc/Threshold to mild hum/Vol. Max./Sens Auto/Disc 1. Performance was impressive!
Nulls were a new thing for me but I welcomed this feature as this park is SOOOO trashy beyond belief. I did notice that
sometimes legitimate Nulls could yield a "hit" if you keep resweeping the same spot. Foil was a deep whoop sound that
was quite loud but only fooled me a few times. Pull Tabs - got me over and over. I did begin to notice though that junk
tended to sound - well, junky! But real targets like coins and ammo were always clearer, more "melodious." Shells were
less distinctive. The presence of buried old wire cable lengths play havoc with the machine and seemed to send it into
a spastic chatter that had me worried until I just raised the machine coil up and walked away from that area entirely.
It was not my CW target area anyway. I would've thought on Auto Sens. it ought to have turned that down some from
such a overwhelming target. Turning up DISC. didn't seem to help either.
I had read that Nulls reset to a buzzy sounding threshold which you cleared with another non-iron target. Brass Boot eyelets
usually worked ok for that. Annoying sound that wore my ears out. THE biggest pain was those headphones. Since I was
often laying the machine down to dig they seemed to always be trying to drag off my head and I've heard bad things about
connection cord problems. Shudder!! The Long Stick was lite as a feather, one finger control on the handle. But I also had
some clumsiness in close quarters maneuvering and may try shortening it some.
Bottom line: I have worked that area multiple times before and I have never had stronger signals or an easier time of ignoring
FE+. I have another couple acres of good ground I could work and next time I'll bring a Minnie with me to test its' tone. Hope
to find another!
Replies are welcome and Thanks for reading,
Andrew
