Deft Tones
Bronze Member
- Mar 24, 2016
- 1,547
- 2,352
- Detector(s) used
- Whites V3i, XP Deus, Minelab Sovereign GT, Garrett AT Pro, Whites TRX (2), Predator Raven, Predator Raptor, Lesche Sampson
- Primary Interest:
- Other
Today was a balmy 20°F (roughly -7°C) and sunny with a steady light breeze — Psshhht! I’m going detecting!
Soybean field looking towards todays hunting site.
With jewelry detecting out of season today we’ve relic detecting on the menu. I chose a farmstead site I’ve been to three times prior with my super-duper-speedy-relic-hunting machine. This time the ground is frozen, so I don’t want to jack-around too much digging crap and I select appropriately from my stable. V3i w/5.3 Eclipse and running a slightly tweaked factory Relic preset to begin.
The cellar hole depression as viewed from the driveway looking through the roundabout.
Let's begin!
4 hours total time. Many targets were bagged as frozen clumps of dirt for home inspection — too cold to jack around attempting any field I.D. Another hazard, I only have so long before the neoprene gloves become wet and the hunt clock starts ticking down. Would have liked more photos but the gloves don’t work with a touch screen device, and they are difficult to get off when damp. That’s the breaks of hardcore winter weather detecting I guess.
Coffee break photo.
Items found working behind different European flagship brand. (4th pass through - Oh mon Dieu!)
The V3i has no problem picking up co-located targets. Average target depth dug was maybe 5”.
6” is about the max I can realistically dig with the Rapid Digger pick and a screwdriver. Frost was observed at 6” and likely greater in many places making digging very time consuming and difficult. Average target recovery time increased significantly to somewhere around 5 minutes or longer each. I have to be selective from here on out as the gloves are beginning to become damp.
Go hardcore or go home!
To cherry pick a bit I switched to a best data variation of my jewelry program settings and picked up the swing speed along with my pace as I covered new ground. Taking advantage of the equipment I chose today I decided to also hit an area behind the house with hundreds of tighly grouped baby saplings. This area I wanted to detect before but the machine I’ve always used here doesn’t have any coil that is capable of doing so. The Eclipse coil, being closed and small, was the ideal coil for this area. Any coil larger or open would be impossible to very difficult as there wasn’t much swinging going on. …more like pushing and pulling forwards and backwards — love these concentric coils!
Deft Tones approved!
So back towards the truck hitting the open areas skirting the tree line picking up all manner of various items I dug the bell-looking thing and saw the top of the bottle! That prompted a wasted 15 minutes carefully chipping frozen soil from around the glass… and it was discovered to be already broken! Arghghghgh! That’s the breaks of hardcore winter detecting I guess.
The side yard and pasture looking past an outbuilding location.
My favorite finds from this hunt is the aluminum token with six point star and the Merry Widows condom tin.
Turning lemons into lemonade I also spent time “snow sweeping” for my own personal swing sweep perfection. I highly recommend if you have powder snow to try it for self technique critique. Sand works ok, but powder snow can’t be beat.
(I tried to get photos but they are all blown out from the sun on snow and lack all contrast, sorry.)
Just sweep your coil barely disturbing the snow surface. Begin sweeping and re-grading the top ¼” of snow while trying to maintain a completely level “grade”.
As you alter the snow surface you will be able to see subtle variations in your technique and what needs correction. Try to create a flat surface with no ridges on the overlaps for the entire sweep series and maintain this while advancing. It’s not easy at first, but it’s fun to see how “good you are”… practice makes perfect!
Tomorrow is more of the same weather so I’ll happily be out again going hard. Perhaps I can take time from detecting to pick up another pair of gloves and extend my field time....nahhh!
Anyway, thanks for looking and enjoy your hunts.
Go Hawks!
Soybean field looking towards todays hunting site.
With jewelry detecting out of season today we’ve relic detecting on the menu. I chose a farmstead site I’ve been to three times prior with my super-duper-speedy-relic-hunting machine. This time the ground is frozen, so I don’t want to jack-around too much digging crap and I select appropriately from my stable. V3i w/5.3 Eclipse and running a slightly tweaked factory Relic preset to begin.
The cellar hole depression as viewed from the driveway looking through the roundabout.
Let's begin!
4 hours total time. Many targets were bagged as frozen clumps of dirt for home inspection — too cold to jack around attempting any field I.D. Another hazard, I only have so long before the neoprene gloves become wet and the hunt clock starts ticking down. Would have liked more photos but the gloves don’t work with a touch screen device, and they are difficult to get off when damp. That’s the breaks of hardcore winter weather detecting I guess.
Coffee break photo.
Items found working behind different European flagship brand. (4th pass through - Oh mon Dieu!)
The V3i has no problem picking up co-located targets. Average target depth dug was maybe 5”.
6” is about the max I can realistically dig with the Rapid Digger pick and a screwdriver. Frost was observed at 6” and likely greater in many places making digging very time consuming and difficult. Average target recovery time increased significantly to somewhere around 5 minutes or longer each. I have to be selective from here on out as the gloves are beginning to become damp.
Go hardcore or go home!
To cherry pick a bit I switched to a best data variation of my jewelry program settings and picked up the swing speed along with my pace as I covered new ground. Taking advantage of the equipment I chose today I decided to also hit an area behind the house with hundreds of tighly grouped baby saplings. This area I wanted to detect before but the machine I’ve always used here doesn’t have any coil that is capable of doing so. The Eclipse coil, being closed and small, was the ideal coil for this area. Any coil larger or open would be impossible to very difficult as there wasn’t much swinging going on. …more like pushing and pulling forwards and backwards — love these concentric coils!
Deft Tones approved!
So back towards the truck hitting the open areas skirting the tree line picking up all manner of various items I dug the bell-looking thing and saw the top of the bottle! That prompted a wasted 15 minutes carefully chipping frozen soil from around the glass… and it was discovered to be already broken! Arghghghgh! That’s the breaks of hardcore winter detecting I guess.
The side yard and pasture looking past an outbuilding location.
My favorite finds from this hunt is the aluminum token with six point star and the Merry Widows condom tin.
Turning lemons into lemonade I also spent time “snow sweeping” for my own personal swing sweep perfection. I highly recommend if you have powder snow to try it for self technique critique. Sand works ok, but powder snow can’t be beat.
(I tried to get photos but they are all blown out from the sun on snow and lack all contrast, sorry.)
Just sweep your coil barely disturbing the snow surface. Begin sweeping and re-grading the top ¼” of snow while trying to maintain a completely level “grade”.
As you alter the snow surface you will be able to see subtle variations in your technique and what needs correction. Try to create a flat surface with no ridges on the overlaps for the entire sweep series and maintain this while advancing. It’s not easy at first, but it’s fun to see how “good you are”… practice makes perfect!
Tomorrow is more of the same weather so I’ll happily be out again going hard. Perhaps I can take time from detecting to pick up another pair of gloves and extend my field time....nahhh!
Anyway, thanks for looking and enjoy your hunts.
Go Hawks!
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