Goldpick's 2020 Deus & Equinox 600 finds

[Goldpick]

Cool/damp weather and the arrival of Easter Lillies marks the start of relic hunting season, and today I was back to an early 1900's permission to try and scrape up a few more targets. Most of the more obvious targets have been cleaned out previously, so it was a case of digging iffy and deep targets as well as working along fencelines for possible masked targets.

It was really a case of working the coil very slowly to pick out good tones amongst the iron and housing junk, it was quite surprising at how many good targets remained from the last few sessions here. Some of the Military buttons, the dog tag and a large buckle were found hard up against the fenceline, the small HF coil worked a treat at pickjng them out right next the fencing wire. The coins were either on edge or very deep, and easily missed if your swing speed is too fast. Oldest coin was the English 1905 penny followed by a 1911 hp - no silvers this time around.

A surprise find was the complete fob watch, missed last time due to being right next to a shallower alloy can. All up an enjoyable day out, still have a few older house sites yet to explore, so hopefully some good finds to follow.

 

[Sandta]

Yes ... that more favourable time of year is approaching
Unfortunately (in context) the recent rains have caused an explosive growth in paddocks
Any detecting here will require a damn good whipper snipping first
Oh the woes ....

 

[Clodmaster]

Nice finds there, Goldpick. Great to get a whole watch and I like all those old buckles. I often wonder what happens to the actual belt. I guess it just disintegrates underground over a century or so and leaves the buckle.

 

[happyenough]

Cool/damp weather and the arrival of Easter Lillies marks the start of relic hunting season, and today I was back to an early 1900's permission to try and scrape up a few more targets. Most of the more obvious targets have been cleaned out previously, so it was a case of digging iffy and deep targets as well as working along fencelines for possible masked targets.

It was really a case of working the coil very slowly to pick out good tones amongst the iron and housing junk, it was quite surprising at how many good targets remained from the last few sessions here. Some of the Military buttons, the dog tag and a large buckle were found hard up against the fenceline, the small HF coil worked a treat at pickjng them out right next the fencing wire. The coins were either on edge or very deep, and easily missed if your swing speed is too fast. Oldest coin was the English 1905 penny followed by a 1911 hp - no silvers this time around.

A surprise find was the complete fob watch, missed last time due to being right next to a shallower alloy can. All up an enjoyable day out, still have a few older house sites yet to explore, so hopefully some good finds to follow.

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I think people in the cities will run out of stuff to find but you will just keep swinging away

 

[golddiggerart]

Beautiful finds mate and love the fob watch.. :Y:

 

[Goldpick]

Yes ... that more favourable time of year is approaching
Unfortunately (in context) the recent rains have caused an explosive growth in paddocks
Any detecting here will require a damn good whipper snipping first
Oh the woes ....

Luckily the owner had his sheep out doing the lawnmowing for me! There was actually another guy staying there in his motor home, he is into gold detecting and only lasted a few minutes on the site before giving up due to the amount of junk.

Still resisting the urge to pull the Nox out for a detect, especially when the Deus is still cleaning up on the targets.

 

[Goldpick]

Nice finds there, Goldpick. Great to get a whole watch and I like all those old buckles. I often wonder what happens to the actual belt. I guess it just disintegrates underground over a century or so and leaves the buckle.

There are actually some leather belt sections in the top of the finds photo, they were picked up on due to the copper rivets that you usually find lying around older sites.

 

[Guessologist]

copper rivets that you usually find lying around older sites

Oh god these are the worst. I don't have much in the way of 1c & 2c coins littering my sites but they make up for it in these damn rivets.

 

[Goldpick]

Today I took a chance on quite an old site that I have detected several times in the past, though this time running the Deus solely on pitch program to help isolate some of those harder/deeper targets. To say it did well was an understatement, I really couldn't believe how many targets surfaced, and many of them were quite deep - well over pinpointer depth in some cases.

Two reasonably corroded Victorian coppers surfaced in a spot with a lot of iron contamination, and further on in the same location was the real surprise being the 1886 Jubilee Methodist medallion. Not much further on came yet another coin target, a 1920 shilling - really don't know how I missed that previously. Also had a good selection of local buttons, broach, spring loaded cufflink, minature spoon (broken), pocket knife parts, and a ton of lead and shotgun shells. The intact thimble was a pretty rare find, they usually get excavated in various bits and pieces.

After today's run over what was really a pretty small area, there looks like there will be plenty to do in the future utilising the pitch program -- very happy with the results.

 

[Clodmaster]

Some great finds there, Goldpick. The Methodist commemorative medallion is a cracker of a find. Looks like that site has a lot more to give.

 

[Goldpick]

Was out today for a short follow up hunt at the same location as previous, still getting some interesting finds though had a close call with a tiger snake that spooked me a bit.

Highlights included part of a cricket buckle, 1885-86 SA dog rego tag, an 1887 sixpence and figurine of what think is an eagle attacking a snake. The sixpence was a faint target in what appears to be a household dumping area due to the amount of glass and crockerh shards buried there.

The dog rego tag from 1885/6 was the first year of issue in SA after the Dog Act was amended in 1884 to supply stamped discs.

Deus ready to go!

Gold gilt Victorian jewellery

Boot spurs

Eagle attacking snake

Part cricket buckle (mentions "England's)

1885/6 dog tag

Silver?

Finally some silver

Big Tiger Snake

 

[Clodmaster]

Some really nice finds, Goldpick. What's the find that looks like a whole lot of snakes/worms coiled together around a cylinder?

 

[just starting]

Is that half of a cricket badge or buckle or is that complete ?

 

[Goldpick]

Some really nice finds, Goldpick. What's the find that looks like a whole lot of snakes/worms coiled together around a cylinder?

Just a piece of gold gilt jewllery, maybe off a broach or something. I have found a fair bit of Victorian era jewellery around this site in the past, though you have to be prepared to dig everything due to being relatively low conductivity item (ie digging lots of shotgun shells).

 

[Goldpick]

Is that half of a cricket badge or buckle or is that complete ?

Half of one unfortunately, probably used to be mounted on the front of a larger flat buckle piece.

 

[Moneybox]

A great start to 2020 Goldpick

Chris we have a lot of old mining settlements over here that are way out in the bush. There are a lot of buckles and watch bits scattered about so most likely coins as well. There are so many targets that the Equinox 800 just goes off at everything to the point where I just shove it back in the bus and forget it until next time I'm in the mood. I've had it for about a year and it's been used for perhaps an hour. Do you use the 11" coil? I'm told I'd be better off with the 6" coil but I have to find another chunk of gold before the accountant will approve the purchase. If I lived a bit closer I'd pop in for a few tips on how to recognize a decent signal amongst the constant noise.

 

[Goldpick]

A great start to 2020 Goldpick

Chris we have a lot of old mining settlements over here that are way out in the bush. There are a lot of buckles and watch bits scattered about so most likely coins as well. There are so many targets that the Equinox 800 just goes off at everything to the point where I just shove it back in the bus and forget it until next time I'm in the mood. I've had it for about a year and it's been used for perhaps an hour. Do you use the 11" coil? I'm told I'd be better off with the 6" coil but I have to find another chunk of gold before the accountant will approve the purchase. If I lived a bit closer I'd pop in for a few tips on how to recognize a decent signal amongst the constant noise.

I think in those situations you will have no choice other than to utilise a heavy amount of discrimination to help isolate the type of targets you are chasing (ie.high conductors), and to retain some form of sanity. I'd dig out all the shallower targets first up before trying for anything deeper, running reduced sensitivity so as not to saturate the coil with too many targets responses.

Maybe mark out a specific area of interest to work rather than be tempted to try and cover the whole site in one hit, I usually detect the ground in layers to help reveal more masked targets at depth, It also depends on how much time you have to dedicate towards a particular site, whether you can afford multiple visits to systematically clean out a site, or only enough time to scan over some shallower targets. The Nox 11" coil should do ok, a faster recovery speed might help and slowing your swing speed to a crawl will help isolate targets of interest better.

 

[happyenough]

The find of the day for me is that beautiful tiger snake you have got love and respect such a small animal that punches far above his weight extra cool

 

[Moneybox]

A great start to 2020 Goldpick

Chris we have a lot of old mining settlements over here that are way out in the bush. There are a lot of buckles and watch bits scattered about so most likely coins as well. There are so many targets that the Equinox 800 just goes off at everything to the point where I just shove it back in the bus and forget it until next time I'm in the mood. I've had it for about a year and it's been used for perhaps an hour. Do you use the 11" coil? I'm told I'd be better off with the 6" coil but I have to find another chunk of gold before the accountant will approve the purchase. If I lived a bit closer I'd pop in for a few tips on how to recognize a decent signal amongst the constant noise.

I think in those situations you will have no choice other than to utilise a heavy amount of discrimination to help isolate the type of targets you are chasing (ie.high conductors), and to retain some form of sanity. I'd dig out all the shallower targets first up before trying for anything deeper, running reduced sensitivity so as not to saturate the coil with too many targets responses.

Maybe mark out a specific area of interest to work rather than be tempted to try and cover the whole site in one hit, I usually detect the ground in layers to help reveal more masked targets at depth, It also depends on how much time you have to dedicate towards a particular site, whether you can afford multiple visits to systematically clean out a site, or only enough time to scan over some shallower targets. The Nox 11" coil should do ok, a faster recovery speed might help and slowing your swing speed to a crawl will help isolate targets of interest better.

Ok, I like the idea of clearing the top first. That makes sense because a lot if just rusty old cans, wire from the top of the old beer or wine bottles, buttons,buckles, rivets etc. We might not get many coins anyway because there was most likely no reason to carry money. Thanks

 

[golddiggerart]

Spectacular finds mate, that eagle and snake is cool, do you think it maybe the top of a letter opener? :Y: