It was quite a day, as I dropped my 14th career double digit day, pulling 5 mercs, 4 rosies, and a 1937 Q.

Started working the field from yesterday’s site which showed some promise at the end of the day, and got a merc right off the bat.  Shortly thereafter got the Q; it sounded horrible, blowing my ears off — I thought it was going to be a canslaw.  It was only 4 inches deep, not sure why it sounded so horrible, but we’ll take it.  2 silvers in the first half hour.

Hit a slow spell, but about 2 hours later, hit a deep, iffy one which I thought could be a silver, and on these I like to take a bit of time to test the channels on it to see which one sounds the best.  Was running channel 10, tested a couple of other channels where it also came in iffy, did a noise cancel with the coil against the ground (as I always do), it recommended channel 2, tried that one on the target, and could hear the target much better on channel 2.  Was sure it was a silver.  Once again demonstrating that channel management matters (I usually noise cancel about 15-30 times a hunt).  It turned out to be a rosie on its side.

Then, just a foot away, got quite a bonus, 3 silvers in one hole, a merc and 2 rosies.  Are you kidding me? I dug each one out separately, and the E-Trac with the big 13 inch unit had no trouble separating them.  I wonder if they sounded like trash to other machines.  3 hours in, and 6 silvers, tho admittedly 4 within 5 minutes that were probably one event.  I’m thinking double digit day now, or at least a dollar day.

Next up, not 10 feet away, but I go slow, so it took a bit of time to get there, was a tough signal, 12-42 next to a big hunk of iron. Figured it could be a wheatie or a silver, since it was affected by the iron all bets are off, and it turned out to be the thin ’17 merc.  You don’t seem to lose separation with that Detech 13 unit (as an aside, pulled a merc from under a pulltab with that coil the other day).  The Detech 13 totally rocks the house, and they aren’t even paying me to say that.

Just right after that hit a nice deep 12-47 which I figured was a slam dunk silver Q for #8 on the day, but instead it was an abused copper, an 1803 draped bust large cent.  Old coppers are fun to find, but given how abused they are, just give me an 1803 quarter next time.

Did get #8 fairly soon after that tho, a slam dunk merc.  So, that was 6 silvers and a copper all within about 10-20 feet of each other.  Sometimes you just find these inexplicable hot zones.  And its not like the site isn’t hunted by others; I’ve been there 5 times, and seen three other detectorists, but none with an E-Trac with my magic program and coil.

So, I had about an hour and a half left before I had to get back to work, but that was the end of the hot zone (and given the spill, it was probably only 3 silver events, not 6), and things started to dry up.  With only 10 minutes before I had to leave, I hit a beautiful 03-47 which was a certain slam dunk #9, but it turned out to be a clad Q on its side.  Are you kidding me?  Clad on its side often fools the E-Trac (or me, I guess), into thinking it is silver.  (Maybe someday I’ll write why I think that is).

But the next target, just 2 minutes on, was a slam dunk rosie, for #9, with about 8 minutes before I had to leave.  I finished out that section of a grid, no more silvers, and no time left.

But, I swing on my way back to the parking lot, thru sections I haven’t worked yet, and, unbelievably, I got a beautiful 12-46 with “that sound” that I knew was my 10th silver of the day.  And sure enough it was.  I was about 10 minutes late getting back to the parking lot, but it was worth it.  Total hunt time was a little over 5 hours, or 2 per hour, which is about the best I ever do.

Well, there were alot of dead zones in this field, but a few pockets of silver here and there.  I’ve obviously hit the most promising sections (in my judgement anyway), but hopefully there will be a couple more in the more dead sections.

What an awesome day!  What an awesome sight —