2013 finds AussieTreasureDigger

Over the next few weeks/months i will be hunting with my AT Pro U.S version pretty much exclusively. Why? i enjoy a challenge and i have the CTX under control now haha

Also just a short note, the AT Pro International and the U.S version are the same machine except for the tone spread and the facia. The International wasnt designed for Australian conditions, it was designed for Europe and the hammered coins they find there. The AT Pro U.S version is available from overseas if the narrower high tone suits you better than the wider one on the euro, i do prefer the narrower hight tone, but that my own preference.

My AT Pro is stock except i will be using the SunRay Gold headphones i bought for it last year, these things are the go on this machine for sure and really highlight the individual signals, i am a listener more than a looker and pay not much attention to the facia of my machine other than to check a number. The machine will use no discrimination and will be set to max sensitivity, i will manually ground balance and adjust sensitivity where needed if things get out of control.

I intend to work some of the most trashed and detected areas known to man...and woman. I can control this machine next to telecom towers and HT wires and was doing 20hour+weeks on it before i bought my CTX3030, so i know its ins and outs pretty thoroughly.

Saturday 3 weeks ago i went to a place thats so trashed and thrashed it sounds like machine gun rapid fire in the headphones, i would never of been able to handle this sort of battering when i 1st got the machine April 2012. I have been through this area with discrimination on many times, until it all but dried up of good signals. The soil is a mix of sea water, stagnate ground water and tidal creek swamp, its full of junk and has a very high salinity.

Straight onto the task and what a shock, i needed a few minutes for my brain to get around the racket, but i was up and going ok in 10mins.

Not long into the hunt i pulled a 1954 penny from amongst alot of foil and pulltabs, then a 1951 Halfpenny that was in suprisingly good nic then an unknown penny that was trashed, but i was still hopeful of dating it. I also dug up 2 old pocket knives in different spots and a musket ball. I got myself a swag of screw caps and old sinker and some unidentifiable relics. All in all i had a good 2.5hours with an i will return next week remark, but take the 11.5x8" coil off and put my small 5x8" coil on, both are stock Garrett coils.

I have ordered a NEL hunter coil for the machine and it should arrive in the next 2 weeks

I will post all the trips out in one thread to keep it neat.

My main finds for the arvo, check the penny on the left


Cleaned and dated using the kebab stick method, a 1964 penny wasnt what i was hoping for haha


My bag of not much but happy with the finds. Check the piece of leather harness gear with the tacks still in it.



Week 2 coming soon and i am out with the small coil to the same spot.

Great finds ATD, certainly better than coming home empty handed. I'll be following this topic and look forward your future posts. Good luck with the AT Pro challenge mate.

Cheers,
Nugget

Nugget said:

Great finds ATD, certainly better than coming home empty handed. I'll be following this topic and look forward your future posts. Good luck with the AT Pro challenge mate.

Cheers,
Nugget

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Thanks mate!! heres the second part from last weekend

The morning was cold and the wind was up as i ummed and ahhed about wether to return to last weeks site as i am getting the feeling its about done. As i am changing from my 11x8.5" to my 5x8" coil i decide to give it one last going over. I sent my hunt partner a text to tell him my plans and he was going to meet me down there in a couple of hours.

Getting stuck into the site again with the settings, Pro Mode, no discrim, iron audio on, sensitivity max, i started on my journey and it was not long before i had a clean target amongst the trash. I dug what i thought was a coin but apon cleaning it up its the rear part of a lapel badge with the Stokes and Son Melbourne mark on it, pity i hadnt dug the front part as well.

After a couple of hours work Craig turned up and i showed him my lowly tally so far for the day, he decided to walk off and do some recce up further, i decided to keep going. Nearing the 5hour mark i had enough, Craig was back and hunting and all for nothing, i decided for one more run before i went to the car. A faint good target sound amongt the heavy trash and out popped a halfpenny, i dont think i would of picked the signal out with the larger coil on and the headphones off. Walking another 25mtres and a nice clean signal, i get myself a 1963 shilling thats been in a fight with mower blades at some stage of its life. Thats enough, i decide to take Craig down to the other section where the digging is hard clay, i am out on my feet and losing my swing and put my kit in the car, Craig pops a shilling and a penny, time to call it quits for the day.


Some of the not much for the day. Some coins the back off an old torch, part of a Special badge off an FB holden and some dog tags, of course my token sinker, i can find these in a desert.


The shilling has seen better days


One sick 1946 Half Penny


Best signal for the day



Next installment: Yesterday May26th i went to an area dating 1840's where an old house used to stand. Nearly unworkable and the worst trash i have ever encountered, but there was a positive side

Heaven knows what you will find with the bigger and better coil, im thinking of getting one for my at pro and tesoro, im waiting for your reports

the duck said:

Heaven knows what you will find with the bigger and better coil, im thinking of getting one for my at pro and tesoro, im waiting for your reports

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Have to do up last weekend yet and i used the stock 11". My hunting partner had the NEL on, we both struggled in this tip of a place with falsing. But yeah i should have the NEL 12" soon and cant wit to give it a burl.

Saturday 25th May 2011: Hunt on an old property that dates back to early 1850's

I thought this area maybe easy going so i put the 11" stock Garrett coil on and proceeded across some area that had me thinking i made the right decision, upon arriving at the homestead site i was shocked, i have never been in so much trash, the machine falsing and everything was going crazy, but i was determined it wouldnt beat me. Craig was standing next to me, he hadnt bought his detector in yet, but that soon changed when i swung, heard a target amongst the trash, and scored a medallion from Anzac Day 1918:

Mint: Stokes & Sons
Other Details: Gold special striking of the medal sold to Victorian school children and the public to commemorate
ANZAC Day, 25 April 1918. 250,000 medals were struck. Bronze medals were sold for 1 shilling and oxidised silver
medals for 5 shillings. One-third of the proceeds was to be directed to the funding of a permanent institution for
returned soldiers. [The Argus, 11 April 1918, p 8]

Craig took off back to his car to get his gear and i kept going, $1 another $1 then junk, junk, junk, junk this stuff sure brings you down a peg or 2. We worked away for a couple of hours and not much was going on when i heard a sound, i said to myself last time i got a weird signal like this it was a half penny, and it was, a 1932.

Trying to move out of the trash was nearly impossible, the craziest ground i have ever been in.
I moved up to the top of the block where i thought possibly some old milking sheds had been
and then the lovely tone of silver, i then dug a pretty worn 1921 Sixpence, undateable at the time
but i got it home for a clean and some macro and it gave up the well worn date 1921.

Working my way across a clear area my ears got there 1st break then 3 pennies
close to each other, a trashed 1920 i couldnt date until i got home, a 1919 penny trashed and an 1884
Victoria penny in worn but not bad condition, working back down the slope and i dug a 1916 penny.

Plenty more area to do, may try the CTX on it another day, it sent 2 AT Pros absolutely crazy so i am
not keen to go back too quick.

Just over 5 hours and i was spent, my brain was frazzled from the signals and i had ignored the temptation
to discriminate. All in all an interesting hunt..... The medallion an old boot tack hammer, some relics, a Sixpence 4 pennies and a half penny, some spendables the usual 1c and 2c pieces and tinitus :/





I managed to date this penny using the wooden skewer method, its a 1920

Great finds ATD.

DD

the duck said:

Heaven knows what you will find with the bigger and better coil, im thinking of getting one for my at pro and tesoro, im waiting for your reports

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Ist reports in
ITS HERE!!! My new NEL Hunter coil arrived today from the Ukraine, ordered onthe 13th posted on the 15th arrived on the 29th, cant complain about the service.

Diggerdude said:

Great finds ATD.

DD

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Thanks mate

Great finds and I'm really looking forward to the results of the new coil. Keep us posted.

Nugget said:

Great finds and I'm really looking forward to the results of the new coil. Keep us posted.

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Thanks Nugget i will head out with it this weekend, to some sites i have thrashed to death, lets see if it reveals more depth and targets than stock.

Love the medal tony its a ripper, we are all waiting for a report on the Nel, although your partner in crime has already shown they are lethal

GREAT READ ,Good pics and thoroughly enjoying it ,i'm glad the saga lives ! NEXT .8)

the duck said:

Love the medal tony its a ripper, we are all waiting for a report on the Nel, although your partner in crime has already shown they are lethal

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Only got it today (pesky bloody ducks) i have to have some surgery tomorrow, so hopefully i can thump it around a place i have in mind this Saturday. Its a small area that i pulled 14 pennies from in 20minutes, i then thrashed it over a couple of months, the NEL should let me know if there's anything left. And yes my hunting partner is a grinner with his, but i matched him with the stock coil on the heavy trash last weekend, you have got to be over it to detect it though..

cormorant said:

GREAT READ ,Good pics and thoroughly enjoying it ,i'm glad the saga lives ! NEXT .8)

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Thanks mate next installment next week

Great finds, great pics and great read ATD.

AU

AU Fever said:

Great finds, great pics and great read ATD.

AU

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Thanks for the feedback mate

Going out today in the heavy rain with the NEL coil on the AT Pro today, as long as the headaches from my surgery on Thursday hold off i should get a good day in.

Site early 1850's
what it was used for? bushrangers, criminality and debauchery. Sounds like my shed

My coil lineup, NEL 12" on the left then my 2 stock Garrett coils, hoping to punch harder and deeper with the NEL

First day out with the NEL Hunter, a quick look.
The first thing you notice are the targets are much clearer, a little 1943, 92.5% silver threepence signal jumped up and smacked me in the face, the 77 signal was so clear, i actually got a shock that it was the tiny threepence i though it might be a modern $2 coin at depth. I was picking up clearer signals at 10"+ but i was into very heavy clay at 8" so some of these had to stay in the ground as i am recovering from some wicked surgery on my scalp last Thursday and am a bit lowly on it, as it was giving me bad headaches being bent over so long.

I like its sepration in trash

Its a little bit heavier, not much, but feels more balanced, i had very little arm fatigue after 5.5 hours.

Would have the stock coil found what i found? probably and so it should of, but its no where near as sharp signal wise

Big + =Tone and signal loudness/crispness, recovery, ground coverage, balance on the AT Pro and it punchs deep with a good signal return at depth.

Would i recommend it? Yes, and its staying on my machine full time.

Main finds for the day
A barrel Tap
3 Pennies 1943 1943 1922 threepence 1943
An old Grey Eye Makeup tin
An a Musket ball, 2 hunts in a row for one of these
an old belt buckle
and $10.05 in spendables
My share of BB'S
And some old relic broken bits

My hunting partner also pulled a few 1943 Pennies out of the ground,
maybe the army had set up during the war here, but i found no other signes for this to be fact.

Another good day out.
Great stories. Thanks