2013 finds Arwon

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Joined
May 27, 2013
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Location
Nowra, NSW
Went to my bosses properties (Condobolin) on the school holidays with the family. Originally I was hoping to find some yellow stuff but not to be, however I did find some interesting relics that (to me) are as good as the yellow stuff.

The boss has three blocks of dirt, one being 12,550 acres and the other two around 4000 acres each. The larger of the three is of historic value as the Cobb and Co postal run went through the site and there was a Inn (pub) on the site which operated between 1876 and ceased in 1895. The pub is no longer standing but there is a plaque to ID the area.

One of the smaller blocks has an area that is part of an 99 year lease (State Forest) and there is an old cottage that was built by an old WW2 digger and was originally inssued to him as part of the governments settlement program (bloody hard country for farming).

Some of my finds from the old digger's farm, all from a dry creek that was full of wire too :( I did find his old bottle dump and have so old-ish bottles soaking for a clean up, I lot of unbroken bottles too.

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The next items come from the old pub (Inn) that operated between 1876 to 1895. The interesting find here was a by-product on an sewing thimble, that being a piece of a clay tobacco pipe. The fragment of the bowl had wording (Iniskilling, Egypt) that enabled us to Google it's origin to a battle against the French at Alexandria 1801. See below text from a web site about the origin

By all accounts, they had a fierce reputation and were awarded numerous battle honours during their long history of service the sphinx image and reference to Egypt impressed on the bowl of our tobacco pipe represent honours awarded to the regiment for the battle against the French at Alexandria in 1801.

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The next picture is of a mystery item found at the same site, it appears to be made of cast and is not magnetic. The rusty area you can see on one of the photos is iron and magnetic. There are some numbering on both separate items but I haven't looked at them with a magnification lenses as yet, may be someone might have an idea what it may be??

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Anyway, no gold but some interesting stuff, looking forward to going back to see if I can find some more. :lol:
 
I agree - very cool finds that are just as good or in ways better than small gold. The little Australia arch looks great - anyone got an idea what that's off? A hat pin? or is it too big for that...

Well done - looking fwd to seeing more of your finds. Bet you can't wait to get back out again now
 
Ag Man said:
I agree - very cool finds that are just as good or in ways better than small gold. The little Australia arch looks great - anyone got an idea what that's off? A hat pin? or is it too big for that...

Well done - looking fwd to seeing more of your finds. Bet you can't wait to get back out again now

Ag Man, from the little research I have done on the Australian brass badge, it is more than likely to be off the shoulder, I think they refer to it as a shoulder flash.
 
nice, the other half of the rising sun is still in the ground there :)
 
As promised, below are some pictures of the bottles I found at the same site. I know that they wont be overly old, but to find some that are whole is a blessing in it self.

If there are any bottle collectors that would like any of them, just PM me. The only one I want to keep is the Bonnington's Irish Moss bottle

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The pieces of cast iron may be what is left from the water jacket on a very old stationary engine...???? when the weather gets cold enough the water inside them freezes and expands busting the waterjacket... This happened a lot in the old days and I have seen a few cracked and busted ones over the years... :)
 
Went out for a quick swing to see how the NEL Hunter coil behaved on some moderate to high minalised creek.

First impressions

1) can notice the extra weight and a little harder to swing in tight areas
2) I will need to improve my pin pointing skills due to it being a bigger coil
3) the NEL appears to be more stable in a rocky creek and doesn't give a false reading when you tap it against a rock when swinging
4) handles hot rocks way better than the standard coil, still gives a hum but not beep as my standard coil did.
5) NEL has less chatter when moving between different soil conditions
6) NEL starts to signal a target well before you get on top of the target, which makes pin pointing a bit of a challenge at times

Would I buy a NEL again, yes i would, but might go for a slightly smaller coil than the Hunter. The Hunter would be well suited to more open areas and the areas I hunt are normally tighter scrubby areas.

So, what did I find whist out, well I got the usual pull rings and foil but did find an old lead toy dog in the wall of the creek, he is missing one rear leg and tail, but a neat find. Can not see any markings on him to give me a date of manufacture so don't know how old it is.

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Thanks for the feedback Arwon, do you have any comments on it's depth capabilities and overall sensitivity?

That dog is an interesting find, shame there's no markings on it.
 
Nugget said:
Thanks for the feedback Arwon, do you have any comments on it's depth capabilities and overall sensitivity?

That dog is an interesting find, shame there's no markings on it.

Nugget, no I didn't do any trials on sensitivity but one pull tab rang up around the 70 mark and was at least 7-8" down in the gravel bed of the creek.

If your thinking of ordering a NEL I would look to getting an additional coil guard as they look/feel a little weak and would also suggest that you put a little bit of tape on to secure it to the coil. The AT Gold coil cover clips on but the NEL only pushes on, so it could be lost very easy.
 
Never thought my hunter coil looked or felt weak, it also shipped with a coil scratch plate thats actually better than the CTX3030 plate. Have had it in some very very rough terrain in the goldfields a few times, my view on it? nothing flimsy about the coil or the scratch plate at all. It always pays to tape up your coils plate anyway, it means no crud getting between the coil and the scratch plate causing falsing :)
 
AussieTreasureDigger said:
Never thought my hunter coil looked or felt weak, it also shipped with a coil scratch plate thats actually better than the CTX3030 plate. Have had it in some very very rough terrain in the goldfields a few times, my view on it? nothing flimsy about the coil or the scratch plate at all. It always pays to tape up your coils plate anyway, it means no crud getting between the coil and the scratch plate causing falsing :)

ATD, the quality of the coil is good, just the coil skid plate seams a little flimsy and don't think it would take to much to crack / damage it.
 

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