AirmetTango
Forum Supporter
...with 3 lbs of mud slathered onto the coil like half-hardened concrete!!
Ok, ok...sorry for the shameful click bait! But such was my hunting conditions today (Friday, 12/7)! Ever since I got my EQ800 early last week, I've been dying to get out to one of my favorite farm fields to see how it would handle the conditions and what it could find. It was always either too wet, too cold, not enough time to make the drive and still hunt, or a myriad of other things would prevent me from getting out there. Well, this morning was 28 degrees, but bright and sunny for the first time in what seems like forever. There was a vague dusting of snow on the ground from a snow shower late yesterday, but I had the day off and I thought, "Today's the day...I'm hitting that field!". After taking care of some Honey-dos, I didn't get to the field until about noon - temps were still hovering in the vicinity of freezing, but the sun beating down made it feel warmer than it was...and that dusting of snow had melted right into the field. The impact of that fact didn't truly hit me until I got about 10 feet into the field and realized that my feet felt 10 lbs heavier :
So, yeah, basically the field was a mini-quagmire Not only did the muck bio-accumulate on my boots, but on the coil too, as evidenced by the pics!
I kept at it for about an hour though, because 20 minutes in I got over a sweet sounding 25-26 signal. I've only been running the EQ800 for a short time so far, but I know this site - I was certain this was a silver dime! I carefully dug a plug with my Sampson, and eventually isolated a clod the size of an apple with the pinpointer. I broke the clod down gradually with my hands, and there it was - unmistakably a silver dime! It seemed a little thin, and I was hoping that thinness meant Seated! Too much muck on the dime to ID it in the field, so into the pouch it went. But I was excited no matter what kind it turned out to be...it's my first silver score with the EQ800
I continued to hunt for another 40 minutes fueled by the silver find, but didn't turn up anything else except a couple old shotshell headstamps and a bullet casing. It was slow going in all that muck, and by the one hour mark, I was tired of shaking the mud off my boots after every step like a cat walking on a sticky floor
At home, clean up confirmed it as a well-worn 1877 Carson City Seated Liberty! Cool to have a Seated as my first EQ silver There's a ding on the front which I'm sure I didn't do - the dime was safe from my digger/shovel in it's dirt clod, and I broke it out with my hands. The ding looks weathered, too, so it either got scorched by a plow at some point or it gained some character prior to getting dropped a century or so ago I may have put a couple scratches on the back during clean up though...they look a little fresher. I'm usually pretty careful, just running it under water until the dirt lifts away, then using a soft bristle toothbrush with Dawn after it's pretty clean. Might've been a bit of dirt stuck on one of the bristles...won't do that again! Anyways, she's a beauty in my book either way!
Pics below show the dime in the field, front and back of the dime before and after cleaning, plus a close up showing the CC mint mark. The first C is a bit covered in tarnish, but is more visible in the close up:
Ok, ok...sorry for the shameful click bait! But such was my hunting conditions today (Friday, 12/7)! Ever since I got my EQ800 early last week, I've been dying to get out to one of my favorite farm fields to see how it would handle the conditions and what it could find. It was always either too wet, too cold, not enough time to make the drive and still hunt, or a myriad of other things would prevent me from getting out there. Well, this morning was 28 degrees, but bright and sunny for the first time in what seems like forever. There was a vague dusting of snow on the ground from a snow shower late yesterday, but I had the day off and I thought, "Today's the day...I'm hitting that field!". After taking care of some Honey-dos, I didn't get to the field until about noon - temps were still hovering in the vicinity of freezing, but the sun beating down made it feel warmer than it was...and that dusting of snow had melted right into the field. The impact of that fact didn't truly hit me until I got about 10 feet into the field and realized that my feet felt 10 lbs heavier :
So, yeah, basically the field was a mini-quagmire Not only did the muck bio-accumulate on my boots, but on the coil too, as evidenced by the pics!
I kept at it for about an hour though, because 20 minutes in I got over a sweet sounding 25-26 signal. I've only been running the EQ800 for a short time so far, but I know this site - I was certain this was a silver dime! I carefully dug a plug with my Sampson, and eventually isolated a clod the size of an apple with the pinpointer. I broke the clod down gradually with my hands, and there it was - unmistakably a silver dime! It seemed a little thin, and I was hoping that thinness meant Seated! Too much muck on the dime to ID it in the field, so into the pouch it went. But I was excited no matter what kind it turned out to be...it's my first silver score with the EQ800
I continued to hunt for another 40 minutes fueled by the silver find, but didn't turn up anything else except a couple old shotshell headstamps and a bullet casing. It was slow going in all that muck, and by the one hour mark, I was tired of shaking the mud off my boots after every step like a cat walking on a sticky floor
At home, clean up confirmed it as a well-worn 1877 Carson City Seated Liberty! Cool to have a Seated as my first EQ silver There's a ding on the front which I'm sure I didn't do - the dime was safe from my digger/shovel in it's dirt clod, and I broke it out with my hands. The ding looks weathered, too, so it either got scorched by a plow at some point or it gained some character prior to getting dropped a century or so ago I may have put a couple scratches on the back during clean up though...they look a little fresher. I'm usually pretty careful, just running it under water until the dirt lifts away, then using a soft bristle toothbrush with Dawn after it's pretty clean. Might've been a bit of dirt stuck on one of the bristles...won't do that again! Anyways, she's a beauty in my book either way!
Pics below show the dime in the field, front and back of the dime before and after cleaning, plus a close up showing the CC mint mark. The first C is a bit covered in tarnish, but is more visible in the close up:
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