Friday was one fine (Find) day. I've been detecting for many years on and off, and I have made many good finds. Platinum, gold, silver, brass, copper, iron, steel, and even aluminium have brought me smiles and excitement on too many occasions to keep track of. Silver as always, is high on my list of preferred targets, but at least as of today...I can scratch the Walking Liberty Half Dollar off of my bucket list! This was an unplanned hunt. "She who Must be Obeyed" was having a girls day out with our grandchild in NE Oklahoma and I asked to be dropped off at a local park while they shopped, played, and plotted against the entire male species in general. I've had my Equinox 800 for a few weeks now, and I'm starting to experiment with tweaking the settings. I have about two hours to explore the park, so I decide to concentrate on coins and silver in order to cut down on the time I spend digging. Park 1, Noise cancel, Ground Auto balance, Loud at Mid tone on 12 & 13, Loud at High tone for targets over 18, Much quieter and low tones for all the other numbers, Threshold at 2, Sweep speed at 4, and I did not adjust the iron bias for this unfamiliar and damp ground. An hour and a half into the hunt I was happy to have a pocket full of clad and several older looking nickels and penny’s that I would need to clean up later. I was not weighted down with much trash using these highly discriminatory settings. I could see a few spots where other hunters had recently filled in their holes, but they were leaving enough behind to keep me interested. I was scanning the ground about 2 feet from on of those filled in holes when this high tone rang out, I kind of expected junk. Targets much over 30, usually scan too large to be a coin, and if the numbers begin to jump around, I will often pass it up not wanting to carry large trash like a pop can around until the end of the hunt. This target was solid, no jumping numbers The EQUINOX pinpointed a deep, tight target, that it was sure of. I'm not sure why I was still sceptical, but I knew I had to dig anyway. I use a homemade or (home altered) shovel for my initial plug. 5"X 5" by 8" deep. My pin pointer said the plug was clean, wait a sec.....so is the hole.....I recheck the hole with the Equinox, and it’s still down there. I used my leaches hand digger to punch down another 3 to 4"inches and I think I felt something solid.....Oops! Now the pin pointer screams out so I reach in and KNOW...Just Know. The second my fingers close on it that I've found big silver. She is Beautiful! She's a 1918 Walking Liberty and in good to very good condition. I can't see any damage from the tool strike...Phew! This is one of my top finds! The girls are even excited. Maybe I'll have their company on future hunts...
Scott - Oklahoma, USA
