Who has never seen one of those youtube videos where detectorists dig up tons of WW2 stuff? And who tried to go on some WW2 battlefield trying to have the same result but faced a total different reality? Well, for what is concerning the second question, I am one of them, at least until the unexpected happened. Few years ago I moved to Germany and lived there for about one year. Of course after seeing many videos of people finding whatever cool thing I got very inspired to take with me my X-TERRA 705 along with two middle frequency coils (10,5" and 15"). Too good to be real, as soon as my first week metal detecting in Germany was over I had to face the hard reality: everyone has been already checking almost every possible spot in every forest (I didn't do fields because my poor German language skills didn't help me in asking for permissions). Wherever I would walk, it was a never ending parade of holes (closed and not) previously dug by other detectorists plus junk leftovers on their edges including an unbelievable amount of alive ammunitions. On the other hand what I've learned in all these years of metal detecting is to do never give up. Even if people have been checking a spot tens of times something is always left behind especially if you know how to use your device and are able to recognize a weak deep (good) signal among the others. I didn't give up and many good days came, in fact a detectorist friend, once, after a very hot day in a previously well hunted forest told me: "however it goes, you always get home with something in your hands" (that day it was just a mid 19th century coin). In the end of one year spent in Germany my X-TERRA could count on a solid amount of great finds including Prussian, Polish, Latvian and German silver coins, Soviet and Nazi badges, bayonets, civilian pins, tin soldiers and much more. Now I want to share the most exciting hunt I had on one warm day of March when bushes are still not green and thick allowing you to dig parts of soil probably left untouched by previous hunters. Funny thing, I searched that forest for kilometers finding only few nazi-era coins and nothing else whereas all the good stuff was concentrated in a 100 square meters area where probably during the war was active a Luftwaffe, antiaircraft position. Here we go, once I spotted the right area, the first good finds started to come up, mostly German army buttons and peeps followed by few denazified Luftwaffe cap badges: my hunt was getting more and more exciting as long as the unexpected as much as long time awaited happened. My X-TERRA at some point gave me a very bright and high signal, something like when you have a huge 18-19th century Russian 5 Kopeks copper coin or for example an aluminum canteen. A badge! I though. Well, not a badge for sure cause I dug already about half a meter deep hole and nothing was coming up either my pinpointer wasn't spotting anything yet but X-TERRA 705 was still screaming to me: "Hey down there you have something, something big!" It took still some digging until I could recognize a round shaped, rusty thing. There I was, hoping in something cool but too used to find leftovers to do not have too many expectations until it was clear: there was German helmet! Finally a German helmet! I previously found some Soviet helmets when digging in Estonia but never found an M18 Stahlhelm, as you can imagine I was the happiest ever. Surprisingly I was soon going to be even happier. Remember that thing about "after you lift your find from the hole check it once again with your device"? I did it and came again another very clear and high signal, numeric id over 40, are you guessing it was another Stahlhelm? This time I did guess it and I was right! It took still some hard digging since the hole was getting about 1 meter deep now but what came out was amazing: a German paratrooper helmet complete of all its inner components including a pretty well preserved leather part. At that point, already enough amazed by my double killer find I re-checked the hole all over again, this time trying to follow also the lower signals, iron included. It turned out to be a good idea cause right after came still one K98 Mauser (Belgian version from 1930s), another very old and super heavy rifle, a deactivated Panzerfaust and a bayonet scabbard. At the end, after hours of digging and insane finds I still had an about 1.5 meters deep hole to refill and so I did, leaving the forest to its peaceful atmosphere. Only god knows what hell on earth happened in that place over 70 years ago. One last thought, after this story among many other good ones, I can say with no doubt: X-TERRA 705 for miliraria? I would use it all over again!
Revealing he Past - Finland
