When i first bought my CTX3030 I was reading a book where a photocopy map was on one of pages. It showed an old place marked on this map but was very faint to the naked eye. After many phone calls to many historic societies and then government departments to track down the original map for viewing or purchase I finally got InTouch with a third party company that had the map in high resolution. I purchased the file and was finally looking at this 1850's map for myself. I pinned the location as best i could on google maps but jt wasn't for about 2 years later that i finally got to head out to this remote bushland location. The hike out was two hours and all i could think about was "is it going to be there" and "what will i find" gold coins?? Silver coins? Heck if be happy with an old copper. Just the effort of finally be able to put coil to soil after all these years was the real buzz, finding something was a bonus. I got to where my had my mark pinned on google maps and to my excitement I hit the nail on the head. I was staring at a large flat piece of ground right beside the creek. Man my heart was racing. Everyone who detects a new site for the first time knows that feeling I'm speaking of. Okay so normally I run silver open screen with ground coin separation on manual sensitivity but with all the iron that setting I've grown to love was causing havoc with all the iron, so i flicked over to Coin mode with high trash separation and still manual sensitivity and that did the trick. The CTX settled down and i was able to weed out some targets in between the iron infestation. After about an hour of digging and a (Minelab) pouch full of lead, tin, nails and shotgun shells I finally with a sweet 12:38. So you all know what comes next hey? Surgical extraction haha. Hoping it was an old British penny I made sure I didn't want to give it a touch up with the digger so i took my time and dig most of it by hand tool. The pin pointer gave me a flat line and my heart was about to run the marathon through my mouth and down the creek. I brushed the side wall and that's when i saw..........the side of a buckle. I dropped a cuss of cause then stupidly stuck my digger behind the target and popped it out. What came next was totally unexpected and that's the rush us treasure hunters seek I think more than anything at all, the rush of not knowing what you will dig up. Out popped a snake/swan buckle in all its glory. Still whole and Intact. I shrieked like a kid on a roller coaster. I couldn’t believe my luck. A bucket list item none the least now proudly has its rightful place staked in my career cabinet of best finds. And that's my story on how my detecting career started. With one book one map and one persistent detectorist on the hunt to find that long lost structure deep in the Australian bushland. Now I'm proud to say I've been there and done.
Sam – Qld, Australia
