Gary Likes His New Coil
April 3rd & 4th, 2009

Gary Del Rosal

I purchased a newly designed light weight 11" ML Pro coil for the Explorer and tried it out for the first time at Oak Mnt St Park in an area that has produced silver the last couple of years. I had been shut out the last few times there so I thought it would be a good place to test the coil to see if it could produce a few more coins.

I hunted the area for about an hour and a half but made some surprising finds. The first target was a rough 41' nickel. A few minutes later and several feet away, I found a badly worn 17' merc next to a small tree. Nothing much happened until the last 10 minutes. I tried detecting a small ridge and dug a wheat. I re-checked the hole and found a 42' quarter and another wheat. About 20' feet away on the same ridge I found another wheat. Upon re-checking the hole I found a second wheat. Each time the wheats had a slight higher tone than usual. Guessing there may be another coin I re-checked the hole a third time and got an exceptionally clean high tone and hoped it wasn't a piece of trash. When I enlarged the hole I was shocked to see an over-size blackened coin. I had just found my first Franklin half dollar. I re-checked the hole a fourth time and found a 42' nickel lying next to a small scorpion. All the coins excluding the first nickel were only 1-3" deep.

(Dirty coins from the 1st day)

(Dirty dimes from the 2nd day)

The new coil had proved effective because of it's light weight and maneuverability which allowed me to detect areas that I had avoided due to the heavier weight of the old 10.5" coil plus some added luck. After cleaning the quarter and half dollar I noticed multiple fine scratches caused from placing the coins in water filled containers instead of taking the time to safe guard them individually in dry cotton. The next day I hunted the same area for 3-1/2 hours and found two more mercs, a rosie, and 6 wheats. This time the coins made it home unscratched.

(The silver from both days cleaned up nice.)

HH, Gary.