DIV Blog - Day 2: The Bullet Hole

I wasn't really sure where I wanted to go on day two of the Exclesior hunt, so I asked my friend Barry (who fortuitously parked beside us) and he kindly offered to show me a spot he had been digging relics the day before.  We headed off, and I got another earful of ethereal song that is the GPX.  This spot, like much of the farm, had been hunted hard, but I still managed a few keepers.  The first good target was an 1863 Indian Head penny, followed by a gilted eagle I cuff button and an Enfield bullet within a foot of one another.  One more squished eagle I coat button rounded out the morning, and I headed back to the HQ for lunch.  Along the way I got a beautiful tone right in the path to the back fields, which turned out to be pulled swage-base three ringer.

After lunch I swapped the Commander coil for the stock coil with Keith and headed back out to the field.  I headed to a spot where my friend Phil was hunkered down, and we had found some relics at the last Excelsior hunt.  He was finding a few things, but I wasn't having much luck until I hit on a bullet signal along the edge of the field.  I dug ... and dug ... and couldn't believe how deep I found the three ring bullet in the bottom of the hole!  In good detecting form, I checked my hole and realized why the machine was able to pick it up so far down - there was another target still under the earth.  I quickly pulled out another three ringer, and checked the hole.  Another signal.

I called over Phil, who offered to help with scanning the hole while I was detecting.  Two bullets became four, and then six.  Spreading out from the main target, I eventually found a total of 12 three ring Minie balls before deciding the great big hole was hunted out.  I sat for a while to rest and eat (digging such a large hole at depth was hard work!), and finally strapped in to the detector to move on.  No sooner had I turned on the machine  then I got another deep bullet signal, just to the side of our previous excavation.  Down and down and down I went again, following the trail of tones to yet more bullets.  The final tally from the 6 foot or so area was a whopping 28 bullets!  The deepest of them was down well past my elbow - now THAT's a deep bullet!

Chasing down these deep relics took up a good bit of the afternoon and most of my energy.  While I did do some detecting afterwards, I admit I did a good bit of socializing as well.  But that's part of the beauty of DIV hunts.  I love being able to connect with people equally passionate (crazy?) about this great hobby.

Who knows what tomorrow has in store?  Good luck, fellow diggers!  See you tomorrow!