If you own a White's V3i I highly recommend purchasing the Detech 13" Ultimate DD search coil. They are currently $179.95 at the White's store. They are very stable, easy to ground balance, and best of all THEY GO DEEP!
I use a custom relic program and was running the RX Gain at 4 and All Metal at 82. In the Search Audio All Metal is ON. The EMI was bad on this trip which is why the RX Gain was at 4. Even at these low settings I was still able to dig bullets and targets well past the 12" mark. Ground conditions at the back of the property were bad as the area had a lot of rain recently and the ground was too wet to dig. This left out a major chunk of property and was left with a side field to hunt.
A row of Christmas trees had been removed due to insect damage in an area I had dubbed Smith Corner. I have taken quite a few .50 caliber Smiths out of this area in recent years and this trip was no exception. Several of the bullets were lodged under the pine roots. Digging down beside the roots and using the White's handheld pinpointer saved a lot of time (and damage) when locating the bullets.
Since I was using the 13" DD coil there was a specific bullet I was looking for...a .44 caliber Colt with extractor marks. I found 4 of these .44 caliber Colt bullets about 5 years ago. Then the fifth bullet about 3 years ago and finally the bullet below on this recent trip. The twisted tops are extraction marks. They were all found in the same 20 foot radius.
The Colt Army revolver was a six shot. The 3 bullets on the left are Colt Army Early Model and the three on the right are Colt Army New Model. Either the soldier pulled all six out of one revolver or two revolvers were involved which could account for the different type of bullets (although both could be fired in the same revolver). I guess another theory is that a gunsmith was working on Colt revolvers in that general area.
I did find what I think is my second .58 caliber rifle musket fired with the ramrod in the barrel. See the picture below. Another notable find is the 1800 Large Cent. I found it under a row of Christmas trees bordering the property. This is the second one I have found on the property and was very pleased to see an actual date on the obverse. It is a Draped Bust variety. A few years back I found a Flying Eagle cent about 25 feet from this large cent.
Total bullet count is 46 with a breakdown as follows: 1 .54 rifle musket, 11 .58 rifle musket (one with a star cavity), 1 unknown (2nd row, 3rd bullet), 13 .52 Sharps carbine, 2 .54 Merrill's carbine, 13 .50 Smith carbine (11 rubber cartridge type and 2 paper cartridge type), 1 .44 Colt Army Early Model with extractor marks, 1 .44 Bartholow, 1 .44 Colt Army New Model, and 1 .36 Colt revolver. Backside of a button, rivets, two pieces of camp lead, and the large cent.
Click pictures to enlarge.
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