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Southwind
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I think what it shows, is that experience trumps detector...most of the time.
Key words here.
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For those of us who have hunted for over 40 years, that does not come as any surprise. :)
No, I think you're mistaken. I have been hunting for 40+ years and I am surprised. As a relic hunter I'm sure the Wilson does a fine job, but there is probably a very good reason why it isn't the choice of the vast majority of coin shooters. Common sense here. Again, not putting down the Wilson, just stating some facts. Cream tends to rise to the top. I've heard the fairytales about those detectors that no one seems to use or know about (deep dark secret known only to a few) that are better than all those the majority uses. Sorry, I'm just not buying it because I seen it too many times, and it has NEVER proven to be true.
Don't get me wrong I'm sure you could point me to hundreds of videos of the Wilson doing outstanding air tests, field hunting and such, but I doubt you'd find many of coin shooting the local trashy park. Again I say there is probably a very good reason it is not the choice of coin shooters.
You know what....I use to think the exact same thing about the Wilson...sadly for years...all the years I lost out on using my Wilson in a park! I bought the machine back in 2008 and used it exclusively for farm fields in Canada and civil war sites in TN with my buddy John. I set the disc just above "Iron" in the "Salt" range and went to town across the fields. I don't remember a single time where any one with any machine from Etrac to Deus who called me over to test a signal that I did not get as well. Almost never did I dig any nails...only large iron the size of a jar lid would fool me. On average I did every bit as well as everyone else in those fields...quite often better. I think because I never wasted a lot of time digging up signals that turned out to be crap fooling the detector.
Fast forward 7 years to the fall of 2015. I decide one day after hunting for several hours in a forest and finding a nice 1854 US LC and a couple of musket balls, to follow my buddies to a park area. Instead of going to my van to grab my Minelab Sovereign, the machine that I have used almost exclusively for old coins in parks for the past 15 years, I stuck with the Wilson. I started digging up a lot of pull tabs so I started turning up the disc. I got to the point where they were not a problem any more. In the half our or so we detected in the park before it got too dark I pulled out three or four shotgun shells that were over 100 years old down about 6 or 7 inches! I knew then and there that if these were 100 year old coins I would find them no problem.
My next test in a park with my Wilson was a very old park in Toronto that I have found many old silver and coppers over the years, but today you are lucky if you find anything at all. I left the Wilson in the same disc setting and went to work. I ended up that night with three silver coins and an IH. The two guys I was there with had CTX and the Deus and they found nothing but modern stuff. I walk over all the modern coins. If I swing 6 inches above the ground with the Wilson and still get a hit then I move on. All my good finds disappeared an inch or two above the ground. I detect with the coil always barely touching the ground, or right against the grass in summer.