First time out on my permission this season with a Kindly loaned Deus Lite from one of our esteemed forum members . It is a learning curve for me and a further step into the world of advanced machines which appears to me to be a rather daunting prospect . Fear not though , help was at hand and a live chatroom was organised by our very own Oxgirl where we could finally put names to faces and I hope that my missing tooth didn't put the frighteners up her , still waiting for our Kindly Dentist to pop a new one in for me . In some respects the face masks we are forced to wear help cover up the gap
We settled down in the virtual world and with cups of tea at the ready and , volume up because despite losing a Gnasher I am also going slightly deaf in one ear , too much heavy rock music from those far off youthful days have finally taken its toll , my good lady calls it selective hearing and at times I suppose she is probably right .
A run through of the most simple of settings , GMP 2 , fiddle about with the ever so comfortable WS4 headphones and we just about got there . For a change I wasn't overly baffled , seemed fairly straight forward and after a play about for a few weeks in the garden I felt fairly confident enough to take it out for its first Norfolk airing , today being the day .
All was going well , work sorted out in the morning , emails and phone calls answered and by lunchtime I was free to go for a decent few hours out on the fields once again , however all didn't quite go to plan and I almost never got to tread the freshly ploughed soil . My Kindly neighbour called , slight state of panic , her dog was unwell , a big old beast of a Labrador and could I do her a huge favour . I felt the high hopes of the longed for free afternoon slowly dwindle away but she is a good old sport and from the tremble in her voice I just knew things were not good and loyalty lies therein and my task was to carry her beloved dog to the car while she took it to the local vets . With the deed done I knew all was still not good and being a big old soft sort I offered to go with her , the sigh of relief was enough to tell me it was the right thing to say and do .
Two hours later all was sorted and we all arrived back home and despite the loss of time there was still enough of the afternoon left for at least three hours worth of detecting , enough to satisfy the yearning so off I went .
My original plan was to have about 6 hours and take my faithful Q40 as a back up and stick with the Deus Lite but taking a deep breath I decided to just go for it and take the one machine and hope for the best plus it was the only way to really try and get to grips with it and not be swayed to switch over to the one you know inside out , a sort of technological comfort zone .
To an admiring passer by I may have possibly looked professional but I didn't feel it and it felt like I was starting all over again .To begin with there was no control box to peek at the numbers , no depth gauge for where the target may possibly be so it was a case of listening to the sounds and literally dig everything . To be honest that was partly the whole point of the exercise , a different approach to the way I have become accustomed to and a more advanced machine and of course a lot lighter . The downside was the ground , it was rough ploughed and despite being soft to walk upon in most parts , there were enough ruts and dips to send me into a bit of a swagger and go off course , no matter I was determined to see it though and try and understand a little bit more about this much talked about and popular machine .
My first signal was a pleasant enough sound and a pleasant enough find , the neat little buckle which was a great confidence booster and I was pretty pleased with that , I do like my buckles .
From there on in I just decided that every signal deserved a dig no matter what the outcome , the soil was dry and very easy to dig , almost sandy and the array of finds were mostly rubbish with the odd few bits of interest which was enough to keep me occupied and it was also a great indicator by just listening to the sounds . I got used to to the feint squeaks that were very deep and guessed correctly that it was iron , a few half horseshoes and other odd lumps of corroded metalwork . Shards of tin cans became familiar to the ear so with my short outing I was slowly getting used to what was what . There is a very long way to go yet , this is just a scratch at what this detector is capable of and I know absolutely nothing about it but it is a great insight to a very different set up compared to the q40 .
One odd little object had me believing it was a thimble to begin with but proved otherwise , I have a feeling it is modern but has that nice green patina to it and a strange bark effect with a series of holes and some markings scratched either side of one set of the holes . I have no idea what it could be , it looks almost as if it is part of some electrical component , gave a good signal though whatever it is .
How quick a few hours can pass , the evening was drawing in and the light of afternoon was fading away and so it was time to go home . I saw what will most likely be the last Swallow I shall see this year , they all appeared to have gone this past few weeks but here was one zipping across low above the mini mountain range of ploughed soil and it seemed almost out of place being alone and not with a mini squadron we generally see in high summer . There are plenty of House Martins , gangs of them feasting on the fly and midges , they I believe are the last to leave these shores for warmer climes and it is also a reminder that winter will be knocking on our doors very soon and so my season begins .
The final tally , nothing earth shattering but who cares , it was great to be out once again and I have a hefty bag of scrap , what a great hobby .
