DetectingWales.com

hello,
i have just started a new chapter in my life of treasure seeking. i recieved my first detector about lunch time today after spending about a year checking out which machine i wanted  to embark upon a relationship with. i ended up with a dfx for a multitude of reasons, hype probably being one of them. however, they also appear to have a solid following with seriously dedicated users. my reasoning is that this would not have happened if the machine did not live up to a great deal of its reputation. i did consider waiting til april to get the new tesoro tiger shark as i quite like the idea of a lifetime guarantee. however it is not time tested and therefore whites won the day.
i checked out my garden and collected £1.62, pleanty of old cut nails, a small brass door knob, a couple of tools i had left out there at different times, some scrap bits of metal, a metal button, an old brass door lock, and a strange brass screwy thing. may not be much but its my treasure!! ;D
i work as a psychotherapist, have 1 wonderful daughter and two grandchildren. we have a staffy called tweet tweet and live in hope of the great welsh cache that will allow me to retire before i reach 45. i have a few years left before i get there but i figured i'd best get on with it now  ::)
well this is me and i look forward to sharing my hoarde of nails in the near future xx

 ;D  Welcome to Dw mate , dont worry if you looking for a hoard of nail when you off detecting you will have no problems to find thousands of them in couple weeks , but hope you will master your new machine well and wish you some very nice finds  soon . best of luck . Napoleon. ;D

Welcome to the forum M-D, you have a god time tested machine in the DFX and I'm sure it will find you lots of enjoyable finds over the years. You would of been limited with the Tiger shark plus the lifetime guarantee is only for the USA. There are a few DFX users on here who I'm sure will be only to happy to help if you have any niggles.

Also there are probably a lot of members who could do with your help ;D (me being one of them :-[)

Welcome M.D. We look forward to hearing about your nail hoards. Unfortunately you wont be on your own.
I think you'll be most welcome at the Rallies. Most of us have back problems. Must be all the digging.
Always someone to help with any problems. All you have to do is shout.

Val

Welcome to the loony bin. This is where all the crazy, headphone wearing, mud splashing, cow-poo wading nutters hang out. If you see a load of us on a rally, it is surreal. Almost all of us do it in total silence, keeping at least 20 feet away from each other so our machines dont interfere with each other. Its a bit like fly fishing. You do it alone, in silence, almost shut off from the outside world, listening for the slightest sound that might be a worthwhile quarry.

I do it because the sound of the threshold blocks out the voices!

Apart from the aches and stiffness the next day after wandering for miles over rough ground, stopping occasionally to dig a hole and then fill it in, bending and standing, and swinging an Etrac that could take off a leg if you swing it too close to someone else, its a great hobby.

Getting covered in mud and manure, rained on and snowed on, frozen, roasted, and blown over, just adds to the fun.

Now and again you actually find coins and rings too!

Put with that a nice crowd who will help if anyone has a problem or quirk in their machine and its a perfect pasttime.

Eric

Welcome M-D. We now have at least three nurses, one psychiatrist and a psychotherapist on here. We could form our own multi-disciplinary team to deal with distressed detectorists.  ;)

The DFX is a good choice of machine. It has been around a long time, but is versatile and great on land or beach. I used one for several years, and still have it as a back-up, although haven't been out with it for a while. What settings have you tried so far? The pre-set programs are not great for UK conditions apart from Relic, and I'd advise you to move on to a custom program soon.

As far as I am aware, the master of the DFX on here is avalon. Tafflaff (Rob) also used one regularly until recently.

Once you get hooked on detecting, there's no looking back and the addiction is lifelong. Make sure you have therapy available for yourself!!

Welcome aboard mate their a good bunch on here, anything you need to know just ask and someone should have an answer. Good luck and good hunting  ;)
cheers
 Fred

perhaps with our finds we could arrange a multi-bed residential unit for those stressed out by junk!!
as far as settings go i have had a go with all the standard ones, bob bailey's inland 1 and a couple of others i found on the net, one being high trash as i discovered the secret stores of focuss nail department. another one was dp-high silver and one more called hi-pro. i think i am too early in my discoveries to say i noticed much of a difference between them other than i had a greater success with the programmed ones than i did with the standard fare. i need to get my head round understanding how to measure mineralisation as i have no clue. i am sure i read it somewhere  :o and all the little squeaks it makes, deciding which are real and which are bogus calls...

thank you fred  ;D

thanks eric, oddly enough i was running a double eliptical 8x6 today and i had my trowel in my right hand (im lefthanded) and as i was swinging my dark weapon of squeaky destructiveness the trowel was interfereing with the signal. it took a few empty digs to realise it, then i kept my trowel in my back pocket. i think i may well invest in a hard carbon trowel and it shouldn't matter at all then. i would have thought that the distance between my trowel and the coil head would not matter at all.... :o

thanks val  ;D
i'm hoping that my nail collection will improve over time and maybe find those illusive gold ones that are mythical in these parts....
i would indeed like to join some rallies at some point. i think i want to learn a bit about my black beauty first so as i do not look a complete retard when i link in with other well seasoned hunters  ;)

thanks chef geoff  ;D
i didn't realise the guarantee was only for american markets....hmmm well i'm glad of my choice then. i did like the look of the v3i but felt that at this juncture i cannot justify spending such a whopping amount. my v3i fund has £1.62 in it so far.... as i learn how little i know about the dfx i think many of the pro's on here will become a useful resource, now just another 1000 days to go to get my next tector!!  :o

thank you for your kind words indeed. i think if i collect all the rubbish i find then maybe i should trade it in at the scrap metal dealers, i may end up with a few pence for several tons of rust.... :o

Welcome to the forum - may meet you at a rally one day  :)

welcome...the site gurus will im sure be a font of knowledge..this is a cracking friendly site...im sure  you will fit right in..cheers paul

Hi M.D.
Reading some of your replies reminded me of some of the mistakes we all make. Me I play hell with sheep netting round the fields, DONT get too close.
I like to have a smoke but can't stand still for it so I loop my spade over my wrist, fag in hand and carry on. Big mistake. Every time my tector goes to that side I've found gold. ::)
And please don't fall for steel toe caps or a finds bag that flops around as you walk.
Happy Hunting.

Val

Welcome to the forum Buddy, i wish you well in your new found hobby,
Alan

welcome aboard mate,your in luck theres loads of nutjobs on here for you to study.
 plenty of advice and friendly bunch of loons.good luck and be prepered to dig a lot of scrap metal though.
 all the best
    mike
 :)

thanks mike, been having a bash today and the scrap metal collection is increasing!!

thanks for your kind words alan :-)

thanks for the tips val. i have found a way to listen to my ipod and detect at the same time, just have to avoid the lead swinging in front of the coil!
i had a fair go today and pulled out over 40 coins,
£3.60 being found in a little plastic bag. mostly new with a fistfull of georgian pennies. star of the day was a 22 carat gold ring which i gave to my daughter.

im sure i will need the guru advice too. learning all the squeaks and buzzes on my machine is quite a task. thank you for your welcome too paul :-)

thank you tyna, i look forward to it :-)

Well they'd all better watch out if you've only just started in the hobby. What  a great day you've had. Here's to many more. ;D

Val

I use a small spade with a fibre glass shaft, bought from B&Q building section, but they have stopped stocking that type and everyone else seems to have worked out that us obsessives want them so they have hiked the price.

A trowel is hard work to dig with especially in grassy surfaces. Unless you hold it like a dagger and stab the ground with it it gets painful after a bit.

I tend to keep the spade up on my shoulder because the Etrac can pick it up from about 3 feet away.

As far as learning the squeeks and groans, get a collection of the coins you have found and get hold of some hammered coins from ebay or dealers, they are only a few pounds, and bury them in some ground that you have cleared. Practice swinging over them and you will soon learn which ones to dig and which to avoid. I am not familiar with the audio signals from your machine but it usually is best to go by audio signal rather than any displayed numbers.

Eric

Just taking a little more time to absorb your posts - I must say that I'm amazed you've already struck gold so soon1!!  and 22k no less!!!!  Very,very well done indeed and I mean that most sincerely.  Not sure why you're using just a trowel though as you really need a spade to get down to the nitty gritty.  By all means carry a trowel as well to tease the goodies out.  May I suggest a plastic/nylon trowel so you inadvertently don't scratch any worthwhile potential artefact?  Sometimes (hopefully) you may be fortunate to walk over something that may be extremely delicate and stabbing with a trowel may break it up beyond all recognition.  Really look forward to meeting you at the rallies.   :)

Also may I recommend the Garret pro pointer probe?  it'll save you a lot of grief & effort on land   ???

Another tip - If you find a ring then grid the area in all directions - where there's one there's probably more  ???