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| Chas. H. Fletcher's Castoria Bottle. |
Here is another bottle I found Sunday. It is a very common Castoria bottle. I've found a few of them. On the other side of the one, in script is embossed Chas. H. Fletcher's.
Below is the new find with an older one found back some time ago.
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| Two Castoria Bottles of Different Ages and Showing Different Embossing. |
The bottom one is the older find and is the older bottle. It is embossed Dr. S. Pitcher's rather than Chas. H. Fletcher's.
These bottles are so common and have been so well studied that you can arrive at a positive date by studying the bottle.
For an extensive study see the following SHA site.
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The Decision to Use Discrimination or All-Metals Mode.
There were several years that I never used discrimination. They were some of the best detecting years of my life. The detectors I used almost all the time back then didn't even have a discrimination mode. They were designed for one thing - finding gold on saltwater beaches. And that is what they did.
Several factors made it practical to dig everything. First, the sites were beaches where the proportion of good targets to junk was high.
On beaches, targets will be classified or separated, especially in the wet sand - not so much by weight ('I've talked about that myth many times before), but by density and shape. Areas where aluminum and other junk concentrates will not be the areas where gold jewelry concentrates, so the strategy is to find the areas where you'll more likely find the good targets rather than spend your time picking through junk. You might consider that a type of discrimination, I suppose - you are discriminating the areas that you hunt. When doing that, junk targets are very significant because they can tell you where different kinds of things are concentrating. Dug targets, both good and bad, provide good information and help you decide where to spend your time. When you get to a good spot, there are few bad targets, and you want to detect those areas very thoroughly. That tells you why you won't need, or want, discrimination, in those types of situations.
There are times, however, when you will want to use discrimination. There are times when there is so much junk you simply would not have enough time to dig everything. There are sites, such as many land sites, where there is little sifting and sorting of targets. I say "little" because there can be sorting on some land sites such as when you have creeks or hills, etc., or where there used to be more active geological processes.
Anyhow, consider a few scenarios.
1. My railroad wreck site. There is so much junk there that it will take me forever to dig everything. I've already covered it many times and there is still tons of junk (mostly iron) and possibly a few good targets remaining hidden. Even if someday I actually clean it out, if that is possible, it is not a place that I would detect in all-metals mode until the very end. I don't expect to do that.
2. A beach like Walton Rocks that has tons of junk. There are times when there is more junk than others, and there are times when you might find a few areas where you might want to go all-metals, but much of the time you will probably want to use discrimination. Most of the time, it would be a real pain to use a metal detector like the ATX at Walton Rocks. It would drive most people crazy and waste a lot of time digging copper and iron.
3. Overhunted beaches or beaches where large areas have been cleared by recent high water and erosion. In those cases, you will be able to read the beach to select the best areas for using all-metals.
4. You have been hunting and found a hot spot and possibly gone over it a few times and know that it is an area most likely holding at least a few high value targets. In that case, you can spend your time covering the hot spot thoroughly, going over it multiple times in all-metals mode.
5. Consider a beach that you plan on hunting on a frequent basis. Maybe it is close to your home. If you pick up as much junk as you can on your visits, gradually the amount of junk will be reduced so you can use all-metals. When I was hunting a lot, I cleared several beaches like that so there just wasn't a lot of remaining junk to worry about.
So the decision can be based upon several factors. Those factors can include the amount of junk and number of good targets, the likelihood of high value targets, the condition of the site, the amount of time you have, and your personality. Some people simply have less patience with digging junk.
It is not a bad idea to sample the area first to get a some idea of what the ground holds and then switch modes after you gather some information.
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We'll be getting some slightly negative tides and some small surf. Nothing much other than that.
Good hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net