One of my sites is a very good site but what I would also describe as my "nightmare site!" It's of Roman origins and has a mass of iron and pockets of mineralization so severe it is difficult to work and pull anything out of! 

Walking in, I stayed at the edge of the field for a while trying to get used to the new X-TERRA 505 detector. I soon found several small targets embedded in the layers and folds of the ploughed surface including a pigeon ring, some shotgun cartridges, a lead weight and yes...a few Roman grots. 

Having summoned up the courage I then headed for one of the worst spots. Lowering the coil to the ground I did a manual ground balance procedure, difficult mind you to get the machine to even out but I accomplished this by reducing the sensitivity down to about three quarters of the power and slowly began to work the area. 

Moments later I was rewarded with a 'clatter' sound, small and sharp and soon pin pointed where the sound was coming from and recovered a very nice Roman bronze coin. Soon a few more of the same targets came up and I began to get more confident about the abilities of the 505 to work in such terrible ground conditions. The iron was easier to distinguish than with my other motion machine as it rarely gave repeatable sounds and blanked a lot so I ignored those sounds and didn't dig much of it. 

After a while I stopped to take a break and examined the finds: I had a Denarii, 12 Roman bronzes, some more grots, part of a Roman fibula, a thin bent silver disc, a pewter button, a few pieces of lead and the others mentioned earlier. 

This was my best day on this site and I will be returning soon to give it another go. 

Dave Turner - Hants UK