Polly's Parlour — XP ADX150 & Garret Pro-Pointer AT Field Test (Part 2)

My testing of our new equipment continues, and I am thorough about these things. I have already passed the Garret Probe with flying colours because I can see nothing wrong with it, but only everything right about it. It's just bloody useful! It's really handy when the ground is wet when dividing clumps of soil by hand is just horribly filthy work. It's nice and loud. The beeping starts off slowly and gets faster and faster as you near the object until it is positively screaming at you, "here it is!". The side scanning is very useful for locating tiny objects that the tip cannot quite locate. What else? 

Well, it's industrial! Maybe even, indestructible ...

Cash well spent!

The XP is proving itself too. I hate wearing headphones but with this machine, you really have to because running on loud-speaker, it is just not loud enough if you're near any source of background noise. I guess this lack of volume would be OK out in the middle of nowhere, but Coventry is not that. The headphones supplied with the machine are comfortable lightweight ones that clip over the ear — but the lead is very thin and gets tangled up in the coiled wire running up the detector's stem from time to time. It does have a volume control though, and this is proving a good thing.

Also, that they don't mask out background sounds, and my being afraid of approaching bulls that approach unheard from the rear — I do like!

This was planned as a thorough 4-hour test session. I wanted to see what the machine could do right in the thick of the busiest part of the field which is polluted with iron. Actually, I didn't know quite how contaminated it was until I had found the first interesting item — an aluminium disc, that when covered in muck looked much like the many other pieces of modern aluminium trash that also pollute these fields. Only when I wiped it clean did I see a mass of numbers on the one side and some kind of design on the other. 

It took a while, but with a bit of extra elbow grease I saw that it was a calendar of some sort and what was really great about this item was that it dated the activity on this site very accurately indeed. 

To exactly 1902!

It's very rare to find anything quite as reliable for dating purposes as this because the object was valid for one year only and was neither of use nor ornament thereafter. Therefore, I conclude that it was chucked in the hay in celebration at the stroke of midnight, New Year's Eve, 1902 — and at a party!

And I didn't even know that aluminium was 'invented' by this date. Well, you will learn something new each and every day ...

Somehow, I had inadvertently switched into 'all-metal' mode in the process of retrieving this find but carried on regardless just to see what would come of it. I was immediately swamped with signals, all of which I dug. Most were of iron objects, of course. However, many were not and the next find proper was a large piece of silver in the form of a very crumpled Victorian fob watch casing. This was stamped with neither maker's marks nor hallmarks upon the interior. Just plain plain it was. Which I thought odd ...

... cause it should have been!

On the first field test, I had asked the 150 to achieve a recovery rate of 30 non-ferrous targets per hour, scrap or good, and this was easily achieved. I had also asked if it would, 'achieve the expected outcomes of at least one shirt button, at least one coin, perhaps a toy and a surprise item too?' and it almost had, and in just an hour and 20 minutes before the session was finally rained off. 

Working with it today and within the busiest spot in the field it was soon clear that it would sail past the 30 per hour mark without any trouble. However this second test session was to be three-times the length of the first, and so it would be desirable for it to also locate at least a couple of coins, at least a couple of shirt buttons, a surprise item and certainly one toy. 

It had already provided the surprise find and in addition, one of precious metal (now added to the desirable outcomes list!) A little later it provided a branded shirt button too but unfortunately, I've discovered to my dismay that copper alloy items do not come up in good condition within the darker soil at the epicentre of activity, and this example was too rotten to decipher. Also, for some reason shirt buttons seem much rarer inside this area of business than they are outside ...

OK, the toy and the coins were left to go at. The coins came along at a steady rate and I wound up pocketing five in the four hours — the earliest was a very worn George II halfpenny and is the oldest coin from the the whole set of fields thus far — a penny, halfpenny and farthing of Victorian to Edwardian dates — and a tiny copper coin (probably European) that was pierced for suspension which carries a shield on one side and a crown on the other. It's in poor condition but I will be able to identify it, somehow.

There was also an early nineteenth-century military button of probably, The Prince of Wales' own 10th Light Dragoons. It's very slight in detail, but I will find it out because I do adore early military buttons! 

Between these items came other items of marginal interest value, but also came the now quite predictable finds of children's toys ...

The first of these was the most interesting find of the day. I think that many detectorists may have discarded this item as just another encrusted hexagonal nut from some piece of machinery, and at a glance, it really does look like such a thing. Without prior knowledge, I might well have consigned it to the scrap bucket too, but I knew better having already found an example (4-sided example) many years ago. Although the encrustation was really heavy and it obscured all detail below, I knew full well that there would be a command stamped upon each of the faces of this six-sided polygon.

These small brass items are known as, 'teetotums'. Spinning tops are what they are — but also they are gaming pieces and here at Polly's Parlour they were probably spun by small Edwardian boys playing against each other for nothing more costly than match sticks. However, they could also be used for more serious forms of hard-cash gambling and so the menfolk who certainly frequented this field may have used them here to fritter away the womenfolk's housekeeping money! 

(Come to think of it, where are these womenfolk? I have found very little here to suggest their presence thus far ...)

After I have carefully cleaned this item, when hopefully I'll reveal its secret messages, I will publish here both examples in my ownership, and explain their usage and long, long history. 

Shortly after this first toy another two more came along, or at least what remains of them. At some distance apart I found a man's arse and then a horses arse! Unfortunately, these were fragile hollow-cast toys and so they had broken apart in the soil. Nevermind, the rest of them will be down there somewhere and in time, no doubt, I'll find all the tiny, tiny fragments ... 

My arse will I! 

Find of the day — and absolutely not a hex nut!

In conclusion, despite never having bothered to use a probe before now, having used the Garret Pro-Pointer AT on two sessions I think it is now an essential item of my equipment. I really cannot fault it in any way and though it is pretty expensive, well, professional tools are never cheap, are they?

The XP ADX150 may be viewed as an 'entry-level detector' but really, it is clearly no such thing. By any standard, this is also a professional tool and appeal to me greatly because just as with the B1, you only need to learn how to set it up at whatever is optimum for the site, and just go. It is lightweight and the mounting of the control box behind the elbow provides counterbalance which makes the often gruelling task of swinging a coil about for many hours on end, almost effortless. This is an important consideration because detecting can cause long term joint problems of the wrist, elbow and shoulder should the balance be incorrect.

Also, I really like the way that the 150's stem collapses for storage and transport. Ergonomically, speaking it is ideal. In fact, I like the stem and the overall balance of the ADX150 so much that I am seriously considering upgrading my trusty old Laser B1 by buying a complete XP stem and mounting its control box and coil upon it! 

But is it an able detector? And will I be able to trust it in Judy's entry-level hands?

Well, as you can see from the recent finds that I've made with it and the scores that it has achieved — it is and I can.