Find's Treasure Forums

Welcome to Find's Treasure Forums, Guests!

You are viewing this forums as a guest which limits you to read only status.

Only registered members may post stories, questions, classifieds, reply to other posts, contact other members using built in messaging and use many other features found on these forums.

Why not register and join us today? It's free! (We don't share your email addresses with anyone.) We keep email addresses of our users to protect them and others from bad people posting things they shouldn't.

Click here to register!



Need Support Help?

Cannot log in?, click here to have new password emailed to you

Changed email? Forgot to update your account with new email address? Need assistance with something else?, click here to go to Find's Support Form and fill out the form.

tones VS VDI numbers

gunwolf

Well-known member
just my observation, it will be different in different soil...
my copper memorials often hit at 12-44 sometimes 12-43, my wheats hit 12-43 sometimes 12-44, my clad dimes hit at 12-43- sometimes 12-45, and my Rosies so far have been 12-45 bouncing to 12-46 occasionally, but Mercs are 12-43, 12-44, 12-45 with no bounce...??? I used to use my depth as a gauge to determine what it was... well I have found a lot of copper memorials at 6" and most of my Mercs at less than 6".. today in a very stony clay area I got a nice smooth 12-43 solid tone at 3-4" deep... I thought Memorial or clad dime at first but the tone pitch was just a bit higher... I quietly said.. you have to be kidding me as I dug my plug... yep.. a 1918 Merc... 3" deep. the silver tone is starting to once again register after a few years off... Tones, tones, tones can't say that enough. I also noticed if i get a surface 12-35 or 12-40 (which is sometimes a zinc but most often a twist top or crushed twist top) I get a nice 12-45/12-46 as the edge of my coil gets close to the shallow target.. don't let this fool you, the tone and numbers are there, but if you take a minute to pinpoint and remove the shallow target you will see that is was falsing and there was no 12-45/46 target. as far as Nickels and tones go... I have had solid tones at 4" that were a beaver tail or ring pull, and broken tones at 2-3" that were nickels... Nickels are a crap shoot with me... I dug 3 Jefferson nickels today, all about 4"... one was a 11-11/12, one was a 12-12/13, and one was a solid 12-14 my pouch was filled with beaver tails, ring pulls and large foil that all rang in the same way, mid tones are my nemesis.. I can't seem to differentiate the tones with what the target may be... some nickels are scratchy, some are solid, some trash is scratchy some solid.
 
I love the learning process Wolf, you really seem to be dialed in again. PINPOINTING AND CENTERING THE TARGET is the first thing I do on any target, THEN I “work with it”. Good observation about the high readings off the edge, it can really fool the novice for sure!
 
Today I nocked my volume gain down to 22 from 30... I can listen to depth rather than stare at the screen... on 30 most targets toned at the same volume but by reducing to 22 the deeper sounds are slightly quieter and that is how I found both silver coins today... the silver washington was a faint 12-46/47 high pitch showing 6-8" on the depth scale... it was actually 10" deep in a sandy topsoil mix,. the merc was also just a faint tone solid 12-43 and was 6" in dry clay. I have been trying to play with the settings for my area... I'm getting closer each outing. The E-trac is a better machine than I am operator... I swear it will pull the coil toward anything silver...
 
Today I nocked my volume gain down to 22 from 30... I can listen to depth rather than stare at the screen... on 30 most targets toned at the same volume but by reducing to 22 the deeper sounds are slightly quieter and that is how I found both silver coins today... the silver washington was a faint 12-46/47 high pitch showing 6-8" on the depth scale... it was actually 10" deep in a sandy topsoil mix,. the merc was also just a faint tone solid 12-43 and was 6" in dry clay. I have been trying to play with the settings for my area... I'm getting closer each outing. The E-trac is a better machine than I am operator... I swear it will pull the coil toward anything silver...
Told you that detecting bug would bite you before your rest period was over. Congrats and thanks for your input to the etrac forum .
 
Nice when the lights come on and everything clicks. I have to agree with the tones being so important on the last 3 Minelab releases Etrac, CTX and the Equinox.
HH Jeff
 
another thing I noticed lately that is very important to my recent finds increase... it has not rained here in almost 3 weeks and the ground is VERY dry. The soil here is heavily mineralized and when wet I believe causes more "reflection" if you will.. and masks out good deeper targets because I have to run a lower sensitivity. with the ground being so dry I have been running on 28 sensitivity even with the 13" coil and I still get a threshold buzz, the E-rac has an easier time at least for me in seeing through the dry soil and locking on to good targets with almost no interference from the ground mineralization. I have been at 2 different spots that I hunted last month and could not operate the E-trac above 14 sensitivity, I pulled a bunch of good targets 6-8" out of both.
 
another thing I noticed lately that is very important to my recent finds increase... it has not rained here in almost 3 weeks and the ground is VERY dry. The soil here is heavily mineralized and when wet I believe causes more "reflection" if you will.. and masks out good deeper targets because I have to run a lower sensitivity. with the ground being so dry I have been running on 28 sensitivity even with the 13" coil and I still get a threshold buzz, the E-rac has an easier time at least for me in seeing through the dry soil and locking on to good targets with almost no interference from the ground mineralization. I have been at 2 different spots that I hunted last month and could not operate the E-trac above 14 sensitivity, I pulled a bunch of good targets 6-8" out of both.
Is it a white or black 13 " coil ? The black is supposed to be waterproof where the white needs a little silicone where the wire enters the coil ...under the boot or around it.
 
Is it a white or black 13 " coil ? The black is supposed to be waterproof where the white needs a little silicone where the wire enters the coil ...under the boot or around it.
it's the black coil...
 
another thing I noticed lately that is very important to my recent finds increase... it has not rained here in almost 3 weeks and the ground is VERY dry. The soil here is heavily mineralized and when wet I believe causes more "reflection" if you will.. and masks out good deeper targets because I have to run a lower sensitivity. with the ground being so dry I have been running on 28 sensitivity even with the 13" coil and I still get a threshold buzz, the E-rac has an easier time at least for me in seeing through the dry soil and locking on to good targets with almost no interference from the ground mineralization. I have been at 2 different spots that I hunted last month and could not operate the E-trac above 14 sensitivity, I pulled a bunch of good targets 6-8" out of both.
I came to the same conclusion about 12 years ago while detecting around an old school with red clay… the ground is so bad It is next to impossible to use a pinpointer without retuning it.
At this time, we had not had any rain for about 5 weeks and the ground was very dry.
I was using a Minelab Musketeer Advantage and started finding some relatively deep silver coins and wheat pennies…about week later, we got about 6” of rain and I noticed my finds decreased after that.
I feel the same as you that dry mineralized ground is better to hunt in than wet or damp mineralized ground… at least some types anyhow.
 
Top