A
Anonymous
Guest
Just a thought.....................
With all the talk re tone discrimination methods, I find it strange that nobody mentions that the tracking mode in the SD2200s and earlier Minelab auto ground canceling detectors can give a reliable indication as to if a deep target is ferrous or non-ferrous if understood properly. A mate and I have used this method for years now.
Some experimenting is needed but if the coil is moved over the target in such a way that the auto track is mainly coping with the target signal then upon testing the surrounding, previously confirmed balanced ground, it will show as noticeably out of balance if the target is ferrous but wont if non-ferrous. Obviously this won't work in non-mineralized ground or maybe over the deep pine needles in some State Forests, as the detector would see the surrounding ground much the same as air. Some common sense is needed such as noting whether the ground in general down deep is different than the topsoil but it gives good results and can be used to good effect and doesn't need a deep hole to test the signal. This method can be fooled by some targets such as that mongrel bit of wire or spike lying at 45 degrees to the horizontal and its off centre signal may indicate as non-ferrous and some flat large steel objects can also fool it but as long as the signal has a small amount of grunt and the ground is noticeably mineralized it works well and it errs on the safe side.
I still hate walking away from a target but I haven't ever seen this method say that gold is a ferrous object though as I said, it can work the other way round.
A recent test on a 7-ounce flat nugget showed no noticeable imbalance on the surrounding very highly mineralized ground where as a 3/8
With all the talk re tone discrimination methods, I find it strange that nobody mentions that the tracking mode in the SD2200s and earlier Minelab auto ground canceling detectors can give a reliable indication as to if a deep target is ferrous or non-ferrous if understood properly. A mate and I have used this method for years now.
Some experimenting is needed but if the coil is moved over the target in such a way that the auto track is mainly coping with the target signal then upon testing the surrounding, previously confirmed balanced ground, it will show as noticeably out of balance if the target is ferrous but wont if non-ferrous. Obviously this won't work in non-mineralized ground or maybe over the deep pine needles in some State Forests, as the detector would see the surrounding ground much the same as air. Some common sense is needed such as noting whether the ground in general down deep is different than the topsoil but it gives good results and can be used to good effect and doesn't need a deep hole to test the signal. This method can be fooled by some targets such as that mongrel bit of wire or spike lying at 45 degrees to the horizontal and its off centre signal may indicate as non-ferrous and some flat large steel objects can also fool it but as long as the signal has a small amount of grunt and the ground is noticeably mineralized it works well and it errs on the safe side.
I still hate walking away from a target but I haven't ever seen this method say that gold is a ferrous object though as I said, it can work the other way round.
A recent test on a 7-ounce flat nugget showed no noticeable imbalance on the surrounding very highly mineralized ground where as a 3/8