bouncing tid's

[ronhob]

I've been getting fooled by the tid's when digging much over 5" on coin targets. I know better than to pass on the jumpy signals on older private properties, but it seems like my (best guess) is way off lately. Usually if I get a bouncy tid in the mostly 20's and 30's, it's a wheaty or possibly an IH. The other day I was expecting another wheaty, after digging probably close to 20 of them, and out came a 1918 buffalo nickle.
Sweet surprise, but makes me wonder if I've been over-looking nickles at depth at other sites. I don't really find all that many old nickles each year, so just makes me wonder about some of those REALLY IFFY signals that I, for the most part, pass up. I might add that I find PLENTY of newer day nickles, so it's not that I don't check good repeatables.
If I remember correctly, the tid displayed a 10 or 12 a few times, but mostly stayed bouncing in the 20's and 30's.

I also thought I had a nice silver a few times, only to be fooled by a wheaty!
Between the boy and I, we pulled close to 50 wheaties from one property.
We did manage to get 3 silver dimes, 2 IH's, a buffalo nickle, and a silver quarter as well, but not to good of ratio of silvers to wheaties.

I don't believe I've ever pulled that many wheaties off one person's property!

 

[rseasy1]

There are others here that can answer your question better than I,But I know nickles always gave me bounching TIDS. And the depth indicator can be a bit decieveing also!
Don't rely solely on the TIDS use the tones.Reading will be different on air testing than a coin in the ground.

 

[Old Longhair]

I'm going to start out by saying, "Congratulations on the finds!"

Next, and w/o getting into a game of 20 questions, I'd recommend tossing the whole idea of "finds ratios". There are way too many variables on private properties for them to be valid.

Beyond that, and more to the point, I'd can tell you what I'd do in your situation.
To begin with, if you're going to dig iffy's you're going to dig more trash. It's just part of the game.
At sites like you're describing, I'll often go to 3 or 4 tones. Then, peticularly if the site is iron infested, I'll notch out everything up to zero, which due to where the tone breaks are effectively becomes 2 or three tones that the machine will sound and I'll hear. What this does is make things less confusing to the ear than my normal 28 tones. TID's will still be jumpy, but it doesn't matter because I'm not paying much attention to it anymore. I'm listening to the tone, it's loudness, it's overall quality, and the range that corresponds. If over time it is determined that there is predominence of a peticular junk target, like pulltabs, I might notch them out too, or maybe just be aware of their TID and avoid them. Then I dig everything that's in the tone range(s) that I desire that produce repeatable coin sized and quality tones. Pinpointing is another part of the process that I use to make determinations on what to dig. Either of the Pinpoint modes or Prospect mode will help in judging the size of a given target.

Here's the tone break chart. Notice that if you notch out up to zero with 3 or 4 tones, the lowest tone will not be heard, making it effectivelly a 2 or 3 tone reponse.

[attachment 241805 XterraToneBreakChart.jpg]

Give it a try! Having a tone for each notch segment when chasing deep objects with jumpy TID's makes too many good targets sound like bad ones.

 

[BADBAJA]

It's in the tones when it starts getting deep or you will miss stuff. I noticed when the ground totally dried out I stopped getting as clear of a signal. Then I go to a park that is watered and almost a bog it's so wet and the coins just pop out no matter what the depth with a SOLID TIDs. So the soil has a lot to do with it. There is no magic number for ratio of silver to wheat. I know my yard was a clad and copper penny warehouse, at least 100 pennies and 1 wheat. The clad silver(newer coins) were almost non exsistant. About 2-3 dimes A quater and maybe a couple nickles. So even though my area is a newer area it's penny ratio far out weighed the silver clad.

Hit that area when wet if possible or water the lawn if you can and I bet you will go deeper and TIDs will lock onto them more solid. That's one of the reasons I try and find watered parks and schools. No point in going over a area twice when I know best pickings will be fall thru spring with the moist ground. Plus I hate plugging dry ground.

 

[mapper65]

Be sure to read up on the Coins Plus mode. Here is a Des Dunne video in which he explains Coins Plus. It should give you more stability but I only use Coins Plus mode for short periods of time and then turn it off after I've used it.

Des Dunne Explains Coins + Mode

 

[Mark in S.E. IA]

Here's my thought on the deep nickel TID's and keep in mind that I use a X505 and the 10.5 DD 7.5 coil so the coil that you use the ID numbers maybe different . I have found many Buff's over the years that showed ID numbers in the penny to dime range and may show a quick flash of # 9, 12 or 15. most times when I get those high numbers for the Buff's it turns out to be a no date buff. My V's tend to be in the higher range for nickels. it's common to see a quick flash of numbers 18 and 21 but it's the tones that gets me to dig those deep iffy numbers.

As far as the silver to wheat ratio.....I live by that rule. I don't care if you go to a park, old school or a yard. MOST, but not all the time you will get in the area of a 5 to 1 silver to wheat ratio. I've done 100's of yards in the 7 years that I have been MDing and I can think of only a few yards that I didn't get in the area of a 5 to 1 ratio. 1 yard I did in the past I found 32 wheat's and only 1 silver coin and I went over that yard 3 times, it happens but not very often. If you MD a lot for old coins you should keep track of your ratio over time. Each place you go to will be different so you need to keep track of it over time. So far this year I have found 463 wheat's and 151 Silvers so my ratio is 3.06 to 1.... if your ratio is higher then lets say 7 to 1 then you are walker over silver coins because you are doing something wrong and most times it's because your swinging too fast.......

 

[chuckciao]

Mark,
I am more and more convinced that your ratio point is valid. Over the past two weeks, I have found 6 wheats and one silver besides a lot of clad. I am hunting the same park that I have pounded for the past three seasons and have slowed my pace and concentrate on smaller areas. Let's hope your theory continues to hold!
HH
Chuck