Dig those jumpy signals

[rocknrolldad55]

I went to a park that we have hit at least six times since last summer. We have taken at least a dozen mercs,a few rosies and 1 standing liberty quarter.I had a few hours Sunday morning so i went there with a plan of hunting super slow and watching the tid. There is hot rocks and alot of nails in the end of the park where the silver came from. I ended up with 7 wheaties and a buffalo. The signals were very mixed with the good numbers only repeating very little. If i saw a repeating signal at all mixed with the grunts from the iron and junk i dug it. These were far from good signals. All the wheaties were in the holes with nails or some other junk.The buffalo still has me baffled. I didnt get a nickel tid with the buffalo. There was a couple hot rocks and a nail in this hole. The buffalo was in the side of the hole. I hunted with the 10 in dd in 18khz. I manually ground balanced and backed it down 5. My guess is there is alot more here to be found. My hunting partner is using a ctx he just got over the winter. He is still in the learning stage .Once he learns it he should clean this place out. If your using the 705 hunt slow. I passed these signals up im sure in the 6 times we were there. I will be going back with a different frame of mind and hunting super slow.

 

[Old Longhair]

Congrats on the finds!

Do you know why it worked that way? If you refer to pages 80-83 of Randy's E-book you will.
It is exactly why I personally don't like HF coils for that sort of hunting.

 

[Digger]

The buffalo still has me baffled. I didnt get a nickel tid with the buffalo. There was a couple hot rocks and a nail in this hole. The buffalo was in the side of the hole. I hunted with the 10 in dd in 18khz. I manually ground balanced and backed it down 5.

First off all, congrats on making more recoveries from that nasty site. As you have demonstrated, persistence pays off. Naturally, TID signals will not be "steady" when there are multiple targets under the coil. And in areas with lots of nails, the larger coil is more susceptible to "bouncing" TID than a smaller coil because it is analyzing a larger volume of soil (and targets) than a smaller coil would. By "backing down" (lowering the number of) the ground phase from what was the proper ground balance, you've actually made your detector react as if the ground were hotter than it actually is. That can also create falsing and be counterproductive to your hunt. I'd hit that area again, using a properly ground balanced set up. Then repeat everything else just as you did. If depth is not the main issue, you may even find running a negative offset (raising the ground phase) will help stabilize the detector in this particular site. JMHO HH Randy

 

[cypearl]

The buffalo still has me baffled. I didnt get a nickel tid with the buffalo. There was a couple hot rocks and a nail in this hole. The buffalo was in the side of the hole. I hunted with the 10 in dd in 18khz. I manually ground balanced and backed it down 5.

First off all, congrats on making more recoveries from that nasty site. As you have demonstrated, persistence pays off. Naturally, TID signals will not be "steady" when there are multiple targets under the coil. And in areas with lots of nails, the larger coil is more susceptible to "bouncing" TID than a smaller coil because it is analyzing a larger volume of soil (and targets) than a smaller coil would. By "backing down" (lowering the number of) the ground phase from what was the proper ground balance, you've actually made your detector react as if the ground were hotter than it actually is. That can also create falsing and be counterproductive to your hunt. I'd hit that area again, using a properly ground balanced set up. Then repeat everything else just as you did. If depth is not the main issue, you may even find running a negative offset (raising the ground phase) will help stabilize the detector in this particular site. JMHO HH Randy

Hello, congratulations for your findings rocknrolldad, I am having a question about when you say manually backed it down 5 GroundBallance and Randy says (lowering the number of) the ground phase, could that be explained to me please what would it mean, cause I am using the xt505 and GB is only manual, are there any deferences saying ''lowering or raising the ground phase''?

 

[Digger]

All X-TERRAs that allow the user to set a ground phase (ground balance) can be set either Preferred, positive or negative. By preferred I mean the manner described in the manual....bobbing the coil and listening to the audio. When we speak of setting a positive ground balance, it means to offset what the detector thinks is right, and making it more responsive to the mineralization. When we say to set it negative, it means to offset the detector from what it thinks is right, making it less responsive to the mineralization. The "confusing" part is that to set it positive, we lower the ground phase number on the display. To make it more negative, we have to raise the ground phase number. So on your 505, here is what you would do...... make the proper ground balance. After you have it set, look at the ground phase number on the screen. If you want to set your detector with a positive offset, press the left arrow and make that a smaller number. If you want to operate with a negative offset, press the right arrow pad to make it a larger number. The more times you press the pad, the more you offset the original ground phase. Keep in mind that the electronics are providing you with a procedure that the engineers determined to be the most accurate way of obtaining the proper ground balance. Moving it either positive or negative can have a dramatic impact on your results. HH Randy

 

[Mark in S.E. IA]

Congrat's on the nice finds...

Now that you got something figured out now when you run in to those iron patch places to slow down and not expect to get perfect signals on deep coins. When ever I go to a new place I look for spots like that because most times I find older coins because most other ppl that MD are looking for that perfect signal. most times at old schools and parks you need to check out the deep iffy signals to find the old coins. The ones that have some iron or other trash numbers mixed in with the better numbers.

Also Randy did a great job at explaining how the set up your GB to be positive or negative.

 

[tometusns]

cool, keep it up, like hearing the good reports!

 

[cypearl]

Thank's a lot for the explanation.