F5 and relic hunting

[blade310]

Before I bought my F5 a few months ago,I read bout every post on the F5 and I don't recall a whole lot mentioned about relic hunting with it. I got it mainly for coin and jewelry hunting but after several months of researching I have found several older sites with possibilities. I was just wondering if any of you guys or gals are doing any relic hunting with the F5 and if so whats your thoughts on it and what is your thoughts on coils. The areas I am going to be getting into are wooded areas. I would like to use the 5 inch coil which I hope to purchase before to long. or would I be better off using the 10 inch stock coil. I know I will eventually try them both but was hoping to get a few opinions. Mike H. you had mentioned somewhere about settings that you use or would use for hunting deeper coins with the F5 but I don't recall what they were. I should have written them down. Mike if you read this and would care to mention those settings again I would sure appreciate it. Any one else with any suggestions, tips or thoughts on relic hunting, deeper coin hunting
with this detector I welcome all the info. I can get. I've only hunted with the F5 a few times so I still don't know the machine that well. Thanks in advance.

one of the foundations I was able to track down after many hours on the Internet with maps and county histories etc.

 

[Todd.]

That site looks real tempting! I've only had my F5 a few months also and most of them have been under snowy conditions. I'm primarily hunting jewelry and coins but learning the machine every time I get out. I would think for relic hunting, running in all metal, high gain and as high thresh as you can would work well. Thats just my 2 cents as I say I hunt for coins and jewelry. I'm sure someone here in the forum has the right setup and I may be totally off base. Neat looking foundation though, I'll bet there's something good waiting to be dug up!

 

[blade310]

Hi Todd. Thanks for your input. I had one of my other detectors the day I went out and located this spot. the thought of taking the F5 never crossed my mind. I didn't have alot of time to detect that day (gets dark so early in the winter). Here are a few pics of what I found that day. these buckles were all piled together. I talked to a friend and he recognized them right away as harness buckles etc. they are not as old as this site itself but were interesting anyway. the other pic I am told is of parts of an old hay rake from teens or 20s maybe? the foundation is from the mid to late 1800s I believe. Can't wait to get in there again when I can take my time and slow it down. I think your right about some good stuff in there somewhere. How do you like the f5. I really like it although I have not had much time to hunt with it. I don't like freezing weather so I don't get out much in the winter (central Ohio) best of luck to you Todd! The last pic is of my new roommate . I told her she was going to do some detecting with me this summer so she is practicing with a feather.

 

[Todd.]

If your finding all those harness pieces then I would think that site may not have been hit to much or not at all. Sometimes when you see a picture you get a feel for whats there and that ground looks pretty good to me! I like my F5 although I am still learning it, sometimes I get impatient though and wish I knew it as well as my 20 year old XLT. But i'm picking it up pretty fast. I like your room mate! I have 2 sleeping on me right now and makes typing difficult! Keep me posted on what you find frrom that site when you get a chance to get back there. Around here (Northern Utah) the state parks division puts about 8" of fill dirt on the ground then lays sod on top. Finding a wheat penny or silver dime is all but impossible. I've dug aluminum cans at 12-14"! Right now I put a tornado coil on my F5 to go as deep as I possibly can But I would also like to pick up a 5" incher for those trashy sites where I know people have lost jewelry.

 

[redneckjimmy1980]

just a little input on the f5 with 10 inch coil. as this is my first detector i ever used,i'm gettin used to both the detecing part and detector. me personaly i run thres to the max,and turn down gain if she starts goin crazy. might be wrong bye doin that,but i found a musket ball the other day at a old camp,so cant be doin to bad and of course the damm anoying pulltabs.. one thing i notieced is if the target is close to the surface depending on what it is alot of the time it will ring in as a quarter dug lots of cans,and old farm equipment parts that wasnt to awfull deep that rang in high tone quarter. all yea i use 3 on the tone setting. also with the 10 inch coil when pinpointing the highest tone and lowest depth is perty close sweetspot is in the center of oval. after that when u detune it bye releasin the pin point and pressing again it moves to the toe of oval. when u got it pinpointed first time,release and press again wich brings it into detuned mode,slowly move coil till u get reading, move back off of it,then go back forward slow. gets ya al but dead on. sometimes i cant get it to pinpoint when i do the detune and not shure why. hope i helped ya some there on the coil part. let me know how ya make out on youer settings to for relics and stuff. did u happen to find any rings with it yet? just wondern wht they rang in as. gold and silver. all yea do u get alot of false readings with yoeurs as well? alot of the times in this one spot i been hunting it rings in high tone dig it then nothing. sometimes its a low low tone one way and a high tone the other. whats the deal thier? well good luck huntin that new site man got a few myself ones a old dineing hall from the cival war was used as a mill as well found old key,and 2 round metal things have no clue as to what they are

 

[autopilot42]

The F5 does very well with relic hunting. I like the 11DD for open areas and the 5dd for trash areas. My preference but I will take the DD's over the stock when hunting old home sites better separation. I set my disc to 7 to disc out square nails and listen for high tones and then did everything. I use the default d2 setting it seems to work for me. Typically my sett ting are 60 gain and +1 or 2 on the threshold. I am sure this will very depending on your situation. If you are a coin hunter you might like the stock coil better it seems to be a little more smooth. Just my experience.

Take care
Bob

 

[redneckjimmy1980]

i agree with bob on the dd coil over the stock 10 inch in my opinion i dont like the stock 10 inch at all mabey for coins i guess,but it sux for seperation of trash and stuff. sit a nail close to coin and u might get lucky enough to get a signal tht u would dig. never used the dd coil,but i have seen videos with it and from my experience with the stock 10 inch wish i would ove spend the xtra bucks for the dd coil. one ? bob if u run youer thres above +2 do get alot of chatter? just wondern i been runnin mine maxed out for most areas and not much chitter chatter at all. have to turn gain down some in certain areas,but mabey i shold turn the thres down instead?

 

[blade310]

Hi redneckjimmy. I found a nice silver pendent with the F5 but no rings or gold yet. I had the gain set at 75 and the threshhold at +3 and it hit at a solid 86 at 4'' down. 7grams.

Hey AutoPilot thanks for the input. I may get a chance to take the f5 out this afternoon. All I have at the moment is the stock coil so I'll have to play with it. I would like to get some hunting done on this site before all the vegetation and crap grows back. I remember last year it stayed wet all spring and was some muddy hunting. I not real fond of a big DD coil but I will probably get one. I like the idea of the small DD coil in areas where its hard to maneuver . Good luck to you guys. Hope I can make some finds worth posting.

 

[autopilot42]

If you max your threshold dial and then turn the gain to max it will run silent and seems to be imune to emi for the most part. You will loose about 1 inch of depth and at the fringe it will seem choppy, something that might be built into the software of the machine. Even with these settings you still have good depth but you loose the nice audio on fringe targets. The thing to remember is to look at dirt meter and if it is 3 bars or higher you will loose sensitivity to targets if you run the gain too high then you are better to run a lower gain and a higher threshold from my experience. You have to remember the only time the dirt meter is accurate is when you pump the coil over the ground as if you were ground balancing the machine. I think the 5 dd is the best accessory coil for the F5. You will get great separation and decent depth. In my test garden the 5 dd easly id"s a 6" dime with some room to spare. My soil is red clay that balances about 60 and has two bars on the dirt meter. I am in the Fredericksburg VA area. If I get another coil it will be the new 5X10 DD since it is a solid coil. The problem I have with the 11DD is you get hung up on stuble because of the open frame. I guess we will have to see how the tax return is this year and maybe I will get one.

Take care

Bob

 

[blade310]

Thanks bob, I'll take all this information out and see what I can do with it. sounds like your in a good area for relic hunting. Best of luck.