First Time Hunting In All Metal Mode

[mapper65]

Last year around this time I stumbled onto a grove in a local park that has produced 7 silver coins, 4 buffalos and a notable handful of wheats. I've been back to that grove no less than 7 times using about 4 or 5 different coils and have stripped it of nearly 200 coins in all. There is a new section to the grove and an old section. The newer section has only turned up clad and a few tokens but the older area near some trees has been were all of the silver, buffalos and wheats were found.

After reading Digger's book last night, I decided that I would give All Metal Mode a try this evening. Up until now, I pretty much only use All Metal Mode just to make sure I have a clear spot on the ground prior to Auto Ground Balancing.

When I arrived at the site I put on my 6" HF DD and headed over to the older area. Within a short time I pulled up 3 more wheats. After going over everthing as well as I could, I switched to the 10.5" MF DD. Within about 20 minutes I found a silver war nickel and a small ring. When I got home I cleaned up the nickel and it ended up being the last year for the war nickel, a 1945. The wheats were 1936,1941 and a 1946. After rinsing off the ring it ended up being a kids Dick Tracy ring! I did some searching online and it appears as though this was a 1940's radio premium. I thought that was pretty cool even though it's not in the best of condition. Im surprised that the paint on his hat has hung in there after nearly 70 years.

I have to say that in the future, I will probably only hunt in All Metal Mode, only in the right situation. This grove is really trashy so it was all I could do to listen to all of those beeps in 99 tone mode but I hung in there. I can now see the advantage of All Metal mode although it can drive you a little bonkers if the area is too trashy. In a moderate amount of trash I can see this being a better choice. Out away from where the main traffic in the grove would have been, it was much more bearable but where I expect most of the picnic activity was, it was a little crazy.

Thanks Digger for taking the time to put the book together. Even though prior to reading the book I felt that I've had a pretty good handle on my 705, there were a few things in the book that I hadn't considered. I think this book is a "must read" if you are just starting out and even if you have been using your X-Terra for awhile. I believe that there is something for everyone in the book no matter what level you are at.

 

[Digger]

Congrats on the finds and thank you for the comments. Glad you tried the All Metal mode with multiple tones. If you were to set up a Pattern mode with zero discrimination (or just notch out the -8 ), it would reduce the wrap around signals of deeply buried iron and let you concentrate on the pitch of the tones that you want to dig. Plus it will be the program that loads the next time you turn it on. (All Metal won't do that). You'll still get fooled by can slaw, pull tabs and aluminum screw caps. But since I am convinced there are more old coins still hiding out there due to masking (instead of being too deep to find), I find minimal discrimination and 28 tones to produce well. Thanks again. HH Randy

 

[mapper65]

So you are saying that the AM button is different than setting up a pattern with no Target ID's turned off? If that's the case I must have missed that somewhere along the way.

 

[Digger]

All Metal mode is different than having a Pattern with all segments accepted. All Metal will detect any metallic object. A Pattern will only accept targets who's properties have been accepted by the parameters of the notch segments, as established via the software. In other words, if all notch segments are set to be accepted, then targets with TID values within the parameters of the notch segments ( -8 to +48 on the X-70 and 705) will be accepted. If you look at the eBook, pages 86 and 87, and the earlier section explaining my theory of Circular Discrimination (where a piece of ferrite hit on -9 with the X-50), you will find my thoughts on how this works and why I prefe,r a Pattern with Zero Discrimination. Hope this helps. HH Randy

 

[mapper65]

Ok, just went back and re-read those two pages, that makes sense. I'll admit when I was reading the book my iPad crashed down on my chest a few times. That's what I get for reading in bed. It wasn't the subject material that was making me dose off, probably too many nights in a row of detecting catching up with me.

Last night when I used All Metal Mode I was getting a lot of +48's so I'll give the open pattern a try today.

Thanks again!

 

[TURNMASTER]

In the right circumstance AM or open pattern can work wonders. The problem is that I think it works best in the heavy trash. I run it in 4 tones. I still have issues with 99 tones, go figure cause I also run the Explorer. Of course with out the trash there is not much reason to run in disc.

Jeff

 

[mapper65]

I agree Jeff, I was in that situation yesterday. I went to an area that surprisingly had very little to no trash. I went with Digger's suggestion of running with no discrimination with the exception of -8 being turned off and hunting with my 10.5" DD HF coil. I thought to myself, I might as well leave discrimination turned off being that there was little to no reason for it. You just have to get yourself to be accustom to ignoring target id's that your typically not used to seeing with discrimination turned on.

I think my new outlook especially for park hunting or other places where it is moderate to highly trashy will be to hunt in my tried and true pattern 3 (that's my custom program for known American coins only) with the 10.5" DD HF coil first. If I start pulling up any old stuff or at least wheats, I'll clean the place out as best as I can and then I'll go back over everything with the 6" DD HF coil and discrimination set to pattern 1 which is only -8 turned off.

That might take a little more time but I think the 10.5" coil does such a great job and I can typically clean out an area really well with it. Sure it might be held back a little being that adjacent targets and trash may keep me from finding everything but then that's when the second go round with the 6" coil should clean out any remaining items. I just find it too hard to cover an area well enough with the 6" coil right out of the gate. Especially any sizable areas.

 

[Digger]

Hey Jeff, I also had problems with "99" tones the first couple years. If you go back to the early posts, I used 4 tones most of the time. After I figured out that there were only 28 tones (one for each notch segment), I realized that I didn't have to sort out 99 tones. I only had to tell the difference between 28!
Seriously, even thinking about hearing the pitch differences between 99 tones can be overwhelming. But once you recognize the basic pitch of each of the 28 tones, it is just a matter of ignoring the tones you don't care to dig and listening more closely for the tones representing target notches you are interested in. It took me awhile to get "use to" the multiple tones. But once it soaked in, it was all worthwhile. JMHO HH Randy

 

[TURNMASTER]

Yeah, I do understand that and the Explorer has a lot of tone range and I have been putting in a lot of time lately on that machine to see If I will keep it. I must be in the 150+ hour range on it now. I am still not sure, I am thinking Sov GT with extras for SE with extra coil.

I do find that there are some real subtleties to the 4 tones. Broken, dubbed off, scratchy coming and going things like that that make the difference between digging good coins and less trash. Now that I am several years into this hobby I have to wonder if I had spent more time with that BH I started out with, um, never-mind, it just was not well suited for my hunting, soil and temperament. The Troy I had for a bit I suspect if I had put more effort into learning the machine like I did the Xterra or the Explorer I may have kept it. I do like the multiple tones though and the Minelabs are set up in a fashion that works well for my machinist brain.

HH
Jeff