HI, all:
Had my first time out in the field with my new Vista Gold. Chose an old house site located on top of the highest hill within miles around. Old timers say the house was hit by lightning...twice. The last time burned it to the ground over 50 years ago. I had hunted it some with a CTX3030 previously and new it was trashy. I wanted to see what the Gold would do right out of the chute in a trashy site. Didn't expect to find coins and so I wasn't dissapointed when I didn't. I set it up with max sensitivity. I figured it would let me know if was too high. It was totally silent until a target was hit. Started in 2 tone. The manual says in 2 tone the disc. knob acts like a volume control on the iron side. I counldn't see much difference in turning it down, and when I did it seemed to hit more iron toargets, so I started in silent and would double check signals in 2 tone. The trick of sliding the coil back to hear a low grunt on big iron worked quite well. I worried I was sliding onto a seperate iron object, so I would slide the coil in two seperate direcions and if it gave the low grunt on the target edges both ways, it was iron. I did recieve a number of signals where the grunt would be on one side, but not the other. Several times I dig non ferrous targets when that happened, so beware when doing the iron grunt test. If I got iffy grunts, I'd check in all four directions. Dug several iffy targets that were iron and several that were non ferrous, so if in doubt...dig it. I did finally try turning down the volume knob to about ten oclock and was able to get less of an iron signal. I was still abel to hear the good signals quite well with my Pro Gold headphones. I was able to run it that way the rest of the day. Did get some false readings, but they were easy to determine. Any signal with a clipped tone or a harsh tone was trash. A good non ferrous signal had a sweet sound to it. Didn't takelong to hear the difference.
I was concerned about battery usage. I hunted for five and a half hours with rechargeable batteries and it still had battery life. Works for me. The only thing I really don't like about the unit is you need a tiny screwdriver to change the batteries. I can see out in the field trying to change batteries and keep track of that tiny screw. I went through my collection of small scres I've accumulated over the years and found three that I put in a little baggy to carry with me, along with a small scredriver. The unit islightweight and well balanced.
So, how did it perform in this high trash area? I set discrim to knock out nails and only dug two all day. They were both in holes with non ferrous targets. I did dig some larger iron pieces that had enough of a good signal to warrant inspection. Dug a lot of harness rings and buckles, which is a given for any relic hunter. One of the iron signals was a hatchet. Nice relic. I was also able to dig sixty one non ferrous targets out of the mess. Mostly bits and pieces of brass junk. Some copper and lead, as well as some tin. Didn't post a picture because who wants to see a pile of dirty non ferrous junk. Did find a cheap pocket watch and several old brass buttons. I think digging that much non ferrous stuff out of that much iron makes the Gold a relic hunters dream for iron infexted areas. I am pleased with the results. It will do exactly what I bought it to do. Thanks you Deep Tech and Extreme Detecting.
Now, off to my Civil War era ghost town to see what my F 75 SE and Blisstool have missed.
keep on diggin'
jimmyk in Missouri
Had my first time out in the field with my new Vista Gold. Chose an old house site located on top of the highest hill within miles around. Old timers say the house was hit by lightning...twice. The last time burned it to the ground over 50 years ago. I had hunted it some with a CTX3030 previously and new it was trashy. I wanted to see what the Gold would do right out of the chute in a trashy site. Didn't expect to find coins and so I wasn't dissapointed when I didn't. I set it up with max sensitivity. I figured it would let me know if was too high. It was totally silent until a target was hit. Started in 2 tone. The manual says in 2 tone the disc. knob acts like a volume control on the iron side. I counldn't see much difference in turning it down, and when I did it seemed to hit more iron toargets, so I started in silent and would double check signals in 2 tone. The trick of sliding the coil back to hear a low grunt on big iron worked quite well. I worried I was sliding onto a seperate iron object, so I would slide the coil in two seperate direcions and if it gave the low grunt on the target edges both ways, it was iron. I did recieve a number of signals where the grunt would be on one side, but not the other. Several times I dig non ferrous targets when that happened, so beware when doing the iron grunt test. If I got iffy grunts, I'd check in all four directions. Dug several iffy targets that were iron and several that were non ferrous, so if in doubt...dig it. I did finally try turning down the volume knob to about ten oclock and was able to get less of an iron signal. I was still abel to hear the good signals quite well with my Pro Gold headphones. I was able to run it that way the rest of the day. Did get some false readings, but they were easy to determine. Any signal with a clipped tone or a harsh tone was trash. A good non ferrous signal had a sweet sound to it. Didn't takelong to hear the difference.
I was concerned about battery usage. I hunted for five and a half hours with rechargeable batteries and it still had battery life. Works for me. The only thing I really don't like about the unit is you need a tiny screwdriver to change the batteries. I can see out in the field trying to change batteries and keep track of that tiny screw. I went through my collection of small scres I've accumulated over the years and found three that I put in a little baggy to carry with me, along with a small scredriver. The unit islightweight and well balanced.
So, how did it perform in this high trash area? I set discrim to knock out nails and only dug two all day. They were both in holes with non ferrous targets. I did dig some larger iron pieces that had enough of a good signal to warrant inspection. Dug a lot of harness rings and buckles, which is a given for any relic hunter. One of the iron signals was a hatchet. Nice relic. I was also able to dig sixty one non ferrous targets out of the mess. Mostly bits and pieces of brass junk. Some copper and lead, as well as some tin. Didn't post a picture because who wants to see a pile of dirty non ferrous junk. Did find a cheap pocket watch and several old brass buttons. I think digging that much non ferrous stuff out of that much iron makes the Gold a relic hunters dream for iron infexted areas. I am pleased with the results. It will do exactly what I bought it to do. Thanks you Deep Tech and Extreme Detecting.
Now, off to my Civil War era ghost town to see what my F 75 SE and Blisstool have missed.
keep on diggin'
jimmyk in Missouri