Help in Defining the Mineralization of S.E. Penna.

[GTzer]

Hi. Got a lot of great info and feedback from Digger and other members in my "Introduction & Reinforce my choosing an Xterra 705"
Topic. I described my area as "Heavily Mineralized" So the advice was to get the Gold pack 705 with the 10x5 DD 18.75 khz coil for coinshooting. Seems like logical-good advice IF indeed my soil as is described.
I never professed to be an expert so I'm asking for some back up or corrections to my assertion. (so I purchase-initially- the proper coil).
In SE Pennsylvania the soil in mostly clay deposits around predominately eroded metamorphic rocks. The second most common deposits would be alluvial/glacial gravel. There is not much in the way of sedimentary rocks or loam type soils. plenty of iron in the soil and a lot of "hot rocks".
Would you define this as Heavy Mineralization? Feel free to chime in regarding the type of coil that would be best for coinshooting in this area for the Xterra 705.

Thank you,
Greg

 

[Digger]

Some of the hottest ground in the US is located a few hours south of you, in and around Culpeper County VA. If you have plenty of iron and hot rocks, I'd guess you'd be considered highly mineralized. But before you invest in equipment you may not use, here are a couple links to get your started.

http://extension.psu.edu/agronomy-guide/cm/sec1

http://soils.usda.gov/survey/printed_surveys/state.asp?state=Pennsylvania&abbr=PA

You might also make a visit to your local county extension office. Or, pay a vist to the local metal detecting club or local detector dealer and see what they have to say.


HH Randy

 

[techdetect]

I just saw your post about looking up the USDA.gov site about soil mineralization. Thanks that is a start for me. I have a question for you though. After looking at the data and seeing that Loam, silt, and the other types of soil that they describe as being where i live (Central to south central, Indiana (Marion / Johnson / Brown / Shelby counties) I don't know where to start after that. What types of minerals in the soil and at what concentrations of those types of soil would impact the detector. Basically, how could i determine if my soil is heavily mineralized by looking at the chart. Can you speak about that as my geology is a bit rusty, no pun intended.

I am looking to buy a low 3 kHz frequency coil but I just didn't like the size of it. I was leaning toward the 10" DD MF looking for deep stuff in open farm fields with little trash. I already have the 5x10 DD HF eliptical and i can't complain, as i know that it will go to 7inches - 9inches as my pro-pointer was all the way in the hole for several digs. I wanted to cover a large area but with the 5x10 it seems that I really have to go slow when i am at certain places, which is where i would say it was heavily mineralized by iron nails, alluminum bottle tops from old ketchup bottles ect... But not all places I go have this type of trash and I am worried about missing good targets. Thanks in advance for you reply. HH>

 

[GTzer]

Great links Digger!
Techdetect-Digger would be the guy to ask. But check out some of his and other coil descriptions in my Topic:
Introduction & Reinforce my choosing an Xterra 705 some of your questions are answered there.

I am getting the Gold Pack with the 5x10 DD HF eliptical due to the mineralization in my area.

Just my opinion but I think your area would be considered regular to lower mineralization and LF could benefit you.
Iron in the soil is much different that iron trash -that not mineralization-that is just trash or relics. My new understanding is that the HF coil is well suited for picking targets in trashy areas. 6" HF probably the best.
In non trash areas LF would most likely give you stronger & deeper signals on silver & copper.

 

[GTzer]

Still would welcome any opinions. Checking other sources for confirmation. BUT it would cool if any SE Pa MDers would chime in.

 

[GTzer]

Don't mean to over do it-BUT
Could some one please either AGREE or DISAGREE with my opinion that South East Pennsylvania is Heavily Mineralized?

 

[GTzer]

I'm going to bump this to the top again BECAUSE

I'd like some more feedback
There is a similar quest for info in the Stock or Goldpack Topic
And Randys link above could assist that discussion and other folks.

 

[Old Longhair]

If you had/have a 7.5kHz coil, there is a method of actually measuring the interfering soil components.

http://www.findmall.com/read.php?55,574329,574329#msg-574329

Procedure in Normal GB mode with GB Tracking "OFF" and Sens=20:

A. Auto-noise cancel in the area you will hunting with the coil held 3 feet above the ground and parallel to it.

B. Locate a target free area of soil.

C. Engage Normal GB & remain in the GB screen.

D. Place coil on the soil. Do not press the coil against the ground! This will distort the coil shape and give an inaccurate result. Simply allow the weight of the machine to lightly keep it against the ground.

E. Press the Auto GB button and raise coil about two feet above the ground before Auto GB has completed. If by the time you reach the apex of pulling the coil up to two feet it doesn't complete, then pump up and down from just above the ground to two feet high as accurately as possible. Recall that Auto GB signals with a tone when completed.

F. While still in GB mode press and hold Patterns button to get the numbers. The numbers are six digits in length but read out in three groups of two that will repeat if the Patterns button is held down. Therefore 99 99 99(almost a million) is the largest number possible and 0(00 00 00) is the smallest. Forty-six thousand would appear as the following sequence, 04--60--00. Make a note of the numbers which we will call the "IRON NUMBER"(Magnetite...Black-Sand).

G. As a reference, numbers in the thousands are mild ground, medium grounds tens of thousands , and hot hundreds of thousands. For clarity:

1. 0(zero) >> 10K mild ground.
2. 10K >> 100K medium ground.
3. 100K >> 1M hot to scorching.

Procedure in Beach GB mode with GB Tracking "OFF":

The same as above in normal GB except that your are measuring conductivity. Great for Ocean beaches, salt flats, & dried up lake beds etc. I would also take three samples in the exact same spot and average them to get an average number, using either of the above procedures.

 

[GTzer]

Old longhair,
Thanks! Was aware of this from reading and I was going to start collecting numbers and posting them. Just noticed the SPECIFIC COIL that i don't possess at the moment.