REVIER
Well-known member
This is about something I just learned so I will post this long thing in case some other Fisher owner might read it and maybe take something from it that they can use to find that next great thing.
Not saying I am an expert, I just observe things and report back if they are helpful to me.
For me, in this soil with my equipment this is a lesson I will use well in the future.
Kansas soil I usually ground balanced at numbers from mid 40's to mid 50's...1 bar on the dirt meter if that.
Alabama soil is usually mid 60's to the mid 70's with 2 or 3 bars on the dirt meter every time.
Moved from Kansas back to Bama.
Went from rich dark beautiful soil to red mineralized iron infused garbage.
I lived here before and started my career here so I knew what I was in for, still it is hard to go from Hades to heaven and then back again.
In the good stuff I found I could zero in on most good targets with my F2 and narrow the signal down to good tones with only a 3 number jump or less.
Those were the type of signals I chose to dig most of the time, anyway, and did extraordinarily well.
When I switch to the F70 I tried to do the same but the much greater power this thing had made it difficult at first.
I had stuff jumping all over the place and dug a ton of everything even with 10 number and section jumps as I learned.
Slowly I got better and was able to get that down to more like a 5 number jump or less...usually less, so I was back to using my 3 number rule most of the time on the shallow stuff unless the signal sounded extra good.
Deeper stuff the rules were different but most targets I came across were 5" or less.
This worked well in that good soil with 3 different coils and usually no matter what tone settings I was using from all metal to mono tone to multiple tones.
Challenging sites with tons of iron were different and that 3 number rule didn't work at all in that situation but I figured out 2 ways to be successful in that stuff one using disc and another using all metal.
Now I am back in this devil dirt and I am doing pretty well just bopping around but I notice even using the small sniper coil it is really difficult to get a stable non jumpy number on my screen over good targets in the soil unless it is very shallow like an inch or less.
I have been hunting some pretty trashy areas including one with a bunch of iron and I have done pretty good in disc but eventually found all metal works better.
Even with my sense and thresh maxed out I still might get some noise from EMI and all the little bits and pieces of metal in the ground but the F70 still stops the jumping and tells me when I am swinging over a good target like a coin.
If they are a bit deeper it might not stay in that 3 number jump but I can amend my rules to 5 numbers easily.
I found that turning and hitting the target from 90 degrees and watching for close to identical numbers, or block of numbers, helps me to tell trash from treasure most of the time.
I practiced using all metal in the woods a lot in Kansas, I also used it more and more in my regular park sites and got pretty comfortable with it.
I noticed over time even in areas with high EMI and with the settings turned up to the highest levels I seemed to be getting the most accurate and stable signals in both the tone and the numbers on the screen using all metal over my other choices so that is why I kept using it more and more till it became natural and a go to choice more often than not.
I used to use disc to hunt in and then all metal as a check at the beginning...now I have turned that around 180 degrees and do the opposite most of the time.
Now one thing you need to know is I discovered hunting areas with iron, and that would be huge pieces or even small like nails or screws, if they are rusty they usually throw off some high coin numbers and even seem like they might repeat sometimes but in reality they don't and these high signals could actually be several inches away from where the actual rusty item is located.
I usually would use the pinpoint button if I suspected iron and found the exact location and by swinging over that area with the center of the coil I could then see the iron numbers only show up...no jumping to a higher range if that target was the only one under the coil.
By moving the coil to the area where I got those first ghostly high numbers with the pinpoint button I found nothing was there so doing all this quickly and efficiently helped me avoid digging a ton of iron and concentrate on the good stuff instead.
Yesterday something happened and I had another one of those AHA moments when I learn something new and useful.
Love when that happens.
I was walking back to the house from a trip around the neighborhood hitting curb strips, I was in all metal and as I was walking back to my porch I was swinging over part of my well hunted front lawn and saw some high numbers flash by.
I stopped and swung my sniper coil slowly over the area and I kept seeing the same block of numbers repeat with no drops to lower areas like iron in this lawn likes to do, and turning and hitting it from 90 degrees the same numbers were still there.
I didn't think I left anything in this lawn after hunting it so much in the past but I had to dig it to see and a silver coin popped up...surprise surprise.
Cut to this morning when I decided to hit my lawn again, and two of the neighbors also both of which I have hunted in the past.
I had lots of those high number signals in the past that I didn't dig because they jumped too much for my taste, plus I was swinging at my usual speed which is not the slowest but works most of the time for me but in this area in this soil a little too fast might result in a slight number drop that simulated iron which I remember seeing on many of those.
Change of plans today...I vowed to go real slow and see if I could find some of those high number signals.
If I could, I would stop and move the coil over them in short swipes but not too fast, and then turn and do it again from 90 degrees.
If they didn't drop, especially to iron, I would dig them.
Well the results of this little excursion are in the pics below.
I dug not one piece of trash even though I acquired many targets in my little hunt.
One zincoln but all the rest high tone targets.
Two wheaties and the others that could have been silver considering this is an 80 year old neighborhood but weren't...this time.
I am still thrilled I was able to learn and understand a good way to hunt in this hot soil, or at least recognize what is going on a little better.
Still much to do as I continue to hunt down here once again.
I wonder if silver rings that are a bit deeper will act the same.
Chains are weird...how weird are they in this part of the country.
I think the lower section targets will act in a similar fashion, I dug lots of gold in Kansas and hope that continues here.
I would mind finding some old nickels and there are areas with relics around here too.
Of great interest to me is depth.
In the past I never could get much deeper than 4-5" with most of my arsenal, I am hoping the F70 can penetrate this soil a bit better and I have used the pinpoint button on a few signals and saw some pretty deep and amazing numbers on the screen...10-11-12 and a few deeper.
Wasn't prepared to dig them at that time but I will eventually.
Will those deep ones act the same way?
I didn't notice before but I will pay more attention now.
I seriously considered getting a TDI one day for special sites that I could not deal with well in the past.
That might not be necessary now.
I have noticed that unlike in Kansas where you can hear the tones on really deep targets but the screen will go blank and show no info when they are at the very end of the scanning field, (usually in the 10" area using my smaller coils, a few inches more with the big DD), here I see no screen info on most targets at about 6" or more.
Like I said, very hot and challenging soil compared to the sweet stuff I used to hunt in.
More swinging and adapting to do and more lessons to learn but for me that never ends.
Another small piece of this southern mineralized soil puzzle just fell into place, soon enough I hope to complete the thing and see the whole picture.
Not saying I am an expert, I just observe things and report back if they are helpful to me.
For me, in this soil with my equipment this is a lesson I will use well in the future.
Kansas soil I usually ground balanced at numbers from mid 40's to mid 50's...1 bar on the dirt meter if that.
Alabama soil is usually mid 60's to the mid 70's with 2 or 3 bars on the dirt meter every time.
Moved from Kansas back to Bama.
Went from rich dark beautiful soil to red mineralized iron infused garbage.
I lived here before and started my career here so I knew what I was in for, still it is hard to go from Hades to heaven and then back again.
In the good stuff I found I could zero in on most good targets with my F2 and narrow the signal down to good tones with only a 3 number jump or less.
Those were the type of signals I chose to dig most of the time, anyway, and did extraordinarily well.
When I switch to the F70 I tried to do the same but the much greater power this thing had made it difficult at first.
I had stuff jumping all over the place and dug a ton of everything even with 10 number and section jumps as I learned.
Slowly I got better and was able to get that down to more like a 5 number jump or less...usually less, so I was back to using my 3 number rule most of the time on the shallow stuff unless the signal sounded extra good.
Deeper stuff the rules were different but most targets I came across were 5" or less.
This worked well in that good soil with 3 different coils and usually no matter what tone settings I was using from all metal to mono tone to multiple tones.
Challenging sites with tons of iron were different and that 3 number rule didn't work at all in that situation but I figured out 2 ways to be successful in that stuff one using disc and another using all metal.
Now I am back in this devil dirt and I am doing pretty well just bopping around but I notice even using the small sniper coil it is really difficult to get a stable non jumpy number on my screen over good targets in the soil unless it is very shallow like an inch or less.
I have been hunting some pretty trashy areas including one with a bunch of iron and I have done pretty good in disc but eventually found all metal works better.
Even with my sense and thresh maxed out I still might get some noise from EMI and all the little bits and pieces of metal in the ground but the F70 still stops the jumping and tells me when I am swinging over a good target like a coin.
If they are a bit deeper it might not stay in that 3 number jump but I can amend my rules to 5 numbers easily.
I found that turning and hitting the target from 90 degrees and watching for close to identical numbers, or block of numbers, helps me to tell trash from treasure most of the time.
I practiced using all metal in the woods a lot in Kansas, I also used it more and more in my regular park sites and got pretty comfortable with it.
I noticed over time even in areas with high EMI and with the settings turned up to the highest levels I seemed to be getting the most accurate and stable signals in both the tone and the numbers on the screen using all metal over my other choices so that is why I kept using it more and more till it became natural and a go to choice more often than not.
I used to use disc to hunt in and then all metal as a check at the beginning...now I have turned that around 180 degrees and do the opposite most of the time.
Now one thing you need to know is I discovered hunting areas with iron, and that would be huge pieces or even small like nails or screws, if they are rusty they usually throw off some high coin numbers and even seem like they might repeat sometimes but in reality they don't and these high signals could actually be several inches away from where the actual rusty item is located.
I usually would use the pinpoint button if I suspected iron and found the exact location and by swinging over that area with the center of the coil I could then see the iron numbers only show up...no jumping to a higher range if that target was the only one under the coil.
By moving the coil to the area where I got those first ghostly high numbers with the pinpoint button I found nothing was there so doing all this quickly and efficiently helped me avoid digging a ton of iron and concentrate on the good stuff instead.
Yesterday something happened and I had another one of those AHA moments when I learn something new and useful.
Love when that happens.
I was walking back to the house from a trip around the neighborhood hitting curb strips, I was in all metal and as I was walking back to my porch I was swinging over part of my well hunted front lawn and saw some high numbers flash by.
I stopped and swung my sniper coil slowly over the area and I kept seeing the same block of numbers repeat with no drops to lower areas like iron in this lawn likes to do, and turning and hitting it from 90 degrees the same numbers were still there.
I didn't think I left anything in this lawn after hunting it so much in the past but I had to dig it to see and a silver coin popped up...surprise surprise.
Cut to this morning when I decided to hit my lawn again, and two of the neighbors also both of which I have hunted in the past.
I had lots of those high number signals in the past that I didn't dig because they jumped too much for my taste, plus I was swinging at my usual speed which is not the slowest but works most of the time for me but in this area in this soil a little too fast might result in a slight number drop that simulated iron which I remember seeing on many of those.
Change of plans today...I vowed to go real slow and see if I could find some of those high number signals.
If I could, I would stop and move the coil over them in short swipes but not too fast, and then turn and do it again from 90 degrees.
If they didn't drop, especially to iron, I would dig them.
Well the results of this little excursion are in the pics below.
I dug not one piece of trash even though I acquired many targets in my little hunt.
One zincoln but all the rest high tone targets.
Two wheaties and the others that could have been silver considering this is an 80 year old neighborhood but weren't...this time.
I am still thrilled I was able to learn and understand a good way to hunt in this hot soil, or at least recognize what is going on a little better.
Still much to do as I continue to hunt down here once again.
I wonder if silver rings that are a bit deeper will act the same.
Chains are weird...how weird are they in this part of the country.
I think the lower section targets will act in a similar fashion, I dug lots of gold in Kansas and hope that continues here.
I would mind finding some old nickels and there are areas with relics around here too.
Of great interest to me is depth.
In the past I never could get much deeper than 4-5" with most of my arsenal, I am hoping the F70 can penetrate this soil a bit better and I have used the pinpoint button on a few signals and saw some pretty deep and amazing numbers on the screen...10-11-12 and a few deeper.
Wasn't prepared to dig them at that time but I will eventually.
Will those deep ones act the same way?
I didn't notice before but I will pay more attention now.
I seriously considered getting a TDI one day for special sites that I could not deal with well in the past.
That might not be necessary now.
I have noticed that unlike in Kansas where you can hear the tones on really deep targets but the screen will go blank and show no info when they are at the very end of the scanning field, (usually in the 10" area using my smaller coils, a few inches more with the big DD), here I see no screen info on most targets at about 6" or more.
Like I said, very hot and challenging soil compared to the sweet stuff I used to hunt in.
More swinging and adapting to do and more lessons to learn but for me that never ends.
Another small piece of this southern mineralized soil puzzle just fell into place, soon enough I hope to complete the thing and see the whole picture.
