Iffy Signals Part Two

[electroman680]

As a follow-up to my post yesterday "understanding iffy signals" I decided to do a short hunt last evening. I hunted a site where I was just at two weeks ago and found an 1887 IH and a 39 wheatie. I told myself that I would dig every signal that was not flat out IRON as a test. I am using an Explorer II with the Pro Coil, with Sunray Probe. I hunt in AM mode, Ferrous Sounds, Semi-Auto at 24. Gain at 8....and I prefer to hunt in Digital Mode, using Sounds first, and backing that up with Digital Reads in order to decide to dig or not to dig. No grass, just DRY Dirt with a few weeds. OK, so I went S U P E R - Slow, and ended up digging a total of 14 signals. From the photo you can see that I ended up finding 5 keepers (coins), 8 trash items and one junk jewelry pendant. BONUS was the marble found in the same hole as a nail. Wheats were 1918-D, 28 D, 41 D and 51 D, plus the 1936 Merc dime. Trash ranged from Bottlecap, small nails to a pulltab. All 14 items read as JUNK, only the Merc sounded good. All but the Merc sounded like Total CRAP yet had a faint high pitch that just made me question. The soil was DRY as a bone....and I had alot of interference making me Noise Cancel and power off several times. The deepest target was 6"....which just leads me to believe the soil is wreaking havoc. In the past I have dug coins at 7"+ that sounded Awesome.....and the dirt was moist, grass was green. I am most proud of that Merc dime..... that registered a 00/07 at first but sounded great, with a soft high pitch....I had been thinking these type or signals were most likely hot rocks etc? It was 6" deep. and the digital reading didn't improve until I was about 3 inches deep with the probe....then it read 00/22...... at 5 inches that turned into 01/26 and sounded wonderful. Needless to say, I was doing the "dance" once I saw it come out!

I have had my Exp II for just one year now, but still consider myself a newbie with it.... this just goes to prove that, and I think this tough learning curve can only be learned the hard way, walking the walk, even though I am able to hear the talk from others. I think it would help if I were hunting with someone else using an explorer.

It will be interesting to see how my old coin numbers increase from here on out. The only negative is diggin all them extra holes.... A price I am willing to pay!

One last thought: How many others experience similar results?

 

[Chris(SoCenWI)]

Sounds like a typical day of detecting. Very seldom will you ever get a "perfect" or often a "good" hit. Most of what is left; especially in hard hunted areas is the iffy stuff that is hard to tell from junk. This is where the explorer excels. Try using the smart screen instead of the numbers. Watching how the icon bounces up and down and left and right gives you tons of information about what is in the ground. Basically the people who do well with the explorers have learned which "iffies" are the most "likelies" and we still get fooled often.

It might be that your soil is highly mineralized, but more likely there is a lot of junk in the ground. And sounds like you where fighting EMI. Try using manual sens, and run it up to where it gets close to unstable. You may have to adjust it as you move towards and away from power lines. I bet you find a few more goodies.

And also be careful digging in dry conditions. For one it is much tougher going, two- I'm convinced I get much better depth when the soil is wet, and three it can kill the grass. Grass goes dormant in dryness. But when you dig it up it will die and leave brown spots where you dug. How important depends on location but have been cautioning people to stay out of area where people might notice when conditions are dry.

Chris

 

[James N.D.]

I have had Coins read around a 20 on Digital before and were Super Deep.....in the 11"+ range and barely enough of a signal to even know there was something there. I use Conduct Tones though and have gotten pretty good at finding Coins and other things in with Iron. I also use the Explorer XS which only gives one set of Numbers in Digital which is Conduct Numbers in Conduct Tones. I decided to check the odd reading out since there were already Deep Wheats and Silver pulled from here before so it had me curious. I dug down and about 11" or so Deep, out pop's a Wheatie in the Teen's. There seemed to be not enough signal strength to get the Coin to register where it should have due to the Depth of the Coin or possibly the Angle at which it was sitting. It was free of Iron and Trash also. I have found Injuns that read 23 on Digital also so you have to just dig them Deeper signals to really know what it is for sure. Deep Nickels will even read 4 on Digital if they are on edge or even lower, just depends on the Depth and if there is something else in the area with the Coin.

It's good to see you finding some goodies in amongst Iron. Only experience will help you further when you are detecting in other area's with less Iron or Trash so keep up the good work. Continued Success, Good Luck and HH to you.