Is it the soil???

[MassSandman]

Not sure whether this belongs in the Classroom Forum or here but I thought I'd ask anyway: This passed weekend in Freeport, ME I had permission to hunt the grounds of an old (1830's) era inn. I use the XS. I couldn't get a threshold signal except when I held the coil ~ 5" above the ground. Anywhere near the ground, no signal. By luck, in nearly 3 hours, I dug out a Liberty nickel, a 1932 wheatie, both in rough shape, three square headed nails, and a handful of junk. Since I only have about eight months "time in grade" on the XS, any of you pros want to suggest a better approach, or what I may be doing wrong? I may have another opportunity to shoot there again before the ground freezes. Thanks, ~Rich

 

[bgscofield6]

What is your sensitivity set at? I can only get up to 20 or so in most places without it going wacko on me. Some house sites have made me turn down to 4 or 5 before I can pull out any kind of a signal.

 

[James N.D.]

there is a lot of Iron in the ground if you are not getting any kind of signals and you regain threshold when holding your coil up in the air 5" or so. I would use a smaller coil and try Ferrous Tones and run in Iron Mask -15 or wide open at -16 just to hear all the Iron in the ground. If there is any good target's, you will get a high tone but you will occasionally dig a Rusty Nail. But that is common even in Conduct Tones when you dig Nails. You may dig a few rusty Bottle Caps also but you could also set up a Pattern that is all open and learn the Rusty Bottle Cap to get rid of them. It would be just like running in Iron Mask -16 and save you a lot of digging also. I would also run in a lower Sensitivity and would try Manual to see if it works better than Semi-Auto does. You may want to drop the Gain down to 8 or so also. Hope this helps and hope you hit it big. Good Luck and HH.