LTD depth accuracy

[markg]

LTD users, have you found the LTD depth indicator to be accurate or a little off?

 

[WV62]

I was out the other day and was picking up surface coins and some a couple of inches deep. On those in the ground the LTD was saying 3 and 4 inches. Maybe it is rounding up to make us feel like we are getting that deep stuff So I would say a little off, but I am a new user of the LTD. I am heading out to my small test garden a little later today. I have coins buried at 3", 6", 8", 9" and 10" inches, so far I am only finding the penny at 3", the one at 6" sometimes.

 

[markg]

WV62, I was going to send you a pm, but you don't receive pm's.

 

[rick in mi]

My LTD is never 100%,I think because of the sensitivity of this machine it doesnt like coins or other objects on or near the surface!! But when it 'sees' a coin at say 4 to 6 inches its almost always at that depth. Quarters and larger objects are almost always very close to what it shows the depth to be. But I have had times when it shows a nonferrous target at say 13 inches,turn out to be a very small piece of foil maybe 3 to 4" down.

 

[jim tn]

On the shallower targets, mine will read a 3-4" deep coin usually around 5." On really deep targets, it reads them at least 2- 3" deeper then they actually are. I don't have any qualms with the depth of my LTD. It hits my five year buried silver dime in a/m all the time now and usually in disc. 0 and 90 sen. as well. Not a great signal, and some days better then others, but on the good days one for sure that I would dig. My LTD reads the depth of this dime 12-13." HH jim tn

 

[wharghoul]

For me, I always subtract 2" from whatever depth the screen is telling me. Gaining a better understanding of the 'actual depth' has helped me a lot in avoiding trash. For instance, I know that even in the most ideal conditions that i can't get get a good reading on a coin sized object over 10" (I have dug a 9"
clad quarter with this coil) when using the 5" DD coil. If I get a reading of 13,14,15", I subtract 2" and if it still isn't within the 10" range then I move on.

I understand that I'm walking by that 1 out of 1000, 10 1/2" SLQ, but I'm also passing up a ton of trash.

I still get fooled on really deep stuff with the 11" coil, but that's only because I recently dug a pull tab at a measured 12" and I just can't get myself to walk by those deep targets that are reading 14,15, and 16" deep. I know that the 11" biaxial is capable of 12" coin sized targets, so in a way, the greater depth also gives me a greater margin for error.

 

[southernexplorer]

What does your ground balance at and how many dirt bars is showing? Oh and another thing exactly what coins at what depth do you have buried?
My coin test garden is less than 1 year old and I can get all targets fairly easy.

HH
Tommy

 

[Elton]

Fiest one I had all targets were 5" deep no matter what they were. Second one favored 4" the latest is fairly good. only an inch or two off. I think it's the coil..Dead center it can be about right a little forward or back on the target it can be off a good deal. Go by the sound if fainter sound it's 5" or deeper..if higher ( Louder) 2 to 5" in the ground. Hope that helps you a little.

 

[markg]

Now this is the answer I was looking for. Usually my LTD will read a coin about 3" on the heavy side. If it says 11" then I've found the coin will be about 7-8" down. Or a small piece of trash (if it's a good piece of scrap metal) at less than 5" in depth.

For me, I always subtract 2" from whatever depth the screen is telling me. Gaining a better understanding of the 'actual depth' has helped me a lot in avoiding trash. For instance, I know that even in the most ideal conditions that i can't get get a good reading on a coin sized object over 10" (I have dug a 9"
clad quarter with this coil) when using the 5" DD coil. If I get a reading of 13,14,15", I subtract 2" and if it still isn't within the 10" range then I move on.

I understand that I'm walking by that 1 out of 1000, 10 1/2" SLQ, but I'm also passing up a ton of trash.

I still get fooled on really deep stuff with the 11" coil, but that's only because I recently dug a pull tab at a measured 12" and I just can't get myself to walk by those deep targets that are reading 14,15, and 16" deep. I know that the 11" biaxial is capable of 12" coin sized targets, so in a way, the greater depth also gives me a greater margin for error.

 

[WV62]

Mark: Yours was only my second post, so right now I don't know what pm's are. My brother talked me in getting sign up so maybe later this evening I can check in with him and ge some instructions. Still haven't made it to my test garden, we have a big storm just minutes away and it is getting real dark out.

Ron

 

[shooter]

I find it a little off, but the manual says there's a differance in target size, but also add the air gap from coil to ground and it might be closer.

 

[Elton]

n/t

 

[WV62]

Well you got me thinking about depth so I thought I would see what my LTD would do in a controlled test garden. I planted all my coins flat and I measured all for correct depth.

The results my 10" quarter was reading 9" to 10", the nickel at 8" was reading 8", the 9" penny was reading 8" to 9", the 6" penny came in at 6" and my 3" penny came in 4" to 5". Now I added one more Penny at 3" and placed it at an angle to the surface. Of course it wouldn't pinpoint over the center and the best reading was 6" to 7".

One thing I noticed was my 3" flat Penny gave me the worst readings with the best I could get was 4" to 5" on the F75 and all the rest were right on or within an inch.

For me I see 2 things that mess with the depth readings, one is coin angle and the other is coins under 3 or 4 inches. One other thing I found out was for my test garden my machine was picking up best in the jewelry mode which was a surprise, I have never hunted in the field in that mode.

Hope you can find something you can use in this information. Lots of luck

P.S. My brother says the reason I can't receive pm's is because I am new to the forum.

 

[MarkCZ]

P.S. My brother says the reason I can't receive pm's is because I am new to the forum.

Yep! my brother is still a "PROBATE"
Mark

 

[WV62]

Hi Tommy: Sorry I took me so long to get back to you, I over looked your question.

My coins have only been in the ground a couple of months except for the one I planted yesterday at an angle.

My ground balance is 59.

I am not sure about dirt bars, I have a scale on the left side of the panel for depth which so far I haven't paid much attention to. For my results below I was reading from the numbers in the center of meter and I was running in the pinpoint mode. I just went back up and checked the depth scale and the (2) 3" pennies read in the middle of the scale (medium depth) and all the rest read at the bottom or deepest. I have a confidence scale next to the depth and it reads high on the 3" pennies and low on the rest of the coins.

My other settings:
Running in Disc
Sensitivity 90
No Notches
Tones 3
Process: I have tried all but for the test garden Jewelry seemed to give me the best readings. For actual hunting I have been using the boost mode because I like the slower motion.
Using the large coil, but I am a big fan of the little 5" coil on all my detectors.

The quarter is clad
The nickel is just reg. out of my pocket
The pennies are all copper, no zinc
Just to tight to bury any silver coins

The results:
My 10" quarter was reading 9" to 10", the nickel at 8" was reading 8", the 9" penny was reading 8" to 9", the 6" penny came in at 6" and my 3" penny came in 4" to 5". Now I added one more Penny at 3" and placed it at an angle to the surface. Of course it wouldn't pinpoint over the center and the best reading was 6" to 7".

One thing I noticed was my 3" flat Penny gave me the worst readings with the best I could get was 4" to 5" on the F75 LTD and all the rest were right on or within an inch.

I can get a signal on all targets but I know what and where they are. What I would like to get is positive signal to dig, but for right now I only get that on the 3" pennies, the rest if I was out on a actual hunt I would walk on by.

Hope this helps

Ron

 

[boxofchocolates]

You may wanna check out the test garden in all/metal mode..........that would be a good one.......hh........Dan

 

[boxofchocolates]

Markg,it's off a little......a couple deeper than actual........10 inche reading is more like 8........We had a good bit of dicussion on this topic a few months back and I believe this was the general consenus that it up averages.......That may not be true in all situations depending on soil type and co-located targets or on slant......hh.......Dan

 

[southernexplorer]

I just went out to my test garden and my 10" deep quarter reads 10-11 inches deep and it picks it up very good in JE mode and DE mode at 70 sensitivity with a soft sweet tone and no headphones.

My settings:
Sens.=70
disc. = 6
notch = 1
tones = 1
mode = De or Je

I have noticed that if your in boost process you can raise the coil above the ground a few inches and the shallow targets will sound a bit better. I did not try it in 3 tones simply because I am a long time Explorer user and was walking over some good targets because they did not sound like a textbook coin signal. A simple test would be to put a pulltab right on top of a silver quarter (or a dime) on top of the ground and see what it sounds like and also what it ID's. You may be surprised. Let me say this, there is nothing wrong with cherry picking some high tones out of a bunch of pull tabs but there are a lot of nice old coins mixed in with the tabs and other junk that will not be textbook signals.

HH
Tommy

 

[shooter]

Have to agree with the 1 tone, I was using 3H for the high on nickels and it works awesome "if" it's not to trashy, in trashy areas you kind of get multiple hits and a lot of false reading so I went back to the old 1 tone like all my older detecters and its a lot easier to pick out the multi hit in conjuction with the ID numbers.

 

[boxofchocolates]

With the f75ltd one tone bp mode it's like a beep and dig detector with a lot of real good advantages......it works for me..... hh........Dan
ps there is so much you can do with it.....like the vdi,conf. indicator good depth you can also change your settings and modes easy to investigateeven more feo for iron.