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Mask setting vs depth

F

Flbchbm

Member
Prior to today, my understanding was that the best depth was achieved with a mask setting of 10.

Today, I popped in the video instructions that came with my Fors CoRe. At one point in the video, the narrator says that a higher mask setting will result in better depth. What!? WHAT!?!

Well, had to check this out. I don't have a test garden. I would really like for someone(s) to check this out with a well-aged test garden. I had to resort to air tests. To sum up my results, for those among us that just want to cut to the chase, taking the mask from a setting of 10 to a setting of 55 yields about an inch more repeatable depth in air testing. After I was done with the testing it occured to me that the COG mode defaults to a mask of 40. I did a quick check and found the increased depth to be about the same 1 inch at a mask of 40 vs a mask of 55. The question you have to answer for yourself is how much stuff do you want to mask out to gain an inch detecting depth, assuming these results are confirmed in a test garden. Personally, there are times where I just get tired of listening to all the trash sounds and want to quiet things down a bit but was afraid I would lose depth by increasing my mask setting. It looks like that may not be an issue.

In doing the air testing, I also found that a faster sweep resulted in better depth in the DI2 and DI3 modes. I have noted in the field that I get ID numbers more often with a faster sweep. Anyway, the listed air depths are the maximum repeatable depth that I was able to get. I tested DI2 and DI3 with Gb set at 65 (typical for my soil) and sensitivity at the default of 50. Coil was the standard DD coil that comes with the machine. Depths are inches.

DI2 mode, mask 10
Zinc penny. 12". Dime. 11". Nickle. 12 1/2 ". Quarter. 13 1/4. Wheat penny. 12. Sterling mans class ring. 14". 10k mens wedding ring. 13". Pull tab. 10"

DI2 mode, mask 55
Zinc penny. 13". Dime. 12 1/4". Nickle. 14". Quarter. 14 1/4". Wheat penny. 13 1/2. Class ring. 14 1/4". Wedding ring. 15". Pull tab. 11 1/4"

DI3 mode, mask 10
Zinc penny. 9". Dime. 8 1/2". Nickle. 9 1/2". Quarter. 10". Wheat penny. 9". Class ring. 11 1/4". Wedding ring. 11". Pull tab. 10 1/2"

DI3 mode, mask 55
Zinc penny. 10". Dime. 9 1/4". Nickle. 11". Quarter. 10 1/2". Wheat penny. 10". Class ring. 11". Wedding ring. 11 1/4". Pull tab. 10 1/2"

DI3 mode, mask 70
Zinc penny. 10". Dime. 9 1/2". Nickle. --- Quarter. 10 1/2". Wheat penny. 9 3/4". Class ring. 11 1/4". Wedding ring. 11 1/2. Pull tab. ---

Id numbers were as follows:
Zinc penny 82. Dime. 84. Nickle. 56. Quarter. 88. Wheat penny. 84. Class ring. 88. Wedding ring. 71. Pull tab. 58

The other suprising thing was how much more depth DI2 gets over the DI3 (in air). I knew DI2 was deeper but I didn't realize there was that much of a difference.

Anyway, check it out and see if you get the same results. Better yet, check it out in a test garden and let us all know what you found.
 
Interesting. I certainly wouldn't run a mask of 55 as the couple of gold jewelry pieces that I have found IDed in the low 50s. I guess it depends on where and what you are hunting for. I prefer hunting with as little mask as possible. I don't park hunt much. Lately, on a couple of old home sites, I've hunted with a mask of 21 because it takes most of the small iron out without "strangling" the machine too much. Seems to me that the tones start to get a "strangled" sound with too much mask. I prefer to hear more of what is there with "clean" tones. I hope someone with a test garden will take this up and post their results. Thanks for posting this.

Dean
 
I'll hunt a place with a disc of 10, default, a couple of times. When I'm one and done I'll run the disc up to 82 and mask out the noise from everything else. Remember you are just killing the sound pretty much is all, and then you can hear the rest of the good stuff you missed due to trash. Works beautifully. The depth, mmm something to ponder......
 
JFlynn,
That's an interesting way to do it. I would have approached it exactly 180* the other way...cherry picking with a high ID Mask then reduce the ID Mask and see what I missed. Hmmm, Will have to give your method a go. I've never run the ID Mask that high. What/Where do you usually hunt? Thanks for the idea!

Dean
 
I wouldn't run at a mask of 55 either. I used 55 because it keeps all US coins in play and I figured it would be enough of a mask to show more depth if mask affects depth, which it appears to do. I believe a mask of 40 gives about the same increase in depth. I'll have to check and see what a mask of 25 will do for depth. From what I have seen, the less mask the better from a standpoint of maximizing the potential of finding good stuff. Now, if your goal is depth and you want to be able to discriminate, DI2 with as much mask as you are willing to use looks like the way to go. Maximum depth is still going to be GEN mode with the highest sensitivity you can get away with. Just some interesting stuff to put in your trick bag.
 
First off , I haven't used a fors core, but I have done extensive field testing for both original fors gold and plus. And now im field testing the gold racer. In alot of the places that I used both fors golds in the past years, I detected in boost mode which is stronger sensitivity then disc 2. I ran my sens at 80-85 out in the heavy mineralization. I also ran my mask at 5. I noticed with the fors and gold racer that they are very similar running the mask down to 5. They get a stronger response on tiny and deeper gold. Almost like an audio boost. But turning down to 5 does make some minerals more reactive when detecting. The gold racer has a similar ability to run at mask of 5 and get a better signal and deeper signals on gold targets. But gold racer is more powerful so the ground can chatter a little easier when at mask of 5. I did use this setting most of the time for well over 100 hours on fors gold. Just out of technical curiosity I did try to run many different settings to see what was the best performance. I turn up mask at 5 increments over faint undug targets many times. All the way up to 40. My experience with this higher setting of mask definitely lost depth and the response was even more faint or no signal at all. I know other users of fors gold had the same results. I've never operated a fors core, but I know they are similar. Maybe fors core works better for depth with a higher mask. But I guarantee fors gold dont. This result you have from running fors core with a higher mask might be detector specific. Alot of the exact detectors sometimes will behave differently. Especially with pulse induction detectors. But what ever settings work best on any detector for the conditions and get the most depth, then thats what should be used. Good luck
 
Having gone through about 4 sets of batteries now on my Fors CoRe, I can say it is agreat machine that I expect is capable of keeping me happy for many years. I typically run in DI3 at factory default settings because I really like the amount of audio information I can get from the machine at those settings. I recently hurt my back and had to cut back on detecting for a few days. Couldn't stand it anymore and decided to go to a lightly hunted park with a lot of shallow coins that I could get at without digging deeper than an inch or so. Set my mask at 55 so nickles would still be in play, standard coil, sensitivity at 50 and and DI3 mode. Hunted for about 75 minutes and found 17 coins along with the usual caps, tabs, a key, ya know, the usual stuff. One thing I noted about the high mask of 55 is that it really affects the quality of the audio data you get. I would rather run a low mask and get the full audio information than a high mask and get more depth but less audio info. As an aside, it was easy to pick out the shallow targets by the double beeps, and kinda fun to carry just a screwdriver and a pinpointer for the recoveries.
 
I have tested this quite a bit in the field. Most of what I hunt is colonial fields and woods that used to be fields. Most targets are now pretty deep especially since I am hunting areas we already hunted for decades. Needles to say most anything is BELOW 8" and usually around 9-11".

The boost kicks in at 50. You can easily tell because as soon as you set Mask to 50 the machine will chatter. This is just like the F75 did..there was a disc setting that we were unaware of where they software kicked in some boost. What did they boost..not sure..is just some gain..I forget what was figured out but the CoRe seems to do the same thing. Does not seem to be a graduated thing so at 48 or 49 there is no added signal gain but as soon as you hit 50 it kicks in.

Now does it make it any deeper...that was tough to tell. I usually hunt with min disc of any kind and in two tones and that goes for any machine. I usually set my mask at around 6-8 so I can still hear small iron. When I would find a deep iffy target I would change from an iron mask of 6 or so straight up to 50. Yes it made the signal sound stronger and more noticeable. But...I did not feel it gave depth. Much like any boost mode...sure you can pick your coil up a little farther and get more "air" depth but I doubt any in ground gains and I tested a bunch of deep faint targets. Remember..they do this little trick to try and compensate for loss of signal or depth due to an increase in a disc setting...so you usually only gain back the signal loss you caused by running high disc...as compared to 0 disc. Which is fine..

So... it does give more depth if you compare it to a mask setting of 45 or something that high simply because the mask is affecting depth as you increase it. But not when you compare it to a mask setting of 10 or less as compared to 50. 50 just gives some boost to the signal but at the cost of all loss of the iron signal which for me I almost need. Too much deep iron hand forged nails that lie...anyone who hunts out here knows too well well about deep rusty forged J bent nails in wet soil..

The only time I liked using this 50 setting ( same with the F75) is when I am getting tired of the noise and want to just move through the woods and focus on clean sounding targets. Usually end of the day. Then sure..I can just dig or focus on the better sounding targets and not deal with the plethora of noise from nails while still getting great depth. But this is not how I detect most of the day..usually this is just the long walk home through the woods.
 
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