Need help hunting very trashy areas.

[Coinseeker 78]

I went to an old race track dating back to 1935 today and experienced a difficult day detecting with my Explorer SE pro with the 8x6 SEF coil. The area I hunted was extremely trashy. I was getting a lot of coin hits but most of them were trash. You couldn't move 6 inches to a foot without getting a lot of signals. I found I could isolate a good coin sound but the coil would keep sounding off as you swung your coil higher and higher. sometimes as high as a foot or more above the target. I had my settings at sensitivity 26 semi auto. Disc at 22 and swung low and very slow. A lot of the signals were 7 to 8 inches deep; Should I lower my sensitivity lower? Any suggestions would be appreciated.. Maybe I should switch to my AT PRO with a small coil. Thanks in advance.

 

[NealNoIN]

I would start on a site like that with a discrimination pattern. Maybe black out everything except the top 1/3 of the screen and some iron on the left side. Then almost everything that sounds off will be something worth checking out. This will save you time, save your ears and your patience. Since you are in semi-auto sensitivity then the machine is probably turning down the sensitivity really low for you but if you want less sensitivity go to manual and really turn it down, even to the teens or single digits if you need to. You'll still get pretty good depth but this is just for starters. You can turn it up later if the depth isn't good enough.
NealNoKYUsedtobeNoIN

 

[Hotcz70]

Ron, at an extremely trashy site like you are hunting the 6 x 8 SEF coil might simply be a little too big to serve the purpose. It is after all a mid sized coil and would be best served using at a site with moderate to heavy trash.

For a site like the one you are describing I would opt for a small coil like the 6" Excelerator or the 5" Sunray. I realize it is more money spent but might end up being well worth it.

Also at a site like this I would suggest not even "swinging" the coil. I would just stand still and creep the coil along...not even taking a step. Just slowy "scan" the ground with the coil until you have covered it completely...then take a small baby step forward and repeat.

I hunt the most extreme trash dense sites with the exact same iron mask/sensitivity settings you are using BUT I have a small coil on...and the SE will sniff out the good stuff.

 

[Neil]

I agree with Neal on the sens. Turning it down to the teens or even lower can really help that kind of site and you should still get good depth. I would also opt out of auto sens, give the machine less to do and put it in manual, keep it simple. Also an even smaller coil would help, smaller than the 8" one you mentioned.

Id compare both detectors at the site, the AT pro is a good one also.

 

[Dave-IL]

I'm with Bryce on this...I don't think I'd switch to manual sensitivity...just my honest opinion. I might consider dropping it to 22 BUT leave it in semi auto and try semi auto 22.
Here in IL we often hunt the worst possible trash dense sites just as you are describing because we know there are a lot of good targets left there and semi auto sensitivity even dropped to 22 still has no problems hitting 8" deep targets in extremely dense trash.
I might even consider turning "fast" option on. I rarely ever use that setting because I feel the same as Bryce does...that it chops the signal short...but in extreme instances and extreme trash I turn it on.
Like Bryce suggested though I would definitely opt for a small coil and not the mid 6 x 8 coil you are using.

 

[Coinseeker 78]

Thanks guys for the help. I will go to a 5 inch coil and give it a try.

 

[Coinseeker 78]

Thanks for all the input. I realize that still getting a signal as you raise your coil usually means a large target. But I am able to get very high above the target every where I get a target. More than a foot I believe the trash is so dense that my coil being an 8X6 SEF coil is too large and no matter how slow I sweep I am getting to many signals underneath the coil. I think the solution is a 5 inch coil. I will be trying that in the next couple days and report back on the results.

 

[ydoc]

You might try using the front or heal of the coil to locate and dig up a target that may be a large one causing this type of masking problem. It will at times pay off and then you find a small good target or realize a large target is creating a bad masking problem. You can also shrink the target size using pinpoint. I assume you know how to place the coil part way over the target and pinpoint then move in closer using this same process to size the target.

 

[radarphos]

Your description reminds me of once searching a parking meter (just one parking meter among many) in a University town and in front of an apartment building (4 units per building). It was the end of winter, the ground was wet, the grass was not re-sprouting yet. I couldn't pin-point anything. Ever time I dug, out came a wheaty or nickle. I went about 1.5 hrs before dawn; and after 1.5 hrs I was still getting signals (from coins), though I had not moved even one foot away from that meter. My experience with the parking meter reminded me of Garrett's advice in the 1980s, which was "dig everything". For all the holes I put around that parking meter, it would have been just as easy for me to lay out a big cloth, cut several wide sections of grass (keep in mind this grass was stepped on galore because it was at curb parking), and then pull out fists of moist dirt and pick them apart for the mostly pennies that were probably 6-12" deep and every inch or so horizontally. When I was done, the grass was put back in place, tamped down with my foot, and the whole area looked "stepped on" as the rest of the curbside grass. Just before leaving I rechecked the area I searched, and I still couldn't pin-point because I had left maybe 20 coins still in that 12" x 12" section I had worked on for 1.5 hrs. Well, that is why we go back to certain places. If you think you have a good target, and if the grassy area seems to be well trodden (a good place to dig where you won't damage the landscape), get on your knees and start taking things out of the ground until you can find the goodie (or more) that is in there. Save all your trash so you can show any inquirers. The smaller coil is a great idea too, even for pinpointing trash in order to remove as much as you can. I pulled out a silver dollar once, near that location, that I was sure was an aluminum can (how the MD'r read it). You don't know what you will find until you dig it. If you are having problems, dig everything and surprise yourself with the "other things" you will find.

 

[valeria]

A great collection of information, it contains something very new and fresh I have ever seen before.