New CZ3d user with questions (looooong.....)

[epi-hunter]

You don't know how much your replies have helped this newbie. I was really starting to get discouraged but now I feel like I have a better grip on how to approach this. I really like the CZ3d but to be honest I am surprised that a high end detector would have issues identifying silver from a rusty nail... but I may have been expecting too much, and I'm glad there are clues that I can work on in learning to tell the difference. Thank you again!

 

[WVAdirtdigger]

which I understand that proves that they exist, but I agree that they don't exist in great numbers.

BTW, that lot we hunted now has a house on it. That guy didn't wait much longer to start building. Good thing I/we hit it when we did. The front towards the road remains untouched. He put the house right where the old foundation was.

 

[WVAdirtdigger]

Allen's right about the depth reading. You take the depth while you have the pinpoint button depressed.

I use the daylights out of my pinpoint button and depth reading. I'll pass my coil over a good hit many, many time before I decide whether or not to dig. Since I use Nimh rechargeables, I don't care how much battery I use. After I get a hi-coin hit, I pinpoint and trace the target from all 4 directions. Coins have a tight profile. After you pinpoint some coins, you'll know what I mean. Take some coins and some of your square nails out into the yard. Cover them with a piece of cardboard. Practice pinpointing and you'll see the difference the 2 targets make. Now, a deep piece of iron will have a fairly tight pinpoint also.

I also don't dig many targets unless they continually hit coin in all 4 directions consistently. Not many people will tell you to do that as some coins come in as iffy one way targets. while I agree that can be true, my experience is that darn few coins don't at least hit in 2 directions. Even at 2 directions, I get lots of junk. That's why I rarely dig unless it hits in 3 or 4 directions. Am I missing some coins, no doubt, but I rarely dig a rusty nail.

Keep trying. Don't let it beat you. You can do it.

Another word on headphones. My favorites are some Maxells I got on ebay used for 6 bucks. They have an inline volume control and seal around your ears. I bought a headphone extender cord at Radio Shack. I put the extender into the machine and run it to my belt. I run the lightweight headphone cord down under my shirt to my belt to where I connect it to the extender. These are the only phones I can stand to wear all day. I have 2 other sets. Koss TD-80s and some White's Royal somethingorother. I hate the White's phones and I wear the Koss's when I'm only going out for 3 hrs or less.

Good Luck

 

[Anonymous]

It has to do with how an iron nail responds to the detector, as well as the fact that CZ's are geared for depth, which makes them a little more prone to miss-ID'ing a deep nail. If you do some searching on the archives of this forum, there are many, many, technical discussions concerning how a CZ works the way it does.

HH from Allen in MI

 

[Bill W.]

They exist down there but I think they're alot less numerous down there than around my area. I think I got lucky find that IH and I am used to listening for deep coins. When you have the gift of getting permission like you do you don't need waste time with deep coins... Anyways, I think the 3D would have let you know it was there if you did walk over it. Your ground doesn't seem too much different than mine. Your dirt might be a little more on the clay side.

You're not kidding he didn't waste any time. Did you get to detect it any after we were there? It would have been interesting to see what you found after they took 5-6 inches off of the top especially on the backside of the foundation away from the alley.

I just had to joke with you on the IH... It was alot of fun hunting with you.

-Bill

 

[Bill W.]

Iron is the most difficult detecting issue to master for most people. All machines have an issue of reporting iron as a coin at some point. Learning what makes it mis-report iron and understanding how to tell when it's mis-reporting iron is part of learning each detector.

-Bill

 

[WVAdirtdigger]

Bill,
I'd have to look again but I don't think they skimmed any of the ground. They just dug a hole for the foundation and started putting it in. I did go back at least one time after we did. I worked the back end of lot mostly. Nothing but junk.

Dave

 

[Low-Boy/LCPM]

Get a small coil take slow swings try an easier place to hunt, school park. If you have a lot of iron the CZ are not the best and I love the Fisher line of detectors but maybe a compass is beter for the iron.

You need to read different forums and talk to a lot of people and get a lot of info and then put it all togeather and see what you can do.

The 3D is a great machine but it may not be right for your area or type of detecting. Nothing wrong with that. A lot of us have a few different detectors I am getting a Mark 1 made in 1985. It is a two filter machine and is fast in trash and with the 4 inch coil from what I have read you can clean the coins in schools in the lunch areas that other miss and I mean there is a lot of good stuff hidden.

If interested let me know and I will E-mail you some good sights like

http://members5.boardhost.com/MetalDetecting/index.html?990346977

copy this and paste it and you will find a lot of good people just like this forum but they are guys that talk about some of the older machines and how great they can be when used the right way.

 

[epi-hunter]

Thanks very much! I have made some progress after all of your advice and incorporating your suggestions during practice. I think I am doing much better at predicting whether a good sounding target is a deep rusty nail or a coin... they do sound different, they poinpoint differently (usually), and so far, the targets that occasionally bounce from coin to iron (even if they only bounce once to iron) have not been coins. (I realize that may not always be true, but it's useful to know the odds).

As for getting another detector for high iron sites - I appreciate that advice but after a lot of reading, I specifically bought this particular detector because it was reported to be good for pre-1950 sites such as old homesteads. Old homesteads tend to have a lot of rusty iron in the ground. Many pre-1950 sites are old homestead and building sites and have a lot of iron trash in the ground (all of my pre-1950 sites are that way). I might have misunderstood the documentation on the detector in terms of its design and its specific uses, but I don't really think I did... in any event, at this point, this is the one I'm using because that's why I bought it. On the positive side, I am learning to sound out the iron. Thanks!

 

[Bill W.]

The pre-1950's designation comes from it's notches for coins being slightly 'wider' not it's iron handling abilities. But, irregardless the 3D is still decent in iron but it takes some practice at learning to work with iron. I've pulled coins out of the same hole as iron but it takes practice and patience. There are debateably 'better' machines out in iron but if you pay attention to what the 3D is telling you you'll be ok. Good luck.

-Bill

 

[epi-hunter]

Bill,

Yep, that's exactly what I was trying to say, only you said it much better. Thanks.

I spent a great day out today with my CZ3D, found a scarce date IH cent and some other silver among a ton of rusty iron. And learned still more about distinguishing iron from coins. Don't think I'll trade this machine for anything.

Thanks again

 

[Garry/OH]

That's a good idea for air testing. I had a dime buried at about 9" in average to slightly high mineralized soil. The 3D and a CZ5 both ID'ed it as high coin, as also did the salt mode on the 3D. I tried a number of other high end TID detectors on that dime and none gave a consistant correct ID and some never a good ID if any. On a quarter buried at about a foot in the same soil, the CZ's would get a signal but always a bouncing ID anywhere on the scale from iron to high coin, with the 10.5" coil you would get more high coin hits but still a bouncing ID. No other TID's would give a whimper. An Advantage w/the 7" coil hit the deep coin w/a solid weak coin audio sound...with the 10"coil the hit was not as weak...of course there's no TID w/it...but the audio was good enough and that was w/the disc turned to max. However, in my area, I have run into a wide range of soils, and alot of the soil has rocks and stones in it, and I have dug very few coins beyond 6"...just a handful in the 8-10" range, and I believe there was some manmade soil movement there that caused the depth increase. I have found coins up to 200 years old at depths of 1 1/2 to 8"...most in the 3-6" range. And, while there are some areas where the coins go deeper, I think that 6" will get most coins in most places. Look at the Europeans...using the same detectors we use.. and digging coins that have been in the ground for over 2000 years. Anyway, my test coins in the ground worked out about the same as your airtests and Fisher's statements. Of course, I do have the hottest 3D on the planet...hits nickels dead on also...I'm not sending it in for a retune. It works fine as is.