New guy with a question

[tanner1971]

Well, actually about a thousand questions.

First a little background. I'm fairly new to MDing (Still have an old detector from 1976, It's white with the american flag on it) Needless to say it just picks up everything.
I did my research and decided to go with the safari. You guys weren't kidding when you say it takes time to get uesd to it, I'm about to pull my hair out. I'm using it in my yard first to figure it out. My house actually has some very rich history, It was built in 1864 and was one of the first blooded stock farms in minnesota. There was two houses, a blacksmith shop, carrage house and even a horse track with grandstand at one time.( I found a drawing of our place online from 1873 if anyone cares to see it, I can link it here) Our 21st president, Chester Aurther bought a team of horses that were breed here. So, I would assume there is some good stuff in the ground here.

Now, on to my questions. About 30 years ago someone put alluminum sideing on the house. I keep finding small scraps of alluminum that hit at 38 with a very nice high pitched tone. Is this nomall and is there a way to aviod digging them? I did just get the SEF 5x8 coil but havent had a chance to use it yet. I bought the coil because you can't go 10 inches in this yard without getting a signal. In fact it's almost immosible to find a place to noise cancle. I also just got the Garret pro pointer yesterday. The cheep bounty hunter pin pointer was useless.

Also, what does "nulling" meen? Is it the faint humming noise I hear all the time?

And, is there a place to buy Andy's book online? I didn't see it on his website.

Thanks in advance. I'm looking foward to learning about my new obssesion.

 

[MetalMiner]

That steady buzzing noise is called the threshold tone. when your MDer nulls it means you lose the threshold tone, if you have iron discriminated out when it sees that iron target it will null out, the threshold tone will go away. when it does that you know there is metal object under the coil that is discriminated out. If you switch to all metal & check you will see the target. Myself I prefer to hunt in All Metal mode, that's just my preference, If I am in a super trashy spot I may switch to relic mode so I don't have to hear all the iron noise it can drive you crazy if its real bad.

As far as Andy's book it is nolonger in print. I heard it is suppose to published in digital form for Ereaders, not sure when that will happen. all you can do is try to find a used online. I will tell you the used ones don't go cheap. I sold mine & the bid went up to $36. Andy's book does have some good tips, But I found that most of the stuff that was in it I had already figured out myself. I did pick up a few good tips.

Good luck with your Safari. When I 1st got mine I tried to concentrate on learning the machine & not worry about what you find. the good finds will come as you learn the MDer. you may want to find a spot that is not as trashy as your yard. And the reading on aluminum scraps is normal they are very annoying because they can sound like a really good target.

 

[KinTN]

Agree with all MM said.

Wow, you have a great yard. You are going to have a LOT of good finds there. What I would do in such a great place is to dig up every single piece of aluminum and get it out of the way. Tedious, yes, but with the history on that site, I think itll be worth it. Especially since you live there and can do a few digs in any small block of spare time.
But to answer the question, no the erratically shaped Al hits high 30s and theres nothing you can do about it. The only trick I know to discern good targets from oddly shaped Al is to listen to the 'quality' of the sound. A crisp BEEP vs a sound that is ragged/variable on the upsweep and downsweep of the tone. Sometimes it can be sublte and its just one of those things you have to dig a bunch of to learn imo.

Your 6x8 will help a lot. Like in a Lot.

The faint humming noise is what you want to hear. In your Menu, you can adjust the volume of it by adjusting Threshold. Put it at a comfortable, nonannoying level.

I'm a true Minelab believer, but I think the Garrett PP is the best dryland pointer made. If its hot out, and you leave it on a while, it can start acting erratic. Just turn it off and back on and itll be fine.

Don't worry about ground balancing when you cant find a dead spot. I often don't ground balance at all and will only do so if my find rate seems to lag. Your manual says to GB with the coil a foot off the ground, and if you are still hitting targets there, you have a LOT of Al to clean up- get at it!

 

[old lobo]

As Kin TN said, dig the trash and get it out of the way. An old coin is heavier and been in the ground a lot longer than that aluminum, so the coin(s) are going the be deeper than the aluminum and other more recent trash in your yard. If the trash is higher than the coin, and right over the coin, the detector is going to read the trash and not the coin under it. That is what masking is, a shallower item masking a deeper item. By getting the trash out of the way, you have a much better chance of getting to the old coins and relics. If this were a park or someone else's property then you would want to be more selective, but with your own property go out there with the attitude that you hate your property being like the city dump and you want to clean it up, that way you don't mind digging that worthless stuff as much, and you will have a much better chance of finding the items you are looking for. Don't forget. old hand made square nails, door knobs, hinges, metal toys, and other old items are worth looking for, not just coins.

 

[tanner1971]

n/t

 

[tanner1971]

Thanks guys. I've found square nails all over the yard and chances are they were made right here in the old blacksmith shop. The other house that was here burt down at some point so' I'm sure most of that house in in the ground. Iv'e also found horse shoe's and even a horse tooth while digging a high pitch tone.

One thing I've noticed is that I get a lot of high tones in the 36-39 range that only beep once but, when I swing back over them, they're gone. I'm assuming these are false hits or trash. It also seems like the sound is always late and not over the object. I did find some clad, an IH penny and one wheat penny. They all came in really clear and repetable.
I've also foung large brass peices that sounded really nice.

 

[Scenario84]

I have found the same thing in my yard, there is old wire fencing everywhere from an old horse pasture, the wire is all rusted and rings as junk iron, but I will get ghost signals of 33-38. EVERYTIME I did it, it's rusty wire. I believe this happens because the inside of the wire is not rusted when I break it. So there is a "different" metal signal on certain swings. I've learned to ignore this and only dig good repeatable tones. Also, I dig in all metal ferrous so I can hear the iron signals and not just the chirp of 33-38 tones. If I get a ghost chirp or two and I hear lots of iron around it, I know not to dig. Hope this helps!

 

[Will1877]

Tell you what fella since im such a nice guy and have pretty good knowledge of the safari why don't I just come down there to your wonderful 1864 house and go over that yard for you! HA HA. Oh yeah the dreaded triangles of AL siding. I know them pretty well. Also I could be wrong but I think noise cancel is only for emi. For the longest time I thought about it like ground balance as well but was swiftly corrected on the Etrac spot. Which is what I hunt with now. Your sitting pretty with yard like that my friend cause you can hunt it any time. My advice is go to some park or easy ground and start piciking off easy targets and get your ears adjusted to the tones. Once you get pretty good feel for targets response pound that yard.