New to MTX - Now what?

[madaboutmike]

Greetings. My Sov. Elite croaked and while waiting to get it repaired, I bought a MTX. It finds nickles where the Minelab ignores them. I detect in Northern Rhode Island. Geological surveys indicate my area is loaded with minerals and titanium. Over the week and a half of using the MTX, I've pinpointed over 150 coins, a silver ring and a few 'oddifacts'. However, as ever, my problem is with gold verses aluminum foil and pull tabs. I'm getting a 4X6 DD. Meanwhile, a parks and recreation worker asked me to search for his lost wedding ring. If this ring wasn't already acquired by someone else, my question is, " in dry soil, how far down will an object like this sink. If a ring is close to the surface, what tones and readings should I look for using tone I.D and VDI. Thanks

 

[Rob (IL)]

my question is, " in dry soil, how far down will an object like this sink. If a ring is close to the surface, what tones and readings should I look for using tone I.D and VDI.

How long was it lost? It will probably be 4" or less, most likely less.

In C/J you will only get one tone for targets above the Disc. setting.

In Relic you basically get the iron tone,( low tone) and the Higher tone (not iron). centered trigger

Vdi's will be everywhere. I've got a child's 14k ring that was a 4, my wedding band is a 14, diamond ring 16 and I've found a wedding band that read 55. My biggest gold ring read 57 and I have an Army ring that read 30. You will have to dig the foil and tabs. Rob

 

[Nancy-IL]

I totally agree with Rob. More than likely it will give a strong hard bong, either way. And you will have to check every pull-tab, large foil, etc. Good luck and hope you find it for him.

Congrats on your new MXT. YOU'LL LOVE IT!!!!

 

[Tin Nugget]

my wedding band is 14k and fairly wide and thick. It reads 35. I buried it 5 inches and still read 35. Gave a strong signal and the VDI did not fluctuate. 35 every time in both directions and from any direction. These are the signals I would dig first. Any solid repeatable signal in the 6 plus range. If its a thinner band it can be that low. That 4X6 comes in real handy in a park and could be your best friend trying to pick out a ring. Hopefully he can give you some idea for a starting point to look. Good Luck

 

[Reggie]

I hate it's true, but if you want gold you have to dig all signals above a 4. Most will be junk, and hence the easy answer is to set your discriminate high if you DO NOT particularly want Gold. You'll get silver, brass and copper, but probably NO gold. The alternative: dig like a fool, which you'll feel like doing all that digging. Make sure you select a site where there might be some gold, and go for it!

 

[madaboutmike]

Thanks, Rob.
Ring is 18 carat and lost a month ago close to a ball field. Over the month in Connecticut, we haven't had lots of rain. Your VDI's are interesting. I tested a mans ring I found earlier on a beach - 18 Carat-and the VDI registers 62 when biuried in a vertical position. I after getting a bit frustrated and as the park was loading up with kids, i decided to do a manual search. When got suspicious readings, I took out a digging tool and started tapping the ground in a squate grid thinking if the ring was close to the surface, i would either feel or hear a metalic 'tap'. Am looking forward to my 4X6 DD coil, the 950 detects too much.

 

[madaboutmike]

Nancy - thanks fo the response! I suspect I must over-come my natural proclivity toward laziness! I have a minelab Sov. Elite which croacked on me and is on the way to the shop. It was a good discriminator against pulltabs. My minelabs, as good as it is, doesn't like nickles. The first park outing with the MTX popped a plie of nickles in an area I scoured with the minelab. The first time out on a beash last weekend with the MTX, I found a 1941 nickle in fine shape. The minelab would have passed over it like a pull tab. I'll have to stop thinking in a minelab mind-set and convert to MTX thinking. If my girl friend hadn't been around, I would have cleaned the place out but attention always must be exrerted for the continuation of happiness. mike

 

[madaboutmike]

Very good advise Mr. Nugget!

 

[madaboutmike]

Thanks, Reggie. I think I need to get a dog and inject beef gravy into a probe hole and let him do the diggingI My first machine was a minelab sov. elite which was superb at identifying pull tabs and was excellent ataccurately reading the dimentions of buried objects. Now I have to think in MTX mode. Gold and nickeles were hard to detect on the minelab - passing a coil over a gold ring rendered an alonst silent response. My first park tip with the MTX got me a pile of nickles, a silver ring and the determination to get a 4X6 coil which is in the mail as we speak.

 

[Rick(ND)]

Maybe it is my bad hearing, or the way I hear tones, but the Sovereigns just loves nickles for me. They have a tone all to them self's for me plus will read 143-144 on my 180 meter. Even a war nickle with the silver in it will read higher on the meter, but the tones is that of a nickle.
Also with the Sovereign gold rings may read like a pull tab on the meter, but the tones are smoother sounding than a pull tab.
My first year with the Sovereign I got more nickles than I did dimes in most areas as I am sure many were rejecting pull tabs. My wife's MXT also seems do do well with nickles, but not as good as my Sovereign is.

Good luck at finding that gold ring as I am sure it will make someone very happy.

Rick

 

[saika]

Al tabs will not drop in depth as much as a ring will as you lift the coil. VDIs it is a craps shoot. two 18k rings will read diffrently depending on the other metal used in them.

 

[madaboutmike]

I agree - Sov. Elite is a coin killer. When I first got mine, I was a rank beginner and soon learned that my meter couldn adjust to factory settings. I experimented using other settings. As an aside, I'm a piano technician by trade. I tested the pitches the Sov. makes by using a piano tuning computer. Clads based upon 440 standard pitch registered 13 cents or hertz below 440 standard pitch and zincs 16 cents below the clad. Unfortunately minelab pitches are not pure, which is an issue I have tried to discuss with their engineers to no avail. Bench testing verified that a coin taped to a 3/4" thick piece of red oak was no impediment to the power of the Sovereign, which may verify that while searching around tree roots, a coin can be under the root. Detection may not occur from the edge, but directly through the root diameter. More unfortunately, my Minelab is going back to the shop. I suspect the thing was never 'quite right'. For example, I was having probs. with the 10" Tornado coil - it was blanking out. Out of desperation, I unscrewed the connector to the male jack and found that a soldering point was larger than the other three. I filed a millimeter off and the coil roared back to life. The soldering point was contacting the inner diameter of the male jack and shorting out! Thanks for the response!

 

[gator]

On my MXT most tabs show up on the screen with a VDI number of about
22 or 23. Nickels will show up at about 18. The size of the ring
makes a difference on the VDI numbers. A mans ring should be about
50 or 60. A ladies ring will be a smaller number. If the ring was
just lost it will not enter the ground very far.

 

[gator]

The 4x6 loop will not get as much depth but it will seperate trash
a little better.