Observations, of a rambling kind

[BillF]

We have 87 parks within the city limits where I live. 80 of these are 110-120 years old. Over 4100 acres.
I have been going to several of these parks and listening carefully for faint signals. I just don't get faint signals, at least not anything that is repeatable from different directions. And, I don't get good ID numbers. I have been forceing myself to not rely on ID numbers, I don't want to get in the trap of skipping over good finds because the numbers weren't there.
So, part of this post is asking, are deeper coins always going to give a repeatable signal? I know the ID numbers aren't true when they get deep. I really can't dig deep plugs in these parks to see what's hiding there, it will get me banned quicker than you can blink.
The other part of this post is about another place I hit. The "new" freeway site. This area is huge, extremely trashy and has been pounded by the local MD club.POUNDED.
I like to hunt here because I can use a relic shovel and just kick the dirt back in the hole.
Once in a while I pick up an old merc, but not often. I think I may have found a bit of a secret here and will be paying closer attention. The ground here has been hard as a rock lately, Sunday we had a hard rain so I went to the biggest open field.
Searched for an 1 1/2 hrs. My first good signal was a scratchy, broken signal but was consistent from all directions. The ID bounced from 22-36. I almost didn't dig it because of that. It was 1906 IH, 2nd was the same type signal. A 1903 IH. A few minutes later got the same signal again and popped up a wheat.
I don't know why I get these scratchy, broken signals, but I think it pays to dig them, and I think that may be why the MD club skips them. Maybe its all the trash masking these coins. Hmmmm...
My other issue is my Digger coil. I've spent hours with it and not found much, go back with the stock coil and pick stuff up. Makes me nervous to use it. Don't want to waste my time not finding anything. After reading many posts, I might have to give her another go.
Sorry about the long post.

 

[fdl]

Bill....don't worry about the long post, I have the same questions you have about deep,faint signals. I have the Digger coil & I love it for the way it seperates tones & I'm finding more coins in places that I hunted before.

 

[BillF]

That's why I want to give it another try. I think my perception was that it was a miracle coil. And it might be, but I have to be more observant of what its telling me.

Bill....don't worry about the long post, I have the same questions you have about deep,faint signals. I have the Digger coil & I love it for the way it seperates tones & I'm finding more coins in places that I hunted before.

 

[Billium]

Bill F,
I too am conflicted about those faint "whisper" signals. I have dug silver dimes at 8" using the small 6" coil and yet dug NOTHING at 10-12" using the 1.5" DD coil chasing consistent whisper signals. I haven't figured it out but I keep thinking "you have to see what it is".
I hunt mostly old homesteads that are very trashy and a lot of times those whisper signals are an old nail bouncing a signal off the head of the nail IMHO.
Last weekend i had a faint Nickel signal that would only show up swinging the coil in one direction, it was a 1907 V. I almost didn't dig it. Any more, if I am not in manicured turf, I dig most all decent signals because I can't stand thinking I may be walking away from a good target. If you figure it out let us all know and we will do the same.

 

[mapper65]

I have the Digger coil & I love it for the way it seperates tones & I'm finding more coins in places that I hunted before.

This has been my exact experience. I have three hot spots that I've hunted like crazy with my 10.5" coils. I went back to the better of these three hot spots with the digger coil a the first time I found a merc and a buffalo. Just the other day I went and found a buffalo and 3 wheats.

One of the other hot spots has tuned up a rosie and a merc along with about 7 wheats.

The third hot spot has turned up two v nickels.

I've found that on a deep target you will see a good ID but it may not be constant. If I go into pinpoint mode and it sounds like a coin then I dig it.

 

[Billium]

Have you guys compared the digger DD coil with the Minelab 6" concentric coil? I have the 6" concentric and while it is good in trashy areas it seems "chattery" for lack of a better word. After running a DD coil the chatter with the concentric's drives me nuts.

 

[Mark in S.E. IA]

Bill, I see your learning that not all coins will give off a perfect signal and that's why they are still in the ground like the field that you found the IH's, even though you say it's been pounded.

The whisper signals most times you will get a good repeating signal more then one way but the numbers may jump some and also it's not everyday that you will run in to a whisper of a deeeep coin. Not all places you go to will have deep coins. The places I went to the last 2 weeks all the old coins were no deeper then 3" to 5" deep and they come in pretty loud. also it help to wear a good set of headphones, I use Sun Rays headphones.

As far as the 6" coils, I do not have one so I can not comment on those. Maybe someday I'll get one unless one of the coil makers wants to give me one so I can do some testing, lol P.S, I do have some good places to test it out at.........

 

[mapper65]

I sold my 6" concentric coil a few months ago. It was my least favorite coil and I gave it more than a chance. I never felt that I got really good depth with it although I did have one of my better finds with it, an 1877 Indian.

I believe that this coil was was in proper working condition for 99% of the time that I used it. Nearly two years after buying it, I put it on my 705 after not using it for about three months and it suddenly developed a wild chattering sound even with the sensitivity down to single digit numbers. I sent it back to Minelab and they replaced it with a brand new coil. I couldn't wait to sell it. I figured being that the coil was new it was the perfect opportunity to unload it.

In my soil it's my opinion that this coil was not at all worth having when compared to the 6" Minelab and 6" Digger coil. I haven't missed it in the least bit.

 

[BillF]

The coins in my area rarely get deeper than 5", that's kind of why I'm a little bugged by the not clear signals. With that being said, I' m OK with that as long as they stay consistent, its what I listen for now. And I have to keep telling myself not to always go by the numbers.

 

[Old Longhair]

You might try dialing back the SENS a little Bill. In hot ground it really can help clear things up.:Like the analogy of driving in fog with your high beams, turning the SENS down a little allows for less interference from conditions and things you don't care about, and still garners the response from what you want to see.
Running a little ground phase offset can help in some cases too. Don't be afraid to experiment.

 

[BillF]

In this area I've been running sens at 17, haven't played with GB offset yet. I get so liitle time to get out that I forget to try some things. The temps are back up in the 90's and this spot has no shade so it will be a bit before I can get in there and try my Digger coil and do some experimenting.

My wife thinks I'm crazy to keep going back, but I do find a few of the type of coins I like to hunt for here and I believe it has the best chance for a small gold coin. Besides, the time is coming when this whole area will be asphalt.

 

[mapper65]

My wife thinks I'm crazy to keep going back, but I do find a few of the type of coins I like to hunt for here and I believe it has the best chance for a small gold coin. Besides, the time is coming when this whole area will be asphalt.

Bill, that's all it takes. I think if you have that premonition for lack of batter terms about an area then you really need to put the time in to hunt it. I have two areas that I really don't think that my Mom and my brother like to goto which have been two of my best spots. It's really been persistence in those two spots that's really paid off for me. Here is what I've found in one of those spots after about 14 trips.These are just the notable coins. I probably have found 100 other coins but now I'm down to when I find something it's typically a deep wheat or silver

1924 Wheat Penny
1927 Buffalo Nickel
1927 Wheat Penny
1932 Wheat Penny
1934 Mercury Dime
(2) 1936 Wheat Pennies
1936 Buffalo Nickel
1937 Buffalo Nickel
1937 Wheat Penny
1937 Mercury Dime
1938 Wheat Penny
1938 Mercury Dime
1940 Wheat Penny
(4) 1941 Wheat Pennies
(2) 1943 War Nickels
(2) 1944 Wheat Pennies
1944 War Nickel
1945 Wheat Penny
1945 War Nickel
1946 Wheat Penny
(2) 1948 Wheat Pennies
(2) 1951 Wheat Pennies
(2) 1951 Silver Roosevelt Dimes
1952 Wheat Penny
(2) 1954 Wheat Pennies
1955 Wheat Penny
1955 Silver Quarter
1956 Wheat Penny
195? Wheat Penny
1963 Silver Roosevelt Dime
(4) Unreadable Wheat Pennies
Unreadable Buffalo Nickel

 

[BillF]

That's what I'm talking about Mapper65. I don't find a lot here, but I find more old stuff than I do in our oldest parks.
When its all freeway, at least I won't feel like I missed out on an opportunity

 

[atomicscott]

I have the same problem and also felt this way with other detectors. 'If I had an inch more depth, I could probably get a decent signal on this target'. I believe what Mark says rings true, it just may be that there are NO deeper coins there and the whispers are deeper trash. Also, regarding Marks comment about 6" coils. I recently saw a video of a Fisher F2 and comparison of the 4" sniper and 10" coils. The 4" coil picked up a few targets that the 10" didn't. I believe the separation and sensitivity of small coils can be a big advantage in the trash and may be a better advantage than a deeper coil. Lately I have been using the 6" concentric and while it gets around the trash well, not being a DD coil, it doesn't have the improved separation that I would like. Believe it or not, I have read that the 6" 18.75 coil is very good at picking coins (yes, even silver coins) out of the trash. I think Digger actually remarked somewhere, that in trashy areas the 6" HF coil would have no prob picking out a silver dime at 6" in iron trashy sites. I appreciate your input on the digger coil, Bill. I think you helped make up my mind to try the 6" HF coil.

 

[mapper65]

Believe it or not, I have read that the 6" 18.75 coil is very good at picking coins (yes, even silver coins) out of the trash.

I've found many silver coins with the 6" HF coil. For the longest time, that was my goto 6" coil. If I had to do it all over again knowing what I know now. I probably would have bought just the 6" digger coil. I'm mainly a coin hunter and that coil is unbelievable with coins in the soil that I have used it in.

 

[Old Longhair]

Believe it or not, I have read that the 6" 18.75 coil is very good at picking coins (yes, even silver coins) out of the trash.

I've found many silver coins with the 6" HF coil. For the longest time, that was my goto 6" coil. If I had to do it all over again knowing what I know now. I probably would have bought just the 6" digger coil. I'm mainly a coin hunter and that coil is unbelievable with coins in the soil that I have used it in.

Bingo!
Until we got the Digger (last fall) there was no other small DD coil other than the HF. Now that we have the option of a 6" 3kHz DD, unless you're hunting small gold or in the water the HF is generally NOT the best choice.

 

[BillF]

Went out with the Digger coil last Friday. I only had an hour to hunt and wanted to give it a shot at the field where I picked up IHs.
Tons of trash. I am surprized at how many items give a coin sized signal but aren't coins. However, I did pick up an older copper penny and a wheat. Nice signals. I'll keep at it and see how it does.

 

[jtram]

I am not a coin hunter for the most part I mainly stick to relics from civil war camps. So basically my set up is as hot as I can run it two tones in all metal with tracking on. What I have found is that the 705 set up this way doesn't really give whisper sounds on targets no matter how deep. What I have noticed is the jumping of numbers on really deep bullets. Really deep bullets will bounce from the 30s into the negative numbers to -8. But there will be a consistent high tone more often than the iron grunt.

I have found small pistol bullets at 10" larger bullets at 13-14 and watched a buddy dig several .69s at 15-17 inches this way. Sometimes smaller pieces of camp lead will read the same way and be shallow. Just thought I would pass along my observations in the two years that I have had my 705.

 

[foiler]

Bill, sorry to be late with a response, Ive been off the board for a while. Here is a bit of info that may help. Single frequency machines loose their target ID accuracy with depth. Well, really all machines do but multi-freq' machines are much better at IDing deep targets. How that manifests itself with you X-Terra is the ID #'s will drop and/or you will get erratic ID's on deep targets. This is very prevelent with gold targets often coming up with near iron readings. What I'm saying here is, if it's a deep target don't believe your screen read out. My suggestion is, if it's a solid reading, dig it. I think you'll be surprised at what comes out of the ground.

 

[BillF]

I don't rely on numbers. I think sometimes my perception of what's under my coil is tainted by what I see for an ID, and knowing that I dig a lot of targets that I am certain are junk, I hate the idea that I will give up a great item because my meter says leave it. However, the time will come when I convince myself that #46 is a bottle cap and nothing more.