Setting for hunting in heavy iron and trash?

[jbow]

I was reading something by NASA Tom about setting the F-75 on "one tone" and it would unmask non-ferrous items where there are a lot of nails etc.
My favorite site is like that. It is loaded with sq nails and iron ore and all sorts of other trash and a lot of good stuff too. I have pulled one box plate, a lot of minnies, and maybe 15 eagle buttons, and a couple of flower buttons out but it is loaded with the sq nails and can slaw.
I usually use a Tejon with the small coil there because it seem's to be the most stable machine there. With the T2 I might get 20+ signals in a single swing, I get overwhelmed. I can still pick out a good strong signal with it but I fear I am losing weak or small signals. Thankfully it is hard clay and a hilltop so most of the stuff is shallow but it is a four acre site and part of it has deeper stuff.
I have never tried running my T2 in single tone there, or anywhere. I usually run in 2+. Sometimes I run in 3 and have tried DP but DP drive's me nuts. I have been trying to just go by the audio until I find a signal I think need's inspection and then I will use the TID too but if it sound's good i'll dig.

Will I get better unmasking by using the 1 tone setting? Any other suggestions for very high, (3.0) mineralization and lots of small iron?

I am thinking about buying an F-75 if only for the improved old coin hunting ability.

Thanks,

J

 

[Jackpine Savage]

Here is what I would try.

Using Tom D's disc setting of 21 worked well in my mild ground when using the 1 tone PF mode which I did find was better at unmasking than 2 tone. Set at 20 most nails give a good beep, at 21 they break up with a few bleed thrus and at 22 most are totally silent. In your ground conditions those settings could change a bit I suppose. If you are getting 20 plus good signals per swing your disc setting and or sensitivity is way off. Set up right you will hear some noise from the iron/nails but very few should break thru with a good beep and those can be checked with the meter for ID. What you are after is as low a disc setting as possible along with a sensitivity level that allows you and your hearing ability to pick out the good beeps of non-ferrous targets. Always set the disc level before adjusting the sensitivity as even down in the iron/nail range changing the disc effects sensitivity.

You did not mention your sensitivity settings but, 30-40 or lower for really nasty sites like you are talking about should be close and the lower settings give better audio modulation on the deeper targets.

Tom

 

[jeff@middlesex]

I don't think I would drop my sens on the trashy sites. It's more a matter of just picking out the good from the bad. I also think one tone makes you listen harder since you have to do the audio work yourself more than the machine. So I think your listening harder for targets. I would check to see where my targets come up on the screen and the the audio and for the targets I know I expect to find at a particular site. Turn your disc up to the lowest reading of your good targets and go from there, if the sites that tough.

 

[Jackpine Savage]

Hi Jeff,

jbow mentioned iron trash andiron ore I take that to be some pretty badly contaminated ground!@ Lowering the Sens is all one can do to combat the noise you get in those conditions when using a hot machine like the T2. It's very hard to hear good repeatable beeps buried in that kind of noisy background chatter. If you have ever hunted around an old RR depot with that black contaminated soil and iron trash mixed in well.. you know it ain't pretty! 2 tones is easiest but then only if you can get it settled down enough to pick out the repeatables. Yup, 1 tone and learn to deal with it is best IMHO.

Lowering the threshold to silent or a tad below might also be in order. Running the disc up to the air test ID of your targets in those conditions is a BIG no-no.

Tom

 

[jeff@middlesex]

n/t

 

[jbow]

I have been running in 2+, disc 10, sens 75-80. There is just that much trash and iron at this site, plus there is a lot of iron ore. Many, many tones. It is not the T2, it is the site, it does not do that on other sites. This place is 4 acres of lawn. There was a house built in the 1830s, a lawter built an office in the 1880s, both burned around 1900. Another house was built in 1906. There were out buildings too, there are bricks in places, there are square nails all over. The yankee cavalry camped there too. Then another man had a home and business there in the 70s/90s. There are pulltabs and can slaw everywhere too. It is an unusual site but I have found a LOT of stuff there. I have it on display at the office that is in the house. I will go and take pictures and post them here.

My T2 is at 1st TX for them to fix a short in the coil wire, replace hte foam on the handle, and check the calibration.

Thanks,

J

 

[jbow]

Thanks for the help!

J

 

[jbow]

Yeah, the mineralization really does read 3.0 most of the time.

Thanks,

J

 

[coenwolf]

we obviously have a lot more iron riddled sites in the u.k than you do ,the way i would go about it is sens around the 65-70 mark to keep the audio clean ,disc at 10 so you hear the iron grunt ,and definetly 4 tone good signals will come through with a nice tinkle .another thing you could try is increasing your g/b in the a/m mode and at the same time reduce your hum level till its inaudiable ,these settings will carry back to your disc mode and quieten the machine down .
the one thing i have found is that sens makes hardly any difference to depth of target ,all you gain by increasing it is noise

 

[lurksalot]

I tried these settings this morning and found them to work well. Thanks for the info.

 

[coenwolf]

glad it worked for you m8 ,you will still find large iron using these settings but you will not miss many small targets either ,over here i/we tend to just dig targets over 43 on the meter .if you want to look at some of my T2 finds log onto www.teknetics-owners.com and look in the T2 finds gallery

 

[jbow]

Thanks bro,

I can't wait to get my T2 back from FT. I hope the heat wave will break by then, it has been 100+ degrees around here, on and off, for the last few weeks. I am north of Atlanta, GA... whew... heat and humidity.

I am not quite sure about the hum thing, isn't that just an adjustment in the AM mode? Do you just run in AM? My "go to" settings have been to "fastgrab" the GB, keep the disc to 10, sens around 75, and use 2+ tones.
I am not sure what the advantage is to using one tone and setting the disc at 21, but that is what NASA Tom say's and I realize he know's WAY more than I do about the T2. So I am going to try it, I just don't understand the why of it. I also am going to try the 4 tone setting. I never knew that it was the almost identical to the "old coin" program on the CZ3D, that is very cool.

Also, I have not been digging a lot of iffy, weak signals that are in the low range. If they repeat well, I usually dig them no matter what. I just was not thinking about the TID averaging the iron in with the brass etc. I have not been reading enough...

Give me a little more info on the hum setting. Am I confused on this? I never pay any attention to the hum setting, does it affect the disc mode?

I have another site that was the home of a Confederate general, I know from the owner that it has not been hunted a lot but I never find anything there, I think there is a high sink rate at the site along with the high trash. I am going back there with a new outlook and the T2.

I really, really, appreciate all the help I get here. I will go and take pictures of the collection I have made at one property here and post them. Some of the finds were with the T2, most with a Tejon, and some with a SovGt.

Thanks again.

Oh, I am waiting for an email to activate my acct on the T2 users forum!

Julien