The 8 by 9 coil, Vaquero, Cibola, Tejon MASKING?

[KVM2]

One member of the forum does not seem to care for the 8 by 9 coil on the "hot" machines.. I am starting to wonder if masking is a problem...The reason being the Compadre I bought ,,knocking coins out of the ground that I had covered a few weeks earlier with my Vaquero...I was having a ball, and when the good times roll ,you don't question why... But, looking back, it seems strange that I could have left so many items.. Compadre has a 7 inch coil, settings were about the same, below nickel...No phones, and short grass..I think it rained between searches, but the coins were shallow??? I might be getting "older", but not that bad yet...

 

[DigDugNY]

What kind of coins were you getting? Like modern clad? I think the vaquero with the 9x8 does better when it's hitting stuff that's deep. What kid of settings did you have the vaquero on?

 

[fowlercharles]

Hi KVM2, I believe we can safely say that Masking is a problem for any machine /coil combo you would ever swing, but there are a few that do better than others.Compadres, Amigo II s' are some of Tesoro's favorites for sure that manage masking better, and there others of other Brands that do well too. The old tech 100Khz machines are exceptional but the better ones, like Compadres hunt shallow.That is the nature of masking. Most folks have no true idea of just how much masking takes place under their coil.Probably a good thing so as not to discourage us so much. Experience teaches us how best to face our masking sites either with certain machines, smaller coils, fine tunning etc. As for the 9X8,(Con) I love it on my Tejon, It covers lots of ground and untill I swing into a really bad on nail trashy site, it gets down further than I want to dig, and that for me, is just a hair deeper than the 5.75. If I have a long walk in hunt, I always have the 5.75 with me,for the really trash sites. Sometimes I also shoulder sling the Compadre(5.75) or Amigo II(7). The 9X8 finds enough for me that I don't really sweat the masking, though I don't kid myself about how bad masking actually is. My finds with the 9X8 have kept me having fun on almost every hunt with it.HH, Charlie

 

[tvr]

Smaller coils do help unmask things a better.

Personally, I think a lot of targets are just missed because coil sweep is not overlapped when we go out and hunt an area. It takes a lot of time and concentration to really grid an area and cover all of the area being hunted. Sometimes masking may affect the results, but to get rid of the masking target you really need to dig it out and then see what may be under it.

If you want to do some masking tests, try doing them with targets on different planes. In other words, set a piece of 2x4 on the ground and put a small nail on it. Set the detector to eliminate the small nail. Put a coin on the ground and make sure you can detect it clearly with the coil about three inches above it. Put the piece of 2x4 over it and place the small nail that you discriminate out on top of the board and see what you get. Offset the nail position with respect to the coin and see what you get.

There are a lot of videos on line saying many detectors are not masked and they show a nail that is discriminated out and then show a coin held against the nail and it is clearly detected. Set the targets up on different planes, like happens in the dirt, and you get another picture of what is going on.
tvr

PS I like the 9x8 coil for many conditions. If the area being hunted gets very trashy, I go to the 5.75 inch concentric.