I went to a park I have never detected and noticed there was a tot lot so I headed over to it. It appeared someone had been there recently as I did not find any coins except a couple pennys. Don't know why, but I decided to dig some signals that were like in the single digits on the ID meter and higher. All of the sudden I started finding coins and broken jewelry (prettty much all junk) but very small pieces. What I discovered is the target ID is not accurate at all in wet sand but the tone still sounds when there are targets underneath. I dug many targets nearly 12 inches deep (yes, with the 5x8 double d coil) and came away with a handfull of clad. No big deal but I learned a valuable lesson that I wished I knew when I was nugget hunting. I passed over hundreds of targets that gave low or no ID number in the gold field and I kick myself for it now. Don't let it happen to you.
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Tot Lot lessons with the AT Gold
- Thread starter MikeLab
- Start date
GoGoGopher
New member
I have often found it impossible to Auto Ground Balance in Bark chips, or sand filled tot lots...I think it has to do with the fact that the bark chips are a lot of air, and the liners used under the fill might affect a good GB also...Has this happened to anyone else??
I find if I manually set the GB to 80, I did OK in the tot lots.
HH,
I find if I manually set the GB to 80, I did OK in the tot lots.
HH,
Yes, I did notice the gb worked better when manually bumped up a few numbers but I still got some deep targets only using auto gb. Some coins were right at 12 inches deep.
I would also like to mention again how important it is to overlap your sweeps for the deep targets. The instruction manual says to overlap by half a coil length or four inches per sweep. I would say cut it down to three inch sweeps for the ultra deep targets, at least in the high mineralized sand I was in. I don't know what was in there (fertilizer salts?) because the coins were so pitted I could hardly recognize some of them. I thought maybe they were foreign coins or something. LOL
On another note, I dug one target right under a swing. It was a crushed pop can very deep on end. I thought to myself someone put that there as a trap of sorts to discourage people from digging there. Probably a good spot to find stuff. I left it there and plan to go back to see if anything gets lost there. Maybe I should set my own trap with some iron. LOL
I would also like to mention again how important it is to overlap your sweeps for the deep targets. The instruction manual says to overlap by half a coil length or four inches per sweep. I would say cut it down to three inch sweeps for the ultra deep targets, at least in the high mineralized sand I was in. I don't know what was in there (fertilizer salts?) because the coins were so pitted I could hardly recognize some of them. I thought maybe they were foreign coins or something. LOL
On another note, I dug one target right under a swing. It was a crushed pop can very deep on end. I thought to myself someone put that there as a trap of sorts to discourage people from digging there. Probably a good spot to find stuff. I left it there and plan to go back to see if anything gets lost there. Maybe I should set my own trap with some iron. LOL
Yeah, I find all that air in the matrix seems to mess with the ID past a few inches. Down here those deep pop cans are from the work crews. Watch a sod crew or a crew mulching with chips in the heat. They drink a soda, stomp it flat, throw it down and fill over it. Thanks a lot guys!
Another thing I've hit here is a metal mesh around transplanted trees. They have it around the root ball and leave it when they plant the tree. You figure it out quick but it's a pain....
Another thing I've hit here is a metal mesh around transplanted trees. They have it around the root ball and leave it when they plant the tree. You figure it out quick but it's a pain....
All my detectors have a slight change in ID response when hunting in the sand. I tend to dig it all, probably like you and get the good targets left behind by someone else. A lot of tot lots are hunted only in the hots pots by others. I like to do the inside perimeter, where theree are often times many good targets to be found. I usually take 2 detectors along when hunting, and one always has a small coil attached, specifically for those tight spots near metal.