What coil to use?

[benzoflex]

Hunting an 1850's homesteads soon.A lot of slave walls there too.
The foundations, cellars and the well are the only things left.
Went earlier in the year with my stock 9" 7.5hz cocentric and found alot of iron( hand cut nails,ect...) but nothing else.
Since then, i picked up the 6" digger LF coil.I plan on taking it along with any other suggestion i can pick up here.
I'm guessing if there are coins around they would be at the 8" to 10" depth range?
I'm thinking definetly DD, but how big.Any other ideas on this subject is appreciated.
Thanks...

 

[Old Longhair]

If there's a lot of iron, then you've probably got the best coil for coins right now with that "Digger". Closed bottom coils are preferred for that kind of hunting, and the response from copper and silver is unmistakable with 3kHz. Just run in DISC with -8 & 48 notched out, and watch out for clipped, broken, or scratchy sounding tones, as they will be iron. And IDs that ratchet down are usually rust. Dig all clean repeatable tones, especially with IDs 28 to 46.

 

[mapper65]

I'm really starting to question 46's with that coil. The other night I probably dug 15 to 20 old pull tabs when digging a 46. They were mostly the old sort of triangular shaped pull tabs. If my memory serves me correctly, with my other coils those are nowhere near the upper 40's. I'm going to leave 46 open for a little while longer but in the semi trashy park that I was in the other night, 46's were really annoying.

I was so stumped by this that when I got back to the car I tested a small handful of coins. Granted it was air testing but nothing that I had registered a 46. I need to do some testing with a silver quarter, half & dollar and see what the results are. The dime that I found was a very solid 38-40

Our soil, for the most part is fairly mild here so maybe that has something to do with it. I think either Old Longhair or Digger noted that their tests showed that coins ID's were slightly higher than with their other coils but so far I don't think I'm having the same results. I'm not questioning their findings, it's just that my findings seem to be different. Time will tell, I've only had the coil out 3 times so far so I don't profess to have mastered it yet. I hope to get out a for a little while again tonight.

 

[Old Longhair]

Two things that I found that may pertain to your experience.
1) If you're hunting in DISC with -8 & 48 notched out, some 46s that you'll get are actually 48s that are strong enough to bleed over into the 46 range. If you listen carefully you can most often hear that one end of the tone is "clipped" or cut-off. A coin signal won't be like that.

2) SLOW DOWN! Even slower than you think. I'm often "alerted" to a potential target by a higher tone, but upon subsequent sweeps over it slowly it reveals itself to be trash. Pulltabs frequently ratchet down from 38-40 to a jumpy 28-34 (small square tabs go as low as 20), decomping zinc pennies jump around about 28-36, rusty crown caps will be 46s but sound broken, scratchy, or clipped, flattened aluminum screwcaps come in at 28-32, and clad dimes & copper pennies come in about the same @ 40.

Going slow is the key to success with these Coiltek 3kHz coils. They are so hot that they get a nearly violent response from high conductors, but they miss very little if anything. That little coil is doing a lot and it needs time to be accurate. Try sweeping the coil while eyeball searching the ground/grass just ahead of it, and if you find it tough to be looking fast enough to stay ahead, then you now have a feel for what you're asking that coil to do only it has more to look at than you do. If going slow doesn't help, try turning down the SENS a little, as what you may be experiencing could be similar to the "high-beams in the fog" scenerio, or the band being so loud that you can't hear the person next to you.

 

[Mark in S.E. IA]

longhair makes a very good point in making sure that your not swinging too fast. That can cause you to get higher ID numbers. a 3 to 4 sec swing speed is good and in trashy areas even a lil slower. but for normal MDing you should not swing faster then 3 sec.

 

[benzoflex]

Thanks for that tip. Your responses to this forum are a great asset..
Taking the time to help is very appreciated Old Longhair..
Thanks again...

 

[fdl]

Two things that I found that may pertain to your experience.
1) If you're hunting in DISC with -8 & 48 notched out, some 46s that you'll get are actually 48s that are strong enough to bleed over into the 46 range. If you listen carefully you can most often hear that one end of the tone is "clipped" or cut-off. A coin signal won't be like that.

2) SLOW DOWN! Even slower than you think. I'm often "alerted" to a potential target by a higher tone, but upon subsequent sweeps over it slowly it reveals itself to be trash. Pulltabs frequently ratchet down from 38-40 to a jumpy 28-34 (small square tabs go as low as 20), decomping zinc pennies jump around about 28-36, rusty crown caps will be 46s but sound broken, scratchy, or clipped, flattened aluminum screwcaps come in at 28-32, and clad dimes & copper pennies come in about the same @ 40.

Going slow is the key to success with these Coiltek 3kHz coils. They are so hot that they get a nearly violent response from high conductors, but they miss very little if anything. That little coil is doing a lot and it needs time to be accurate. Try sweeping the coil while eyeball searching the ground/grass just ahead of it, and if you find it tough to be looking fast enough to stay ahead, then you now have a feel for what you're asking that coil to do only it has more to look at than you do. If going slow doesn't help, try turning down the SENS a little, as what you may be experiencing could be similar to the "high-beams in the fog" scenario, or the band being so loud that you can't hear the person next to you.

Longhair....Very good info. here but I have a few questions. #1:If there was a possable coin in a hole surrounded by junk (nails,pull tabs,caps,etc.) would you not have the same scenario as you describe with high tones to begin with then lower tones or just a mixture of both? #2:How do I know theres a coin in the ground if it's disguised by junk? #3o you dig these mixed signal targets? Thanks....Al from FDL

 

[Old Longhair]

Answers:
#1) You should still be able to isolate and pinpoint that target amongst the trash.
#2) See answer to #1
#3) Only if I can isolate the good one. It may still turn out to be trash, but if it isn't sufficiently repeatable then the probablility of it being trash is seriously greater.

 

[fdl]

I to would like to give a BIG THANK YOU to Old Longhair & Digger for all the information & tips on this forum. You guys are well appreciated for all the responses to our questions....HAPPY HUNTING & THANKS. P.S. I'm kind of new to this site & MDing so I also want to thank the other folks that help out rookies like me.

 

[benzoflex]

I'M a rookie too, but you've come to the right spot....

 

[Old Longhair]

I had a little time this evening, so I took the Digger to a nearby school that has given up a few good finds. There were baseball and soccer games going on, which I knew would keep me away from the fields and nearer the buildings, and that the 6" Digger would be in it's element.....I wasn't wrong.
All coins were clad or copper mems. I dug 6 quarters, 17 dimes, 2 nickels, and four pennies. I also unearthed a coat button, a mower cut junk ring, and...

...this 3g 925 ring, and this 3g Sterling Dragon charm (w/ring broken off).

[attachment 265411 05-08-133gRing.jpg]
[attachment 265412 05-08-133gDragonCharm.jpg]

The really cool part....[size=large]I dug NO trash![/size]
Nickels were the biggest gamble, as they came in @ 16-18 but still sounded "coin like".
Everything else was 38-44, and there was tons of trash to sort through.

 

[mapper65]

Last night I went to a local park with the Digger coil. I went back to a location that about two years ago I found two silver dimes. I believe that one was a merc and the other was a silver rosie. I've always thought that there could be more silver there. Within 10 minutes I pulled up a 62 rosie! I also ended up finding a clad dime, quarter and a penny.

I'm not ready just yet to tell everyone to run out and buy a Digger coil but of the 4 days that I've been out with that coin and keep in mind that these are sites that I have detected before with nearly every coil that I own, I've found at least one more notable coin.

I will say that I also went to an early 1800's church site last night that Hotrod 53 has been to about 15 times and found a boat load of silver and I did not find one thing with the Digger coil.

 

[Pennypacker]

lol if Hotrod53 knows how to use his detector, went there 15 times, then I would not expect that he left much for you.

I was hoping you would be more certain in your review as I think I am going to take a drive and purchase this coil in the morning.

It sounds like it treated you well at the first site though.

 

[mapper65]

lol if Hotrod53 knows how to use his detector, went there 15 times, then I would not expect that he left much for you.

He's been there about 15 times over a decent number of years with two or three different detectors as he's progressively upgraded to the 705. I'm not quite sure what frequencies his other detectors were but I was there one time with him shortly after he got his 705 and I don't believe that he found anything with his 5x10 coil and I didn't find anything on that day with my 10.5" HF coil. I was kind of hoping that the low frequency Digger would have made a difference and exposed something that his previous detectors did not find. I have to believe that in some situations that will be the case especially since I've been to 3 sites that 3 of us have been to all using various coils on our 705's and the Digger coil has found coins that we've all missed with HF & MF coils.

We were both very curious if the Digger would find anything at this site. I may go back one more time because it's a little difficult to perfectly cover an area with a 6" coil but it will probably be on a day where I'm just out of ideas for a spot. I'm really excited to try the Digger on a new site that we've never been to. I'm really impressed with the depth I'm getting with that coil.