X-TERRA GOLD RING ID PLOT

[S505]

Attached is a plot of one gold ring detected by the same detector coil combination (505 w. 9" MF) in two test environments. In the first test the ring's ID shifted into the iron range as depth increased (test looked at depths from 4-9 inches). In the second test the ring's ID shifted to the silver range as depth increased (test looked at depths from ~3 - 6 inches). A similar shift with depth was seen with all targets I looked at. The first test was in Feb. indoors and consisted of potting soil (difficult to GB) in a five gallon bucket with nested PVC tubes and the second in April outdoors in the ground (GB=10) with the same nested PVC tubes. The first test might have been influenced by nearby big iron, electrical interference etc., The second test no nearby targets, steel, power lines etc. In both cases there was no adjustment on the Xterra which would bring the IDs back to that expected. I do not know how common this shift is but it has been mentioned on this forum going back several years (dimes maxing out at 48 and targets shifting to the iron range). I have also seen the iron shift mentioned on the Fisher forum. It is real and might affect more detectors than you think. If I can make the IDs shift left to iron and I can make the IDs shift right to silver, I should be able to identify the variable(s) which control it. What will I gain? I will learn when conditions favor an iron shift, a silver shift, or no shift and I will adjust when I detect and the targets I dig appropriately. I will know when & where the deep gold is likely to look like iron and I will know when & where the deep silver quarter looks like a penny.

Cheers,
S505

 

[Chris Mac]

Very interesting, this shows the use of target ID alone is an unreliable indicator and masking target ID

 

[S505]

Notching out can be a bad idea for what seems like more and more reasons all the time. I previously notched out -9 and 48 to quiet the machine down but recently quit and now hunt in all metal, all the time. Two weeks ago, I hit a target that was a solid 48 and like a fool I let it be because at the time I was not aware of any coins hitting that high. If it was deep, I very well could have left a nice coin. That area has (had anyway ) barbers.

I think for selective target hunting on or very near the surface, notching out can be very beneficial. But not for anything at depth.

S505