CZconnoisseur
Active member
Hello again! I've really been enjoying not being at work the past 3 days - it rained the first two days off but now the ground is perfect for deep targets!
I went back the elementary school across the street and decided to try out a "4K SILVER" program just loaded onto the detector. Settings are as such:
4 kHz, Sens = 90, Reactivity = 1 or 2 (depending on background chatter), Silencer = 0, Iron Vol = 0, Full tones, TX = 3 (locked at this value in 4 kHz), GB = 83, Ground notch = 84-90, Audio response = 3, Overload = 2, Notch = 00-72 and 94-99
There is a slight depression on the south end of the campus that I've found a few Wheats from time to time from 4-6" deep. Shallow clad in these settings will really sing out if it's a copper penny or higher in conductivity. A silver dime air tests in this program from 76-77, and I've allowed a little downward migration for potential silver targets mixed in with iron, but in the process you will pick up copper pennies (no real hardship for me, but for some reason digging zincolns all day long doesn't sound like as much fun LOL!!!)
Anyway, so I get out there and get everything set - it had rained earlier yesterday until about 3:00pm so the ground was slightly wet but not sloppy. Got a nice 74-76 and dug down 4" for the brass lock cylinder...The signal sounded clear, clean, and smooth - so I knew the program was working very well so far!!! Then I went on and found a patch of ground that had a bunch of one-way targets, and some of these disappeared when I tried to resolve them further. Found about 5 targets like this and got a little frustrated...then decided to just dig one of them. I found the most repeatable target and then dropped reactivity to 1, and it came in a shade better. This allowed me to pinpoint it a little better and then went to digging...The ground was perfect - the shovel sank in all the way without snagging on anything - just lovely digging! Dug out a plug and set it aside - the bottom of the hole was about 7" deep now. Rescanned the target and it came in a little better still, and then probed the bottom of the hole - nothing. Sank the shovel in the hole again and pulled out more dirt, straight down, and then probed again to find the target just beyond the bottom of the hole which was 10" deep now. To my surprise I reached down and felt a coin rim at the end of my fingers - turned out to be a 1952 D Wheat at 11" deep
I am a believer now...
Not 5 feet from this deep Wheat, I found another "desparate" target which sounded about the same. At 10" down, out came another Wheat, dated 1945!!! So this taught me that deep-coin hunting with 4 kHz needs to be done SLOWLY, and investigate almost every blip. Sweeping about 6 inches per second gives the software enough time to resolve coin-sized items at these depths if the ground is relatively uncontaminated by iron. Many times the machine will resolve those deep targets if it gets a couple good passes and the audio quality will improve. If this happens, and there's no VDI (as with the 1952 D Wheat), turn 90 degrees and sweep...if the signal is identical or maybe a little different in tone, but repeatable, DIG IT BY ALL MEANS! If it disappears completely, go back to the original sweep and pinpoint as best as possible. Often (maybe 40-50% of the time) a "one way" high toned signal is a keeper amongst a bunch of trash, but sometimes it's a target that is JUST beyond the notch range that somehow gets bumped up into the "unnotched territory". I dug a couple pieces of scrap sheet aluminum this way that were mixed in with some nails - in 4 kHz this would have read around 45-50, but the slow sweep speed and iron I think is somehow making the software think it's more conductive than it really is.
Found the "gold" chain nearby the deep Wheats but alas - still no gold yet!
4 kHz really loves deep aluminum - no doubt about it. Since aluminum is the fourth best conducting element behind gold, copper, and silver it only stands to reason that at times it will throw off the software. However, what I've also learned is that bottlecaps are not an issue anymore
I think a combination of 4 kHz by itself and notching of 94-99 did the trick!!! Did not dig one single cap last night - usually I will find four to ten caps - which is time wasted to me. I did see a bottlecap on the surface last night- swept over it and only got a tiny blip over the headphones. Thought about notching 92-99 but I feel that a large silver ring or maybe a couple Walkers laying on top of one another may have been notched - definitely don't want to walk over that and not see it!
So this morning's hunt was done here at the house - it was cloudy and about 65 degrees, and I wasn't at work for once! I decided to use the same program as last night, switching only reactivity between 1 and 2 depending on the location of my yard. Started in the backyard and got nothing for about 30 minutes (I've hammered this little 35' X 45' yard into oblivion, but...) and got an iffy signal not ten feet from the back door. There was no VDI, but the signal was high-toned and choppy. So I slowed the sweep down to the 6" per second rate as I did last night - and the signal got a little better! It was a "79", definitely worth digging, but had trouble getting a 90 degree pinpoint. Trying out a few different directions, I finally got somewhat of a pinpoint and sank the shovel into the earth. Dug out a 6" plug but I scanned the hole first with the Propointer. Pulled out 5 nails from the hole as seen in the pics, and then rescanned with the Deus. It was in the plug...a crumble here and a crumble there...out rolled a lovely 1943 quarter!!! The nails were all deeper than the quarter, which was about 5" down. So it seems that iron targets BELOW a non-ferrous target will affect the VDI and sound quality of the signal - we all naturally think that there are coins below trash and many times we'd be correct - but I'm so surprised that something that large (a silver quarter) would go undetected after getting scanned with 12 kHz and 8kHz, numerous times.
Made my way around the front yard and concentrated on an area below the stoop. I trimmed a holly bush back last week and am now able to detect a small area that I could not hunt before without getting impaled. Got a good "74" and began digging - occasionally getting bitten by the now-smaller holly. The first coin I pulled from the hole was the 1953 2-Lira Vatican piece! I scanned the Deus over the hole and the "74" was still there. Turns out the Vatican coin is aluminum, and was COMPLETELY notched out...not 4" away out came a clad dime. Rescanned again and still was getting a "74" - directly below the clad dime a couple inches was a nice 1951 Wheat. The aluminum tab in the picture came from a desperate signal not 5 feet from the 3-coin glory hole - at a depth of 8".
Still working on a video where I can show you the audio difference of faint signals in 4 kHz vs other frequencies. It's made a great impact on me so far - still dig a little iron but for the most part...if it repeats both ways and is steady - you'd better be pulling out the shovel!
I went back the elementary school across the street and decided to try out a "4K SILVER" program just loaded onto the detector. Settings are as such:
4 kHz, Sens = 90, Reactivity = 1 or 2 (depending on background chatter), Silencer = 0, Iron Vol = 0, Full tones, TX = 3 (locked at this value in 4 kHz), GB = 83, Ground notch = 84-90, Audio response = 3, Overload = 2, Notch = 00-72 and 94-99
There is a slight depression on the south end of the campus that I've found a few Wheats from time to time from 4-6" deep. Shallow clad in these settings will really sing out if it's a copper penny or higher in conductivity. A silver dime air tests in this program from 76-77, and I've allowed a little downward migration for potential silver targets mixed in with iron, but in the process you will pick up copper pennies (no real hardship for me, but for some reason digging zincolns all day long doesn't sound like as much fun LOL!!!)
Anyway, so I get out there and get everything set - it had rained earlier yesterday until about 3:00pm so the ground was slightly wet but not sloppy. Got a nice 74-76 and dug down 4" for the brass lock cylinder...The signal sounded clear, clean, and smooth - so I knew the program was working very well so far!!! Then I went on and found a patch of ground that had a bunch of one-way targets, and some of these disappeared when I tried to resolve them further. Found about 5 targets like this and got a little frustrated...then decided to just dig one of them. I found the most repeatable target and then dropped reactivity to 1, and it came in a shade better. This allowed me to pinpoint it a little better and then went to digging...The ground was perfect - the shovel sank in all the way without snagging on anything - just lovely digging! Dug out a plug and set it aside - the bottom of the hole was about 7" deep now. Rescanned the target and it came in a little better still, and then probed the bottom of the hole - nothing. Sank the shovel in the hole again and pulled out more dirt, straight down, and then probed again to find the target just beyond the bottom of the hole which was 10" deep now. To my surprise I reached down and felt a coin rim at the end of my fingers - turned out to be a 1952 D Wheat at 11" deep
I am a believer now...
Not 5 feet from this deep Wheat, I found another "desparate" target which sounded about the same. At 10" down, out came another Wheat, dated 1945!!! So this taught me that deep-coin hunting with 4 kHz needs to be done SLOWLY, and investigate almost every blip. Sweeping about 6 inches per second gives the software enough time to resolve coin-sized items at these depths if the ground is relatively uncontaminated by iron. Many times the machine will resolve those deep targets if it gets a couple good passes and the audio quality will improve. If this happens, and there's no VDI (as with the 1952 D Wheat), turn 90 degrees and sweep...if the signal is identical or maybe a little different in tone, but repeatable, DIG IT BY ALL MEANS! If it disappears completely, go back to the original sweep and pinpoint as best as possible. Often (maybe 40-50% of the time) a "one way" high toned signal is a keeper amongst a bunch of trash, but sometimes it's a target that is JUST beyond the notch range that somehow gets bumped up into the "unnotched territory". I dug a couple pieces of scrap sheet aluminum this way that were mixed in with some nails - in 4 kHz this would have read around 45-50, but the slow sweep speed and iron I think is somehow making the software think it's more conductive than it really is.
Found the "gold" chain nearby the deep Wheats but alas - still no gold yet!
4 kHz really loves deep aluminum - no doubt about it. Since aluminum is the fourth best conducting element behind gold, copper, and silver it only stands to reason that at times it will throw off the software. However, what I've also learned is that bottlecaps are not an issue anymore
I think a combination of 4 kHz by itself and notching of 94-99 did the trick!!! Did not dig one single cap last night - usually I will find four to ten caps - which is time wasted to me. I did see a bottlecap on the surface last night- swept over it and only got a tiny blip over the headphones. Thought about notching 92-99 but I feel that a large silver ring or maybe a couple Walkers laying on top of one another may have been notched - definitely don't want to walk over that and not see it! So this morning's hunt was done here at the house - it was cloudy and about 65 degrees, and I wasn't at work for once! I decided to use the same program as last night, switching only reactivity between 1 and 2 depending on the location of my yard. Started in the backyard and got nothing for about 30 minutes (I've hammered this little 35' X 45' yard into oblivion, but...) and got an iffy signal not ten feet from the back door. There was no VDI, but the signal was high-toned and choppy. So I slowed the sweep down to the 6" per second rate as I did last night - and the signal got a little better! It was a "79", definitely worth digging, but had trouble getting a 90 degree pinpoint. Trying out a few different directions, I finally got somewhat of a pinpoint and sank the shovel into the earth. Dug out a 6" plug but I scanned the hole first with the Propointer. Pulled out 5 nails from the hole as seen in the pics, and then rescanned with the Deus. It was in the plug...a crumble here and a crumble there...out rolled a lovely 1943 quarter!!! The nails were all deeper than the quarter, which was about 5" down. So it seems that iron targets BELOW a non-ferrous target will affect the VDI and sound quality of the signal - we all naturally think that there are coins below trash and many times we'd be correct - but I'm so surprised that something that large (a silver quarter) would go undetected after getting scanned with 12 kHz and 8kHz, numerous times.
Made my way around the front yard and concentrated on an area below the stoop. I trimmed a holly bush back last week and am now able to detect a small area that I could not hunt before without getting impaled. Got a good "74" and began digging - occasionally getting bitten by the now-smaller holly. The first coin I pulled from the hole was the 1953 2-Lira Vatican piece! I scanned the Deus over the hole and the "74" was still there. Turns out the Vatican coin is aluminum, and was COMPLETELY notched out...not 4" away out came a clad dime. Rescanned again and still was getting a "74" - directly below the clad dime a couple inches was a nice 1951 Wheat. The aluminum tab in the picture came from a desperate signal not 5 feet from the 3-coin glory hole - at a depth of 8".
Still working on a video where I can show you the audio difference of faint signals in 4 kHz vs other frequencies. It's made a great impact on me so far - still dig a little iron but for the most part...if it repeats both ways and is steady - you'd better be pulling out the shovel!
