2500 zero discriminate works great!

[Jugghead]

I've been using my 2500 only since December, so I'm obviously not an expert, but
I've noticed that in the coin mode, detector recovery-time is a little slow. After digging
everything showing up as coins, I'll go back over the same area in zero discriminate
mode, which seems to recover much quicker, but has the added advantage of picking
out coins right next to iron. Many times, I've pulled a coin from a hole with nails right
under it. The trick is using bi-level and belltone, and listening for the little blip that
indicates something other than iron. This method has more than tripled coin recoveries
in ground that I've searched in coin mode several times. Latest good find: 1854 Seated
Lady quarter, in excellent shape, except missing about one-third of the coin. Something
must have hit it really fast to break it without bending it, maybe an old reel type mower.
The other third was nowhere to be found. One big problem is digging up rusty nails
around a foot deep, so this method is not foolproof. They I.D. as dimes, usually.
Any suggestions about identifying these things without digging?
.

 

[Cristasphoto]

Interesting I think thats one reason why all metal mode is suggested in most Detector manuals,guides etc....
I think Im gonna start following that advice...

 

[Uncle Willy]

All metal ain't good for newbies as they are all hyped up and want to find coins, rings, etc. - and in all metal all they find is a ton of junk, get discouraged, and the detector gets sold or goes in the closet.

Bill

 

[dahut]

I've been using my 2500 only since December, so I'm obviously not an expert, but
I've noticed that in the coin mode, detector recovery-time is a little slow. After digging
everything showing up as coins, I'll go back over the same area in zero discriminate
mode, which seems to recover much quicker, but has the added advantage of picking
out coins right next to iron. Many times, I've pulled a coin from a hole with nails right
under it. The trick is using bi-level and belltone, and listening for the little blip that
indicates something other than iron. This method has more than tripled coin recoveries
in ground that I've searched in coin mode several times. Latest good find: 1854 Seated
Lady quarter, in excellent shape, except missing about one-third of the coin. Something
must have hit it really fast to break it without bending it, maybe an old reel type mower.
The other third was nowhere to be found. One big problem is digging up rusty nails
around a foot deep, so this method is not foolproof. They I.D. as dimes, usually.
Any suggestions about identifying these things without digging?
.

This is really good to hear. Masking has become my 'cause celebre' lately. Some people save the whales, or stump for fascists, but I'm on a mission to stop trash masking.
Iron is especially a problem, although common aluminum trash is also an issue.

I learned a long time ago that the Garretts are good at picking around in the trash, but as you point out, you have to give them room to work by opening them up. I do a lot of hunting in minimal and often ZERO discrimination for this reason. Wwith their excellent TID and tone suite, the Garretts can alert you to problems with iron and trash that you may not even know existed.

Good job, bud!

 

[Cristasphoto]

All metal ain't good for newbies as they are all hyped up and want to find coins, rings, etc. - and in all metal all they find is a ton of junk, get discouraged, and the detector gets sold or goes in the closet.

Bill

LOL
For most yes/
But I aint like most lol
I have a shoe box of good stuff and relics
and TWO buckets one with nails and pull tabs the otther with misc. Iron to be recycled once I figure theres no relics in it...
AND I have found 20. dollars in clad
Some silver and junk jewelry etc
I have been hunting full time since January and super full time since February now that I'm not worried about losing my hands LOL
Yes I got frostnip on my index finger but I'm a warrior so I kept on pushing. LOL

 

[Uncle Willy]

Yeah you're one out of a hundred. Course when I started in this gig about 137 years go with the old tectors we had to dig everything anyway cause there was no discrimination and all the fancy stuff they have today.

Bill.

 

[Cristasphoto]

Thanks Uncle Willy.
It helps to that I had a detector back in the 90's when I was 14 yaers old ish.
Though I was too young to concentrate etc..

 

[Alan Applegate]

My experience is a bit different perhaps.

Here in New Mexico, the soil is very mineralized. Depending on where you have the sensitivity set, using the 12.5 inch coil produces a lot of false signals, and forced resets typically caused by static electricity, or so it appears. After a lot of frustration, I've stuck with the 9.5 inch coil. The auto balance works better with the smaller one too.

You mentioned setting the bi-level and bell tone together (in discriminate mode where they're applicable). That works, but adds some processing time which slows the detector down a bit. You can test this yourself, and you should. Try putting a penny and a piece of aluminum foil about two feet apart, and scan over both on each sweep. Try it with and without the sound aids tuned on.

Once you get adept at using the all metal mode, that's about all you will use. Yes, you have to pay closer attention to the display, but you'll end up digging less, not more, in all metal mode.

Alan Applegate

PS: I'm on my 6th set of batteries (≈175 hours), so I'm still learning too!

 

[Jugghead]

Alan, thanks for your comments. I realize that zero discriminate is not the same as all metal, but with the visual aids and bi-level and belltone sounds,
the visuals and sounds seem to respond and recover much faster than in coin mode. The biggest problem I encounter with this setup is the cacophony of sounds.
Sometimes it becomes overwhelming and I have to go back to coin mode, just for my senses to recover. But I find that this mode of detecting pays off in more
difficult ground, especially trashy and high iron presence. Now to get rid of those pesky rusty iron nails...........

 

[Musketeer]

Jugghead, what you have with the quarter is a "clipped" coin.. It was cut with a chisel and hammer on a solid surface.. In those days small change like half-dimes, 2 cent pieces, etc. were relatively scarce in many rural areas, especially. A quarter clipped into 3 pcs. would probably have passed as 8 or 10 cents. One cut in two was worth 12 1/2 cents, known as a "bit". Thus a quarter was "two bits".

Thereby giving rise to the Jr. High Cheerleader chant, "2 bits, 4 bits, 6 bits, a dollar".

When I was a lad 137 1/2 years ago, many people called a quarter "two bits" all the time.

I'm aware that there was a Spanish gold coin known as a "bit", also. But very few people in farming communities and rural areas of America were even aware that there were Spanish gold coins.

Anyway that is a nice find with an interesting condition.

Musketeer

 

[Uncle Willy]

Yeah two bits, four bits, six bits, a dollar was common nomenclature in my day 137 years ago. Two bits used to pay my way into the movies and buy me a box of popcoen. a coke, and a candy bar. Ah for the good old days. What's that same gig worth today - twenty bucks or so?

When folks complain about silver being scarce at a hunt site I remind them how much it was worth back then and people didn't just run around losing it all over the place and carried it in a coin purse or a Bull Durham sack. Losing a quarter back then was a major crisis especially during the Depression when most folks worked for one dollar a day or less. My Ma worked at a hotel seven days a week, 12 hours a day, for $7.00 a week - and that paid our rent for a month.

Bill

 

[Uncle Willy]

Yeah you were probably concentrating on the opposite sex.

Bill

 

[bearkat4160]

You are so right jugghead...the zero mode has faster recovery than when it has to reject a targets metal in other modes. Another way to speed up the machine is to turn OFF Imaging while hunting and just use it when you press pinpoint. This will make your recovery speed go way up and the machine will be more accurate also when the processor isnt taxed to much.

Alan

 

[bearkat4160]

Yeh Jugghead the monotonous sound in all metal can get very annoying fast...I change the respnose tones when I get sick of hearing the one..and it hepls for an hour or so then on to another tone.
Hopefully when Garrett get a new high end machine out with all metal they will put some more tones on it like there disc mode has. I use all 3 in that mode.

Alan

 

[Tico]

Jugghead, I think I got the other piece of your seated quarter.
Found it in a ghost town in East Texas