Got my first 3030 last year and had a little time to play with it and did a lot of digging with a few coins with most new trying to get used to it. I did get a IH penny in a area that has been well worked that was around 7 inches deep which was impressive. Now I sold the 3030 last fall and get a new one this year again and got a 6 inch coil too, so I had to take them out to the old park I have worked since 1973 and was considered worked out by 1980, but we know there is always something left. I like spot such as these as the new coins are gone so I can listen to the weaker and iffy signals. Now with the 6 inch coil I took it to a area which is a bit trashy with nails and used the combined mode and the ferrous line at 22 and the conductivity at low as 10 with the rest of the screen opened up. The good signals I got were around 12 ferrous with some a little higher and lower and the conductivity was in the 35-45 and these were all nails. they were repeatable signals and felt they should have been coins, but were rusty nails, screw and even some old rusty bottle caps. One thing I did notice is most of these showed the red box on the bottom of the screen which is disc out plus the bulls-eye of a good target in the not disc out area. Is this normal? Should I be not digging those with the red box even though they sound good. I am used to the Sovereign which I still have plus this is how I dig some great finds is dig the iffy signals. I did find one coin that read 8 ferrous and a conductivity of 41 that sounded smaller, but was repeatable and no red box on the bottom of the screen, when dug I dug out a plug and then used my Uni Probe built into the headphones to go into the hole and seen it was a little deeper and a little to one side of my hole, so I just went real easy with the digging and found a like new 1919 wheatie that was standing straight up and down on the side of the hole around 7 inches deep with the little 6 inch coil, this impressed me it could see it.
Tried a few other spots and just new coins and another wheatie in around the 6 hours I have used it.
Now I used it at a competition hunt last weekend and set up a pattern with the ferrous at 15 and the conductivity set from the 35-46 area, so I was just cherry picking and the nickle are from 10-13 opened as I figured there would be nickles there too. Not all hunts had nickles, but those that did I set the tones on the nickles the same as the other coins, and if no nickles I set the small area to low tones. I still heard a lot of high tones on the first swing, but were gone on the second swing of the coil. Sensitivity was in auto with no plus or minus. I found being these coins were from surface to 4 inches deep I got a good signals either way which it should. I just didn't think I should have heard any false signals. On the big hunt which was only silver half's and a few prize tokens I got skunked without finding anything even though I threw down a new quarter so I knew it was working. It was all my fault on this one as my wife got a few silver half's with her Compadre so I put one on the ground and the 3030 only nulled over it, put it in disc 2 and it picked it up with no problem and knew right away I didn't have my conductivity high enough even though it shows in the open area of my pattern on the top of it. I guess I just learn something I should check it with all the coins that will be used. In the one hunt we had the new dollar coins and it did good with them plus the war nickles.
Now when the hunts were about over as they were 30 minute hunts, so I went slower and dug some trash that sounded good plus got penny that was over 7 inches deep and felt it had to be a IH penny, but was a 1974 memorial. On one of the Fields at the very end of the hunt I did get a weaker 12-12 signal and was showing 7 inches deep and when I got it out of the hole I seen a lump of dirt with look like gold in it, this was a nice earring I feel is gold plated and it has a big pink stone in the middle and smaller stones around the edges with different colors to it, look like the stones on a mother ring as they look like birth stones.
Lot to learn yet with this detector and will be reading post from others plus wonder why if the area on the screen is disc out I still get a good high tone and good numbers and bulls-eye seems to be in a good area too, maybe being there is also a red box in the area disc out it is telling me it is a false signal off of iron. I also remember it is said that there is no iffy signals with the 3030, it is either good you dig as it has the most accurate ID.
Rick
Tried a few other spots and just new coins and another wheatie in around the 6 hours I have used it.
Now I used it at a competition hunt last weekend and set up a pattern with the ferrous at 15 and the conductivity set from the 35-46 area, so I was just cherry picking and the nickle are from 10-13 opened as I figured there would be nickles there too. Not all hunts had nickles, but those that did I set the tones on the nickles the same as the other coins, and if no nickles I set the small area to low tones. I still heard a lot of high tones on the first swing, but were gone on the second swing of the coil. Sensitivity was in auto with no plus or minus. I found being these coins were from surface to 4 inches deep I got a good signals either way which it should. I just didn't think I should have heard any false signals. On the big hunt which was only silver half's and a few prize tokens I got skunked without finding anything even though I threw down a new quarter so I knew it was working. It was all my fault on this one as my wife got a few silver half's with her Compadre so I put one on the ground and the 3030 only nulled over it, put it in disc 2 and it picked it up with no problem and knew right away I didn't have my conductivity high enough even though it shows in the open area of my pattern on the top of it. I guess I just learn something I should check it with all the coins that will be used. In the one hunt we had the new dollar coins and it did good with them plus the war nickles.
Now when the hunts were about over as they were 30 minute hunts, so I went slower and dug some trash that sounded good plus got penny that was over 7 inches deep and felt it had to be a IH penny, but was a 1974 memorial. On one of the Fields at the very end of the hunt I did get a weaker 12-12 signal and was showing 7 inches deep and when I got it out of the hole I seen a lump of dirt with look like gold in it, this was a nice earring I feel is gold plated and it has a big pink stone in the middle and smaller stones around the edges with different colors to it, look like the stones on a mother ring as they look like birth stones.
Lot to learn yet with this detector and will be reading post from others plus wonder why if the area on the screen is disc out I still get a good high tone and good numbers and bulls-eye seems to be in a good area too, maybe being there is also a red box in the area disc out it is telling me it is a false signal off of iron. I also remember it is said that there is no iffy signals with the 3030, it is either good you dig as it has the most accurate ID.
Rick
