OK, Bryce, I read through the links...they were exceptionally helpful. Especially the fourth link -- the one where this post by you was included...
Knipper...I kind of feel like treasurefiend does...when I'm at a heavily pounded park and can find 2 keepers...I truthfully don't feel like digging 9 pieces of trash is that bad...especially when you already know you will have to chase some iffy stuff to find anything. I know it does get frustrating...but like Mike Bearden said....even ferrous/AM is not foolproof.
According to the nails you dug and the 2 coins you found...that means nearly 25% of the iffy hits you dug (according to cursor movement)...were good targets.
I have got my percentage to up around 50% good coins as compared to iron when chasing those hits....but I have a gazillion hours on my SE learning what it's telling me.
NONE of my silver finds the last year or so have been textbook cursor locking hits. They have ALL flutterted along the top of the screen...bouncing from my iron mask line...then fluttering right top...then back towards the iton mask line...exactly as you stated.
I then use the pinpoint on my SE to make the final decision as to whether or not to dig....because of this. If when I hit pinpoint...the cursor goes towards top right corner...I dig. If it heads over to iron...I walk. It's not foolproof...but it is ther method of chance I use...and it has been working quite well. Do I dig some iron...sure...but not much...seriously. I might have 4 to 6 pieces of iron in my pouch by the end of the day...and I already knew they were iffy before I dug them.
It's just a tradeoff for finding walked over coins by others. Like Mike B. said..."It is what it is". There is no foolproof method..but truthfully I don't dig much iron at all..unless I'm purposely trying to clean out a site to see the layer underneath.
I look at is this way...that's two more coins you pulled out of a worked park...that you would obviously not have dug had you not been trying some more iffy hits.
One more thing...after I hit all metal pinpoint on the SE and recheck the iffy hit....if it heads over to iron...9 out of 10 times it IS iron....so I walk.
The posters you were responding to were talking about trying to hit the iffy deep silvers, and how they get a TON of nails instead, when doing so. And BOY can I ever relate to that!!
You know, this is without a doubt my biggest challenge, and biggest frustration...I figure that detecting experience is probably the only way to improve in this specific area (which "iffies" do you dig), but I will tell you that NO MATTER what machine I've used in the past, I have dug TONS of "iffy" signals -- and with next to ZERO payoff. It simply seems next to impossible to me -- I have zero confidence. I have the KNOWLEDGE that most of the "easy" targets are gone, and that the ones left are partially masked, or deep and/or on-edge coins that are much more iffy, and that these will sound and ID an awful lot like bent, rusty nails, or falses off the edge of iron. I KNOW this. And therefore, I do DIG many of those "iffies" in heavily-hit areas where the good coins are hard to come by. But, I can tell you that ALMOST every one has been JUNK. I can think of TWO -- literally TWO iffies that I dug, since I got my SE Pro, that turned out to be "good" (both were copper memorials -- which I thought they might be; I knew they weren't silver). Otherwise, every time I have EVER tried this, I dig DEEP RUSTY NAILS. In the part of your quote above that I bolded/italicized, that is where I am just AMAZED at what you said. You said that almost ZERO of the silvers you dig anymore are the classic "cursor locks." (Now, I was lucky, in that my two halves were classic hits.) Also, you said that you rarely dig an "iffy" that surprises you (in that it turns out to be iron when you thought it was silver). This just simply amazes me, blows my socks off, seems like a "walking on water miracle" to me. I can't even imagine that. I simply have NO skill at this -- I have had next to ZERO success, when digging iffies.
I really want to improve in this area (which iffies to "dig" and which to walk away from). In that regard, I will begin to use the pinpoint ID "trick" with even MORE confidence now, and that should hopefully help, but I can't IMAGINE any other way to learn this, right now. Learning this skill is just SO elusive for me.
The only other thing I'll say is, when I narrow down on a "iffy" that has my attention, and then start digging, and pull out the Pro-Pointer -- I have learned that if my "iffy" is now pinpointing in the wall of my hole, instead of either IN the plug, or deeper in the middle of the hole, then that's proven to be a sure-fire sign to simply fill the hole back in and quit -- as these types of situations have been 100% of the time, iron. That's the only sure giveaway I've learned -- if it's not in my plug, but in the wall of the hole, I can quit -- it's a nail or whatever. But, if I could SOMEHOW learn to decide with some degree of certainty that my "iffy" is a nail BEFORE I have dug the plug, that would be a true breakthrough for me. Finding the silvers that hit "iffy," instead of having a near 100% trash, 0% "good target" track record when digging these iffies...MAN what I would give for that skill!
I will NEVER lose my realization of the NEED to dig iffies, and don't intend to quit digging them, but I simply don't know how to raise my "batting average" to even a SEMI acceptable level.
Sorry for the length...it just frustrates the CRAP out of me to KNOW that I need to dig the iffies to find the silver in heavily-hunted areas, and yet EVERY time I do, it's a nail...
Any other hints at all, or is this just something that 100% requires experience?
Steve
