Deep nickle readings.

[Dan(NM)]

I'm curious as to what kind of readings your getting on deep nickles. The deep copper and silver VDI's are all over the place depending on the soil, depth and angle of the targets. I focus on any repeatable high tone and use the numbers secondary. I cherry pick more than I should, but, my time in the field is limited more than I would like, so, I go for the copper and silver. I was thinking about my lack of hitting deep nickles and wonder how the numbers could vary. I'm going to set up a nickle only program and need to know the range I need to set for my window, and will assign a high tone for that area.

 

[sprchng]

Seems to me on the CTX nickels hit stronger on co-14 than 12 and 13 like on the etrac.
Throw that Fe number out ,,,I've dug many with Fe as high as 23 and 18 isn't uncommon.
Nickel IDs are all in the tone for me in my dirt and the perfect threshold pitch setting to get them to sound more distinct than tabs is around 22 to 24.
When I hear that tone and any shade of co-14 shows up , I'm after it.

 

[IDXMonster]

Yeah nickels are funny as hell for some reason. How smooth the response is and if it comes and goes in a very uniform way is usually how I’ll wind up with a nickel.
About 2.5 months ago I had a screwy reading(don’t recall the numbers but they weren’t nickel numbers) but the tone was butter smooth. Wound up with a rotted coin purse and 2 Shield nickels at 6-7”. This is in a very old village commons about 10 feet from the central gazebo. Both nickels are very eaten and almost illegible. But they still had that telltale EVEN tone,this was in Combined.
I don’t hunt nickels per se,but if it’s a nickel signal anywhere near another coin signal,and it’s deep,it’s mine. Also,the ones around here tend to fall off the radar at 8”,as a I’ve never found one deeper than those shields. At least not that I can recall with the CTX.
How are you doing with the CTX overall Dan?

 

[Dan(NM)]

I've been able to use it more in the last couple of months than than when I first got it this year. I'm really starting to gel with it and have several custom programs that work very well for my kind of hunting. It amazes me everytime I go out. I have an Equinox on order, but, it's gonna have to be very special to try and keep paces with the CTX. The CTX just has so much going for it. My confidence grows with each outing. If only they would have taken the CTX and put it inside the Equinox ... That would have been killer!!!!

 

[sgoss66]

Dan -- I am RIGHT with you. The CTX amazes me every time I hunt, and it's only been a few times so far. I also am getting an Equinox, but I agree it will have to be an incredible machine to keep up with the CTX.

I also want to know about the deep nickel thing. IDX -- when you said "comes and goes in an even way," do you mean when you are sweeping the coil across it, and the way the signal "rises" and then "falls" off the edges of the target? Is that what you are talking about?

sprchng -- FE on deep nickels as high as 23 FE? Wow...I need to open up a few more pixels on my "disc" program, as I have disc set at FE 20, and higher (bottom half or so of the screen). On my combined programs, I have the FE tone break at 20. Some guys (IDX -- was it you?) Say they run it at 23, instead of 20...perhaps I should do that.

I CAN say this, for sure...on the Explorer, a nickel air tests right around 10-06 (depending a little on which noise cancel channel you were running). Any "middle of the road" (4, 5, 6) noise cancel channel, and you'd be right around that 10-06 number. BUT -- once the nickels got deeper than about 4" or so, that FE number would start getting higher. I was digging deep "V" nickels based on tone...but with the help of the ID numbers, knowing that the FE value would be well up into the teens. If I had a deep coin-sounding number bouncing 12-06, 16-05, 18-05, 17-05, 13-05, 14-06, bouncing around numbers like that, with the right sound, that was a dead nickel giveaway using the Pro coil with my Explorer. I dug them down to about 8" or a bit more (not sure if it would hit them deeper in my soil, or not, as the one site I dug most of the deep nickels from, the high-conductive coins we were digging were only down to about 9" or so, as well). So, higher nickel FE numbers on an E-Trac or CTX does not surprise me, but 23 DOES surprise me a little.

How often, sprchng, do you think you hit a deep nickel higher than 19 FE (such that I'd be missing them with my "FE line" set at 20)? 1% of them? 10% of them? 25% of them? Just curious if MOST of them stay high teens for you, or if several times they will go above that "20" FE number...

Steve

 

[sprchng]

Steve,
I would say half the nickels I find have wacky Fe numbers.

Like all things detecting , location is 90% of everything. I mostly hunt more modern parks where any silver dropped was recovered long ago because it was shallow and accessible to the early detectorists. As a result of people discing out low conductors there are really more nickels laying around than newer clad than people realize. So many detectorists won't consider a nickel reading unless they are right on a specific number and many get passed off as tabs and such.

I'm looking for gold jewelry not clad. The clad is easy , the gold hangs out down in the trash. Most hunts I will find at least , if not more , nickels than clad quarters. The ones with screwy Fe readings are usually deep and the Fe reading is never solid but will jump maybe a 10 point range but that distinct nickel tone I have found and the Co number will be pretty stable between 12 and 14 . Ferrous vs ground ( I usually run ground) can shift it a number higher or lower in that range but ,10 and 11 are usually partial beaver tails and 15 to 18 are often the dreaded tab. I still dig most of that crap. I run Fe at 27 and get some modern screws and nails as a result , but iron is not a big polluter in these sites and any remaining silver is probably being masked by it so that's kind of a extreme silver safety measure. Silver jewelry is much more common than silver coinage.

I detected a park yesterday where the auto + 3 reading on sensitivity never broke above 12 which is drastically different than the dirt you mentioned in an earlier post so expect your results to vary. This is a commonly hunted modern park , I found 3x more nickels than clad quarters. Location is primary.

 

[IDXMonster]

It only took me 2-3 years to learn about the “location” thing

 

[sgoss66]

Good stuff, sprchng. Thanks for the detail.

YES, sounds like your dirt is much different than mine. I was in the mid to upper 20s at that park I was hunting, when running auto +3.

But the info on nickel readings is good. I'm going to dig some nickels today.

Steve

 

[Jason in Enid]

I have so much trouble (mentally) digging nickles. Yeah, I do at times but I can't keep it up for long periods. I have noticed that cents / dimes / quarters tend to have very stable CO numbers. They vary up down 1 or 2 but its obvious what they are. Almost everything below the Indian Head level seems to start jumping a lot more. Even nickles arent stable... dropping down to 10 (or lower) then up to 18, 19. The reason its so hard for me to make the choice to dig these is because that how wadded up aluminum reacts. The really weird aspect is that beaver-tails and square tabs seem to get really steady IDs.

 

[JackalopeZL1]

Yes deep have read a much higher FE I have noticed as well. If I get a blip running on the 20 line I hit quick mask to open up then it is clears it right up.

 

[IDXMonster]

Sorry Steve,yes,that’s what I meant...how the signal rises and falls. Almost all of mine do that uniformly,yet the numbers are hardly “classic numbers” if it’s a deeper one.

 

[mrwilburino]

I wouldn't say super deep on nickels but just damn good at finding them. I run with combined tones, and anything that reads 6" or deeper and bounces in and out of my nickle window gets dug. If it's a clear, solid tone at that depth reading, then it's very likely a beaver tail at 4-5" or less. Been able to bypass a lot of trash and dig a lot of good targets that way.

 

[PowerDubs]

If the 2nd # is an 11, 12, 14, 15, I'm digging it.