First real hunt with the x70

[wayne_etc]

Hey folks.
I managed to get out of work a little early today, so I decided to swing the x70 some. I drove around thinking of spots to hit and decided to try an old vacant farmhouse (c 1890s) out in the country. I wasn't sure who owned it, but it just happened that the man across the street was mowing his yard when I drove by. I turned around, pulled up, and asked about the place. Wouldn't you know it...HE owned it. We did some chit chat and he told me that the place had been hunted many times before, but I was welcome to try. After too much more chatting I finally was able to put the coil to the dirt.
I decided to use Pattern 1, sensitivity 24 (stable), 4 tones, and thresh barely audible. I was using the LF coil. It was obvious by all the threshold nulls that the place was trashy - 5 or so nulls per swing. I tried to concentrate on the repeatable high tones, even the ones with bouncing ID numbers. Then the digging started.
Bottle caps were every where. Some were solid locking high ID numbers, some were solid locking lower ID numbers, some were bouncing ID numbers, some were clean tones, some had a little "mixing" of tones. I just couldn't isolate a single characteristic that said "Bottle Cap".
I did manage a few coins - a clad dime and some memorial pennies. Nothing major. To go along with the 26 bottle caps, I also dug 4 pulltabs.
Aside from desperately needing a smaller coil in this situation, I couldn't really determine anything I should have done different. I needed to dig those "iffy" signals because of the chance of oldies. Maybe as I revisit the place (I was given an open invitation to return) I can clean out the junk and get to some goodies. I know that even though the place was detected before, with all that junk there's no was anyone else got everything.

So does anyone have any suggestions for me (aside from using a smaller coil) at place like this?

w

 

[Mark in S.E. IA]

Hi Wayne, from the way it sounds using a smaller coil could help, but your still going to be digging a lot of screw caps. We all get fooled by them. The ones that are smashed flat tend to show higher numbers and have a better sound to them. The ones that are not smashed so much well show numbers in the higher 20's and since your at a place that was built in the 1800's that also could be a IH so you have to dig those too. All of the nulling that your getting is most likely old nails from when they built the house and from when they reroofed it. About the only advise that I can give you is to go real slow, dig those screw caps because they might be masking an old coin. The next time that you go back to this place I would try to figure out where would be the best place to find old coins. Like under a shade tree in the front yard, a long the sidewalk going to the front door. Then I would do a tight grid pattern and swing your coil real slow and dig about everthing that beeps and hopfully you'll find some old coins. Good Luck

 

[drdetecto]

I don't like using the 3kHz coil in a trashy area. I don't know what others think, but like you say, it seems to hit on most targets with a strong tone, but not much definition. It also seeks out to the sides of the coil further than I like, adding to the amount of trash that you hear. I seem to do better with the 7.5 coil in trash. IMHO, the 3 is good for clean areas, not trash. And I'm still not convinced it's any deeper. The 6" would be a better choice, but I personally would prefer the 6"DD HF over the 6" 7.5 concentric. Mark had a good suggestion about where to hunt. Certainly, objects can and will be dropped most anyplace, but I concentrate on high traffic areas, such as within 12" or so of either side of any sidewalks, all around the sides of any porches, large shade trees, "witches rings" where large trees use to be, but have been removed, clothesline poles, gates, driveways, etc. If you get a DD coil, you can pick out some good finds in areas that have been avoided by others due to the large amounts of trash, and also find targets that have remained hidden in the "iron mask", and missed. Digger has some really good tips and pointers in the FAQFAQ's, on how to best determine a targets ID.