I use a few different detectors when I hunt my parks, an F2, a Compadre and my Vaquero.
Lots of these parks have a lot of trash and junk including small and big iron because most of them used to be farms in the past.
I just added a 5.75 concentric sniper coil to the arsenal to use on my Vaq and that helps a lot in some of the more trashy sites, but I still do pretty good separating targets with my 7" coil Compadre and even my bigger coils on my Vaq...but that sniper coil is much better at these type of trashy sites.
A couple of tips that might help regarding how I use my Vaq...and my Compadre for that matter.
Big, rusty iron will come in high and usually won't disc out but it can be recognized in the obvious ways by lifting the coil high and still get a signal of using the pinpoint button on the Vaq to "paint" a picture of the size of the object in the ground...and I use my Propointer to do this paint thing on every target before I dig, also.
Coin sized targets and rings will usually have a much smaller profile than those bigger objects especially in very dry soil so you can tell the difference.
Plus, when the iron target is big enough I get a loud and very smooth tone on my Tesoros without a very short quicker one with a very sharp endpoint like most coins seem to be.
Large gold will give me a very smooth tone too, but this will sound different than that iron one with a fuller sound with a bit more dimension in that tone.
Small iron targets like smaller rusty nails will sound more like coins and have a small profile in the ground but there is something else that works for me sometimes.
When I use my Tesoros I NEVER hunt the way all the manuals say by turning the disc knob up to the fade out point, I always go past that point and then slowly thumb that knob back down slowly as I am making swift short passes over the target with the coil.
How that target "comes in" gives me much more information than going the other way and seems a lot more accurate to me, too.
I have found that most trash like tabs and can slaw and foil will not just come in doing it this way but will be fuzzy and have a lot of clicks and spits and crackles before the target tone firms up...or at least a few clicks.
Not all trash will do this but a lot of it will.
All coins and other good targets like coins and rings and most others will usually just be silent and then appear without all that extra noise.
Again not 100% of the time but most of the time.
Nickels can be a little weird and crackle a bit doing this, sometimes zinc pennies too, but most of the time they don't and the tone will also sound slightly different and fuller on these better targets vs. trash for the most part.
Now those tiny bits of iron like small nails.
Sometimes they will disc out but at a point just a hair below max disc.
Most of those high tone older pop tops and screw on tops will do this too and knowing this I can avoid these for the most part.
Turn the disc knob to max, swing over the target and with a slight movement down with the knob they come in...maybe with a little noise, maybe they will just appear, but at that point just below max disc if they come in there that target has always been trash for me and some small nails and other rusty iron will do this too.
The many other small bits of iron that won't disc out at all and behave like coins I still listen closely to that tone and for that bit fuller dimension again in that tone and especially for that very sharp endpoint which coins have but those small nails might not.
Lots of times there will be a slight difference between these 2 type of targets that won't disc out at all...swing over enough of these and you can learn to hear that difference.
Of course lots of times those small iron objects like nails will sound exactly like coins in the sound of the tone and a sharp endpoint and unless you have X-Ray vision you just gotta dig them and see.
Maybe you can't avoid all the trash using these techniques but I believe you can avoid a lot of it.
I have dug enough good targets and trash signals of all kinds, solid and iffy, in my time using my Tesoros for several hundred hours to know that even if this does not work all of the time it does seem to work most of the time and that satisfies me and keeps a lot of the "what ifs" at bay.
I say I am a dig it all kind of hunter but that is not really 100% true.
What I really am is a dig it all SOLID SIGNAL digger, whether that signal might be a coin or something else in the trash zones from foil on up and even in iron sometimes.
I dig enough trash as it is, mostly because some trash just comes in so solid and also because so many great targets like gold seem to be disguised most of the time and come in at the trash zones. Luckily, the good ones are usually solid and come in clear and I have found my share.
I might be missing something good once in awhile doing it this way and trying to avoid trash by digging only the more solid and clear tones and signals, but in my mind I am pretty confident I am finding a pretty good amount of better targets and seem to come out of some very trashy sites with a pretty good amount of some good ones in my treasure pocket.
