Going against my better judgement.......

[Digger]

I decided to take the MXT to a modern park today. Don't get me wrong. I like the MXT. But I haven't actively hunted modern parks for many years. I have been fortunate in my research to find places that held events 100 years ago and would rather find a couple pre-1900 coins than a pocketful of clad. With that said, I took the advice of a couple MXT users and decided to learn the sounds of the MXT, I needed to practice with a variety of targets. Thinking of no better place to run across trash and treasure, I opted to strap on the 4 X 7 and hit the local park. I also opted to set the discrimination at nickels, but run in pull tab rejection. I have to tell you I heard my share of targets today. And, I do believe that I have a much better ear for broken targets vs consistent sounds. But digging those pesky clad coins reminded me of why I stay away from parks. All toll, I found 52 clad dimes, one clad quarter, 56 memorial cents and one wheat cent. Oh, and one broken car key. Apparently no one else in my neck of the woods hunts the modern parks either as most all of these coins were a couple inches or less, with many of them being at the "grass root" level. I have to say that this elliptical coil is a hot coil with good pinpointing characteristics. Not entirely a wasted day, but disappointed I didn't find anything old. At least I found me some battery money and learned a lot about the MXT.

 

[rogerpjr]

Digger,

You should have left the MXT find the nickels. Yes, you'll get lots of pulltabs, but also lots of rings. Until I got my DFX (wife now uses MXT) I got quite a few rings with the MXT.

 

[shawnv(or)]

your MXT to dig nickels and rings.
Thanks again. HH
Shawn

 

[Monte]

Randy,

Glad to read that you're getting out for some of the 'common detectorist' hunting.

Like you, I would much rather work more dated sites and pluck the older coins and artifacts, especially silver coins and old trade tokens. That is exactly what I try to do with my travels to ghost towns, pioneer & military encampments, old dance hall and other recreation sites, etc. But I guess there is still an ample supply of 'every-day hobbyist' left in me after more than 40 years of hunting to appreciate getting out to parks and schools and other 'in-town' sites just for the sheer pleasure of detecting. That means a quantity of modern change, but a better mix of sterling silver and gold jewelry than I would otherwise end up with.

It's a great way to learn to deal with the MXT's noisy audio threshold because you use the detector mode often. It's also a great way to become with the strengths and shortcomings of Discrimination use, as well as the different audio qualities between the Coin & Jewelry mode and the Relic mode.

I have also found it one of the better ways to do in-field comparisons between various search coils, too, due to the number of targets encountered as well as the amount of various types of ferrous and non-ferrous targets and even challenging ground mineralization. I didn't get out a lot today, but I did get a chance to put in a little time with the 4

 

[JW]

just don't let all that getting up and down get to you before the older stuff starts hitting

 

[Digger]

Thanks for the responses. As to the park I hit yesterday, I first hunted it back in 1973, and have taken many detectors back to the park since. In recent years, I have hunted it with my Explorer II, my Advantage, my Sovereign Elite and Cibola. This hunt, however, was not to search for the "old stuff", but merely to try to learn the subtle differences in tone of trash vs treasure. This park is relatively small, covering less than a half block. It is located in a small town that hosts an annual July 4th celebration, with concession stands and "games of chance". Most of the dimes I retrieved were from the area around these locations, with the majority of zincs in the playground area. I indicated in my initial post that I had set the MXT on nickels and rejected pull tabs. To be more specific, I was accepting nickels and had the toggle forward to notch out the pull tabs. And, as you indicated Monte, my test proved what I hoped it would prove. I did learn a lot about the consistency of coin targets compared to the "breaking up" of trash.
As to the 4 X 7 coil, it performed quite well. One thing I did notice it that it is extremely "hot" along the sides. Whereas the front and read tips respond in typical DD fashion. For example, when I would near a chain link fence or the metal leg of a piece of playground equipment, I would have to make sure that I approached the object perpendicularly. If I ran parallel, the coil would detect the metal of the fence or legs from nearly a foot away. When approaching so the tip of the coil was nearest the metal objects, I found I could get within a couple inches before the MXT responded.
I usually set my detectors for the type of day I am having, health wise. Having a spinal injury, I don't like to get up and down from the ground anymore than I have to! Not to mention the extremely dry ground that is present. This day was one of those when I just wanted to cherry pick the stuff close to the surface, not disturb the sod to the point of making brown spots and to learn the attributes of a new machine and coil. Based on those criteria, I suppose I had a successful hunt. Now that much of the surface clad has been removed, health allowing, I will make plans to return and slow hunt for some of those old deep signals that are bound to still be there. Should prove to be interesting to see what the MXT can pull out. HH Randy