Help with Cibola please.

[fowlercharles]

I have a digging Buddy in our club that needs some Tips on using the Cibola(stock coil) in old home sites with lots of iron/nail littered dirt. Soil is mostly mild /.neutral but of course the nails are a problem for everyone.. I plan on letting her try my 5.75 Con. and 5 X10 Ellipt.coils to help in the nails, and possibly get her to realize the advantages of a smaller coil.She is a New Grass Newbie(bigtime) and needs all the help she can get. Thanks so much and HH ! Charlie

 

[dirt lizard]

The scratchy signals are usually iron Tell her to just dig everything with a solid tone waving the coil both ways . And keep the sens all the way up and disc at five just incase you want to hit on rings or gold jewlery. My cibola is a coin magnet at this range. And listen for those faint deep signals also for those old silvers.

 

[tvr]

Charlie,
You are steering her the right way with the smaller coils.

Have her set it up with a usable threshold and not super tuned. There are times in open fields where super tuning can bring out surprisingly deep targets, but I find it does not help and actually hurts finding the good non-iron targets where there is a lot of iron in the ground.

Teach her how to thumb the discriminator while swinging a small sweep over a target to see where it discriminates out. (Remember to return the discriminator to a low setting before going for the next target.) Have her listen to the edges of the beep tone for sharp or clicking versus smooth and round edges and dig the targets to see how they match up with the sound and where the discriminator is. Have her use the pinpoint to size targets. Listen to how quick the VCO pinpoint raises and drops as the coil passes the target. Raise the coil while pinpointing to get more information on possible depth of the target.

As time is spent observing and playing with the Cibola, the detector can be a very good educator as one becomes more comfortable with what is has to say.

Enjoy passing your wisdom and historical perspectives to a newbie too! That is part of what makes it all fascinating.
Cheers,
tvr

 

[fowlercharles]

Thanks' y'all, that on hands experience was what I was hoping for, and will be a really big help!. I printed out y'alls response and will give it to her soon as we all meet up again.Thanks' too, Andy for the kind words, and I have to say thanks to you also for helping me out in the past, and for always being out there for anyone needing a helping hand. I'm still looking for info on that Eagle button. Seems the unique "shield " just does not seem to "register" with some of the button "experts". That really weirds me out ! HH y'all and thanks again, Charlie

 

[tvr]

Charlie,
Thank you for the kind expressions. You have more experience in many things than I do.

Almost asked about the button in the thoughts about the Cibola post. If it did not have the line (or arrow) across the shield I think it would match one in the catalogs circa 1800 to 1820. I still have not seen a variation that matches yours; still keep an eye out for references to one like yours when I am looking up finds; no luck yet!

I am kind of fond of the Cibola. Hunting with the Cibola brought me my first gold, first silver, and first ring from shallow water (fresh water knee deep and it was silver). It did not take long for the Cibola to pay for itself. It taught me to listen to a detector. The detector I had for about 5 years before the Cibola did not help me learn much, or recover much other than shallow modern coins. If your newbie sticks to it, the Cibola can take her a long way.
Cheers!
Andy

 

[fowlercharles]

Andy, I have looked at hundreds of buttons too and not a one with a divided shield like that one. One fella did mentioin it, and said it was a scratch.He no doubt did not take a good look because it is in no way a scratch. I can almost discern a # 3 or 5 above the bar. Lol, I remind myself of a buddy of mine that can look at a slick button and see Andrew Jackson with his cannon, flags, troops, and eagles all lined up at the battle of New Orleans. It does though look much like the modern 1 st Cav.Shield.I have a hunch it could be an early Militia Button but don't know that there would be any more knowledge about them than the other early Eagle buttons, and they are all in the earlier time periods. My friend's husband bought her the Cibola right after my first mention of it before I really had studied up on what would really fit her. They are serious (and very good at it too) Archaeology hobbists, and I was not sure if it would do what they need. Now I need to help her get good with it so I won't feel I lsteerd them wrong. It will work with y'all's good advice and I will feel better about the situation.Many Thanks again, HH, Charlie