How to cut down on trash?

[David]

What I am taking away from the charts is:

A 14 Kt gold ring can read 10, 20, or 26. All gold rings can vary from 10 to 40.

ALSO coins start at 10 with the V, Buffalo, Shield, Jeff, and 40% silver nickles all starting at 10 and 12.

If a person is ring, jewelry, and coin hunting every number at 10 and above should be dug up as not to miss anything!!

There is also alot of trash at 10 and above so what else can we do to cut down on trash? Of course dig only solid repeatable signals and not broken ones or sacrifice some goodies and only dig higher VDI numbers? What other things can we do to cut down on trash??

OR nothing can be done except buy a new E-Trac, heheheha!


http://www.findmall.com/read.php?55,391759,391799#msg-391799
Readings with the X-70

Top Pic: Rings: Front row left to right:
10 Kt small with stones = 34
14 Kt with broken band = 10
14 Kt huge mans ring = 18
10 Kt lady

 

[Digger]

according to soil matrix, adjacent targets, depth, coil choice, "angle" the target is buried, etc. To answer your question.............. you can cut down on trash by rejecting some of the notches. Of course, you will be taking the chance that you'll miss some goodies. Here is a link to a post I made earlier on this forum. (it is in the FAQFAQ as well) Read through it and you will see why avoiding the trash can lead to missing the find of your life.

http://www.findmall.com/read.php?55,569213,569213#msg-569213


Oh, by the way........................... the Etrac is no different than any other detector in that certain "good targets" have the same ferrous/conductive properties as some "trash targets". Having the ability to read both simultaneously can be helpful. But it can also lead to your relying on TID too much. JMHO HH Randy

 

[Mick in Dubbo]

Hi David.
As you become more familiar with your detector, you'll pick up on little nuances that help to identify certain targets ie you'll notice that pull tabs will bounce around or you'll notice that smaller coins may give you a weaker signal. with shallow targets, I find that listening to the strength of the VCO pinpoint can give some good information about the size of a target. If you lift the coil on a strong signal, then raise the coil more than 6 inches and still have the target sounding off, it's going to be bigger than a coin. I don't own the 70 (yet) but there has been some good information here about folks switching to the prospecting mode and checking out a targets size and shape this way.
The best way to start, is to practice at in your back yard with good and bad targets that you place on the ground. This will help to learn what the detector is telling you. Put coins on their edge as well and see what happens to the numbers and sound. If you practice on rubbish that you recover from your hunts as well, it will help you to learn how bad targets behave. Also put good and bad targets together, just to get some idea as to how they effect each other and how a bad target can mask a good one. If I can't get out for a hunt for a bit, I'm often pulling out my detectors and various targets and I just enjoy playing around with them and trying out different experiments just to see what happens. All this helps to hone your skills and allows you to learn at a reduced level of frustration. There's plenty to learn, but the more you practice, the sooner you will build your skills and confidence with your detector.
Good luck and have fun.
Mick Evans.

 

[David]

Good tips Randy and Mick, thanks!!

 

[Captain Hook]

I dug a 10kt ruby ring this weekend that came in as a 6. In the past I never dug numbers that low. However, someone posted a nice diamond ring on here about a week ago that he said was a 6 as well. Since reading his post, I now dig 6 targets as well.

 

[Des Dunne]

according to soil matrix, adjacent targets, depth, coil choice, "angle" the target is buried, etc. To answer your question.............. you can cut down on trash by rejecting some of the notches. Of course, you will be taking the chance that you'll miss some goodies. Here is a link to a post I made earlier on this forum. (it is in the FAQFAQ as well) Read through it and you will see why avoiding the trash can lead to missing the find of your life.

Randy

Randy is spot-on for sure!
What your ears perceive as a 'trash target' could always turn out to be the find of a lifetime!
That's just the way it goes with metal artefacts corroding in mineralised soils...
However, there is another [not so bullet-proof] method of sussing trash with X-Terra's...
When scanning over [some] metal pieces, especialy elongated scraps of jagged aluminum
or other ripped / torn / shredded "bits of metal", what can happen is, all the >>>>> depth arrows
can illuminate...happens a lot with me and my soils..while [real] and properly [rounded] targets
gave an accurate >> arrow count!!
Just an observation from thousands of hours spent with all the X-Terra's..

Thoughts??

Des Dunne

 

[moa]

interesting Des, depths do change sometimes, its very strnange usually it is on little tiny coins. But in saying that foil and pull tabs that may give a good but jumpy reading do tend to change depths sometimes. My gold ring I posted about previously was a trash signal, but I only dug it as it was under a very good 40s tid silver shilling 1912. thank goodness!!! may have been a tiny threepence which sometimes come up as 9 on the scale. The depths changing sometimes change when the detector is swiped over at a different angle maybe because the coin or trash object is on its edge? dont know.....

 

[Boris]

Thank you for that tip Des, that is one I will remember for sure.

 

[Digger]

I still believe that the majority of "keepers" will prove themselves in the three levels of consistency. Position, sound and TID. As to the rings registering a 6, I've found some of those too, as well as other jewelry items. In addition. last May I unearthed my first 3-cent US nickel that also read a solid 6. JMHO HH Randy

http://www.findmall.com/read.php?55,739240,739240#msg-739240

 

[Mick in Dubbo]

I hadn't thought to use the depth metre quite like that. I've mostly used it to help centering targets (shallowest reading for the target being in the centre) and sometimes I use it by raising the coil to see how they respond. If it doesn't show more arrows when it should, I've got a pretty good Idea that it's not a coin. I double check things first though, as you can come undone if you don't.
I like your tip on checking pull tabs using the 99 tones and the 5x10 coil. Initial playing around suggests that it will work well in the field.(Pull tabs give multiple hits, where as coins tend to give a more solid single hit.)
Thanks.
Mick Evans.

 

[Des Dunne]

I hadn't thought to use the depth metre quite like that. I've mostly used it to help centering targets (shallowest reading for the target being in the centre) and sometimes I use it by raising the coil to see how they respond. If it doesn't show more arrows when it should, I've got a pretty good Idea that it's not a coin. I double check things first though, as you can come undone if you don't.
I like your tip on checking pull tabs using the 99 tones and the 5x10 coil. Initial playing around suggests that it will work well in the field.(Pull tabs give multiple hits, where as coins tend to give a more solid single hit.)
Thanks.
Mick Evans.

Thanks Mick!

I'm also pleased you read my article as well...it does work as you've noted!

Yes, the entire "ability to identify trash items" issue is made up of many multiples of factors as others in the thread have also pointed out.
Correct - the angle of the item is a factor.
Correct - the 'damage' to an item is a factor i.e. the machines rate [the conductivity] of a target and if a target is damaged or incomplete then it probably won't "register" the same ID's as an undamaged item...for example...soda can "slaw"...

Good Hunting

Des D

 

[David]

Des, I saw your video of you using the Musketeer Advantage. Well done! Thanks for sharing your knowledge so we can learn. I am in Canada. I have the great Musky(rapid speed hunting with no loss of depth, like the Instruction Manual says! It will cover much more ground(about 2x to 3x) than a slower FBS or BBS machine can, in a day, in large area, farmers field(s) homestead hunting especially with the 14" ExCellerator and 15" WOT available for it, with terrific depth!) and I also have an X-Terra 70.

Since this is a "How to cut down on trash?" thread. My question to you is: Is it technologically possible to make a single frequency detector with a 2 number(Conductive and Ferrous like on the Explorer and E-Trac) display?? (To get better discrimination.) Maybe an X-Terra 90? Thanks, David!