Impact Black Sand Method

[cjc]

I got great results today running the 9 X 5 open coin in some tough black sand. From the look of things no one had been able to effectively hunt this beach for quite a while--there was $23 in a small area. Some of the coins came out encrusted purple--they had been there that long. I ran D2, Disc 3-- in 20 kHz Sens 85. I call it my AXE program--its not a bad idea to bring the second tone up above 40 to hear better. Where it was overloading I dropped to 80 or 76 and in the worst sections --where the sand was actually solid purple, I jumped over to COG at Sens 85 and did a quick balance without bringing the coil down too low. This worked really well--even nickels were hitting quite well. When I heard the overload tone I slowed and lifted the coil a bit. It's worth noting that these were Canadian coins. These hit just fine in the D2 mode although the steel alloying would likely cause them to be broken in any of the other tone ID modes. The 20 kHz mode is a very powerful tool for the beach and to examine low conductors.
cjc

 

[Monte]

Was the "tough black sand" associated with a freshwater or saltwater beach?

I've worked some very challenging ground with both my CoRe & Relic where several competitors units failedwherèhandle it. I was pleased when my Impact easily handled that ground.
wherè
I use Di2 mode a lot in similar sites, usually with the Audio Tone set at '50' or sometimes even at '70' like I use in Di3.

Now, if only I could find a site as productive!

 

[cjc]

Thanks Monte. Ya, it's a very impressive way to use this machine. This was fresh water black sand and some of these coins didn't give much of a signal but they were discernable. As well, in the lighter sand a few chunks of foil were hitting down at 1' in the 20 kHz mode. Gotta get this thing near some gold...
cjc

 

[Cal_Cobra]

It likes gold. I plucked a Victorian ladies gold ring from the Tonopah dumps with the Impact @ 20kHz using the Di3 mode and the factory small coil, and it really locked hard on the ring, getting a solid pure sounding tone ID of 29/30. I thought I had a V nickle, but was pleasantly surprised to see the ring instead:

I's just one ring, that was missing the stone. As soon as I showed it to my wife, she tried it on and it fit perfectly, so I decided to show it to my wife with various stones to see which stone she liked, and little does she know I have it at the jeweler to restore with her stone pick (she went for the blue Topaz)

RingStones by Calcobra, on Flickr

hh,
Brian

 

[Sven]

I have a bucket of the freshwater beach sand from Port Bruce, Ontario.
In any of the Di modes it will not pick up any targets past 1" placed under the tub of sand, using the concentric coil, after ground balancing to it. Haven't tried the DD's.
Remove the black sand and no problem with detection. Now any other detector I have tested in a disc mode responds the same. So its not a Impact flaw.
So I am thinking if at the beach like this, start by burying a coin to check performance in disc mode. You may just have to hunt in an all metal mode.
Did find in all metal mode, target ID numbers are useless. But you will get the target.

 

[General Custer]

I found a 20 foot diameter patch of extreme mineralised ground (100% on the meter)on top of a hill which was very rich in gold nuggets. I ground balanced easily in COG mode with the Impact but had to leave quickly.I will be going back there again to make a thorough search. The ground is mostly red clay as the top layer of gold bearing gravel has been removed.It has a highest concentration of hot rocks (about 1 inch diameter which are loaded with iron oxide) than any site I have been in.