Well, after a lot of research and hemming and hawing, I finally took the plunge and bought a Garrett Apex. There were a few other models out there that intrigued me (e.g., MineLabs), but I wanted to buy American made, so it came down to the AT-Pro or the Apex, and I got the Apex because it has newer technology, and I won't be going underwater, so I won't miss the underwater capability of the AT-Pro. I live in Northern Virginia in a 120 year old farm house - there was at least two other houses here before - one burned down during the civil war (still don't know which side burnt it), and its replacement burned down in 1900 in a kitchen fire. So I knew there'd be a lot of trash. Every time I dug a hole to plant a bush or something, I'd find melted glass and charred bricks, bits of broken pottery, and metal junk. One of the reasons I selected the Apex was the generally positive reviews of it's ability to unmask targets. I took a chance and got the Raider coil (8.5 x 11 DD) rather than the Viper (6 x 11 DD) because I was afraid that the Viper might have been too small. In retrospect, I'll probably want to get the 5 x 8 DD Ripper coil. Another reason I selected the Apex is because I have high-tension (200kV) electrical lines going through our property. I wanted the Apex's ability to change channels to avoid EMI interference.
So now I've had two 90-minute sessions with my new baby. It took some fiddling with the channels to find the combination that seemed to settle down the EMI interference. I seemed to have better luck with single-frequency than the multi-frequency, but that may be a factor of the high-junk or the multi-frequency being more sensitive to the EMI. I also took the sensitivity down to 5 (from
. The Apex would grunt at something in the 20's on just about every other swing. In some places, the readings would jump all over the place from 5 to 80- to 50- to 20- to 40- something. That would get really annoying. Sometimes the last number would linger on the screen for a second or two even when I moved away from the area, which would make me wonder if it's the EMI causing that. So far I have dug up nothing but junk. But the good news (if there is any), is that most of the junk I dug up was non-ferrous. I found some copper sheeting (probably from a roof), some brass items, and today I found two bullets (right near our front door!), one of which was likely of civil-war era (it is a nice mushroom shape - it had hit its target, but from the base appears to be .38 caliber), the other one was copper-sheathed and is around 1/4 inch in diameter.
I was discouraged about the amount of junk I was digging, but to the machine's credit, most of it wasn't ferrous. I've gotten tricked a number of times when the machine would clearly find multiple targets, one in the 70s or 80s and the others lower or in the iron range. When I'd dig them up, it would invariably be a largish piece of iron - a can lid, a smashed tin can, or something like that. I gather that the VDI is really made up of composition and size components - a large iron item seems to register with a high VDI. I had gotten to the point where when I heard a high tone along with lots of iron grunts, I'd pass it by. But for some reason I stopped at one where I was clearly getting a mid-70s reading with separate iron grunts - I don't know why I stopped at that one when I had been disappointed at other similar situations - maybe it was something subliminal about the way it sounded. And sure enough, I *finally* found my first coin after 3 hours of searching! It was.... wait for it.... a 1971 penny! Only 49994 more to go and I'll have this thing paid off! But I was impressed at the machine (and a little of myself) that I found that penny at about 4-5 inches when there was a piece of barbed wire (twisted and about 1.5 inches long) above the penny at about 2", and there was a can lid about two inches below the penny (this can lid had a ceramic or white-glass liner at the lid- it's the second one I found, not sure what it was for - maybe a cold-cream jar lid?). I still don't know what made me dig that signal and not others that sounded roughly similar.
Lastly, I found that aluminum cans chime in around 90, but luckily those are usually close to the surface so I can find them without digging. I found lots of scraps of aluminum, evidently debris from siding. Dug up some foil too here and there. So it's the aluminum that's really giving me fits, not the iron junk. Lots of false hopes here, but it's the site, not the machine. Lastly, I do like the pinpointing feature on the Apex, but with so much trash it sometimes would sound just a strong in a couple of nearby places. Sometimes when it would seem to "pinpoint" in a 6" diameter, I'd just walk, figuring it's a large object. But when I do dig, I am really glad I bought the Garrett Pro-Pointer AT - I just need to find 14995 more pennies!!
Well, that's it from this 3-hour old newbie. I'd appreciate your advice on the how I can better differentiate what to dig and what not. One of the reasons I chose the Apex was because of the generally favorable reviews on the various "iron nail tests". But what I thought I learned from the various videos I've seen is that if you hear a grunt-hightone-grunt, that there's probably a good item in between some iron objects. In fact, I sometimes clearly hear separate signals, but when I dig, it's junk - either a large non-ferrous junk or (surprisingly!) several pieces of iron junk in proximity (so why the high-tone at all?). How should I interpret a spot where the VDI numbers go crazy? Also, since the single-frequency seems to work better near those power lines, which frequency would y'all suggest seeing as I'm primarily after coins (i've been using 15kHz so far)? Finally, do y'all think a smaller coil (i.e., the 5x8 Ripper) would be worth investing in (will I find enough pennies or even a dime or two to pay that one off <g>), considering the amount of junk at this site? Thanks for indulging my long post.
So now I've had two 90-minute sessions with my new baby. It took some fiddling with the channels to find the combination that seemed to settle down the EMI interference. I seemed to have better luck with single-frequency than the multi-frequency, but that may be a factor of the high-junk or the multi-frequency being more sensitive to the EMI. I also took the sensitivity down to 5 (from
. The Apex would grunt at something in the 20's on just about every other swing. In some places, the readings would jump all over the place from 5 to 80- to 50- to 20- to 40- something. That would get really annoying. Sometimes the last number would linger on the screen for a second or two even when I moved away from the area, which would make me wonder if it's the EMI causing that. So far I have dug up nothing but junk. But the good news (if there is any), is that most of the junk I dug up was non-ferrous. I found some copper sheeting (probably from a roof), some brass items, and today I found two bullets (right near our front door!), one of which was likely of civil-war era (it is a nice mushroom shape - it had hit its target, but from the base appears to be .38 caliber), the other one was copper-sheathed and is around 1/4 inch in diameter.I was discouraged about the amount of junk I was digging, but to the machine's credit, most of it wasn't ferrous. I've gotten tricked a number of times when the machine would clearly find multiple targets, one in the 70s or 80s and the others lower or in the iron range. When I'd dig them up, it would invariably be a largish piece of iron - a can lid, a smashed tin can, or something like that. I gather that the VDI is really made up of composition and size components - a large iron item seems to register with a high VDI. I had gotten to the point where when I heard a high tone along with lots of iron grunts, I'd pass it by. But for some reason I stopped at one where I was clearly getting a mid-70s reading with separate iron grunts - I don't know why I stopped at that one when I had been disappointed at other similar situations - maybe it was something subliminal about the way it sounded. And sure enough, I *finally* found my first coin after 3 hours of searching! It was.... wait for it.... a 1971 penny! Only 49994 more to go and I'll have this thing paid off! But I was impressed at the machine (and a little of myself) that I found that penny at about 4-5 inches when there was a piece of barbed wire (twisted and about 1.5 inches long) above the penny at about 2", and there was a can lid about two inches below the penny (this can lid had a ceramic or white-glass liner at the lid- it's the second one I found, not sure what it was for - maybe a cold-cream jar lid?). I still don't know what made me dig that signal and not others that sounded roughly similar.
Lastly, I found that aluminum cans chime in around 90, but luckily those are usually close to the surface so I can find them without digging. I found lots of scraps of aluminum, evidently debris from siding. Dug up some foil too here and there. So it's the aluminum that's really giving me fits, not the iron junk. Lots of false hopes here, but it's the site, not the machine. Lastly, I do like the pinpointing feature on the Apex, but with so much trash it sometimes would sound just a strong in a couple of nearby places. Sometimes when it would seem to "pinpoint" in a 6" diameter, I'd just walk, figuring it's a large object. But when I do dig, I am really glad I bought the Garrett Pro-Pointer AT - I just need to find 14995 more pennies!!
Well, that's it from this 3-hour old newbie. I'd appreciate your advice on the how I can better differentiate what to dig and what not. One of the reasons I chose the Apex was because of the generally favorable reviews on the various "iron nail tests". But what I thought I learned from the various videos I've seen is that if you hear a grunt-hightone-grunt, that there's probably a good item in between some iron objects. In fact, I sometimes clearly hear separate signals, but when I dig, it's junk - either a large non-ferrous junk or (surprisingly!) several pieces of iron junk in proximity (so why the high-tone at all?). How should I interpret a spot where the VDI numbers go crazy? Also, since the single-frequency seems to work better near those power lines, which frequency would y'all suggest seeing as I'm primarily after coins (i've been using 15kHz so far)? Finally, do y'all think a smaller coil (i.e., the 5x8 Ripper) would be worth investing in (will I find enough pennies or even a dime or two to pay that one off <g>), considering the amount of junk at this site? Thanks for indulging my long post.
