It's true, old compass detectors see through nails....

[Chris(SoCenWI)]

Hey All,

My first detector was a Compass Coin Hustler II. Later in High school I bought a Compass Coin Magnum for big bucks(for me).

Long story short....

It's been sitting in storage for years, today I was tidying up and debating whether I should just toss it. I had heard of early Compass model's ability to "see" through iron but was a little skeptical. Today I put some new batteries in, hooked up the coil and starting swinging targets in front of the coil.

I was amazed. A wheat cent held together with a huge nail gave a good signal no matter what the orientation of the nail.

I've done this with my explorer XS, CTX3030, Fisher F-75: they can only see a co-mingled coin/nail signal in very specific circumstances. Makes one go "hmmmm????!!!!"

Depth isn't that great and not sure how it will work in actually "in the ground" conditions, but I know there are many iron infested sites that we still miss most coins with modern detectors.

It needs some TLC but I'm definitely not going to trash it; might be a good winter repair project. Might need new capacitors and perhaps could be mounted on a more ergonamic rod set up.

I just saw a couple of youtube videos of others showing the same results.

So...

Anybody have some actual in the field experience with these units going over ground pounded with modern detectors?

Anybody done any repair work on these? Does Keith Wills or others still repair?

Chris(SoCenWI)

 

[trojdor]

Yes, it's true.

And they still command a loyal following, as some ebay prices will attest.
(There's also an active Compass forum for vintage machines...)

Keith Wills does indeed still work on vintage metal detectors, and Compass in particular.

I've seen nothing work better in a nail bed, but as you guessed, depth is quite limited.
The trick is to use it in heavy iron/nail trash areas...where other detectorists have just given up due to the iron...then go slow and carefully.

Have fun,
mike

 

[Tom_in_CA]

I concur with Mike: It's true. For the coin-hustler and 77b, and a few others of their in that all-metal TR era. But the advantages stop there. In all other ways, they were/are a dinosaur. They have no other form of discrimination, aside from individual small iron. And although large iron (RR spike sized stuff) would bleed through, yet you could tell from the sound usually. They lacked depth (compared to today's power-house-deep-seekers). They didn't fare too well on mineralized ground. And were a bear to operate over un-even ground.

The trick only works for about 3 or 4 nails tops. By the time you laid a 4th or 5th nail over the coin, it would indeed null out.

But fun to use in some situations (ghost-townsy sites) even to this day.

 

[Chris(SoCenWI)]

I think my dad still has the Coin Hustler in a closet somewhere. I had a Garrett TR/VLF before the Coin Magnum, sold it to my physics teacher, can't remember why I didn't like it.

I spent a lot of time with the Coin Hustler as a kid and made some decent finds, but certainly nothing like those made with my XS. Kept records even back then. Thinking back I don't remember digging or even being aware of the presence of iron everywhere, as is the case with modern detectors. Seem to remember steel bottle caps being problematic.

I didn't spend huge amounts of time with the Coin Magnum, I do remember it being tricky to use. Not long after purchasing it I headed off to college and beer and broads captured my interest for the next couple of decades until I got back into detecting with the Minelab XS.

The Coin Magnum does have some discrimination- the Treasure/Trash analog meter. It will be interesting to try it at side walk dig outs or right next to houses, often find good coins shallow amid all the nails in these locations.

Any and all advice is appreciated.

Chris

 

[John(H)]

The Coin Magnum is still a good metal detector! There is a way to null out the small iron nails and still find all of the other metals. To null out the small iron nails...just get a small nail and using the all metal mode just keep turning the ground balance till no sound appears when going over the small nail. At the same time you can use the discriminator to blank out some or most of the trash down to 2.5 to 3 inches. This way you can hunt for the deeper goods!

 

[Chris(SoCenWI)]

n/t

 

[Chris(SoCenWI)]

n/t

 

[Bayard]

The old Compass detectors that will see through nails are the models operating at 100kHz such as the 77B and Judge 2. The later models use a lower frequency.