Jim.....Iron Mask ?

[Anonymous]

Jim, I was reading the past posts and saw in one of your Posts that you recommended an Iron Mask setting of -10 ??? I had thought that -8 was the general opinion. What advantage would the -10 have over the -8 Iron Mask????? I detect for Coins only. Thanks! HH

 

[Anonymous]

I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. <IMG SRC="/forums/images/biggrin.gif" BORDER=0 ALT="">
Anyway,at least for me,running in iron mask -10 or more(-11,etc.)lets you hear more targets that would otherwise be a null.The advantage of that is that you will hear more coins that are right next to iron.Alot of coins I have dug lately are right in with trash,I have to find just the right angles to seperate the good target from the trash/shallow targets.It also is a pain to pinpoint some of these targets,again you have to hit just the right angle to get a pinpoint,if you get one at all.It is a pain in the butt sometimes,but obviously,it is getting me coins that hundreds of detectors have missed.

 

[Anonymous]

I hope to stay at a Holiday Inn Express tonight!
Anyway, I do agree with you on the null and your explanation of the pinpointing procedure. But, then again increasing the Iron Mask to more minus numbers also increases more ferrous/Iron targets you hear. If this be the case why not -16 and hear all the targets??????? "Hear it all dig what you want" ....Borrowed that from the other Forum! I was just wondering why Jim said -10 now where I had thought -8 was the norm? Then, I suppose we have to consider the size of the Coil we are using. For this post lets say the Standard Coil. Other users Please feel free to comment!
Happy Hunting!

 

[Anonymous]

I think the theory is that you'll pick up more coins or "good targets" whose signals are affected by nearby ferrous objects such that their signature reads further to the left than they normally would. A setting of -10 will theoretically pass good signals that have a higher ferrous component (by proximity to iron junk) than a setting of -8. And -8 will pass or let you hear more than -6. Of course the problem is that you will also hear more *actual* ferrous targets at the lower iron mask setting (e.g. -10 is lower than -. Iron nails and washers have a high conductivity component so they will place the crosshairs near the top of the screen near where a coin near iron will read. Of course with audio sounds of conductive they will "play" the same tone. Now Jim and the guys that really like Iron Mask say to dig targets that "sound good." I'm not really sure what this means as in this case both the good target and the bad target will sound "good" (since the pitch of the tone is directly related to the *height* of the crosshairs). I'm assuming that Jim is talking about the quality of the tone or timbre that the coin produced vs. the junk target (nail, washer, etc.)...less scratchyness, less noise, no blips or pops at the beginning or end. I hope he'll clarify this as I think it's an important point. I have noticed that the Explorer seems to produce better sounding tones ("cleaner") on round, flat, and/or symmetrical items, but this is just something that I've observed. Junk targets that meet these conditions seem to sound good to me and usually fool me.
Also I'm more and more convinced that Iron Mask kicks in a separate circuit that is not used when you are using a discrimination pattern.

 

[Anonymous]

[No message]

 

[Anonymous]

going back out in a few minutes.. will add my 2 cents tonight <IMG SRC="/forums/images/smile.gif" BORDER=0 ALT="">

 

[Anonymous]

Actually I generally run -10 in normal areas just because of what others stated.. get quite a few good targets that will read to the left in iron.. the more iron the less iron mask I use.. today was running at -14 with ferrous audio, but the site is loaded with iron and not very many positive signals, so just dug the ones that gave a high tone..

 

[Anonymous]

See if I got this right..You said " The more Iron the less iron mask you use"......Are you saying that the more iron you increase iron mask toward the setting of zero (0)?????? Maybe it was the part about the -14 with ferrous audio, at the site that was loaded with iron that confused me? HH

 

[Anonymous]

When you get in heavy iron the more targets you except by lowering your iron mask(-10 -11 -12 -13 -14 -15 -16all metal)the more signals you will actually her with iron touching them or very close to a non-iron target.When Iron is extremely heavy,it can and will null out over some coins with iron mask set at a higher number.Jim uses Ferrous audio in these circumstances so that the iron gives the low tone,(as opposed to say a nickel giving a low tone in conductive)that way any signal that even slightly increases in tone he will dig because it is not iron.As an example,lets say that the tones range from A to G like on the musical scale.A being the lowest pitched tone climbing up to G being the highest pitched tone.With Ferrous audio we will say a nail is an A and a silver coin with no other signal influencing it is a G.Well in extreme iron you might get a silver dime with some nails on top of it.If you have your iron mask opened up enough that it does not null out,the dime hit with the nails on top of it might average it out and take the normal silver dime tone of G down to a B.It is still higher than the A iron signal,but doesn't sound like the G silver hit.Under normal circumstances most people would miss this coin entirely.This is why Jim gets some Awesome coins in high iron trash that 95% of detectorist would say is unhuntable.

 

[Anonymous]

Ric Thanks! The confusion arose when Jim said use less Iron Mask as opposed to lowering or reducing the Iron Mask Settings toward -16 {All Metal). I think I got it straight this time? Less Iron Mask would mean to me "use less" thus increasing toward the level of zero (0). No offense Jim, Its the English language......Gee, I even forgot what a dangling participle is? <IMG SRC="/forums/images/smile.gif" BORDER=0 ALT="">