Just got my new bigfoot testing started

[Jason in TN]

Ok just got the new bigfoot in after a loooooong wait. Turned the salt mode on waved a ring and nothing but a null .
Bummer I want to use this thing on the beach. Ok the reading is around - 95 and the red bar on the 22.5 reads there. The 2.5 and the
7.5 read in the green around the 30s so you could hunt like that and look at the screen on the nulls if you get the two low freq in the green
dig. I thought there has to be a better way went to expert menu and turned compression off and bingo I now get a tone on the ring and reads up in the 30s
the 22.5 still shows in the red around -90. Will take some testing to see how to make this thing work but do think it will be possible. Only thing to do at this
point is head for the beach for more testing packing the car will leave for Myrtle in the morning to do some testing the beach there is really sanded in but
I will be taking some test targets and be working with this should be able to have a good Idea if it will be workable by the weekend will be doing other testing
too with it. One more Quick thing it will run sens 90 gain 15 with TX boost on in my back yard, interesting.

Jason

 

[Jason in TN]

After a little more testing in salt mode the compressed mode does not help as much as I thought. Going to correlate instead of best data and playing with the span may be the answer to this
problem. This will take some work and until I can get to the salt to do some real test just do not know what it will do. Will hit a small very small gold ring at 10" to 11" in in salt mode. Just need to get it to the beach and play with it i guess.

Jason

 

[Tom Slick]

Jason,
I'ved been using a BigFoot since 1992 on the Eagle II SL 90.5, IDX Pro (yes it will work) M6, MXT, DFX, and V3. The Bigffot is not the coil you want for Saltwater beach WET sand. The 950 would be a much better choice for stablity and depth. In the wet sand, heavy items sink very quickly so depth is the most important. This is why PI's (and many of the Minelabs) are so popular on the wet sand. The DRY sand is another story! Items lost on the dry sand don't sink nearly as fast and what's needed is a coil that will cover as much sand as possible in a given amount of time. THE BIGFOOT !! In the dry sand you should be able to just use the coin & jewelry mode with the disc opened up from -20 to +95. crank the RX & Sensitivity up as high as possible, Ground balance by using the front of the coil with the coil held at a 45 degree angle to the sand, and then lock the GB. I'd run 3 frequencies but you may also want to try the 7.5 only. Ground filters at 10 high or maybe even 12 high. These higer filters will give better depth at quicker swing speeds. When you have a lot of ground to cover, you don't want to be poking along & swinging slow. For me, I'd rather miss alittle sand then spend my time overlaping my sweeps. Remember, it all about how much ground you can cover. Others will point out that thay could come behind and get something I missed and thats true, but when they cover 1/4 acre an hour and I'm covering 5 acres an hour, I'd put my finds up against theirs everyday.
Well that's m2c.
Good Luck
Tom

 

[cvs]

I also just received the Bigfoot and have been doing some testing. As told from the Jimmy Sierra people when they called to say they had one for me (it's not built for the V3) and I said OK, I have a MXT also. Well it has problems trying to function with the 3 frequency mode (22 kHz being the problem). It worked in the 2.5 KHz and 7.5 KHz but and I mean

 

[Jason in TN]

Jason,
I'ved been using a BigFoot since 1992 on the Eagle II SL 90.5, IDX Pro (yes it will work) M6, MXT, DFX, and V3. The Bigffot is not the coil you want for Saltwater beach WET sand. The 950 would be a much better choice for stablity and depth. In the wet sand, heavy items sink very quickly so depth is the most important. This is why PI's (and many of the Minelabs) are so popular on the wet sand. The DRY sand is another story! Items lost on the dry sand don't sink nearly as fast and what's needed is a coil that will cover as much sand as possible in a given amount of time. THE BIGFOOT !! In the dry sand you should be able to just use the coin & jewelry mode with the disc opened up from -20 to +95. crank the RX & Sensitivity up as high as possible, Ground balance by using the front of the coil with the coil held at a 45 degree angle to the sand, and then lock the GB. I'd run 3 frequencies but you may also want to try the 7.5 only. Ground filters at 10 high or maybe even 12 high. These higer filters will give better depth at quicker swing speeds. When you have a lot of ground to cover, you don't want to be poking along & swinging slow. For me, I'd rather miss alittle sand then spend my time overlaping my sweeps. Remember, it all about how much ground you can cover. Others will point out that thay could come behind and get something I missed and thats true, but when they cover 1/4 acre an hour and I'm covering 5 acres an hour, I'd put my finds up against theirs everyday.
Well that's m2c.
Good Luck
Tom

Good info Tom
I too have used the Bigfoot alot on the DFX and have made some great beach finds in both wet and dry sand at the beach. The bigfoot is all about covering ground and is great to grab those fresh summer drops as the tide runs out. Would like to make it work in the wet sand if I can. Have you tried to run it in the salt mode? Seems to throw the 22.5 into the Iron range on a mans wedding band air testing any way. Not sure why the salt mode does this and others do not. Hope to be able to figure it out and make it work. I will give up a little depth for the double coverage on the beach any time. Thanks for your thoughts on this. Looks like more ice and snow for me tonight so may have to wait to get to the beach have every thing ready to go getting over the mountain in the morning may be the trick.

Jason

 

[Tom Slick]

This is my post from last April 2nd after using the BigFoot with three frequencies. http://www.findmall.com/read.php?66,937831,937831#msg-937831.
Anyone that that says it can't be used 3 three frequencies hasn't taken the time to bench test a good assortment of good and not so good targets and then develope a program or two to use. There are are few targets (nickles and some pull tabs that will read high with 3 frequencies. Many of these tabs will read right at VDI 75 but by using the analize screen you'll see that the Blue or 22.5 freq. hits the hardest. Dig a 75 with the blue line on top - pull tab for sure. Red line on top with a 75 and it's a dime or copper penny. Nickles will read 50-52. All other coins will respond like they do using only the 7.5 frequency. Qtr.-83, Dime/Penny- 75, Zinc-54, etc.
Try this with 3 frequencies.
Discrimination Accept
+10 - +36
+40 - +46
+48 - +53
+60 - +64
+68 - +93
I hope this helps
Tom

 

[Tom Slick]

NOTE - The Discrimination settings in my above post would be a park or school program for coins and jewelry, Not a beach program where you would want to accept all targets above -20 or so.
Tom

 

[Jason in TN]

Tom have you tried the Salt mode 22.5 seems to hit gold targets down in the Iron range when using the salt mode.
Have found I can make it work with corralate to still give a tone on the other two freq have not been able to get to the beach
with it yet though.

Jason

 

[Tom Slick]

Jason,
I haven't tried the salt mode with the BF yet. I do know that using 22.5 only with the BF, quarters will wrap around and come in at -78. My hunting has been with all 3 frequencies and/or 7.5 only. I'm heading to CAL week after next to do some beach testing. Winter time on CA beaches isn't very productive but I can get some good testing done while I'm there.
Tom

 

[Jason in TN]

Thanks Tom let me know how things on the beach turn out.

Jason