chipmaker29 said:
ok...first let me give u a bit of background on my experience in this hobby, where i am hunting & what my primary targets are.
i am a newbie for sure & using a borrowed QXT to cut my teeth on b/f i purchase a machine for myself. i have first started hunting on my own property until i can acquire other places to go. my home was built in 1840 and the 2nd oldest in the county where i live in southeastern, in. there is so much history in the ground here it is unreal. my property is 7 acres in size with approximately 1 3/4 acres covered by 2 ponds. i have hunted ALOT staying within prolly 50 ft of my house and i have dug so many holes it is crazy. seems i cannot sweep more than 2 or 3 ft without hitting something in the ground. there is also MUCH trashy stuff in ground too. yesterday i found an arrowhead within 10ft of my front porch in a hole that i had a hit on prolly 8/9" down (hit was a remington shotgun shell base that i dated within 1911/1920 via the internet). neat experience for me to find that so close to house. anyway...i am primarily after coins (older if possible) jewelry & relics.
with all that being said, here are some questions about the QXT that i need info on. please bear in mind that i am def a rookie & do not have a firm grasp on all aspects yet.
*what mode do u recommend me be in to do the type of detecting i am after? (i have been hunting in coin/jewelry mode but man this machine "tweeks" out it seems in this mode. like pops cracks and seems it has a hard time "locking on" to anything. as example i sweep and get small alert and go over & over that spot again from different angles and seems like it has a hard time with stability with break ups in the signal and "static", then decent brief hit then nothing. back & forth but if i change to coin mode over same target i get no hit @ all. i dont understand what the machine is telling me. machine seems to run much quieter in coin mode but i am afraid i am missing things that might be there.)
1.) u recommend hunting with discrimination turned off? i dont mind digging "suspect" alerts b/c when i do find something cool & unique it makes up for all the nails/tabs/junk i have dug. i realize i gotta pay my dues.
2.) i dont understand setting alerts/tones, etc. can u clarify what this means please?
3.) also do i hunt with auto ground balance off? if so exactly how do i turn it completely off and is checking it every 15-20 mins appropriate?
4.) in coin mode during my tests, this machine wont alert to a 14k ring i place in hole say 3 to 4" down. why?
5.) clarifications on "zones" & exactly what all that means would be helpful. i know you can set to "accept/reject" certain zones but i havent messed with it b/c i do not understand it.
I really appreciate ur response to my posts & if u can tutor a newbie here i would be so very grateful. i have had MUCH fun hunting here but my frustration level is high b/c i am afraid that i am missing the best targets here b/c of my ignorance. i have found over 40 coins here including 2 silver quarters from the 40's and the oldest coin being a 1927 wheatback but i have found 0 silver dimes/indian heads and i am certain there are more older coins here! just way to old of a place and had so so many people in & out of here over the past 170 years & i dont think this place has ever been hunted with a metal detector. the good finds are here i am sure of it! by my research on what i have found i would say most of the things i have found(other than lots of clad) has been from the 1920's to the 1940's era. if u look @ some of my posts here u can see pics of just a portion of the items that i have pulled from the ground here.
once again, i really appreciate the opportunity to talk with u & i will await ur response. have a pleasant day!
Mike
First off, you've got an awesome virgin site there to hunt for many years to come. Second, I doubt it's been hunted based on the two silver quarters and you being a newbie. No place is ever hunted out but the norm would be that the silver dimes and in particular quarters would be harder to find for a newbie and wouldn't start showing up until you've got a good bit of experience on a machine and how to find harder targets that are deeper or masked in some way.
The difference between the coin and coin/ring programs is for the most part in what zones it edits out and what ones it accepts. However, I think (can't remember) that things like SAT speed might also be changed, or at least I think it is faster in the beach program. Either way, load the coin only program as this will set up most things like they should be. Make sure ground tracking is OFF (0 value for the tracking speed). Tracking can drift on you because of iron and minerals and such costing you depth, or it will track out a deep coin as you continue to sweep over it. Instead, just turn it off and then ground balance the machine in a clean spot. To do this just pull/release the trigger when you turn it on and then sweep around until you find a spot with no targets or iron present, meaning the audio isn't sounding off and no sizing bars or ID are on the screen. Now, in order to find a clean spot you should go into the discrimination menue and accept ALL zones, including the iron and ground zones. That way it won't be discriminating out stuff on you while you are looking for a clean spot. Also, that's the way I hunt all the time anyway. Don't edit (discriminate) any zones out. Now go into the tone ID menu and set low tones for the stuff you don't want to pay notice to (like iron and the ground signal, as well as everything else but the COIN and penny zones...turn on the high tones for those). That is, unless you are wanting to dig nickles or gold rings. Then you may want to turn on the high tone for those zones as well. For what it's worth, I find most gold rings will bounce evenly between foil and the nickle zone on the QXT. Hardly any will read up into the round tab zone above it or higher.
Now, when I say don't discriminate anything out I do not mean to turn OFF discrimination, meaning to hunt in All Metal. Rather, you are hunting in the discrimination mode but with nothing discriminated out. Don't bother with All Metal or the Mixed mode. Discrimination is just as deep or deeper on the QXT.
Once you've loaded the COIN program and then set up all the above stuff like said I'd then turn VCO ON and set pinpoint sensitivity at 16. I'd then set the regular sensitivity at 16 as well. That's a good starting point that you can use at most sites. If the machine seems smooth then you can often get it up to 18 on the QXT Pro. If in a known clean spot the ID is jumping around and the audio is falsing then it's too high. Back it down a few digits and see if it smooths out as you sweep.
Noise Reduction should be turned off and this will give you a little extra depth. It will make the machine a little bit nosier so if it seems to chatter on you due to small bits of metal/iron or high minerals then you can turn it on, but I'd rather just lower the sensitivity a little if I need to smooth things out. I've never really had to turn noise reduction ON, rarely if ever. It's still a very smooth and quiet machine compared to others.
Now, after you've done all the above now is the time to set the ground balance. You want to set it last and for sure after any time you change sensitivity. Really all the above stuff is a one time deal to set because the machine will save all that. When you turn it on again down the road you'll only need to instantly pull the trigger and release to stop ground balancing mode and then sweep around for a clean spot (remember, nothing you be edited out so you can hear things and like I said that's the way I hunt all the time anyway). Once you find a clean spot press ENTER and then slowly (but not too slow) raise and lower the loop. Don't push it into the ground but rather just down to the level you normally hunt at, or probably just kissing the top of the grass). Raise it up about a foot to two and lower it over and over while paying attention to the threshold. It should remain constant. Too slow or fast of a pump will fool you because the SAT (self adjusting threshold) will even it out for you and trick you. Probably a medium speed pumping method is what you'd use. If the threshold rises just a bit when approaching the ground that's OK and will give you the best depth (this is called a "HOT" ground setting), but an even threshold from top to bottom and vise versa is fine too and will make the machine run a little smoother.
Now sweep over that clean area for awhile and see if the audio gets jumpy on you or if the VDI or sizing bars are showing up at all due to being eractic. If they are then you either need to re-balance or lower the sensitivity. Like I said, most of the time 16 is fine and even 18 can be at many sites, but in real heavy minerals you might need to go down to say 10 or 12 or even lower, but that's rare in my area. I find 16 gives the best performance. 18 is a little deeper and stabile at most places but it can fool you on iron coin spikes and other trash more into thinking it's a good signal like it can by having the sensitivity too high on most other machines out there.
One other solution to noisy ground and heavy trash is to increase the SAT speed number and this will re-set the threshold faster as you hunt. That's why it's higher in beach mode. I rarely if ever have to do that and prefer what the coin program sets it at. Too high a SAT speed can cost you depth because it will reset and tune out real deep coins.
Now, you have to train yourself to ignore the low tones (iron, ground, etc) and listen for the high ones you've set to other zones. If, however, you are just being screamed at by tons of iron or hot rocks (ground signal) then you can edit those zones out. However, that can mask coins next to trash or cost you depth. Often a deep coin might only show up as a soft/deep iron or ground signal until you sweep fast and short over the deep target to try to pull a good ID out of it. That's what you need to master for the real deep ones deeper than most machines on the market can go. If you hear a low/soft/deep low tone or something else don't just pass it by. Sweep short and fast over it and see how the tone and ID improves or not.
The hardest part is finding a clean spot to ground balance. In a real trashy site you might take ten minutes wandering around until you find one where it can be done. Also, it needs to be in the same soil type you are hunting. If you go over the hill to a clean area to set it that soil might be different than near the house. ALWAYS ground balance properly in a clean spot every time you turn the machine on. I'd also re-check it every half hour or so, or sooner if the machine seems unstable or is falsing on you. That's either a bad ground balance or the sensitivity too high. Another trick is to hold the coil off the ground about two or three feet (but still pointing at the ground like normal) and listen to the audio and watch the screen. If the machine is acting up then you can bet the sensitivity is too high because you aren't even moving the coil and it's picking up RF noise.
I'll either post more now or later. I need a smoke and have been on this machine too long. Also want to hunt my friend's virgin yard. His house was built in the 1930's I think so it should have a bunch of silver. Wish I was hunting yours though! Also, in the 1800s most people would spend time in the front yard because they liked to see their neighbors passing by and such. Since probably the 1900's or so most would spend the time in the back to have privacy. At a house as old as yours both should be as good, but I'd expect more older coins in the front IMHO.
Any questions just ask, but ask here so anybody else with a QXT can benefit. In fact, I bet if you do a search in this forum for QXT you'll find everything you were wondering about. I've already posted a ton on this machine here. Great machine. One of the deepest on the market and with other unique features not found anywhere else. A real sleeper Whites, better than the XLT and a few other "flagship" Whites units IMHO.
Email me with details whenever.