No easy solutions in this situation, as khouse points out, the final solution may be "Iron Gardening". Jackpine Savage has used the Autotracking in these type of situations and seems to prefer it, pointing out he feels there may be so much junk that in essence there is an artificial ground of iron. Kicking the unit into Beach Mode Autotracking can certainly be tried.
Here's a previous post that I made which is a situation that sounds very similar to your conditions.
"It was a beautiful day today in the upper fifties, so one to be taken advantage of before the snow arrives. We have had so much rain lately that the fall lake draw down has not happened. The dams are all open but the rain is filling the lakes faster than they can drain. This has caused me some consternation as I have my usual list of beaches to hit before freeze up.
Not wanting to waste the day I decided to hunt an old railroad station which is pictured below in a photo probably from 1890 or so.
[attachment 91755 stat.jpg]
Knowing that train stations can be challenges because of what's in the ground around them I decided to use two detectors. The X70 fitted with the HF elliptical DD and a Fisher Edge with a 5.75 inch concentric. The ground conditions ended up being a witches brew of the likes I've never seen before. The ballast used was crushed basalt, mixed with coal, coal slag that had rust covering it, and just for good measure they had asphalted in between the ties which was now broken up and mixed in.
There was iron everywhere, old buried cans, pieces of trains and modern trash. Trying to find a coil width space to GB in without a target was quite a chore. But I had visions of old silver down between those tracks. And after four hours I had a single rosie to show for my troubles, and the Westclox Pocket Ben Conductor's Watch which was only down about an inch and found with the X70.
[attachment 91756 watch.jpg]
Conditions were so hideous that at one point using the Edge I spied an intact 22 cart on the surface which the Edge could not see rubbing the coil on it. There was iron under the surface that was so severe it was masking a surface target. I picked it up and it ID'd fine in the air. After 4 hours of switching between the two detectors, I even broke out the CZ20 I carry to see if I could get a peek below the surface. No such luck, I might as well have been detecting on the deck of an aircraft carrier.
Those bloody coins are down there, I know they are, but until I find something that can see down through that mess, they're going to stay there. The saving grace was that it was a beautiful day to be outside, and any day you're healthy with nice weather swinging a coil ain't bad at all."
If you have a large strong magnet you can also try some iron dragging to clear surface nails etc. depending on ground conditions.
HH
BarnacleBill
