BarnacleBill
New member
Having been stuck indoors with a nasty cold I was growing punchy. Yesterday morning through noon was rainy with a low hanging fog and I didn't feel well anyway, but by 4pm with the rain clearing I just couldn't take it anymore.
There is a freshwater beach nearby that I have severely cleaned out over the years, but this summer I have left it fallow so that quick jaunts after work in the fall might yield some results. I very much wanted to get in the water but knew I would just prolong my cold with such an energy drain.
Now decision making time, which machine to pull off of the wall? Not feeling like digging holes to China I decided to do some small gold surface hunting(chains hopefully). So the weapon of choice, the X70 with elliptical coil and a plan to run'er in Prospecting mode at least for a while.
First order of business at the beach was to locate a small rusty nail in Coin mode to use as a reference to set the Iron Mask in Prospecting mode. In Coin mode machine balanced at 19 and I was running Sens at a very hot 29 in default Pattern 1. The usual foil targets were found when doing this type of hunting as well as noting some interesting results.
The nitro moment came as a small cross with an ID of 6 & 8 depending on sweep angle and the target was solid and smooth in sound, not like the broken ratty foil sound. My initial thoughts were a tight foil ball, but out popped the cross and I was overjoyed. But later at home under the loupe those dreaded letters appeared "GF" gold filled, bummer. Nonetheless this was a tough target because of size and shape.
[attachment 35987 cross.jpg]
Other notable targets and observations follow:
1. Above the right hand stoplight of the van door is a small Gold wannabe turtle earring standing up. This target ended up being about 4 inches deep and gave varying very weak mid-tone response, the target didn't know what it wanted to be. So I decided to pinpoint to get a truer reading, but no luck, wouldn't pinpoint, hotrock???? No, didn't respond high tone like a hotrock, maybe the sand where I had engaged PP had a target under it. So I went to AM to check the PP reference area on the sand where I had placed the coil, nope, no targets, scratch head. Okkkkk....raised coil above ground to a vertical position, and engaged PP to use the air as a starting reference point for the autotune. I then swung the coil back over the target and received a very weak pinpoint, aha real target. So if you think you have a very weak good target try starting PP in the air.
2. I found my rusty nail I was looking for to calibrate the Prospecting mode IM. Prospecting mode was set a GB of 19 and Sens once again at a very hot 29. The nail was rejected at an IM setting of 1(one), very good. Next I had surface spotted the pictured hair pin which I see very few of, almost never, and I know some waders will think I'm joshing since I hear of these things driving them crazy. I see tons more snap closed barrettes which make me crazy, since with their plating they give a mixed target response. But I was nonetheless delighted to see the Prospecting mode reject the hair pin with the IM setting of 1(one)as this should give hope to waders seeking small gold with theses pesky things around.
[attachment 35988 nut_cr.jpg]
Now I'm going to go out on a bit of a limb here, don asbestos undies time. If you're thinking of getting a PI and you have an X70, run the X70 in Prospecting mode with no IM for a couple of hunts, and see if you can handle the amount of digging you need to do.
HH
BarnacleBill
There is a freshwater beach nearby that I have severely cleaned out over the years, but this summer I have left it fallow so that quick jaunts after work in the fall might yield some results. I very much wanted to get in the water but knew I would just prolong my cold with such an energy drain.
Now decision making time, which machine to pull off of the wall? Not feeling like digging holes to China I decided to do some small gold surface hunting(chains hopefully). So the weapon of choice, the X70 with elliptical coil and a plan to run'er in Prospecting mode at least for a while.
First order of business at the beach was to locate a small rusty nail in Coin mode to use as a reference to set the Iron Mask in Prospecting mode. In Coin mode machine balanced at 19 and I was running Sens at a very hot 29 in default Pattern 1. The usual foil targets were found when doing this type of hunting as well as noting some interesting results.
The nitro moment came as a small cross with an ID of 6 & 8 depending on sweep angle and the target was solid and smooth in sound, not like the broken ratty foil sound. My initial thoughts were a tight foil ball, but out popped the cross and I was overjoyed. But later at home under the loupe those dreaded letters appeared "GF" gold filled, bummer. Nonetheless this was a tough target because of size and shape.
[attachment 35987 cross.jpg]
Other notable targets and observations follow:
1. Above the right hand stoplight of the van door is a small Gold wannabe turtle earring standing up. This target ended up being about 4 inches deep and gave varying very weak mid-tone response, the target didn't know what it wanted to be. So I decided to pinpoint to get a truer reading, but no luck, wouldn't pinpoint, hotrock???? No, didn't respond high tone like a hotrock, maybe the sand where I had engaged PP had a target under it. So I went to AM to check the PP reference area on the sand where I had placed the coil, nope, no targets, scratch head. Okkkkk....raised coil above ground to a vertical position, and engaged PP to use the air as a starting reference point for the autotune. I then swung the coil back over the target and received a very weak pinpoint, aha real target. So if you think you have a very weak good target try starting PP in the air.
2. I found my rusty nail I was looking for to calibrate the Prospecting mode IM. Prospecting mode was set a GB of 19 and Sens once again at a very hot 29. The nail was rejected at an IM setting of 1(one), very good. Next I had surface spotted the pictured hair pin which I see very few of, almost never, and I know some waders will think I'm joshing since I hear of these things driving them crazy. I see tons more snap closed barrettes which make me crazy, since with their plating they give a mixed target response. But I was nonetheless delighted to see the Prospecting mode reject the hair pin with the IM setting of 1(one)as this should give hope to waders seeking small gold with theses pesky things around.
[attachment 35988 nut_cr.jpg]
Now I'm going to go out on a bit of a limb here, don asbestos undies time. If you're thinking of getting a PI and you have an X70, run the X70 in Prospecting mode with no IM for a couple of hunts, and see if you can handle the amount of digging you need to do.
HH
BarnacleBill
