Mojo's early Spring patrols

[Dancer]

Had it out about 8 hunts. Parks and school yards. Success depends mostly on how well the site has been hunted. Amusing couple of places majority of the coins found were pennies. I think somebody been cherry picking. Well anyway the little guy been handling it quite well. Well dodging spits of flurries some wind the Mojave has brought back 280 coins, a Silver 925 medal, $22+ in change. Still on the first battery.

 

[HaroldILL.]

Dang! Who needs a meter.

 

[Nauti]

Dang! Who needs a meter.

Techno freaks
People who are brainwashed into thinking the latest technology will increase their finds rate
People who think that a meter will make their lives easier...(it will,they will do less digging.......including good targets).
People who aren't dedicated enough to dig iffy signals.

 

[marcomo]

Dang! Who needs a meter.

Techno freaks
People who are brainwashed into thinking the latest technology will increase their finds rate
People who think that a meter will make their lives easier...(it will,they will do less digging.......including good targets).
People who aren't dedicated enough to dig iffy signals.

Neil, I would argue there is no right or wrong. I just can't be contemptuous of either way of hunting. I started with a Tesoro, but I like tones and a meter. I like tones a lot. A whole lot. But I enjoy the elemental fun of using using a Tesoro, too. Especially in bad iron. Tesoros excel in bad iron.

As a turf hunter if you ignore those usually trashy mid tones you also ignore gold. I'm sure I've walked over gold rings that hit like a shallow zincer. Or shallow tab signals. But for every great find you're talking about a thousand trash targets. I'll admit I don't have the fortitude to dig it all. Power to those who do. Neither style involves more dedication, just a different focus.

My discrimination preferences are more situational. An older property and I'm going to dig way more mid targets than a post-war one. I'm going to dig way more deeper mids than shallow. I've no doubt walked over numerous gold rings. I can live with that. I don't hunt beaches and very rarely tot lots or any higher probability places for gold.

There is a guy on another forum who found over 400 silver coins last year with the newest Aussie. A buddy of his on that same forum suggested looking at his clad and memorial totals for insight. They were surprisingly low. That was his key to finding all those silvers, he had a good detector, played the odds and left the probable clad in the ground. Now I'm sure somebody could go behind him and find good mid-range conductors. You could probably take a cz-3d in there and clean up on nickels. But he found what he wanted to find.

A meter will cost you good finds but also save you from infinitely more trashy ones. It's personal preference. What you value. What you want to find.

 

[1hotwire]

Marcomo , how right you .. more power to the ones that have the energy to dig it all ..

 

[Nauti]

Marcomo,
My post was mean't as a bit of lighthearted banter.....i have also used metered machines.
However,what i will say is this.....the most profitable way in terms of detecting is,as we all know,if we dig every single target in a given area.....that way you do not miss a thing.This takes time and extreme dedication,i know because i have tried it and most people haven't the time and some of us the energy to hunt like this.
Everything you add to the equation after this (digging all signals),such as tone or vid will help you to start missing decent targets.Vid's are not very accurate at all and can give many different readings on the same object depending on many factors,so if a person uses vdi as their main form of identifying targets,their success will be very limited.
Tone id is far more accurate than vid but it can still be influenced by by prevailing ground conditions,depth of target etc......so even this will miss you targets.....i have done many tests on actual buried targets compared to in "air tones and vid" and have come to realise just how innacurate such detectors can be if you don't want to miss anything at all of value.
So as you say,and you are correct,if you don't mind missing certain things for less trash digging,then a metered/tone machine is an effective tool.If you have more time and stamina,cutting out minimum ferous and digging everything,even iffy signals is still the way to go for maximum results.

 

[marcomo]

I can't argue, you make good points Neil. My point would be that certain VDI targets have an infinitesimally low chance of being a really good target.

The detector I have the most VDI experience with is the AT Pro so I'll use that as an example.

Shallow (4" or less) pennies in many soils seem to hit hit coin size and solidly at 80-81 with the stock coil and 81-82 with the 5X8.

This is where I will sometimes commit dig it all heresy and leave those in the ground in undisturbed soil. Especially at a post-war ranch yard. Especially after I've already dug a few that hit exactly the same. Could one of those shallow memorials be a great find? Sure. But while I sometimes don't dig those, sometimes I do. I've had the AT Pro for about 8 years now and have yet to have one of those I've dug turn into a great find.

I understand why some will always dig those signals. Theoretically it could be an incredible find. And pennies do add up.

 

[kittlitz]

Very interesting discussion... the mistake I used to make with TID units is thinking that the target ID is authoritative when it's really only advisory. I think a lot of people fall into that trap. A member of our club decided that an 81 on an AT Pro was always going to be a copper penny, whereas an 82 meant a silver dime. So, he didn't dig 81 signals until another guy with the same machine pulled a silver dime that was reading 81. The first guy was rather sad to hear this Even the CTX-3030, a machine that typically gives very stable IDs, can be affected by iron near a good target. Something that usually gives a conductivity reading of 42 might instead show up as 37-38, which is where zinc pennies read up. And who wants to dig a zinc penny?

So, an ID reading has to be interpreted with some skepticism. That said, it is really nice to have a visual ID or multi-tones when hunting an area with a lot of modern trash. I admit to still cherry-picking more than I probably should in such places, and will typically use my Golden Umax or DeLeon rather than my Mojave or Vaquero. As an aside, I think one of Tesoro's biggest goofs was not to continue development on their multi-tone machines. A Golden Umax with adjustable ground balance would have been pretty sweet.

-Ken

 

[marcomo]

That's true, Ken. Depth, trash and iron all conspire to make TID less accurate.

I've never had an AT Pro that would hammer on just one number unless the coin was very shallow.

 

[ken ward]

I enjoy this thread. You guys are not bashing or putting someone down. Just a lot of good honest information.
Back in the 80s, I had an Whites Eagle Spectrum. I liked it very much. I noticed that I was not finding good targets like I was with my old beep and dig detector. So, I put an old sock over the meter that I always would watch. Always making adjustments. With the sock, I was starting to find more good targets. I desided that I wanted would go back to my old Tesoro. I understand what it is telling me. Still using my beep and dig Tesoros... KEN

 

[wheatymike]

Great discussion. Trust me I have been in both camps. Now I will hunt in a dig it all fashion at sites that have great potential and I have more time to hunt..and digging lots of holes doesn't cause a problem with the land owner. Other times....I am pressed for time or there is a lot of modern trash, ie. pull tabs,....or the land owner may not appreciate me digging a lot of holes. In those instances I will use more discrimination. And, at some sites and at some times it is something in between. Wheaty

 

[Dancer]

As a update on my MoJo 's spring results. Right now it's nearing the 500 coin mark. (441) Still no gold, but two stainless rings in last three hunts. In the past these might've been Gold rings. How about in your areas? I'm definitely way down on cosmetic jewelry compared to earlier times. Even though using same type of machines.