Find's Treasure Forums

Welcome to Find's Treasure Forums, Guests!

You are viewing this forums as a guest which limits you to read only status.

Only registered members may post stories, questions, classifieds, reply to other posts, contact other members using built in messaging and use many other features found on these forums.

Why not register and join us today? It's free! (We don't share your email addresses with anyone.) We keep email addresses of our users to protect them and others from bad people posting things they shouldn't.

Click here to register!



Need Support Help?

Cannot log in?, click here to have new password emailed to you

Changed email? Forgot to update your account with new email address? Need assistance with something else?, click here to go to Find's Support Form and fill out the form.

need advice on just when to dig and and when to pass

todd9146

New member
now that i have a really good understanding of how this detector works i find myself wondering sometimes if i mixed iron signal with just a hint of a high tone is worth digging, i would dig everything if i had the time but thats not happening, what are the best ways to really get the explorer to be more accurate on its readings? a lot of times at these old colonial sites i go to i will get a little bit of a high tone that varies more on the side of iron but at the same time its isolated and not in very trashy areas so i dig a little and the sound really goes to iron, but yet a few times i found a coin when i would have normally have passed it by.i have a sun ray probe that doesn't have the depth of a coil but seems like it s very accurate and when that clears up the signal its problem a coin. i have tried smaller coils but it just doesn't seem to help me.
 
But what a great question! I have crossed that same road and I hope someone can help us out with an answer. Like you I am close to digging all!

Thanks for asking this question, I hope we get lots of replys from some of the Explorer Owners out there!

KCK/Ohio
 
I decide by a lot of different variables. How dry is it, how good it sounded before it went to a iron tone, when I first start hunting I dig more then after I start getting tired. If I have been getting some good finds I dig a lot more iffy stuff, especially if I get a good find on a iffy signal. If it is a close by site I plan on hitting a lot I will dig all iffy sites sooner or latter.

I think the answer is dig what you feel like digging at the time and enjoy the hobby to it's fullest!!!!
 
Depends on the site.... When I am working a farm field, and there is no need to worry about ruining the grass, I uproot just about anything that is not clearly iron. Occasionally if the dirt is still soft, i'll scrape an inch or two off and re check. It can help quite a bit. I have been working a local field pretty heavily in the last few weeks. It has produced several Georgius II coppers, and quite a handful of old buttons. I have found several of theses buttons when digging the iffy signals. They where usually the smaller buttons. A couple were good tones that hit about IM-8. So there are no hard/fast rules. When you can, dig as much as you can.....
 
Todd,

There are signals that just scream coin; many, many, many more that grunt iron; and quite a few that are somewhere in between.

Six years on with my Explorer I still dig quite a bit of iron in order to not miss the few that turn out to be coins. These signals often tend to be the oldest best coins, and in many worked out sites they are the only signals you will get.

So, unfortunately there is no easy answer. Years of experience will give you a better clue, plus we went around in circles on this years ago on the forums, not sure if those threads are still available.

Long story short a coin next to iron, deep coins, and iron falsing can all behave the same, probably depends on your mood and ambition level that particular day as much as anything whether you dig or not.

Chris
 
If I question the signal, then I dig it...maybe 98% of the time its junk, but the other times it is a coin it makes it worthwhile. As far as making ANY detector even more accurate, not going to happen. You are the judge, jury, and excavator. All detectors have that flaw about being accurate. A nickel, pull tab, or gold ring...up to you to decide, not the detector. Just too many metals close to a coin sound to be too accurate. Since your the one to decide, you may find yourself digging more trash...but then a pine tree shilling might be the ultimate reward because you dug a trashy signal that made you stop and think! Just my two cents, probably the zinc variety!
 
If the signal is consistent and repeatable, and has some substance to it (the signal drags out a bit), it is definitely worth digging.

If you can get that type of signal with the coil moving in once direction, then turn a bit on that signal and hit it from a slightly different direction and it still happens, dig. That said I dig falsies in thick iron all the time.
 
G'day Tod.
I think the boys summed it up pretty well. Only experience can be your best guide. I thought that I was onto a winner at the week end, as a lot of the coins that I dig, are slap bang in the middle of screw cap range. Went out for a couple of hours today, and guess what I dug a lot of. Yep screw caps, just about all I dug too. Over time your guesses get better (or is that 'instincts'). The secret, is to be always curious.
I bought an Ace 250 about 9 months back, and at first I was fussy about what I dug. The cost was, I wasn't finding much. As I learnt to accept that digging duds was just part of the equation, I started to learn what the Ace was telling me. Now because of that curiosity, I can confidently walk over some targets. I've got about 180 hors on the Ace now and still consider myself to be in the learning phase. As a result, my confidence is still going up with it. What has this got to do with the Explorer. Everything. Although I'm only new at using it, the same principals apply to all of us.
This may not be the answer you want to hear, but it's just the way it goes down. I also was kinda hopping, that the Explorer may have been the answer to my pipe dream (of having a detector that can sort targets out accurately, crikey, that's what the magazine articles say:blowup:) but alas, it's just another detector.:rant::lol:
Mick Evans.
 
Only when you have actually dug many trashy targets can you then have a good idea of what they sound like. logical really. I can usually tell what a target is before i dig it out say about 85% of the time pretty accurately. The explorers have a unique tone for every target which can eliminate digging certain trash targets. Their is no words to describe the methods of how to tell trash from good finds , just investigate all targets and and dig them out then you know what to expect next time. The explorer series detectors are the best discriminators ever made - superb...... They are really good once mastered. Fantastic cherry pickers on trashy sites if used properly.
 
These are the junk digs from ONE homestead, not all in the same day though. BUT along with this I found a Civil War Union soldiers cross belt buckle, a few Merc dimes, IH pennies, a NJ copper and various other interesting keepers.
Since I am young (50) compared to some veteran detectorists here, the up and down doesn't bother me. As I get older I will certainly be more selective as to when to dig. But for now I say "What the heck, it's just another hole" Happy Digging! Remember your next great find may be just inches below your feet.
 
there are many sites that i hunt that are almost hunted out. i still find the occasional oldie by going slow, digging most anything that gives a high squeak, even if it doesn't repeat every time. i dug a coin/iron signal once that would only repeat about 50% of the time and it turned out to be a seated dime next to iron. you never know. a high-end set of headphones will help too, if you dont already have them. i use sunray pro gold. good luck!
 
Top