Nickles....Are they really worth it :rant:

[Dan(NM)]

I went to a spot where I've done rather well this past year, the coins are scattered at all depths. I found a V-nickle and a couple of mercs sitting on top of the ground and have dug memorials at 7"

I've worked it rather hard using the CTX and the place is loaded with all sorts of debris. I will admit, I did cherry pick the higher tones due to the amount of trash. So, today I went in with the mindset of digging all 12,13,14 VDI's on the Nox. I spent 2 hours before having to leave, my take was, 53 pieces of trash and 3 nickles. Some of the pulltabs and beaver tails were 6-7" deep and read 12-13 bouncing back and forth. The nickles were around the 5-6" mark and read a pretty consistent 13. I'm not sure it's even worth the time, luckily, it's just a dirt spot where some construction took place this winter, so I didn't have to worry about all the plugging.

I could see digging everything around the beach or swimming holes, but, land hunting, the odds are against you finding jewelry compared to the amount of time and effort involved. I have no shame in being a cherry picking dirt digger.

 

[IDXMonster]

Dan,surely that trash would ADD UP to a nickel at the recycler?
That’s where I’m going to say...NO. This discussion has been had elsewhere. They are not for me,although I do dig them for entertainment from time to time. I normally don’t even have that area open on the disc. I don’t hope that every nickel will be a gold ring,I’m not “that guy”.

 

[Dan(NM)]

Dan,surely that trash would ADD UP to a nickel at the recycler?
That’s where I’m going to say...NO. This discussion has been had elsewhere. They are not for me,although I do dig them for entertainment from time to time. I normally don’t even have that area open on the disc. I don’t hope that every nickel will be a gold ring,I’m not “that guy”.

I did it today just for my own piece of mind, my time is limited and the odds don't favor hitting the nice big gold ring. I won't be wasting my time or knees doing this again any time soon!!!

 

[IDXMonster]

I hear you in every way,even at 49 my knees wouldn’t tolerate that even if they were ALL nickels!

 

[laplander]

Looks like a rough day Dan , I guess its site specific for me or how much time might be another factor.
Has anyone looked up the price of a 1880 shield nickel?
Laplander

 

[Always Curious]

That's pretlty much been my experience trying for nickels with the Equinox--lots of pull tabs. Some have reported the Equinox is the deepest machine yet for nickels; but even if that's true, it just isn't worthwhile taking a chance on those 13's. I do much better on nickels with the Etrac just because of the ID factor.

 

[Rick(ND)]

y nickle machine is the Sovereign with the 180 SunRay meter. Nickles read 144-145 and have a tone different than pulltabs and beaver tails. War nickles can read higher, but still has that nickle tone to it. My record for nickles in about 2 hours was 167 and not one pulltab. I think they used to have coins thrown in the grass or straw and after the hunt others disc out the nickles as they only wanted the bigger coins. These were anywhere from surface to 3 inches deep.


Rick

 

[Cal_Cobra]

My nickel, which happened to be my 4th or 5th target out of the gate with my new EQ800 turned out to a beautiful 18K gold ring that I thought was going to be a nickel

 

[Sweeping-4-junk]

Trust me there are lots of gold and silver rings on inland sites. .. i have honestly found loads...

 

[IDXMonster]

Everyone has to understand the ratios. Rick used a specific setup in a specific area. If anyone is going to tell me that the average person would be happy with the junk to gold ring ratio, especially inland hunting junky parks....well,that’s what I’d call an optimist. It’s not that the rings ARENT there,or that the nickels ARENT there,it’s that the specific persons tolerance for trash to get them isn’t there.
Cal Cobra....please picture the next “X” number of targets you dig that could be a gold ring til you DO get the next gold ring.
Sweeping-4-Junk...How did you arrive at your name? Why not...Sweeping-4-Rings? If you’re doing it specifically for the money,then a beep and digger will hammer any target til a good one pops up.That’s not what most are doing here. Well....Dan did. I’m sure it’s out of his system now...

 

[jas415]

To me, I have a finite amount of 'bend overs' and 'kneel downs' left and I want to optimize them, so I dont dig anything that I believe to be trash. Using the CTX I could pretty much dig maybe 30-50 nickels a month with maybe 1 in 10 being a pull tab or can slaw, but with the 800 that ratio o is more the other way. I have been trying to figure out if a freq shift to 5, or 10 or ??, will give any reliable clues.

Dan, do you 'see' any depth loss with the high recovery speed and are you slowing the sweep speed (close to the CTX speed) with the high recovery? Do you notice any relationship there? I am trying to maximize depth in extremely trashy areas with lots and lots of rusty nails, bolts, screws, etc.. On a location last Saturday, a group of 4 hit a demoed lot where early 1900 and late 1800 bldgs stood. In all that debris, burned bldgs, iron nails, scrap and just junk they got 14 V's, Shields and some 11 Buffs, 2 Barber halves, 3 Barber q's, and one Barber dime. One spill had 5 silvers, walker half, quarter, and 3 mercs. But, the CTX hit the spill but nothing else except junk. The most were found by an old fisher machine using the dig everything over iron process.
That is what I am trying to do also, without the 'beep' dig theory.

 

[Dan(NM)]

Dan, do you 'see' any depth loss with the high recovery speed and are you slowing the sweep speed (close to the CTX speed) with the high recovery? Do you notice any relationship there? I am trying to maximize depth in extremely trashy areas with lots and lots of rusty nails, bolts, screws, etc..


When using the recovery speed of 7, depth wasn't the goal and where I have been using it, the coins aren't over 6" deep, even using the CTX. I did run it at 7 in a spot yesterday and was getting solid repeatable tones at 6-7" on beaver tails and pulltabs which was impressive. I could probably run it 5-6, get a little extra deep and still get plenty of recovery speed.

 

[spellman]

If you dont want to dig the trash and nickels thats great for me, ill dig them and also the gold, I found about 30 gold rings last year in the parks doing just that i love finding pull tabs cause it tells me the potential for gold is still high. I am kinda a cherry picker too i dont like to dig the quarters, dimes and pennys i actually ran a program on my deus that notched out high conductors.

 

[Rick(ND)]

After I spent the time to learn the Sovereign mostly from experience of detecting in the field nickles were easy to tell from the pull tabs, but still hard to tell from the gold. The gold I did find were signals that had a much smoother response or different from what the SunRay 180 number said. One place I was at was a football field where they had tore the bleachers out of a few years earlier and loaded with pull tabs, so lot of pull tab signal, but I wanted to see if I could get anything others had left by going real slow and did get a lot of 140-141 signals (beaver tails) and most pull tabs read from 148 and up while my nickles read 143-144. I get this one signal that sounded like a nickle as it was smooth sounding, but meter numbers were 141 and sounded deeper than the pulltabs of beaver tails seem to sound. Dug it at 7 inches and it was a 18K older style ring, because it sounded different then what the meter was telling me and sounded like a nickle. .
We had 3 of us that were using Sovereigns and I know I had more nickles the first year than new dimes found plus one of the guys also did, but he also found some nice gold rings too.
Never found another detector that was so good on nickles and having high hopes that the Equinox will do even as good or better, but a person just got to spend the time to use it, dig some trash and learn how to tell the difference. I sure hope it can be done and with so many being sold I am sure someone will find a way.

Rick

 

[CZconnoisseur]

Don't feel bad Dan - You should see my pile from last night...very aluminum-y and only one Wheat for 5 hours worth of hunting! The ground being easy to dig was the only consolation...

 

[Charles (Upstate NY)]

Depends on the site, if on old ground with old targets under the shallow trash layer then yes worth it. Look especially if you already pounded the site to death and can't find anything else. If your back and knees limit the number of kneel downs per hunt like me, there are other methods of getting gold while ignoring tabs and nickels. Dig NOT tabs and NOT nickels, while also NOT any other common target so NOT clad NOT foil, you focus on the badlands where all the common targets do NOT hit. Savvy.

 

[Old California]

Hello Dan,

Sometimes it is worth the effort, I look at it as a challenge.

Nothing wrong with digging many pull tabs, odds are against the detectorist but once in a while the odds turn for the better.

Keep pressing on, it'll come.

HH, Paul

 

[Always Curious]

Maybe I'll change my mind again, but at least for now, no more digging those 13's with the Equinox. If I had unlimited time, sure, but I don't; with the limited time I have available, I will find more worthwhile targets not going for nickels. One area in which the Etrac does a much better job.

 

[Cal_Cobra]

Everyone has to understand the ratios. Rick used a specific setup in a specific area. If anyone is going to tell me that the average person would be happy with the junk to gold ring ratio, especially inland hunting junky parks....well,that’s what I’d call an optimist. It’s not that the rings ARENT there,or that the nickels ARENT there,it’s that the specific persons tolerance for trash to get them isn’t there.
Cal Cobra....please picture the next “X” number of targets you dig that could be a gold ring til you DO get the next gold ring.
Sweeping-4-Junk...How did you arrive at your name? Why not...Sweeping-4-Rings? If you’re doing it specifically for the money,then a beep and digger will hammer any target til a good one pops up.That’s not what most are doing here. Well....Dan did. I’m sure it’s out of his system now...

Oh believe me, I've dug my share of pull-tabs, and crudded up nickles....my reply was totally tongue and cheek, I completely understand that the ratios can be punishing....that's one reason why I'm more of a relic hunter then a park hunter.

 

[Charlives]

Using the CTX I could pretty much dig maybe 30-50 nickels a month with maybe 1 in 10 being a pull tab or can slaw, but with the 800 that ratio o is more the other way. I have been trying to figure out if a freq shift to 5, or 10 or ??, will give any reliable clues.

Same with me, I felt comfortable knowing a nickel on my T2, but not on the nox...as yet. We'll all figure it out.