"Probing" Question...

[Jim_N1RUI]

Hi everyone, I'm Jim from Ohio. I'm new to the MXT, thought I used to detect about 30 years ago - lots has changed!

The book that came with my MXT talks breifly about "probes". I see these for sale as an aparently semi-hollow shaft with a ball bearing tip, about 8 inches long. It seems to me a long phillips head screwdriver would work for this..... anyway, the book infers that use of the probe will do a much neater job of target recovery - my question is, how? Do you not still have to dig out the target, or is it just a question of how large a hole you are digging? I can't imagine any way to actually recover a target neatly using probe only. Can someone enlighten me?

 

[Nancy-IL]

Using a probe is excellent for targets only an inch or less in the ground. I call it "plucking" out of the ground. I use a small Phillips type tool also. First find the target by probing. It's great and you literally pop the coins out of the ground by getting underneath them and prying it up and out. Good luck and enjoy your MXT.

 

[Rob (IL)]

I locate the target with the probe end and then pry or pop it out with the rounded screwdriver end. Rob

 

[Jim_N1RUI]

Thanks Nancy and Rob for your comments. Rob, that tool looks EVIL! At least it confirms that a screwdriver should work out fine. I'll give it a try when I get back home. I'm in Kitty Hawk NC this week, on vacation, on the beach, hoping to get the MXT out there and swing. Between the heat, the humidity, and a broken toe, though, it might be a LONG week!

Jim

 

[robert roy]

I have to admit I have tried to probe but there are so many rocks in the ground where I have MDed I don't know if I have probed a rock or a coin.-)
Robert R

 

[madaboutmike]

Interesting tool- - how do you carry that thing around? I've been using a 1/2 inch masons jointer. If you don't know what a jointer is, look at brickwork. The cement is smoothed between the courses of bricks with a tool called a jointer. The groove in the joints occurs because the business end of the tool is has a concave shape. I just spatula stuff out and there's only a mere slit in the ground that a good stomp will flatten out. mike

 

[Rob (IL)]

When I use it it fits in a holder I made that hangs on the outside of my left leg next to my digging tool. I don't probe unless I'm on a lawn. You are right about rocks. Most of my hunting requires digging. Rob

 

[bcalton]

<h2>Hi:
<p>Here is what I use to probe with about 98% of the time
<p>in public parks and school ball fields.
The short one for hard ground 1-2 inches and <p>the longer one 3-4 inches in soft moist ground.
<p>They work great for me and only make a small hole in removing the target.
<p>I to sometimes hit rocks and have to re-probe the target.
<center>[attachment 67996 metalprobes.jpg]</center>
HH Billy in Tenn

 

[tab-nabit]

Brass probes are good on lawns to minimize digging damage. I worked this way for years.
If the target was within an inch, I would just pop the target up with the probe tip. Once the target is an inch or so, the brass probe is good for probing to locate the target. I use different size lengths, and each has a porcelain ball you anchor in the fist. While probing, I'll locate a target and kind of probe at it to try and get the feel of the target. Sometimes you kinda get the feel between a coin and a rock. The brass rod into the porcelain ball helps transmits the target feel (vibration transmission) and I tried to determine what it is. Like trying to rub the probe tip around against the target.
For years I used a machine that has excellent pinpointing. When I felt I was dead center over the target, I would hold the probe tip over the center of the coil, then slip the coil away and push the brass probe straight down, and most times the probe would hit the target. Watch the depth reading on the machine. This help for probe depth. After I located the target, then I was able to minimize digging damage. Sometimes you can work a coin up the smallest hole. Hit a lawn then turn around and you can't see that anyone has dug at all. That was a proud feeling of precision. If the coin was a bit to deep to work up, I used to use long nose hemostats (about 15 inches long), then if that didn't work, I worked a very careful clean dig and would fix the dig back up with care. Got me on lots of lawns back in the years without any homeowners upset. Silver coin seem plentiful back then and careful surgical digging opened up lots of opportunities. Using a softer brass probe minimized scratching up a target.
I still have a few long nose hemostats and several brass probes, mine don't have the ball at the end of the brass rod end that goes into the ground. They are kind of semi-sharpened and stayed that way from so much probing. Now I have a collection of electronic hand held pinpointers added for my digging aids.

 

[Jim_N1RUI]

Thanks everyone for the great ideas! I wonder how one of those "dandelion puller" tools would work....You know, has a forked business end, slightly sharpened, with a regular round shaft, and a screwdriver-type handle. Might put the homeowner more at ease....

- Jim

 

[Nancy-IL]

I think that would be too big to carry around. I use a short 6" probe. The probe itself is only maybe 3" long. To each their own I guess.