Prospecting Mode vs Coin/Relic Mode

[FooserPaul]

Hell all!

OK... I am having an issue getting my brain around this...

How do you use prospecting mode to eliminate wether the target ir from an IRON source or not?

Thank you in advance...
Paul

 

[1859large]

I use prospecting mode often and it does work.

I am not sure I have the best settings but they work. I set the Iron mask to 20 and use autotrack. When you find a spot that is giving you all kinds of ID #s I try and locate a few possible targets in CT mode and then switch to Prospect.

As you pass over a target if it is iron it will clip the audio response. That is a sharp rise in volume and nothing - usually for several seconds. That is a piece of iron. I have dug a few to make sure. A non-ferrous object should just give an increase in audio as you approach it and a decrease as you move away. Now if your target is shallow your volume will peak out and go down, very different from up and nothing! You can get a beter sound profile and a good pinpoint by raising the coil until you just get a rise and fall of volume as you cross it with the coil. (One piece of iron about 8 oz and 8" long bent bar with an ear in the middle had 2 pieces of lead under it and gave nice rise and fall tones from some angles and a sharp clipping of the audio in other directions. Gotta dig hits like that. I dig all non-ferrous targets.

Des Dunne has a good article on this in the UK mag Searcher. There are some pdf files of this on the net. Try Googling "Des Dunne Minelab"

I hope this helps. HH

1859

 

[FooserPaul]

Sure does! Thank you kindly.... I'm off to a woods setting and this will help tonight...

Paul

 

[james1969]

By comparing the signals in C&T mode against prospecting mode much can be learned,for example lets say you get a signal in the coin range on the meter,the depth indicates 8 inches but when you check it in prospecting mode it screams or is very loud,is it a coin?,no it's not as any coin at 8 inches will give a weak to medium signal and will never scream in prospecting mode,so what is it,well it might be iron,sweep the signal from several directions and if you get a solid minus signal from one direction it almost certainly iron,it might also be a large non ferrous item buried deep but in that case the signal wil be good from all directions,The best thing to do is to bury some coins at different depths and compare the signals in C&T against prospecting mode,keep an eye on the depth meter and memorise how a deep coin sounds in prospecting mode.

When you get a signal out hunting ask yourself if this is a coin at the depth indicated would it give this loud a signal?,if the answer is yes then dig it,if no then it's probably not a coin.with practice you will good at this and waste little time investigating signals.