RE Air Test Question ?????

[holey dollar]

Guys
Thanks for the input, I just cant see how 5inch Air test/ 12 inches in the ground can be true, The test when all said and done must be done with the same test target, if you air test a piece of iron at 5 inches stands to reason if you get a piece of iron (Halo effect and all) that's been in the ground for 150 years the results will vary. But what about the Guys no names mentioned who reckon a coin just planted in the ground is hard to detect ????.
Out with the Vaq many a time its so quiet i toss a coin on the ground to make sure its working OK, never had any probs picking up the target,

Thanks Guys Dave.

 

[Hombre]

Howdy Holey Dollar

Airtests are only good at determining whether your machine is working properly, I only get about a 7 inch response with my 8 inch concentric coil in an air test. That is the normal distance I get with all of my Tesoros. But in my ground, I have found naturaly buried coins down to 8 or 9 inches, depending on coin size.

You can't just go dig a hole more than 4 inches, bury a coin then cover it back up, and expect a good audio 'Hit' because the coin is now located in a disrupted ground matrix. In other words the soil in the 'hole' is now different than the surrounding soil. Instead of useless testing, just go to where you know there are coins naturally buried, and go dig them up. You can use a little note book, and jot down anything that you have learned in the field while testing.

I have a coin garden that I planted about 14 years ago, and it is a good testing grounds for deep coin audio response's, and one coin, a 'Bufalo Nickle', was planted right in a bunch or iron. Unknown to me when I planted it at the time, at a later date I could not find it! At a much later time, I was playing around with my Toltec ll in the garden, and in order to find the nickle I had to lower my discrimination all the way. The nickle now gave a good audio hit, and the meter reading was locked right on
Nickle. Have a good'n...........Hombre

 

[Southwind]

There are so many variables involved its hard to give an absolute answer. All things being equal, the accepted thought is that a detector will detect the average coin sized object roughly as deep as the coil is wide. That is to say the standard 8" coil should be able to detect a coin at 8" in the air. In the ground, however, there are many things that can affect that 8" ability. Some for the better and some for the worse. Mostly for the worse.

I have been able to duplicate this concept many times with many different detectors. My DFX will get about 11" in an air test and my best depth in the ground has been about 12". Same was true with my Explorer SE and Sovereign GT. Air tests proved to be about as deep as I could expect in the ground. Under certain conditions I could get just a tab bit more depth in the ground, but that was the exception not the rule. I think you'll find that there is scientific evidence to support this claim as well.