Testing a coin garden in natural conditions?

[Tony N (Michigan)]

Hi gang,
I live on a very old farm with tons of square-cut nails and trash the farmers threw in the yard of this farm since the very early 1800's.

My plan is, whenever I ever get my paid for Equinox (hopefully before I die LOL) is that I will locate (detect) some of those iron nails.
Then I will dig a trench about a foot from them, down to maybe 15 inches deep. Then tape a coin to a wooden yard stick and slide it near and in between the nails at different depths.
This way I will be detecting not just the iron nails but the iron halos surrounding those nails along with the coin and see what settings will work best with my Equinox 800.
Most detectors don't like freshly dug ground, so hopefully this plan of attack will circumvent that.
Hopefully I can come up with some good settings for my situation.

What do you think? Would you do this differently? Have you done this?

 

[dewcon4414]

You're dreaming. .....no detector with that size coil is going to know that coins there....with ot without the nails. My suggestion. ... best test is to dig deep targets.....especially those that maybe unstable giving more than one tone. Play with your setting and play a little guessing game. Mark a small area off... use something like checkers or flags and make targets. Now thats a test garden.

 

[Tony N (Michigan)]

You're dreaming. .....no detector with that size coil is going to know that coins there....with ot without the nails. My suggestion. ... best test is to dig deep targets.....especially those that maybe unstable giving more than one tone. Play with your setting and play a little guessing game. Mark a small area off... use something like checkers or flags and make targets. Now thats a test garden.

If the detector won't detect a quarter at 8 inches with an iron nail 4 inches to the right of it and 4 inches to the left of it and the nails around 6 inches deep, I may as well throw the detector in the trash when I get it.

Below is a drawing of the concept.

 

[Architex]

I think that's as good as a dug-hole test garden, and any good detector should pick that up, properly set up.

GL HH

 

[jas415]

Really, 'testing' is testing! The concept of the 'testing' is to learn things and then utilize them in hunting. I think it is a great idea, and actually believe the 800 will pick up the coin over the nails as I have dug dozens of holes with multiple rusty nails and other object and recovered a coin. I am not all that sure about the depth though as I am personally not getting anywhere near the depths some are talking about. But, I think that is more due to the nails and where I am digging, no targets that deep, vs the machine capabilities.

On your testing, I would suggest you vary iron and recovery settings a bit, test again, and test both with a different sweep speeds. I feel, just a feeling when digging, that in really suck trashy nails, etc., the slower sweep speeds tend to work a tad better.

But, again, if no real world 'testing' is done, then we may as well not have buttons or knobs or other settings on the machines. To me, they are there so we can set the machines up so we hear our targets, understand what is being told to us by the machine, experience that first hand, and get the best information as to 'dig or not dig'!

 

[Tony N (Michigan)]

Really, 'testing' is testing! The concept of the 'testing' is to learn things and then utilize them in hunting. I think it is a great idea, and actually believe the 800 will pick up the coin over the nails as I have dug dozens of holes with multiple rusty nails and other object and recovered a coin. I am not all that sure about the depth though as I am personally not getting anywhere near the depths some are talking about. But, I think that is more due to the nails and where I am digging, no targets that deep, vs the machine capabilities.

On your testing, I would suggest you vary iron and recovery settings a bit, test again, and test both with a different sweep speeds. I feel, just a feeling when digging, that in really suck trashy nails, etc., the slower sweep speeds tend to work a tad better.

But, again, if no real world 'testing' is done, then we may as well not have buttons or knobs or other settings on the machines. To me, they are there so we can set the machines up so we hear our targets, understand what is being told to us by the machine, experience that first hand, and get the best information as to 'dig or not dig'!

Excellent post jas415.
Still waiting for my paid-for NOX to arrive and waiting for this dang blasted snow to melt!
Coin gardens are one thing. But doing testing in a real-world setting such as the one I want to do, I believe, is paramount to understanding
the settings on any detector.

 

[Tony N (Michigan)]

I think that's as good as a dug-hole test garden, and any good detector should pick that up, properly set up.

GL HH

Hi Architex,
I'm thinking that in a dug-hole test, putting in a coin, say at 8 inches and a square-cut nail at around 4 inches and a little off to the side
would be different since one would lose the iron halo effect of the iron particles which have spread around in the ground near the nail that
has been buried nearly 100 years. What are your thoughts on this?

 

[Charlives]

Good idea! I'd do it with my nox if I cared that much

 

[Architex]

Totally agree.