Tips on dealing with a near-constant null

[Anonymous]

I hunted a site yesterday which was a Confederate fort overlooking a railroad trestle across a river. Beautiful, deeply dug entrenchments. The site had been hunted heavily in the past thirty years, but it was apparent that there were still iron targets in the ground, from the constant null of my XS. A partner using a Fisher 1265-X made the same comment, as he was hearing a constant chatter from small iron. Usually, where there is iron trash in a C.W. site, there are good targets overlooked.
I first started hunting in Advanced-Smart, with nails and iron bottlecaps rejected, and was receiving a nearly constant null, even with a super slow sweep speed. Ocassionally I would get a high pitched "bleep" which would result in the crosshair bouncing around between the clear side and the darkened side of the screen. One of these targets I dug, which ended up being a iron bolt.
I then switched to Iron Mask set at clear screen which resulted in my receiving a tone on all targets, and whenever one deviated from the typical iron sound I checked the display, but all crosshairs were in the upper left hand corner of the screen.
I then went back to "select", cleared the screen, and selected "nails" only as my discrimination pattern, but still did not find any good targets. Oh yeah, was hunting in the "Fast" setting because of the iron.
I realize that, since this has been a heavily hunted site, and many entrenchments were merely constructed and never occupied, that there may be nothing left--but I doubt it. My partner with the Fisher set his Disc. pretty high and did succeed in digging a shotgun shell casing pretty deep that had been missed, but that was it.
I also varied my sens. from about 28 all the way down to about 11, and did not see any significant results in signal change.
If anyone has any advice on how to cope with such a site or any suggestions at all please let me know. Also, I am occasionally digging small iron objects which emit a "coin sounding" tone, but the cross hairs bounce back and forth, which I assume is a sign of iron. Am I right? Thanks in Advance.

 

[Anonymous]

I can only offer a couple tips in high iron.... hunt REAL slow and when you get a good hit, sweep with rapid, very short sweeps over target center from different angles. Iron targets will break up and null out, good targets will hit somewhat steadily. Maybe a 5 or 8 inch coil will help you out as well. Good luck, Mike.

 

[Anonymous]

I would suggest running iron mask at around -9 or -10.. that will allow the machine to see most good targets in iron even through the null and without sounding off on most nails and other junk. you will get high tones fairly steady on larger pieces of iron and any round or square pieces.. iron gives a distinct high pitched tone and usually besides being left on the sscreen is mostly off the top of the screen.. a coin or button that reads to the left from being amongst the iron generally will lock on fairly steady from at least 2 directions and will have a softer tone and also read lower than the iron as far as how high on the smart screen.. Like Mike said the 8 inch coils help tremendousy in high iron and actually gain depth over the 10 in these situations.. if theres that much iron there then there is good stuff among it waiting to be found.. go slow and check each blip closely from different angles.. you will know when you get over something good.. Ive had tesoros and Shadows out at my iron ridden sites and they work well on the good stuff in iron but depth in iron was very limited.. so far the explorer is the best I have used in high iron for depth as well as picking off the shallower good stuff like theres no iron there at all.. the 10 inch can do it but requires a much slower sweep and working of the coil.. one of the the 8's is a better choice....I use the 5 in the solid iron up near the cellar holes and usually pick off a few more finds, but for relics in fields the 8 is the better choice for ground coverage and depth in iron at the same time

 

[Anonymous]

That coins/buttons in Iron infested sites will read over on the left hand (black) side of the screen? Or are you saying that they will read to the left of where they normally do?
What I was getting mostly on this site was a single high pitched "blip" during the sweep that, when retured to, was very difficult to find, then when found, was not consistent. The crosshair, as you said, read mostly in the upper left hand corner of the screen, and completely off of it. Or sometimes it bounced around from the left side to the right.
Another question: I also get targets which seem to have a two-toned pitch, and the crosshair jumps in location with each tone. I can't separate them enough to tell if these are good/bad targets side by side or above and below each other, but I guess digging these targets and building some experience with them will help me gain confidence as well.
Jim. Mike. Thanks for the help, and I hope 2001 is a great year for you and yours.

 

[Anonymous]

Well they wont read on the black with iron mask set that low but will read further left then normal.. sometimes bouncing but I have had coins in iron read consistantly left of middle of screen. but still sound good, and stay about where they should be in the up and down position.. at least in conductivity mode, one of the reasons I dont use ferrous mode in iron..as those may give a tone like other targets that reads that far left.. for the most part if you cant get a lock on a signal from at least 2 directions then its junk, but I also have had times when I only got the signal from one angle.. but again it sounded good from that angle without nulling at all. as for the two toned targets I generally find them to be junk.. I do get around to digging all positive readings at my iron ridden sites sooner or later, and seldom does a good target just not sound good in some way and suprise me, so even if I left them I would still be confident of not leaving to to many good targets.. always an exception though, and sometimes digging the trash you also get lucky and find something below or near it.. I will normally kick the top soil away when I get an iffy one and get the coil right down on the ground.. sometimes that will make a good target sound better and if its iron make the signal null.. you get way more "good sounding"iron falses from having the coil too far off the ground then with it scrubbing..and a little kick off the top sometimes clears any surface tin trash out of the way to get a good reading....

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks; I have been sweeping with the coil about 2" above the ground, but I'll try to get it a bit closer and see if that helps. Thanks, and Happy New Year!