What coil to use?

[jspeedy]

Hi all,

My situation is; I am hunting for coins in a 4,000 acre park which was a pre WWII battle field. It is littered with bullets, shell casings, shrapnel, rusted tin and now that is a park...pull tabs, etc.
I auto GB which reads on the MD at the mid 30's. Almost every swing I get iron readings so hunting is tough. I have found coins from the 1100's and up but with a lot of work. Most coins have been no deeper than 6 inches. I hunt only around very old trees due to the size of the park. I have found some good artifacts as well but I want the coins. I have used three coils, small HF DD, large MF DD and the stock coil. I have found more with stock than the others but I don't know if it is me or the coils. Using the two DD coils drives me insane listening to the constant beeping. I may have just answered my own question!
so..
GB reading is mid 30's
I hunt only around old trees
I hunt coins
the park is very trashy
lots of iron
the "good coins" ID from 30 and up
never found silver
bottle caps and screw caps read from 34 to 44
the two DD coils "beep" constantly
I use all metal because it sees deeper
the soil is very easy to dig (sandy soil)

I want to use the best coil with the best settings. What would you experts do in my situation?

Thanks

 

[cosmic]

check out this thread http://www.findmall.com/read.php?55,874260

 

[jspeedy]

Thanks I'll check it out. I forgot to mention that I have the SEN set at 25 and threshold at barely audible.

 

[jspeedy]

anybody else for advice? Thanks

 

[cosmic]

Might want to look at the 3KHz coil.. It's great for distinguishing iron and its my favorite coil for the mild sandy soil here..

 

[Digger]

for the situation you describe, I don't think you can beat the 9-inch concentric at 3 kHz. When running in all metal mode, with multiple tones, I find that iron gives a very distinctive audio response. I honestly don't think it can be beat for coin hunting in sites as you described. (unless Minelab decides to make a 3 kHz in a smaller coil and at this point in time, I don't see that happening) If you do a search on this site for 3 kHz, you will find quite a few posts made by those of us who appreciate it's attributes. If you have any additional questions, don't hesitate to ask. HH Randy

 

[xwyokid]

I like the 3KHz too. I never set my sensitivity that high because I never dig coins in a park. If I can't pop them with my probe I leave them. Maybe it's the wrong approach but I'm happy with it. At a sensitivity of 16-18 I find plenty of coins. However, at old homesteads I go as high as the machine will let me.

 

[BarnacleBill]

OK I'll take a stab since advice is free.

In a high trash environment the DD coils are going to unmask more targets than the standard concentric. The small DD in particular if run in All Metal will cause a very busy audio experience. The detector & DD coil combination is doing it's job, and the question is how much can you tolerate? When I hunt in trashy areas like this, I too have to make a decision on any given day how much I'm willing to listen to, which is usually dependent on how rested I am and what kind of mood I'm in. Sometimes weather and factors such as mosquito/black fly activity also factor in.

It sounds like you have a partial plan, which is to concentrate on the areas around trees that might yield the highest goodie to trash ratio. With 4,000 acres to cover it looks like you have a lifetime of detecting ahead and will never really be able to complete the task. Therefore facing such a daunting situation, I believe that a certain mental attitude should be developed, followed by some modification to your hunting technique.

My advice:

1. Forget the 4,000 acres, visualize the tree areas as an attainable goal that you are going to attack in a planned scheme.

2. If you have a GPS, use it to map the tree locations, otherwise attain a map of the park or download one from Google maps etc. Grid the area off and mark the areas easily accessed. On days when you are tired, or it's hot/cold or short on time etc., attack the areas that are closest to your vehicle. Save those close locations for the difficult days.

3. Carry a small notebook to make note of what areas you have covered and how you have processed them. Think of what you are doing as surface mining, there's a process to it, first the overburden is removed, then holes drilled, charges set etc.

4. Now to hunting technique, it sounds like you are suffering audio fatigue from hunting in All Metal and having your ears punished in particular by the DD coils. I suffer from the same when hunting trashy areas and can sympathize with what you are feeling. But at the same time I don't want to miss good targets that are mixed in the trash mess. I also want to be as efficient as possible, which means not re-processing the same area. Hence the map & notebook.

5. Pick a small area 10ft x 10ft around a tree. Decide in what coil order you are going to process it. With each coil you are going to cover it N<>S, E<>W, and 45deg with overlapping swings. This needs to be done slowly & methodically. Yes it can seem like a job at times, but if you want to extract as much as possible it's necessary. If you are hunting in All Metal then I wouldn't do it for more than say 30 minutes at a stint. Give yourself a break, take a drink, have a snack, or change to a disc pattern that's quieter. The X-machines are great in that you can create a pattern for each coil or step in the process and simply call it up. If you have a certain trash target that's making you crazy then notch it out.

6. Once you process the 10ft x 10ft area with a particular coil, make a note in the notebook. You can then change coils or move on to another tree area to continue with the same coil.

7. Coil order, if it were me I would do the following:

A. Standard Concentric first at the highest stable Sensitivity.

B. Repeat above at half Sensitivity.

C. Large DD at the highest stable Sensitivity.

D. Repeat above at half Sensitivity.

E. Small DD at the highest stable Sensitivity in All Metal, swing slowly, or targets will rocket past and the audio reports be overwhelming. Only do this when you are fresh, it takes patience and the targets will be plentiful. I would probably do this when first on sight for areas I've already covered with the other coils.

Fun days, you most likely will get sick of the mining routine after a couple of days/times. On those days say the hail with everything, put on the standard coil, notch out everything but silver and go for a casual stroll just cherry picking. Stop, look around at the scenery, sites, whatever, re-charge your detecting battery.

HH
BarnacleBill

 

[jspeedy]

Thanks guys for your advice and BarnacleBill for your time you put into the response. I'll try a bit of everything but it being after the holidays I don't think I can talk my wife into me buying a new coil. I will use what I have for now. Some day I will find silver here I can feel it.

Thanks again

 

[cosmic]

You will find silver.. Just a suggestion, dig some mixed tones high, low tones or low, high tones (coins to iron) you will find some trash, but I've found some goodies right next to iron in the same hole..The XT70 is fast...

 

[jspeedy]

Well,
Got out again to the big park and after 4 hours I came home with about 40 rusty bottle caps and screw caps. My x-70 loves them!

 

[Shenandoah Digger]

Yeah that can be frustrating, but after a while you'll know what the bottle caps sound like, if you don't already. And the more trash you bring out, the better your odds of finding something good. At some point I think you'll get on a hot spot where, for whatever reason, you hit on a lot of silver. Then it will all have been worthwhile. If you can stand it that long.

 

[Sodbuster27]

Boy, oh, boy have I been learning about the park frustration as well.

Last weekend, took a few hours to hit a park I haven't been to in Portland, OR. (MUDDY -- you know it). Worked the areas I could. Found darn few coins, no jewelry (did find a hair clip), and about 20 pull-tabs and 10 booze tops (beer and screw tops).

Not giving up. Shoot, just being able to get out and get dirty was fun.

Sodbuster

 

[jspeedy]

Hello again

I went back to the same area for about 3 hours with the big coil. Nothing! Just more junk. I did find a bunch of rifle bullets (unused). You would think those soldiers would drop some darn coins. Oh and a hubcap from a Simca about 4" down.
My ears are still ringing from the big coil. I may go back with the 6" HF DD but things are not looking good.
I did notice that the 10" MF DD locked on to the bottle caps at 38-44 but the stock coil gave a mixed ID anywhere from 36-48. Any takes on it?

 

[BarnacleBill]

Yes,

DD's, especially big one's, do not discriminate as well as concentrics. Therefore you are more at the mercy of bottle caps. The small HF DD though seems to handle them quite well.

HH
BarnacleBill

 

[jspeedy]

At this point I will try the small DD just for testing purposes. If I get any good targets I'll stick to that area for a bit but if not I'll move on. With over 4,000 acres, it's not like there is a shortage of areas. I'll give updates and report how the three coils responded.

 

[jspeedy]

Hey all,

These are my finds from today in a different area than where I was hunting before. I wandered for about 30 min. and found a clearing between a group of large trees and on my first swing I found the little coin. I has the clear markings of a castle and what look like Roman numerals. The other two coins were 2' and 10' away from the first and all were about 2' under.

I don't have a lot of time now to write but please send questions and I will be glad to answer them.

My question is what is the best way to clean the crud from these coins? I think with a good cleaning the markings will become certain.