Depth is over blown, it's Discrimination that matters. Right ?

[GMG2]

I'm still kinda new to the hobby, I'd say I'm a light intermediate. But I've watched a lot of videos (depth tests) read several articles, read many threads on here and other sites and just on and on. And it seems to me detectorists get way to hung up on depth.

Now I'm sure there's the perfect civil war era house out there with the perfect manicured yard, perfect soil, very little to no trash, caddy following you around with a umbrella digging your targets. Ok, maybe not that far ? Anywho it's been my experience the bulk of the sites I've had the opportunity to detect are plumb full of trash. You all know the culprits, can slaw, pull tabs, siding and roofing aluminum, and pick up loads of miscellaneous trash.

Depth is not the problem, sorting thru the ocean of junk is ! Am I wrong and just not finding the deep goodies ? Or is the obsession with depth misguided ?

 

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[CASPER-2]

I hunt in all metal and get goodies up to 2ft down with my machine
I see guys "cherry picking" with Nox's, Simplex and other newer machines
and recently a bunch have said on video "I wasnt gonna dig this target but decided to and got a small gold ring"
"this sounds like a pulltab" and they pull a piece of jewelry or they are trying to pass zinc pennies and dug anyways and pulled something good and they were shocked
https://www.flickr.com/photos/casper-2/6831926593/

see diamond down deep under junk that guy missed that had his discrim. cranked

 

[CASPER-2]

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/today-s-finds/621635-left-cold-new-england-few-days-florida.html

 

[malenkai]

Depth is nice to have in old fields.

 

[49er12]

For some the constantly bending over is to much truth be said, so they think all machines are perfect, Not, numbers mislead people and tones help but that’s the truth , u r correct many people. Pass over nice finds because of oh that can’t be anything the numbers and sound don’t reflect a good item. So there u go up and down , Dudu ever see some bending and digging my god it’s a monumental effort even stressful for some unfortunate maybe health issues but u understand

 

[CalReg]

I guess it all depends on what you're in it for. I confess I don't dig everything, but depending on the site, I'll dig those iffy signals. Sure, I want to find old coins, but ultimately I just want to get outside and get some exercise. If I can do that, I'm happy with whatever I find!

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

I agree with "it depends". In a modern trashy site some discrimination can save your sanity. But in a site without much aluminum or "party" trash the depth and sensitivity is the thing.

Also depends what you are looking for. Gold and jewlery (and old small fractional silvers) won't ring where clad coins will. Discriminate out bottle caps and pull-tabs and you lose a lot of potential good finds.

It's better to have the ability and decide when not use it than need the ability and not have it.

 

[TheGreenBoy]

It really depends on what you are looking after and where. Somethimes you are better off with a shallow machine with resonable discrimination and excellent target separation and recovery speed. Coin shooting in the area with a lot of shallow items, mostly trashy, is an example. Extra depth on a terrain difficult to dig will cost you more time and decrease statistics odds to find anyiting "good". On the other hand, you may be interested in large militaria and war time items, since they are mostly iron (steel) the discimination is not important at all the target separation and recovery speed is secondary or even not important as well, what you might want is raw depth and the ability to ignore small targets (to avoid mass amounth of schrapnels and ammo particles literally everywhere).

 

[releventchair]

I'm still kinda new to the hobby, I'd say I'm a light intermediate. But I've watched a lot of videos (depth tests) read several articles, read many threads on here and other sites and just on and on. And it seems to me detectorists get way to hung up on depth.

Now I'm sure there's the perfect civil war era house out there with the perfect manicured yard, perfect soil, very little to no trash, caddy following you around with a umbrella digging your targets. Ok, maybe not that far ? Anywho it's been my experience the bulk of the sites I've had the opportunity to detect are plumb full of trash. You all know the culprits, can slaw, pull tabs, siding and roofing aluminum, and pick up loads of miscellaneous trash.

Depth is not the problem, sorting thru the ocean of junk is ! Am I wrong and just not finding the deep goodies ? Or is the obsession with depth misguided ?

Understanding the deepest signals you can interpret is where depth comes in.
A given sites layers of debris , and where the lowest are affect results of a detectors depth ability. But compounded by the users understanding of the greatest depths signals.

An example is a park near me that has been detected for many decades. Inhabited by non natives since before Civil war era.
The "basement" is a layer of rubble from when the town burned and debris was spread there.
It varies , with an average depth (to where "clean" earth is) of around 10-12 inches.
Coins at the bottom read nothing like coins at the top. And the varied debris has a tremendous range.

Going fast and cherry picking does little for success. Slow and methodical searching and digging iffy signals is about the last hope to score anything old of value.
As well as cleaning an area of surface junk until you can't stand it no longer and then cherry pick till next time...

No silver has been found naked in the years I've hunted there.
One was beyond my detectors range until a dig for a sidewalk was made. Another was with two old iron nails above it. How many detectorists passed that one up due to it being "big iron"? Many.

A seated dime at another long worked site was just past ten inches deep. Granted I have less a detector than a Minelab ect. but how do you do at ten inches?
Iron . Something higher than iron. And a peep of silver was in the coils nose there. In that order.With depth bouncing around and discrimination (set just above lowest foil) arguing with each other. So what do I do? Iron was the dominant telling. Something just higher second , and that tiny peep of silver was acting more wishful than real after repeated wiggles and changing positions.

Nail,nearly dust. Wire about two inches long and bent half moon shaped. Some rusted tiny something.
After that was removed , a clear but faint silver.
How many detectorists passed that up?
And no, I don't want to know what I've passed up.
I do want to hear whats down there though. Another two inches would help sometimes. But not where coin/jewelry history is only a few inches deep...

Can I discriminate pulltabs out and not miss a gold ring? I can miss a gold ring without discriminating , so probably not! But the odds are better if I remove the pulltabs. To find ,that's not a pull tab.