EXPERIENCE

[lonewolfe]

Now and then we all find ourselves faced with problems that will not allow us to pursue our hobby. Maybe it is too hot, too cold, too wet or something like that. Sometimes it is a personal problem, work/job, or medical one but, we can still pursue our hobby in another way. I have heard as well as everyone else, the standard phrases over the years that have been accepted by most people as true. Most couldn't be farther from the truth!

Phrases like "Pulse goes deeper", "slow down and you will find more", "you can always find deeper coins after a rain", and so on. These phrases do contain a grain of truth (depending on which machine/s you use) but they also lead more people astray than helping anyone. People just repeat them and follow them as a golden rule because they have heard most people repeating them thru-out time. Let me state now that to say anything different and you will have everyone point a finger at you assuming that you really don't know what you are talking about. If you want to learn this hobby and I mean "really" learn it, then, throw out all conventional knowledge and just prove it to yourself! If you don't want to do that then don't point fingers at someone who has done the research for themselves.

I cannot overstress the importance of having a test garden in your yard but of course you know that I mean a good one where you have cleaned out the trash unless you have a "bed of nails test plot". You should also always plant some coins out of range deep so if you buy a better detector you will have a spot that you can walk out and try it out.

Here is where the problem comes in; You have to take into consideration all kinds of weather conditions & the model of detector you're using! I can hear the complaints now!!? I KNOW that it will go a little deeper when it is wet! But have you tried all of your machines under those conditions? It is important to toss out the common mistakes and prove things for yourself. I have some coins buried in the yard and have taken out several machines from time to time and adjusted them for the deeper coins but something happened one day long ago that just about blew me away!!

We had no rain for about 2 months and the soil was hard as concrete and completely dry. I had just bought a new Garrett detector and was really happy with the way it worked. I could go over a silver quarter buried at least 9 inches deep and get a rousing BEEP on the machine even if I held it high over the ground! I was really proud of this machine and then I tried it on a dime buried at least 8 inches deep. It appears that my soil has much more mineralization than I once thought as the dime was out of range of other detectors that I have tried. The Garrett just BEEPED loudly over the dime even using just a stock coil!! This was simply amazing to me and I was dumbfounded at the superb depth. My other detector was a CZ machine that I use on the beach & in the water to dig extremely deep objects but, the backyard dry soil moderated it's depth performance somewhat.

Then it happened! It rained and rained and the powder dry ground became saturated. Well without a thought about the difference in the moisture I walked out and swung the Garrett over the deep old dime once more and SILENCE! I could not find it! Once more I was dumbfounded because my once powerful machine had become useless! Ok, I grabbed my CZ20 and marched out there and bingo! I got a loud signal with it on the deep dime. So in that single experiment alone I completely threw out the general statement that you can find them deeper in moist/wet soil. The statement is dependant on the type of detector that you use!

My little test proved that the Fisher CZ machines work most excellent in moist conditions while the Garrett works outstanding in very dry conditions. This leaves me with a funny problem though. I can find the deep stuff when it is dry with one machine but of course I cannot dig it, and I can find deep stuff with the other machine in moist/wet soils. That means, I carry 2 machines in the truck & choose the correct detector to match the field conditions, yet sometimes, I may have to use them both but depending on the soil conditions, I may have to mark spots/signals with one detector, and come back later to find/dig them out while using the other!

The point to this is to give you something to do in the periods when you can't get out to hunt, and to get you to start thinking outside of the box because,,, you can test your machine/s in the backyard on the buried coins in all kinds of conditions and learn a lot more than you thought was possible about your detector/s. This is not only a silly little thing for the new guys to play with but a serious task worthwhile of our efforts for the newbies and veterans alike.

 

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[stoney56]

Excellent points, Lonewolf. I'm also having some questions about the "halo" effect". Undrstandibly iron objects are more likely to leach out particles in wetter soil but also copper as well based on soil types. Silver coins seem to come out as pristine as they went in (i.e. nice and shiney). It's my understanding that overall soil mineralization has more to do with depth as well. It's like game hunting, you don't expect to take a .22 to hunt for deer. Why should you expect to do the same with metal detecting?

 

[U.K. Brian]

I always suggest a home test bed should be the first place to go with a new machine. See how it performs, make notes, and if its dry give the ground a good soaking and see what effect it has. Every few months check under the same ground conditions and confirm that theres no drop off in depth that might suggest a coils going off tune etc.
Low and slow is often quoted to begineers which could be fatal if they apply the slow to a high filter machine like the Whites Spectrum. And the low on some sites with some of the older machines, Garrett even producing a coil cover to ensure the coil could not get to near the ground.
I see the VDI lists have started circulating on the forums again. Seems an easy solution to copy a list of the readout numbers for all the targets your likely to find until they discover how much the mineralisation moves the reading up or down the scale. Unfortunately some take months before they accidently discover what they have been missing.
The other trap many fall into is thinking they are doing great for silver coins or gold rings etc as they have found X amount in the last year. Its not until they go detecting on the same sites with another detectorist using a different machine or just better technique that they realise they could have been finding twice as much.

 

[slow sweeper]

? Well, this is my own personal reason I do not have a test garden. I can afford only one detector. I plan on owning that same detector for quite some time. In the prospect mode my MXT shows ground mineralization as a VDI number. Higher the number, the higher the mineralization. It's actually more complicated than that but.....Anyway, I can go to 10 different spots to detect in my area and get 8 different readings. And none of them are the same as the ground reading out here on the farm.
? ? ?I don't do much relic hunting out in fields that are void of trash targets. I'm like a lot of people who hunt parks, school grounds, grassy parking areas, home sites etc. All of these have their share of trash in amongst the goodies. So I believe if you want to try to duplicate actual hunting conditions you'd need to bury some foil next to that dime. Or a pulltab near that nickel. Or a rusty nail above that token. Maybe an iron washer near that sterling silver ring. And if you spend a lot of time detecting at the beach, well I guess you could build your own saltwater? beach to do some tests.
? ? ?A test garden DOES have it's purpose though. At least one that has "aged" sufficiently. It's a good way to test one detector against another. Or to see how deep that new coil will go. Or like has been mentioned before to see how your detector reacts to different moisture conditions.
? ? ?But as far as replicating real life hunting conditions in order to help you find more stuff I'm not so sure it helps.
? ? ?I remember when I went to Whites to test drive detectors to see which one I wanted to buy. I figured they would have a test garden so I could compare models. And they did have a test garden, sort of. They had buried so much stuff over the years it was like detecting in the trashiest park you've ever been to. I thought they'd have different targets buried at different depths with targets and depths marked. Nope.
? ? I have detected long enough to know that the only way to find out for sure what your detector has found is to dig it up. No matter what the VDI, signagraph, tone ID, etc, etc, tells you. Some are obviously trash signals. But those "iffy" signals should be dug.
? ? ?I have no doubt that test gardens can be of help to many people. But for me personally I just don't have the need.

 

[U.K. Brian]

Hi Slow sweeper
My test bed covers nearly an acre of gently sloping ground of a hillside so its in three different levels of mineralisation from almost nil to bad (93-94 reading on a Spectrum). I've often had two brand new machines of the same make/model to test and found a two inch depth difference between them. Fine if you get the hot machine, not so good if the other. My own XLT got sent back three times before it was up to spec.
I do have areas of just coins/rings etc but also ones where rubbish/iron etc is planted nearer and nearer to the good targets. Not enough attention is paid to the effects of target masking as people only seem to consider depth. Width of detection is often forgotten to. Lonewolf has come up with a great topic which deserves more attention. Most consider concentric coils to be deep with an inverted cone scan, double D's to be less deep (clean soil) but scanning far wider at depth. In fact with some coils the reverse is true. A well establised test bed is a great tool for spotting this sort of thing.
Re your MXT readings though its an improvement over the XLT etc its still only measuring ground phase which is not a true indication of mineralisation. The best indication I found was to fit a vernier knob in place of the ground balance knob on the old pre-motion machines so the amount of plus or minus balance needed could be noted.

 

[slow sweeper]

Brian, your info about "ground readings" actually being ground phase and not ground mineralization is correct. Which is why I mentioned that it was " more complicated than that". I sure don't understand it completely.
Sounds like you may win the "best test garden award". I agree that test gardens have their place. But I personally don't belive that it's a must have for every person who swings a coil. That's all.

 

[ZumbroKid]

In regards to experience, what could explain a new to detecting person just starting up the hobby and everything falls into place for them. With no prior experience, they make great and numerous finds. I've seen this done by some they just seem to have a natural nack for the hobby. Do you feel there are those naturally gifted individuals out there who have yet to ever pick up a detector?

 

[U.K. Brian]

Good point. I detected at one time with someone who seemed to be able to walk to a hot spot on beach or land without thinking about it. Should have got him to try dowsing ! Many beginners are a bit shy so sneak around in more out of the way places that may still be virgin ground and if they are getting to know what their machine is capable of don't trust what tones or VDI are telling them so dig everything which can bring great rewards. The large signal that the expert leaves as something that big has got to be a tin can or hub cap does sometimes turn out to be a cache or hoard.

 

[Uncle Willy]

Think you may have had some kind of problem. I have owned several Garrets for many years, including the 2500 and Infinium and I field test for Garrett. All of them will perform better in damp to wet soil as the conductivity of targets are increased when the ground is wet. I have never had any Garrett blank out over damp or wet ground. You might contact Mary Penson at [email protected]- and get her comments on your situation.

BILL(OR)

 

[ZumbroKid]

 

[bk]

Excellent information!
Food for thought.

 

[Born2Dtect]

Lonewolf,

Part of the equation for being a good detectorist is learning your machine. Your observations prove this. You now know more than you could have ever heard or read.

Ed

 

[Michigan Badger]

Lonewolf,

Part of the equation for being a good detectorist is learning your machine. Your observations prove this. You now know more than you could have ever heard or read.

Ed

I've been into doing educational lecturing for many years now. I learned a long time ago that people hear what they want to hear. In teaching, one must work with what the audience wants to hear and gradually get them to accept that which they'd rather not hear. Eventually, that which was once thought to be asinine and utterly repulsive becomes absolute truth for which one may even be willing to die.

While metal detecting is only a hobby, it really does reveal many things about human nature. The tendency with any new machine is to believe the detector is going to tell us what we want to hear.? However, one soon learns that these electronic devices speak a language all their own. Unlike the patient professor, metal detectors could care less about our preconceived biases. It talks and we must learn to listen. We must learn its language.

Like you stated so well in your post, not all detectors are the same. One may work better in wet soil and another was made more for dry conditions. The only way one learns this is by learning the lanuage of the machine. Those crackles, chirps, and silent times all mean something in detector talk.

The right approach is to learn a machine and then use it to its best potential. We should never expect more or less than it is able to deliver. Once we know a detectors strong points and limitations, we can use it where it will best perform.

 

[Vrent]

I agree about the garret machines while in my humble opinion they are the best wet soil does drive them bug house...I once took my detector in because all it did was chatter and garret explained to me that very wet soil conditions created a feedback for thier machines that caused the chatter

HH Vrent

 

[bazinga]

Thanks for the info for helping us newbies to hunting learn a bit more about what to expect

 

[TXKajun]

Lonewolf, thanks tons for the words of wisdom!

I've been complaining to myself about how short the days are and that there's only about 30 minutes of detecting time after work now. Soooooo, starting this afternoon, I'm going to do some yard "sweeping/cleaning" at in the back yard at home and start preparing a test bed. I'll do a search here on "test garden" and "test bed" to see if there's any instructions/hints/tips on making one up, in regards to size, depths, what to bury, how to bury, etc.

Anyway, thanks for giving me an idea to literally take home with me....and an idea that should improve my detecting.

HH, ya'll!