First night out, and first finds!!

[MoSearcher]

Alright everyone, tonight was my first ever attempt at metal detecting! I had class until 12:30, so at that point I went to my local metal detector dealer (owned by a member here tsgman). After starting my, what turned out to be about a 2 hour search for the right detector at a used ACE 250, and slowly working my way up until I finally talked myself into stepping up my price a little bit for a brand new Minelab X-terra 305 (and needed accessories)... I came home, put it together, and flipped through the owner's manual.

I then headed out to the back part of our land to play around with it...at first it wasn't working at all, so I had to come in and look back at the manual again to figure out ground balancing, sensitivity...all that fancy stuff, then headed back out.

Wondering aimlessly across the back part of our 5 acres, I was getting intermittent tones but nothing that I could stop and locate, it was always just on, then gone (usually these were 36-44)...so I'm guessing there aren't many coins on the parts of our land that I went to, and if they're there, they're deep! Anyways, I did manage to find what looks like 3 bullets; 1 is distorted from impact, 2 are "normal looking" and the 4th is longer and skinnier, I'm not even sure if it is a bullet or not, but it was registering the same thing as the others were (24-26). My last find, although not super glamorous, was a crumpled bottle cap, with repeating numbers printed on the top.

I have no idea how old this stuff is, I don't know if the bullets were from 1890, or 1990, but either way, I had a good time and feel that once I get the X-terra figured out it will serve me well for quite a while.

Here are some pictures (Camera isn't the best)

That's today's find...if you recognize the bullets, or the bottle cap feel free to ID them for me!!


Also lastly, I would get quick high tones but then when I looked for them I couldn't find them, I'm thinking the ground balance was probably still off, I just watched an online tutorial...so I'll try fixing that next time out...... has anyone had this problem? And if so, how did you fix it? Because I kept hearing it and freaking out to find some coins, but then I couldn't find them




Thanks for reading everyone, hopefully there will be more stuff to come!
Marshall.

 

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[MoSearcher]

What you said about the high tones disappearing, for me it's usually iron. When the machine 'pulls off' of an iron target it often gives a little blip like it would for a coin. does this with almost all iron, including nails. Nails sound like deep silver most of the time, just something you gotta live with

Ah that makes sense! Considering that if I switch off my discrimination, and go to AM mode, it's just iron junk all over the place.

 

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[Rick (Nova Scotia)]

Mosearcher,

I don't know your soil, but most likely what your hearing is hotrocks, (iron doesn't go away per given DISC setting) better than turning down SENS is learning to live with, and ignoring these. That way your not missing the deeper targets that you would be missing with reduced SENS. The hotrocks are usually easy to identify, even the strong ones. they tend to pin point in different locations in a N to S comparred to an E to W swing, or are, as mentioned, not consistantly repeatable. The sound is also usually different, but hard to describe. You're new, chase a couple of these "seem to be moving" targets, dig them up you'll soon know catch on to what they sound like.

Some people are lucky to live in areas with few to no hotrocks, mostly sandier soils, but for many of us they are a fact of life. Like I said best to learn them, and ignore them, I run a detector as hot as possible all the time, I do not miss the 10 to 12 inch deep coins when they do come. That's the rule of thumb at older sites for sure, however If you were at a newer playground for example, or a clad hunter where most finds are going to be 6 inches or less, and the noise is bothering you, then there is no reason you can't turn down your detector a bit.

I've seen this talk about GBing a lot IT DOES NOT ELIMINATE ALL HOTROCKS. While I admit you may be able to GB directly over a hotrock and make it go away, that takes much more time than the identification method above.

Have made a fair number of 1700's finds this year, you can check my posts or youtube channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/spr624?feature=mhee

Good luck out there.

 

[MoSearcher]

Mosearcher,

I don't know your soil, but most likely what your hearing is hotrocks, (iron doesn't go away per given DISC setting) better than turning down SENS is learning to live with, and ignoring these. That way your not missing the deeper targets that you would be missing with reduced SENS. The hotrocks are usually easy to identify, even the strong ones. they tend to pin point in different locations in a N to S comparred to an E to W swing, or are, as mentioned, not consistantly repeatable. The sound is also usually different, but hard to describe. You're new, chase a couple of these "seem to be moving" targets, dig them up you'll soon know catch on to what they sound like.

Some people are lucky to live in areas with few to no hotrocks, mostly sandier soils, but for many of us they are a fact of life. Like I said best to learn them, and ignore them, I run a detector as hot as possible all the time, I do not miss the 10 to 12 inch deep coins when they do come. That's the rule of thumb at older sites for sure, however If you were at a newer playground for example, or a clad hunter where most finds are going to be 6 inches or less, and the noise is bothering you, then there is no reason you can't turn down your detector a bit.

I've seen this talk about GBing a lot IT DOES NOT ELIMINATE ALL HOTROCKS. While I admit you may be able to GB directly over a hotrock and make it go away, that takes much more time than the identification method above.

Have made a fair number of 1700's finds this year, you can check my posts or youtube channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/spr624?feature=mhee

Good luck out there.

Thanks Rick! I will for sure check out your posts and youtube channel.

With what you were saying about these hotrocks "Seeming to move"...would this explain why I'll get a tone, pinpoint it, then dig a hole, pin point again, and it will be off to the side, or where ever, just not in the hole where it should have been?

Thanks again.

 

[MoSearcher]

I ALMOST FORGOT THIS!!!!

Pictures of the sweet old (even though it's broken) Spit Fire cap gun!