How to find iron relics in field with lots of junk iron?

[Ironman80]

Hey all,

I have the opportunity to hunt a civil war battlefield and am primarily looking for iron relics. I am running an AT Pro and am getting overwhelmed with hunk iron...mostly nails. Is there a good way to isolate desirable iron and to avoid the junk? Do large chunks of iron show up higher in the target ID then the junk?

thanks,
John

 

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[Charlie P. (NY)]

Dig, dig, dig. There is no way to separate junk iron from less junky iron.

 

[Ironman80]

So would I go with 0 discrimination and just go based on the strength and duration of signal to avoid nails and wire?

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Not familiar with the AT Pro, but with the detectors I have used: nails have a "pip" at either end, as does straight lengths of wire. I'd go "all metal" if I was after relics.

Typically I hunt sites that have had lots of farming (and no battles) and I avoid iron of any type.

 

[Walleyeman]

All metal mode and most importantly "DIG IT ALL"!

 

[Professor of Engineering]

IMHO: Run the machine in pro-zero (no Disc - sometimes I run Disc to 10) , max sensitivity and dig every repeatable signal even the faint ones. if your in a farm field, usually the digging is easier.

Good Luck; relic hunting means digging a lot of plugs/holes.

 

[Ironman80]

IMHO: Run the machine in pro-zero (no Disc - sometimes I run Disc to 10) , max sensitivity and dig every repeatable signal even the faint ones. if your in a farm field, usually the digging is easier.

Good Luck; relic hunting means digging a lot of plugs/holes.

Thanks all. I generally run Iron Disc at 25 with everything else wide open and use iron audio to verify targets.

I found a big piece of canon ball this summer. If I remember right it showed up as ~70 on the target ID and it was down a good 8". Is that normal for large pieces of iron to show up outside of the iron range? If I am looking for big iron pieces should I be looking 40+?