I had a difficult time locking on to targets today.

1Seekingsilver

Jr. Member
Mar 1, 2023
34
24
Kansas
Detector(s) used
Whites XLT, Whites V3i and Nokta Legend
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
I was using factory park M 2 in 60 tone most of the afternoon. We just received some good rain and wondered if I should have set the machine differently. I was hunting a grass parking lot that has been used every year for past 60-70 years. Memorial weekend I locked onto a 1925 merc with the same setting I was using today at the same parking lot. After a couple hours I switched to a recovery speed of 7 and tried 10 kHz and then 15khz. Has anyone experienced a similar situation or have any ideas what I should do differently?
 

I was using factory park M 2 in 60 tone most of the afternoon. We just received some good rain and wondered if I should have set the machine differently. I was hunting a grass parking lot that has been used every year for past 60-70 years. Memorial weekend I locked onto a 1925 merc with the same setting I was using today at the same parking lot. After a couple hours I switched to a recovery speed of 7 and tried 10 kHz and then 15khz. Has anyone experienced a similar situation or have any ideas what I should do differently?
Hi 1seekingsilver.
The only thing I could offer up would be this if you got considerable rain M3 might be an answer as its for a more saturated soil.
I too figure I'll have to tweak some of my non-tone settings as we got rain yesterday.
In general when it stays dry like its been for a lot of people when the wind blows some of the top soil blows away with it in dry conditions leaving excess natural iron exposed which could certainly produce unwanted noise though I'm not sure if that would actually make it hard to lock on to a target.
After waiting around for rain to come and using that time to do some messing around with my settings I have concluded it would have been nice if Nokta would include the option to be able to run from 2,3,4,and 5 frequencies of the users choice for multi frequency use.
40 KHz produces the most chatter and noise in my area of all the five frequencies.
I've also seen info on the 60 tone setting and that there has been some trouble for other users with 60, I've got mine set at 6 tones and I'm not using threshold at this point as I've got nothing discriminated.
And with 6 tone I've not had a problem with recovery which I have set at 5.
 

I agree with Bucketfreak68, try M3 in wet soil. I don't like the 60 tone, I usually use pitch. I know many don't like pitch either, it seems to work well for me. I don't think I've ever gone higher than 3 recovery.
 

I was using factory park M 2 in 60 tone most of the afternoon. We just received some good rain and wondered if I should have set the machine differently. I was hunting a grass parking lot that has been used every year for past 60-70 years. Memorial weekend I locked onto a 1925 merc with the same setting I was using today at the same parking lot. After a couple hours I switched to a recovery speed of 7 and tried 10 kHz and then 15khz. Has anyone experienced a similar situation or have any ideas what I should do differently?
M3 is supposed to be for conductive soils so it might help in that situation. Try the Ground Suppressor function, but I'm not sure if the GS is useful for mineralization/alkalinity or conductivity like water. I haven't had the Legend at a gold-bearing area since v1.09 came out last year so I haven't found anywhere in the city that it makes a difference. Beach Wet might help also. You'd be surprised how BW will make coins jump out in seemingly hunted-out areas.
 

From my understanding of the 60 tone it will give a jumpy tonal signal where the default brakes are in each zone.
I'm not sure if this has any effect the the VDI/TID.
And a couple people were saying it is almost impossible to put a tone break in 60 tone which would and should rectify the problem.
I have one tone break set near the end of zone 1 (iron and nails) to clean up the tone of small thin gold targets and it did the job.
 

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The problem with tone brakes is you have to manage them for each site. With 60-tone all you have to worry about is where the iron tone breaks. Some targets like nickles where they are squarely in the round tab/square tab range, you can tell the difference sometimes in 60-tones. So with a 26-29 signal if the last part of the tone goes high, it's most likely a nickel. If it ends in some low tone, it's a pull tab. If you get an unstable reading that quickly changes from the late 20's to early 30's, it's worth checking because 50% of the time it's a corroded nickel in my soil.
 

Thanks Guys for the info! I tried M3 for about 15 minutes but was worried I was missing things, so I switched back. I am anxious now to try M3 and beach mode wet. I guess I have not figured out how to turn on pitch in 6 or 60 tone. I really need to print out new 1.11 manual.
 

So I was able to go out again this evening. I discovered too late in the game what has been causing me issues. The Legend was doing same thing as it did Sunday even in wet beach and M3. On my way back to my truck I got frustrated and decided to drastically reduce the sensitivity. I immediately started locking on to targets. I had it set on 16 before I left but not once did the legend sound chatty or overwhelmed. I don’t have high mineralization in my area either. I think due to recent rains and amount of pull tabs and can slaw it could not see past the junk and was confused. I dug nothing but junk tonight.
 

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