IRON INFESTED GROUNDS!!! HOW TO GET SOME FINDS??

[Just_curious]

Hey everybody. I have been looking on some old maps and locating old homesteads to detect on. The problem is, there's iron EVERYWHERE!! They're almost like the houses were made out of sheet metal or it was just a big trash dump. Well that degraded iron will ring up like a good target (sometimes to the point of not showing anything on the ferrous spectrum). It's like the metal lost all of it's ferrousness (?) and is signaling a large non-ferrous target. Then we get into the shards of iron and the constant silencing of the audio due to discrimination, along with the occasional good hit when the coil swings over it just right. There's also the issue of the maskings of good targets because of the iron scraps in the near vicinity, and then who can forget the good targets reading/sounding like broken targets because of those shards/scraps.

My question is, how do you all combat this situation and get those good finds in those iron infested areas?

I am using a White's XLT which is obviously very programmable, but I find myself questioning if when the iron is being discriminated and the detector goes silent, is it actually silencing good targets near by. Also, the targets that are ringing up good but breaking up, is it a good target, or is the iron just degraded. Obviously in these iron infested grounds, you cant dig EVERY target.

Another thing that I'm trying to combat is brass casings (on an army base on the training areas). Everywhere there is an old homestead, there's brass all over it (coincidence? I think not, but that's another subject).

Thanks in advance.

 

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[smokeythecat]

I can't help you with the White's, but I was in a ca 1760 house site today and there is a lot of iron still there. Got about 20 keepers digging right with the iron pieces, most of which were large. I was using the XP Deus with the high frequency coil and had it running at 28khz. I can hear the bigger iron, just don't dig it. Is your users' manual any help? Brass casing can also be gold coins, so those have to be dug.

 

[Just_curious]

hmmm, I hear what you're saying about the brass....but this is out on an army training area and there is brass EVERYWHERE. You would be at the same 50X50m section for HOURS lol. If this was large iron I could understand (a lot of it is) but there's the little iron shards everywhere as well. It's pretty hard to differentiate. It's like the whole ground is a broken signal of brass and iron. Somehow I was able to pull a 1942 wheat penny out of it, but that was most likely dropped by a soldier because the base was established in 1908 and I'm going off of a previous map.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

The xlt is a lousy machine in iron. It will mask . In fact, the xlt is quite dated nowadays anyhow.

There are better iron-see-through machines, where you can get a hint of a conductive target trying to hide under or around nails. Tesoro silver sabre, bandido, or shadow x2 come to mind. Naturally your depth is going to be decreased, when trying to see through iron.

And if you REALLY want to see through nails, find yourself a Compass 77b. Circa 1973 to '75-ish. They're a bear to keep balanced, aren't deep, and afford no other type discrimination. But they could see through up to 3 nails at a time.

 

[Tpmetal]

With my mx sport I run it wide open in all metal, and really listen intently at the barrage of signals. You will always have some larger or certian shaped iron that will sound great, and getting around that brass will require discrimination in the range you want to dig. So both situations you gotta eventually dig those signals to free up others. My nemisis is those triangle teeth to the old hay cutters, and those &#$^%#% shotgun shells....I think I've dug about 1000 shotgun shells and gotta be around 150+ of those teeth by now.

 

[gsxraddict]

Back in the 90's I had my XLT dialed in and was picking relics out of iron sites like that.

Now I go back with my Deus and it's almost like the site has never been hunted, picking more stuff out than day one.

You're just limited with the XLT, it was a top of the line detector back in it's day but now it's not.

 

[cudamark]

Minelab FBS machines in two tone ferrous do a fair job in iron infested sites too. Use the smallest coil you can find for target separation.

 

[Just_curious]

Back in the 90's I had my XLT dialed in and was picking relics out of iron sites like that.

Now I go back with my Deus and it's almost like the site has never been hunted, picking more stuff out than day one.

You're just limited with the XLT, it was a top of the line detector back in it's day but now it's not.

Yeah I have two of them and I'm going to sell them both

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[Carolina Tom]

Look into the Deus.

 

[kyskinner]

in a place like you described the number one thing that you need is good digging tool lol!!! ,because i dont think any metal detector will do you any good.they say that the xlt is out of date that is true but i have found more silver with mine than any other md that i have. hope you the best of luck in that place.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Minelab FBS machines in two tone ferrous do a fair job in iron infested sites too. Use the smallest coil you can find for target separation.

Given the power-house great TID class of machine that they are. Yes. Only if it's gets to be a CARPET of nails (like desert-ghost town or burned-town house type conditions), then there are other machines that will spank the Explorers. But .... , they definitely hold-their-own. Even in a lot of ghost-townsy conditions. If you learn the sounds of targets trying to peak through, and using a small coil.

 

[63bkpkr]

Lots of good info already posted, back in the day on the White's forum there was one fellow that posted a large quantity of XLT settings. If the posting is still available it may be of help.

Brass casings = very little one can do save for dig up all the signals and that depends on how much time you have to clear the site of the brass.

Lots of iron targets - again it depends on how much time you want to spend but, a large magnet or even a very strong home made electro-magnet could be used to clear out most of the 'surface' metal shards. Again, very time consuming!

What coils do you have for your machine? There used to be quite a few that White's made for the XLT. I wonder - if a person had a coil cover could a very fine or small sample of the type of metal in any given plot of ground be stored between the coil and the cover and what would that do to the machines response to what is in the ground !

Keep swinging the XLT till you find a valuable target and then if you want you could upgrade to a more modern machine that likely will still hit on all iron and all brass targets? Whatever you do - keep enjoying yourself while you are out swinging!..................63bkpkr

 

[geezerdb]

Every successful metal detector user digs every target. Yes, every target. Most of us are not that patient or determined. But it is a must if you want to find the good stuff. 95% of the targets will be trash. Is it worth spending a lot of time digging every target? Depends if the other 5% is really good stuff! And the advice to use a good, big, strong magnet to first go over the targeted area will eliminate a lot of iron trash from the get go. There is no substitute for slow, patient, methodical searching.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Every successful metal detector user digs every target. Yes, every target. Most of us are not that patient or determined. But it is a must if you want to find the good stuff. 95% of the targets will be trash. Is it worth spending a lot of time digging every target? Depends if the other 5% is really good stuff! And the advice to use a good, big, strong magnet to first go over the targeted area will eliminate a lot of iron trash from the get go. There is no substitute for slow, patient, methodical searching.

Geezer, let's clarify: you mean "every target EXCEPT iron ". Also: I dispute the statement for some hunt locations. There are indeed spots where cherry picking is going to be the tactic that sends you home with the highest amount of goodies.

Example: the beach after storm erosion puts targets so thick you can't even dig them all. In those cases we reject all the high conductors. Or parks that are so riddled with foil and tabs that you would go crazy before ever getting a keeper.

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Lot of good advice!

IMHO: When using the Explorer II or SE running the screen wide open listening to the tones, going real slow and checking the target visual position on the screen works for me. Oh ya, using the Sun Ray 5" coil really helps in heavy iron. I will say you will get an ear full of tones, but I do not mind. If you can hunt the area at will try layering hunting.

The Deus appears to be very good at separating iron from goodies! I am looking forward to trying the new Minelab Equinox 800 if its separation speed, ID and depth are better than most machines in the class.

Lastly, I use the Whites DFX and V3i on occasion, fun machines once you really understand the settings, but separation is not as good as the Deus or others for that matter.

GL & HH