SteveJJ
Jr. Member
- May 18, 2015
- 59
- 66
- Detector(s) used
- Minelab Equinox 800
Fisher F75 (for sale)
Fisher Gold Bug 2
White's TDI SL
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
Ok, back on the Keweenaw Peninsula detecting on copper mine tailings. I quickly knocked off all signals below 18 and learned to not dig anything below 20 (in Park 2, sensitivity 18, speed 6) Not sure the number of tones, 5 maybe. It's like cheating! 20 and up, except some 30's (big iron, go figure) were all sizable copper metal. No hot rocks, no ores, just copper metal. Seems the larger the piece or vein, the higher the number.
I dug more copper in the first hour than I'd get in a day with my F75 or Vaquero. It ran silent until something worth digging was there. I may have missed small bits but I am not disappointed in the quantity and quality of the metal found this way. I will dig the higher numbers as there is sometimes silver mixed in with the copper, and I do not yet know what that would read, but suspect above 18.
If you get a chance to come up this way and don't care to dig nails or hot rocks, try the numbers above. I got to them by example, the hot rocks I'd dug were 16 or lower on plain ole Park 2 so saw that flakes of metal were 20 and up so knocked off all below 18. It did not take long to do. I worked a pile that was recently crushed, destined to be laid down on logging roads Bet the logging roads won't miss the copper I left with.
The Equinox 800 is such a versatile tool, it is almost cheating!
Update - found out today that metals can differ due to size, oxidation, and or composition, so each site would be best to start with a stock setting, dig everything and discriminate after determining your desired target ID numbers. I probably lost some good metal today thinking yesterdays site numbers were appropriate.
Also found that the ground balance was mid 70's in some areas! Going to enable auto tracking tomorrow and see how that goes. Liking this detector more with everything I learn about it!
I dug more copper in the first hour than I'd get in a day with my F75 or Vaquero. It ran silent until something worth digging was there. I may have missed small bits but I am not disappointed in the quantity and quality of the metal found this way. I will dig the higher numbers as there is sometimes silver mixed in with the copper, and I do not yet know what that would read, but suspect above 18.
If you get a chance to come up this way and don't care to dig nails or hot rocks, try the numbers above. I got to them by example, the hot rocks I'd dug were 16 or lower on plain ole Park 2 so saw that flakes of metal were 20 and up so knocked off all below 18. It did not take long to do. I worked a pile that was recently crushed, destined to be laid down on logging roads Bet the logging roads won't miss the copper I left with.
The Equinox 800 is such a versatile tool, it is almost cheating!
Update - found out today that metals can differ due to size, oxidation, and or composition, so each site would be best to start with a stock setting, dig everything and discriminate after determining your desired target ID numbers. I probably lost some good metal today thinking yesterdays site numbers were appropriate.
Also found that the ground balance was mid 70's in some areas! Going to enable auto tracking tomorrow and see how that goes. Liking this detector more with everything I learn about it!
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