Newbie advice

[Jeffro]

We get a lot of questions on here from new folks, and most generally get the same reply, "Dig 'em all, until you gain experience", or something similar. That being said I would like to take it a step further....

What signals on YOUR machine do you NOT dig? I mean what has your experience taught you about certain signals, ranges, etc.?

I personally rarely ever dig any signal in the zinc penny range on my CZ-5, as experience has taught me that it is either a zinc penny or a piece of trash, 100% of the time. I have gained that trust with my machine.... How about you?

 

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[Willy]

Last year I was reading through a Canadian coin book and saw some of the prices for (old copper) pennies and decided to dig 'em. The beach (heavily mineralised freshwater) is rather old and loaded with pennies. Also, because of ground conditions, ID is a bit iffy (especially over 3") so I was digging zinc pennies & whatnot. Imagine my surprise when, cleaning and inspecting the coins later on, I discovered my first Indian Head penny. This also ties into why a (deseased) buddy of mine always skunked me. He was swinging an old Scorpion Gold Stinger and I had a series of VID detectors. While I was busy notching out stuff and letting the detector tell me stuff was junk.. he was digging up the goodies. This led me to become a lot less selective re. targets, with a corresponding increase in good finds (and the requisite junk). ..Willy.

 

[Jeffro]

I do the same willy, but like I said, 100 percent of the time, my ID has been correct on Zinc's. So now I only dig about half, if that, as zinc's are too plentiful around here, and shallow as opposed to deep.

Something particular about the CZ with zinc's, it seems to have an affinity for them. Nickels, too, which I understand gives alot of detector's fits.

I also use the sound, tone, sharpness, and pinpointing sounds to differentiate as well.

I guess I should have phrased the question different....

What has your experience taught you about which targets not to dig on your machine in particular?

 

[slow sweeper]

I'm still a newbie with my MXT. But one thing I have found is that if a good sounding, and good VDI target jumps to a +94 (big target) VDI after I cut a plug and recheck the hole it will be trash. And it will be fairly deep. 5" plus.

 

[SHERMANVILLE ILLINOIS]

J,

no matter how you state your question, it's the same.

If you pass up a signal that you are 100% sure is not what
your looking for, you will never really know what you passed
up.

Perhaps your question should be, what type of signals do
we hate to dig.

DIG IT ALL or loose an excellent find.

have a good un......

 

[bk]

Jeffro,
If you are using a Fisher CZ5 and are not digging readings in the "zinc cent" range, you will be missing all your Indian head cents.
I have a CZ6, and 99% of my Indianheads fall into that range. That includes the use of both the 8" and 10" coils.
I suggest that you obtain a typical (dug) bronze Indianhead and give it an air test.
Copper nickel Indianheads read differently.

 

[Jeffro]

I have both on hand, I'll give it the ol' air test today! Thanks.

OK, did the air test.... here's what I found out. On my machine, the older copper nickel coins hit pretty solidly on the "new pulltab" setting, with few exceptions. And the newer bronze coins hit on the high end "good coin" area. I tried messing with the sensitivity and ground balance to see if I could get it to change, with the same ID's.

I remembered the first reply about being at the beach, so I switched to Salt mode, and got it to hit in the zinc range about 1 in 5 tries, otherwise it read as a good coin.

I know air tests are not conclusive, as ground mineralization may mess with it, but it was pretty consistant in the ID.

But I'll give you guys the benefit of the doubt, and switch the question, lol!

OK, so which targets do you not like to dig?

And also, if the higher end machines have so much advantage, and people that buy them are so particular to their brands and models, why bother? I mean if you use the machine to its fullest advantage to get good hits, along with your experience, and wind up digging everything anyways, whats the point of having all the bells and whistles? Seems to me we would all do better just getting a good gold machine and digging everything anyways...

Thats why I got my CZ in the first place, my Goldmaster was giving me fits in town.

I know where you are coming from, and I have given the same advice on many an occasion, I just think that at some point you have to trust your experience and machine to some extent, no? Not digging several hundred zincs and giving up one Indian would be a pretty fair trade in my book.

 

[bk]

Several friends of mine have CZ detectors, and every one of them report the same thing... that is, the IH cents read in the zinc cent range. This is in the mid-west where the soil conditions are fairly neutral. Very rarely does an IH cent read in the high range. That's the one thing I like best about that detector. I almost always know if the target will be an Indianhead.
Depth is a big factor though. Depending on where I hunt, if the target is only 1" deep and reads in the zinc cent range, I'll skip it.
As I recall, the copper/nickel IH cents read in the square pulltab area.

 

[Jeffro]

That may be part of it, out here the soil is very basic/acidic (not sure which) and mineralized. Coins out here corrode quickly if they're in the ground for any length of time. Except silver , they generally come out in pretty good shape. But on the air test, I couldn't get it to hit zinc hardly at all, and then only in salt mode.

Never knew that about Indians though, good for reference when I travel.

I think one of these days, I'll put these coins I've got laying around to good use and do up a chart for my machine, I've never done that.