No buffalos or otherwise

shanko

Jr. Member
Dec 6, 2006
56
2
Anderson, In.
Detector(s) used
bounty hunter pioneer 202
Upvote 0
shanko said:
Hello all! Im new to this site and this hobby. I've been using a bounty hunter pioneer 202 for a few months nowand have had pretty good luck finding everything but nickels. Nomatter how much I tweak the sensitivity knob nothing pops out of the holes except pull tabs. Anybody know whats up w/this ??? Any suggestions besides buying a new md?

Doubt your MD is the problem. You won't be so disappointed when that gold ring comes up from the ground on the same signal. :D :D Practice, Practice, Practice.

BTW ...... WELCOME to TreasureNet. You will like it here. ;)
 

the only suggestion i can come up with is to bury a couple of nickels at different depths and scan them with your machine to see just what they sound like.
 

hollowpointred said:
the only suggestion i can come up with is to bury a couple of nickels at different depths and scan them with your machine to see just what they sound like.


and

welcome to the board. Hope to be seeing some photos
of your finds.

have a good un.........
 

nickels are the least found coin (even by the most experienced detectorist).

You'll find your share as time progresses (and as your skills do too!).

welcome and

HH

lonewolfe
 

I have a BH 1100 and 3300. They both sound a nickel exactly the same. Nickels will sound like nickels at just about any depth. The disk recognition capability of the machine makes it a great flat-washer finder. The machine is just a cross reference index. It is designed to give off a certain sound in response to the amount of signal it receives back from an object coupled with whether or not it recognizes the shape. One object may send back different amounts of signal, to the machine, based upon its depth.

On mine a pulltab at 6" gives iron/pulltab signals. A nickel gives a clean nickel signal on the nickel/pulltab setting. Some screw caps cause the machine to toggle between coin/screw cap. 90% silver coins ring solidly at any depth. 35% silver such as war nickels give the nickel/pulltab/coin range until it is uncovered and then it is a nickel/coin range toggle.

The only way to know for sure what is down there is to dig it. Just remember. The machine is giving a calculated guess. It doesn't know for fact what is down there. The first time you dig up a crusted railroad spike at 6 or 8 inches you will understand that. For depths of 2-4 inches or so they are very accurate even though it is still just a guess.

As far as the sensitivity goes think of it as saturation. You are flooding the ground with signal, which, can be/ not be beneficial. I run mine all the way up with the ground balance all the way down. If the machine starts giving off a lot of high tones then I back it off a notch at a time until it quiets down. Any real signals will still be detected down to about 10 - 12 inches.

These are of course my machine responses, but, it gives you the idea that you are certainly not alone. If you find a coin tone right next to anb iron tone dig the iron tone first. Buried iron sometimes gives off the coin tone at the outer limits of its detectable area. When you find the iron object try finding the coin tone again. GL and HH

Laater...
 

to me it seems like ( but not always ) that a nickle is gonna be a really sharp point where you pinpoint it to. a pull tab ( but not always ) will pinpoint a more elongated area.

when in doubt listen to what some wise elder of the MD'ing world once said ................ PRACTICE !! ........oh, ..... and dig every signal too !!

Good luck,

Mark
 

There are, sadly, many pulltabs that come very close to nickel - close enough to misidentify. Youve noticed this and welcome to the REAL world of detecting! That's the stuff they dont tell you when you have a fist full of money to plunk down on a detector. Take heart ... the fact that you are finding pulltabs indicates you mayhave the patience and courage for this hobby after all.

Most detectors work by categorizing a targets' differential phase response as it compares to the known signal emitted from the coil. This categorization is not absolute and worse, depending on whatever trash and mineralization is present, can really be skewed.

It is said that the US nickel is the reference for most detectors. They say that silver is easy and gold can be anywhere in terms of phase response, especially in the midrange. So the nick is the one coin constant that designers work to ensure gets picked up. Or so the story goes. Unfortunately pulltabs and many other junk items fall smack in this range.Try this;
Make collection of pulltabs and begin to classify them yourself. Soon you will know more than most of us about them and you will develop excellent habits. After all if you arent recovering targets, then you are only locating them.

The nickels are there and you can find them...have patience
 

Take heart. After I replied I went out and hit a dime signal at 6". Turned out to be a 3" x 3" x 1/4" piece of rusted steel plate at 3". HMMM...

Laater...
 

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