And if I may piggy back with a question, what do those numbers mean? I have noticed at the farm, my numbers are in 72-77 range. I will try to pay more attention to that when I am in different places.
They are supposed to represent how much iron mineralization is in the soil. The detector's circuits are trying to eliminate soil/background noise from targets. A fairly futile effort *BUT* ....that "intelligence" is what one is paying for, to simply ignore the effort ....(at least all the time)....isn't very "smart". After all, the simplest detectors will have "intelligence" that tells you there is a piece of metal below. We trust that part and dig.
I figure this way. I have less time in my future nowadays. When I go for a walk, sometimes, I just don't want it to be like I'm just going to work. I don't want to dig every single target *every* time I go! Sometimes I do. Just not *every* walk!
The science of metal detecting has become fascinating! A really good discriminating detector can be a good thing! Why else spend all that money if what is desired is just tell me there's metal in the ground? Might as well buy a bulldozer and a sieve.
My initial question is just about what levels of mineralization, with which, other parts of the country are dealing?
I tried an experiment last time out. I actually tried to understand and *use* some of the technology I bought!
I set my machine to the custom mode and eliminated iron to 35. (It goes up to about 45). Then I auto ground balanced to about 92 making as sure as I could, that there were no metal targets where I was balancing first. Then, I chose from the four main frequencies that the detector has, to find the one with the least interference.
The machine was a dream to use! It stayed as quiet as it could and yet hit on targets like a gold earring at about 8 inches! Nickles at about 10!
I also rebalanced the machine every few minutes and was surprised to see how the mineralization changed so much in just short distances! When I was unsure of a target? I flipped it over to the "iron audio"....and then?? I dug it anyway!! I found the iron audio circuit to be about 90 percent accurate!
The only way to be sure? Use all metal mode and dig *EVERYTHING*! But that....is too much like work! I'm retired.