What mode/ search profile should I start searching in?

[lamarkeiko]

My son and daughter-in-law just purchased a Victorian home built in 1900 and invited me to do some detecting. I spent 1 1/2 hr searching their front yard a couple days ago in Park 1 then Park 2 and discrimination thru 3 and standard default settings with everything else. Found a few modern coins, a Chinese coin, a 45-70 shell case, a ring of unknown value and a few other interesting items along with several nails. I really don't think I'm using the best search profile. What would be a recommended start with my Nox 800? I've never had a chance to look at this type of site before.

 

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[Yang Hao]

From the photo the Chinese cash coin is a 宣统通宝 (xuantong tongbao) The last emperor of China also known as Puyi. The coin (if real) was made between 1909-1911.

 

[cudamark]

If you have continuing access to the site, try a few different modes. Starting out, I think Park 1 is just fine to use. The settings I like to use is a slow recovery speed (3 or so) and an Iron Bias set to F2@0. If the yard is infested with nails, you may want to bump up those settings. I also like 50 tones and horseshoe on so I hear everything, including the iron targets. If there's lots of signals, slow your sweep speed way down. Run the sensitivity up as high as you can and still keep it stable. Rehunt the area in Field 2 (and other modes if you like) to see what you may have missed.

 

[lamarkeiko]

From the photo the Chinese cash coin is a 宣统通宝 (xuantong tongbao) The last emperor of China also known as Puyi. The coin (if real) was made between 1909-1911.

Thanks for the information on the coin. How can I tell if it's real, and if so, what is it's monetary value and it's composition?

 

[lamarkeiko]

If you have continuing access to the site, try a few different modes. Starting out, I think Park 1 is just fine to use. The settings I like to use is a slow recovery speed (3 or so) and an Iron Bias set to F2@0. If the yard is infested with nails, you may want to bump up those settings. I also like 50 tones and horseshoe on so I hear everything, including the iron targets. If there's lots of signals, slow your sweep speed way down. Run the sensitivity up as high as you can and still keep it stable. Rehunt the area in Field 2 (and other modes if you like) to see what you may have missed.

I will have unlimited access to metal detecting here. I did find a few nails, but not many. I was running my sensitivity at 21 and could probably have run it much higher.

 

[bigscoop]

The Nox has good ferrous/non-ferrous separation capabilities but it's not an exceptional discrimination machine due to it's very condensed/limited non-ferrous VID scale, (this just being 40 slots wide) and it's lacking of a true variable tone target audio. What this means is that there's less spreading out of non-ferrous targets and more sharing of VDI readings and also less target information in the audio responses. Having said this, if it were me and I could get away with it, I'd start out at the outer edges of the property and work my way into what I would expect to be the more heavily infested target areas nearer the house. My reason for this is so that I can modify my search profile as I progress along in my hunt. And second, I'd also be in one of the gold modes so I could have the additional benefit of a true threshold so I might be able hear those target responses (Threshold blanks/breaks) that are too deep/faint to trigger an actual target tone. I'd also start out with a recovery speed of 4-6 depending on the ground conditions, a bit faster over firm/dense soil where I don't expect deep targets or wherever targets are more congested and a bit slower over softer sections where deeper targets are more likely. And I'd run my sensitivity between 15-20 depending on what I could get away with. As for notching out? Since i have no idea how many or how few targets may exist in the ground I'd start out just notching out the iron and then update my profile as my hunt progressed depending on those conditions.

 

[lamarkeiko]

The ring I found was all black and crusty. I scraped off the crust on the outside and inside and polished the outside and the ring has a very gold color. The inside after scraping the crust off shows a number 18. Did I find gold?

 

[bigscoop]

The ring I found was all black and crusty. I scraped off the crust on the outside and inside and polished the outside and the ring has a very gold color. The inside after scraping the crust off shows a number 18. Did I find gold?

Looks like 18k. Congrats.

 

[cudamark]

The ring I found was all black and crusty. I scraped off the crust on the outside and inside and polished the outside and the ring has a very gold color. The inside after scraping the crust off shows a number 18. Did I find gold?

I'd test it, or bring it to a jeweler to have them do it before I did any celebrating. I've seem many fake 18K pieces of jewelry and this on gives me a lot of doubt. Hope I'm wrong!

 

[MackDog]

Here's my advice, run it at 24 sensitivity, 50 tones, all metal and go slow actually scraping the ground with the coil. Go slow enough t identify each tone and target. Then you center the target and turn 90 degrees and check again. If it's still good dig it

 

[vferrari]

Here's my advice, run it at 24 sensitivity, 50 tones, all metal and go slow actually scraping the ground with the coil. Go slow enough t identify each tone and target. Then you center the target and turn 90 degrees and check again. If it's still good dig it

I generally agree with this approach except I hesitate to specify a sensitivity level since that can vary even at a single site depending on the amount of interference present. I usually say run sensitivity as high as you can and keep the machine stable. That typically results in running sensitivty anywhere form 17 to 23. I find running it much higher than that just increases both EMI and Ground noise levels unless I am at the beach where ground noise is non-existent. There I can run 25 unless I am in moving salt water and wet sand in beach mode.

For relics - I like to use Field 2 to start, but also will do a sweep with Gold mode, and Park 1 if I have time. Field 2 and Gold Mode covers the brass relics, lead, nickels, and possible gold. Park 1 or (even single frequency at 4 khz if iron is not too bad - the iron bias
feature that limits ferrous falsing is disabled in single frequency) hits harder and deeper on the high conductive targets - silver jewelry and of course coins.

HTH