Why cant I find deep coins?

[cheese]

Why can't I find deep coins?

After a hunt today, I came home and dug a hole and placed a mercury dime in it.? The hole was about 7" deep.? I filled it, and checked with the detector.? For some reason, it wouldn't pick it up very well.? I dug the dime and put it back in the hole without the dirt, and it still didn't pick it up well.? If I didn't know it was there, I probably wouldn't have dug the signal.? According to the reviews I read about my detector, it is supposed to pick up a dime at 10" and better without trouble.? I'm thinking this is why I'm not finding those old coins.?

I air-tested the detector on a silver quarter and silver half dollar.? 10 to 12 inches was all I could go on either.? Something's gotta be wrong.? I've seen claims all over about picking up quarters at 12" and over in the ground.? I have highly mineralized soil here, and adjusting the ground balance to the ideal setting is a constant thing, but barely a signal on a 7" dime?? That just doesn't seem right.?

Any ideas?? I'm worried now...I got this detector because of it's supposed ability to reach deep.? Am I expecting too much?? I think my radio shack detector would come close to matching the air-test I did.?

During my hunt today, I couldn't find many targets that I felt were good (repeated themselves well). I did find a few, and dug 3 holes. On one hole, I dug and dug and the signal was still there. I kept digging and rechecked, but the signal was gone. Not in the hole or in my dirt pile or around the hole. Just gone. I filled it and went on. Then I dug 2 holes that I got a seemingly good signal on. I dug, dug some more, and more, and widened it, pinpointed, repeat, etc... and never found the target. I was getting down to the clay layer and figured the target wouldn't be that far down so I filled the holes back up. 3 holes and nothing to show for them. What could I be doing wrong??
It's a Fisher CZ7.

Thanks for any ideas!

 

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[Lowbatts]

Re: Why can't I find deep coins?

Hey Cheese, my best dimes have been 8-9" inches deep. While these signalled clearly I have not found dimes deeper than that around here. Others in other parts of the country can quote finding 10" deep dimes with the same machine. You're bumping up against the limit and in mineralized soil, it only gets tougher.

Make sure you've ground balanced correctly for each site you work, even your backyard. Air testing should yield better results but again most will tell you air testing is wildly variable and I suggest using it to learn pinpointing and target separation only. GB is the primary factor in dealing with soil conditions that limit your depth. Sensitivity should be 4 to 6, don't need to crank it up on the CZ but you might try if this helps out in the field.

 

[cheese]

Re: Why can't I find deep coins?

Would a 10.5 inch coil help or make matters worse? I'm using the stock 8 inch now.

Free, you're getting some nice sites. I've seen your pics. Nice stuff. I wish I could find some other types of sites locally, but those hot rocks are pretty much everywhere.

Any ideas on the targets I dug for and never found? Do you think there was something there and I just needed to go deeper? One hole I dug was probably 16" deep, and still nothing. I did notice that on all metal mode, there were loud signals near each hole, but the whole area was full of iron so I had it nulled out on auto notch. Could the iron have been creating the coin signal in a spot where there was nothing?

 

[jeff of pa]

Re: Why can't I find deep coins?

DON'T WORRY CHEESE ; Air tests & freshly buried Coins do Not make for an accurate test. When I first got my Sovereign I could only get a signal on a dime at 3" & thought I was Ripped Off. if you read my other posts, you will see, I'v found dimes at 10" plus. I can't even get a Quarter at 10" if it is freshly buried. Got something to do with HALO effect, even with silver.

 

[Leon]

Re: Why can't I find deep coins?

Hi ya Cheese,,,
I think the signals you are talking about maybe deep pieces of iron...
I have had several of these types of signals with my CZ-3D. Some, like you I give up on...
I got tired of seeing it happen, so one day I decided to keep dig'n and at about 18" to 20" I found it...
It was the brake-drum off of an old car...

I wouldn't worry too much about the machine yet. It could be the location your in. I have several sites that cause conciderable interference, and others that I don't hear a peep out of...

Good Luck & Happy Hunting~

 

[Bavaria Mike]

Trashy targets...

I hunt in Germany and just got a CZ7A with about 7+ hours on it, I also have a White's XLT. ?Both machines will ID good targets as trash and trash as good targets. ?No machine is perfect, you just have to learn what it's saying to you. ?I typically dig almost all targets but I can do that in farm fields and they aren't as trashy as a park or where a lot of people are. I dug a 2 1/2 Schilling Nurnberg 1495-1510 silver hammered several weeks ago that IDed as trash and sounded like trash. HH and good luck figuring it out, Mike

 

[WyDiablo]

Batteries, Soil and GB play an important part

I have used a CZ7A for over 5 years now and I love it. First make sure your batteries are fresh. Then make sure you ground blance your machine proper(I most always use the push button way) I keep my sen. set at 4 and only iron notched out. As the batteries get lower the slower you will need to swing the machine. And the way the target is lieing in the ground makes tons of difference. I have noticed that an old silver coins gives a less shaper signal than a new clad coin. And the preset coin programs for that machine are really not thet great in my opinon. I keep the volume at 10 and I turn my head phones down for each ear that way I can get the most faint signal in the ground. I have dug dimes and quarters at 10+ here in Arkansas, but our soil here is not that minerailized. I would suggest that you dig any signal that has a good repeat.

HH WyDiablo

 

[sal1966]

Re: Why can't I find deep coins?

doesnt the coin have to create a "halo" to be tested in the ground? above ground test is the only accurate test, no?

 

[cheese]

Re: Why can't I find deep coins?

Whew! Ok, I guess an air test is not a very good indication of what the machine will do. Jeff, I bet you really got a pit in your stomach when your sovereign wouldn't pick up the dime over 3"!!!!

At least now I feel comfortable that there's nothing wrong with the machine. I'll just keep on until I learn it. I really like it, and it's ease of use, I just got worried when it didn't pick up the dime I planted well.

Thanks!

 

[Lowbatts]

Re: Why can't I find deep coins?

Hey Cheese, remember that pinpoint tip I gave you? It's gonna fix the problem you're seeing there. Of course I can't speak for your hot rock situation there and I understand it is a problem in Georgia. Practice that pinpointing and raising the coil on a test board, get used to the change in depth as you raise the coil in pinpoint mode. Hot rocks, like a lot of other junk signals will demonstrate a bigger change in depth readout than the actual distance from the coil. Say it reads 4" deep in pinpoint. Raise the coil while still in pinpoint for every inch or so you'll notice two or three inches change in depth readout. A coin-sized object will show 6" inches when you've raised it two inches from the original 4" reading, a light junk target or hot rock might disappear altogether within 4" of change in coil height.

As I said, do this with a test board so you can mentally approximate how it will do in the field as well. As for the bigger coil, if you're in bad ground it will get more falsing unless again you run it at Sense 4 to 6. Believe me, you get great depth at low sense but you miss a lot of the falsing. And get that ground balance down to routine. As well remember as you swing the point where you get a target indication will be offset from the pinpoint indication for junk or iron signals that are falsing. If you can visualize where you're machine is indicating a target under the coil, and the pinpoint indicates it's over two or three inches, you're over junk, most likely a nail.

 

[cheese]

Re: Why can't I find deep coins?

Thanks!

I still haven't done the cardboard test you told me about, but I haven't forgotten. I'm still stoked about having the new machine, so when I get an hour or two of free time I just HAVE to go out and find something!!! lol. Time is a rare commodity around my place, but I also realize if I want to get good with this thing, I'm gonna have to do that cardboard test and paly around with known test targets and familiarize myself with the sounds.

Speaking of sounds....my wife calls my metal detector a "geiger counter", lol. She's joking of course. She has gotten pretty enthused about MDing too. She's using a radio shack detector for now. She has already put in for an ace250. If she stays interested long enough, I might have to get her one!

 

[Lowbatts]

Re: Why can't I find deep coins?

Sheez! Your wife, no doubt a practical and rational woman (she does support your new hobby after all) is gonna leave you nothing to dig when she gets that thing so practice, practice, practice! She will when she gets her, it's the sensibility thing in women. They read, even KEEP the manuals!

 

[cheese]

Re: Why can't I find deep coins?

Man, you're not tellin' me anything I don't know, lol!!! There's a whole BIG cardboard box STUFFED to the top with instruction/assembly/operators/warranty manuals under the bed. I bet some of the stuff we don't even have anymore, but we still have the papers! Occasionally...once in a blue moon on high tide in winter, it comes in handy to have the instruction manual for something. (like the VCR, lol!!!).