Need Some Help With My 800

[Dig It]

Need a little help . Been out with the 800 3 times for approx. 2 hrs each hunt. I am in a great spot land being cleared for pavement. But back in 1848 a Russian named Peter Doroshin came through area & American Settlers came later all using this area to move up river & rivers. So a lot of old camping & hunting & gold camps in area.

Been using Park 1 factory settings, and trying out All Metal & Pinpoint settings, a whole lot of trash as in cans of all types and metals, trying to see past this trash and get a good TID, I am a learner but slow ( Blonde, German, Old I'm Screwed   ) So the project is moving along would like to detect area before all is buried for EVER !!!!

Manaul says Park 1 good for trash areas and all I am digging is trash and the #s are reading from 23 to 30 on unit. So what am I missing ? time is not on my side at this site. !!

THX

[Dig It]

I forgot to mention that I have to use a Milwaukee Rotary Hammer with a 2 chisel bit to dig anything over an inch, spring is coming slow here ground still frozen.

[Dig It]

Thanks Steve, wasn't sure if I was posting correct but needed to get it out there. You know of this area I speak and am trying to work.

Thx

[Steve Herschbach]

Worst case scenario for a new detector in my opinion. I try to encourage people to stay out of trash heaps until they have plenty of experience under their belt as these types of places challenge anyone’s patience. Here is a thread to help get you going....

 

[mn90403]

Dig It,

Nice to hear from someone on the Kenai.  I went fishing there for about 10 days 30 years ago at Tim Berg's camp on the river and stayed in Soldotna.  It is one of my good memories.

Getting to your 'problem' of seeing good stuff in frozen tundra, I'd say you have to take it in 'layers' for many of the conditions you mentioned.  You have cans and metal trash at varying depths and you have frozen ground which makes you want to dig a target as shallow as possible.  You have to see a good target first on the surface and ignore everything under or around it, right?

My friends with 800s took a test nugget and placed it in a potential area for other nuggets.  After they were done testing and adjusting they removed the test nugget and just a few feet away they found their first little gold nugget.  A coincidence for sure but also an imperative to know the difference between the hot rocks and a real nugget on the Nox.

Decide what you want to find.  Get a couple of those objects (coins, nuggets, buttons, rings) and place them on the surface or in the first couple of inches and then set up your detector.  Turn it on as you have done and see if you can hear those targets 'over' the noise of the trash.  Many of us can't so what can we do?  We can change a lot of settings but first try just one.

Reduce the sensitivity.  (Don't adjust the recovery speed.)  Reducing the total sensitivity in the mode you are in should let you hear targets that are closer to the coil better than distant targets.  I think then you could quickly go over the site and get the near surface targets.  If you find a good patch, slow down and increase the sensitivity and dig a bit deeper into the frozen ground.

If you reduce the noise then you will see better numbers on targets (fewer deep iffys) and hear that good target mixed in with the trash but that takes practice on open ground without much trash as Steve has pointed out.

I hope you are able to go over the site and go down a couple of inches at a pass until you get some good results.

Mitchel

[Dig It]

Thanks Steve & mn90403, looks like from reading Steve's suggested post I see that I am in the right direction with my learning curve, I not that far from taking next step with machine, too bad I don't think I'll have it right for this site before they backfill and lay pavement, but I'll keep trying till the end at this site, who knows what I may or may not find, I just know you can't learn or find any thing with machine in bag !!!!! THANKS  

[Skate]

The key to metal detecting is digging. I'm sure this sounds redundant and obvious but it's the truth. Since you have limited time to dig you really have the best of all worlds in front of you and under your feet. You have a great Equinox classroom and you're the only student. Clean the area out as best you can and take some notes along the way about VDI's, depth and tones. If I need to clean out an area I'll take 4 cones and mark off a 10'x10' area and dig it all and sweep it N, S, E, W. 

The key to finding great things is to hunt areas where there was or is a ton of activity. It sounds like you have just that place but it takes the patience of Job sometimes not to want to give up and wrap the detector around a tree due to all the trash. Take the site apart in reasonable chunks based on what you can do. Ice is definitely not your friend but don't fight what you can't change and see if there are other ways around your situation. If you treat this as a learning experience where head knowledge is the end product it will set you up for the next subsequent hunts. There will always be a good hunt for you in the future and ones you wish you had back. 

Best of luck.

[Steve Herschbach]

Reduced sensitivity as Mitchel mentioned is probably the quickest step to improved results in the densest piles of trash. There is no way you are going to get depth anyway, and high sensitive levels cause more ferrous falsing and erratic target id.

Don’t forget old school. A steel tine rake can do wonders in cleaning up surface patches.

[Dig It]

Thanks guys, just fought my way up road to my claim looks like I will have at least another month to learn this detector, way too much snow & 3 avalanches, whole lot of melting has to happen. Everything you guys are posting makes sense to me, it's just the site is being cleared of all brush and some big old trees & trunks & roots. And I have a short window, and I am spoiled because I have my GB2 down pretty good find gold on my claim every year, so I am a bit anxious to get into coin and relic hunting, I have the sites all around me. Just don't want to miss out on ground that's being cleared. I just feel with all the old traffic around this area there should be a reward for going on information overload & pulling out what's left of hair. with all that said I will try turning sensitivity down, and then maybe  try Park 2,  Sensitivity 20, Iron Bias 2, Speed 7 as I am using an 800. Only have coup[le days left to work this site after that I will chill and work & learn more causuaully. I do appreciate all help.

[mn90403]

You can take the sensitivity lower and still find good targets ... try 15 or even lower in some cases.

Mitchel