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Tarsacci Continues To Impress....


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We’ve managed to get a TARSACCI MDT into the very capable hands of Mr Keith Southern, seasoned relic hunter and historian.

Listen and see what Keith has to say so far regarding using the TARSACCI MDT 8000 in his VERY difficult soil.....Thanks, Aaron

As far as the EMI.Its very resilient so far!I mainly stay on 12kHz as it offers sens to low and high conductors.But even down on 6Khz its stable around EMI prone areas. 

I should say in that video I was 12KHZ next to my neighbors Air conditioning unit when I was doing brick test that was running and it was stable.The 10 Inch dime was also in 12Khz as was the Nickle.And I can add the nickle will bang harder than in the video if I go up to 18Khz.! 

I also want to add the Brick test while impressive Its main thing I wanted to share was its ability to punch.Not necessarily make people think I'm going to dig targets under bricks or rocks which you can if they are there in that scenario but Its to show how well its sees through mineral.Say a 7 inch 1 dollar gold coin 3 bar dirt or half dime on edge at 7 inches in 3 bar dirt.A vlf can shut down on those type targets in even that type mid mineral soil but the Tarsacci in that type soil will give you more of a chance.Or even a GREAT chance!As mineral goes up the tarsacci really comes into its own and even hits harder and harder!!AMAZING!!! 

I was in a site that we have worked on for 30 plus years ..House site camp area and march route battlefield all in one.Its type area you just cant get a signal to dig unless you chase nail falses type stuff to hope and luck up. 

The dirt in this site on Tarsacci ground balances at 910 and FE numbers on F75 are a good 5 bars.So for my area of operations this is not an out of the norm spot. 

In iron (in heavy iron) the 18khz is the way to go as it should be for more reactivity to targets.The machine settings for this site was also Salt Mode on balanced at 21,6 Sens, Negative 2 threshold.Black sand off,Disc mode 0 disc so iron was silenced.I just wanted to concentrate and see what the uninterupted high tones could sound like .Theres two high tones in disc.mid high and high.No low tone for iron no mixed mode either in here way to busy for that. 

This site is a nightmare to hunt from the iron.Big small weird all on top of each other from about 1840 to about 1920.with a war fought on top of it to boot.Over the years its given me and alot of local hunters great finds.Reb buttons, plates,Yankee buttons lots and lots of bullets for everyone.Its no secret site and its pounded on.They graded through it about 3 years ago and churned up some more stuff first 6 moths after that it was no surprise to go there and see 5 or 6 guys swinging it daily.Lots more goodies was coming up for Us to find then as a site does that gets all of a sudden rejuvenated it started to get scarcer and scarcer.Its just basically solid red clay exposed pottery shards everywhere black glass iron laying everywhere.well hole open right in middle of it barrier-ed off. 

So back to the Tarsacci on this site.I had came through this site last week on a walk back to the truck.I had been back in a 950 dirt site in the woods 6 bar dirt hot rocks aplenty doing some coil testing.As i had cut through to shorten my walk i hit a clean signal in this spot full of iron and it stopped me in my tracks.Thought well must be modern trash.dug hole open targets till there then diug some more about 7 inches or so out pops a dropped 3 ringer .58 caliber.I said huh really?The got a pack stud about 3 feet away another clean hit.Now this is in awful iron and I was still I'm mixed mode from the woods hunt I had been in and 12kHz. 

Later that night I was talking to Dimitar on the phone and mentioned before hanging up about the bullet and it surprised me being so clean sounding.I was surprised Dimitar was not.He ask some particulars about the targets and the nails etc in the hole and he just laughed and said Yep! 

It was in my mind about that laugh so I went back to same spot And set it for optimum audio intelligence in heavy iron.Yes its still noisy like this but this site is eat up in iron.My first target was a solid lock at ID of +2 out of +30 then I couldnt find it and was barely audible in the spoil pile.When I did find it it was a Shotgun primer. the little primer out of the center of a paper shotgun shell casing.I thought come on with this big coil I got that so clean of a hit?

Then chased some weird hits then the audio in here hit me.nail falses were quick dead sounding but real hits had a sonar ping.clear ping echo type hits.So it was partial pip pip pip high tones then a sonar echo high tone Sort of reminiscent of those WW2 Sub movies where the operator gets sonar pings.So in this one area around the well I dug a good 10 to 12 pieces of lead .Flat button.Old smoothed out penny.twisted up brass pieces etc.50 caliber round ball.they all were clean?Anywhere from inch down to say 4 or 5 inches down.I left the site with a new appreciation of the tarsacci for iron hunting. 

What I had seen with the Tarsacci in the woods on unmasking targets from bad dirt I was also seeing in iron unmasking. 

What I have so far come to see With The tarsacci is it sees what others cant in terms of either the soil mask a target of a certain size or conductance.This is usually smaller than a dime from say couple of inches down to about 10 -11 inches.Things a normal machine cant see from Soil overpowering the target it can be small items or low conductance items.Things that the soil wont let break through.the other machines in these sites like VLF FBS BBS etc have gotten alot but the strength of the soil shuts targets down at some point.as the Soil mineral increases the more the conductance and size of targets you find EASILY with the Tarsacci increases. 

Now we have some iron See through too.And most of the targets I have found so far in heavy iron in mild soil or bad soil has been the same low conductance or small.So what we have going on is actual see through it seems.Not that I'm seeing through a piece of iron but the Tarsacci has the ability to tell a non ferrous target from a ferrous target when they are intermingled and allow the good target to be more SEEN. 

Dimitar has told me mineral enhances the target and hes right targets in the soil at times sound cleaner than when out of the soil.Iron ore dirt buried targets sound cleaner buried than exposed to air.So now I see targets that are in coil view in iron sound cleaner than just lying alone.the iron is also enhancing the non ferrous report.Its almost the OXIDE of iron is enhancing the targets through say leeching.Plus the iron sites like site above is already in iron ore soil.Like a target boost.Other machines may also be seeing these targets but the oxide and ore is destroying the clarity. 

Any non ferrous target and any shape is hit i might add in this sceanrio. 

The Tarsacci is not a normal machine and its doing things out of the norm that we are not used too.THIS IS REAL TECHNOLOGY like I havent seen in my soil.This is the type unit you have to set it up right for your site but its doing the work for you easily once it gets purring. 

Dont try and run mixed mode in heavy iron even though it sounds more VLFish.Mixed mode filters are set low to bleed more audio as high tone even deep iron.Disc mode is set to dissect with some stronger filtering to stop iron high tone bleed.Dont over power the unit the see though is the magic and even on sens of 6 I can see a ten inch dime in bad soil.Dont let the machine see too much soil if its bad let it be able to discern a real target from mineral or iron. 

This machine is as close as I've ever seen to a P.I. with disc. 

Dont give up or dismiss the technology if you have one its the real deal!This has the feel to me like a FBS gave me 20 years ago..Its different and we have to learn how to use it.ITS HIGH TECH!Its quirky and all and not perfect but what it does do is like I've experinced now for little over a month.It sees things others cant or struggles with.Get used to the audio and rely on its accuracy and it will become second nature like any machine.it has an different feel for sure but it should its different tech.When you get it set right and you can tell when you do once you accustom yourself to it its pretty dang SLICK! 

I had a hard learning curve with the machine for reasons only known to the designer.BUT I'm glad he subjected me to it on purpose.it gave me deeper insights.I started off backwards. A set up unit that would not hardly run in my soil.then went to a normal set up unit and that showed me so much and why this and that happens. 

Keith

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On 4/5/2020 at 8:14 AM, Steve Herschbach said:

That’s a heavy duty endorsement. Newbies should however take note also of what he says about the learning curve.

Yes Steve..I dont want anyone to think its a walk in the park on my account.I too struggled with it and still have learning to do.Its a unorthodox unit.Its quirky.The worse the soil a person has the better results he may have with it.But you dont turn it on and get blown away on  inland sites.It takes time to see what its doing and how to tune it find it out.Study what you see is happening and notice things its doing other units are not doing or struggling to do on in soil targets.If a user starts to pay attention to this he will see its strongest point.

What i mainly wanted to do is  how should I say is LET CAT OUT OF THE BAG .The strongest point to the machine is mineral punch.Its in alot of ways like getting a P.I. machine to run in the soil like with timings etc on maybe a GPX type unit.keep it stabilized learn audio traits.

The Tarsacci is collecting alot of soil DATA that's for sure.Its seeing everything mineral, rocks,Even seems ground temp changes from sunny sites to shady sites.Its using a filter to silence these things very sparingly.In my mind and only my mind (no inside info) its doing this to punch tricky soil.See it all then try to decipher it in processor.So what this does it create a machine that can get mineral ping at times  even slight blow back at times from soil.Sort of a all metal discing feel.But its pretty intelligent in what it does.It just creates quirky hits.Not dead pan hits but some  weird feedback.And the salt balance seems to be there to help Filter some of that quirky ping  hits.

This is where adapting your brain to a ping hit to a sonar echo type hit comes into play.My biggest problem was and still at times is chasing pings.Foot deep small and or bent nails.I'm used to a say VLF chirp/ping being a deep goody barely making it through.On the Tarsacci pings are rejected targets.The sonar echo sound is the legitimate hits.(Gotta have headphones on).The biggest problem a user will face inland is deciphering these reports.its not the bigger nails and up iron its the small inch long  or bent stuff.the machine wants to not let those pass  by if its not getting a solid read..It will lean more to trying to let them through than assign them as iron.This is it so seems not to miss iffy deep goodies.Ive also learned that deep goodies say penny sized and  up dont really ping or sonar echo they become a fuzzier high tone .

As far as hunting my favorite sites .thick iron.If I had started out in a site like that with the Tarsacci i would of gave up.Learn it in light iron areas first off the edge of habitation sites etc.The iron hunting for me is where i like to be.more chances in habitation areas to make more finds than random scattered through out say the woods fields .And the Tarsacci exhibits something unique in that scenario. I'm not going to say its a Deus in iron its not.But it does do one thing well and that's punch bad soil.And I've always had it in my mind if I could combat bad soils and iron mixed there's more and its not deep.Maybe just lurking 2 inches.As we know that big coil is not the best for iron site work but its pretty dang good for its size on recovery speed from one target to another.Yet its not a blending type unit so it relies on gated audio.Much like T2s CZs etc.So what I see in iron is those targets are or should of been got but the combination of bad dirt and iron leech halos shut some targets down.I'm sure they were not severely masked in terms of abundance of nails etc on top of the targets and a good machine should of already got them.its the machines ability to handle or see through the halo fusion of iron soil and iron oxides meshed.Now this is all in my head but I know what i seem to be seeing.And its a thought process I have had for along time wanting a unit to be built that would combat it somewhat.That's my biggest enemy bad dirt lots of iron..

I know the beach hunters want a large coil.I want a small coil!!!I want to fully see what this unit will do in bad iron bad dirt mix..It may not be what it was designed for?? but it has something going on in iron.It needs to be explored further.

Once I knew the sound of a legitimate target to a false the unit has  became very conveying in iron.Its actually less noisy than most machines in iron its  just the compressed audio traits are the learning curve.A user who dissects iron with vlfs will find the Tarsacci is well behaved comparatively speaking but you have to figure the audio out.

I see what the unit is doing now we have to apply it.Learn it.Dont think old school think new school.It can feel alien but its doing something.First few hours I ran it actually first whole battery charge I was so disconnected from the soil I was almost depressed about it.but let it sink in.I like to have a connection to the soil and the Tarsacci to me was Chinese talk with a poor translator..Now its starting to feel more English to me.Well maybe Brooklyn accent English..I need it to get to Southern accent English LOL..I'm joking but  I'm excitedly waiting for it to become second nature to me ,become my friend.

I will also add I was at a disadvantage for the first few days.I was using a Bad coil.Yet wasnt sure it was bad.BUT after I got the coil fixed and sorted out the noise I was enduring dropped dramatically.BUT the first coil had taught me somewhat how to figure out hits.once I got a PROPER coil the intelligence level went up.And the language took off.So I had a handicap to start with but it actually helped me..A user coming to the Tarsacci will not see what I saw.And actually it is not that hard to digest the audio when its running right.Sort of like a FBS unit we had to learn the language.Its different BUT IT WORK'S!

Keith

 

 

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Totally agree w you Steve. My first 30hrs w the TARSACCI were FAR from pleasant to say the least! It’s a language all its own, and different from anything else I’ve used. However, as with any other machine you need to put the time in. 
Unfortunately, many are not willing to do what Keith has done, to not only put the time in but also FIGURE IT OUT and in BAD dirt!  The TARSACCI is able to do some pretty “USUAL” things, (putting it mildly) and most have not been commonly known.....until now. With Keiths help we’re changing that!

Thanks!

Aaron

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  • 11 months later...
On 4/4/2020 at 11:07 AM, Aaron said:

We’ve managed to get a TARSACCI MDT into the very capable hands of Mr Keith Southern, seasoned relic hunter and historian.

Listen and see what Keith has to say so far regarding using the TARSACCI MDT 8000 in his VERY difficult soil.....Thanks, Aaron

As far as the EMI.Its very resilient so far!I mainly stay on 12kHz as it offers sens to low and high conductors.But even down on 6Khz its stable around EMI prone areas. 

I should say in that video I was 12KHZ next to my neighbors Air conditioning unit when I was doing brick test that was running and it was stable.The 10 Inch dime was also in 12Khz as was the Nickle.And I can add the nickle will bang harder than in the video if I go up to 18Khz.! 

I also want to add the Brick test while impressive Its main thing I wanted to share was its ability to punch.Not necessarily make people think I'm going to dig targets under bricks or rocks which you can if they are there in that scenario but Its to show how well its sees through mineral.Say a 7 inch 1 dollar gold coin 3 bar dirt or half dime on edge at 7 inches in 3 bar dirt.A vlf can shut down on those type targets in even that type mid mineral soil but the Tarsacci in that type soil will give you more of a chance.Or even a GREAT chance!As mineral goes up the tarsacci really comes into its own and even hits harder and harder!!AMAZING!!! 

I was in a site that we have worked on for 30 plus years ..House site camp area and march route battlefield all in one.Its type area you just cant get a signal to dig unless you chase nail falses type stuff to hope and luck up. 

The dirt in this site on Tarsacci ground balances at 910 and FE numbers on F75 are a good 5 bars.So for my area of operations this is not an out of the norm spot. 

In iron (in heavy iron) the 18khz is the way to go as it should be for more reactivity to targets.The machine settings for this site was also Salt Mode on balanced at 21,6 Sens, Negative 2 threshold.Black sand off,Disc mode 0 disc so iron was silenced.I just wanted to concentrate and see what the uninterupted high tones could sound like .Theres two high tones in disc.mid high and high.No low tone for iron no mixed mode either in here way to busy for that. 

This site is a nightmare to hunt from the iron.Big small weird all on top of each other from about 1840 to about 1920.with a war fought on top of it to boot.Over the years its given me and alot of local hunters great finds.Reb buttons, plates,Yankee buttons lots and lots of bullets for everyone.Its no secret site and its pounded on.They graded through it about 3 years ago and churned up some more stuff first 6 moths after that it was no surprise to go there and see 5 or 6 guys swinging it daily.Lots more goodies was coming up for Us to find then as a site does that gets all of a sudden rejuvenated it started to get scarcer and scarcer.Its just basically solid red clay exposed pottery shards everywhere black glass iron laying everywhere.well hole open right in middle of it barrier-ed off. 

So back to the Tarsacci on this site.I had came through this site last week on a walk back to the truck.I had been back in a 950 dirt site in the woods 6 bar dirt hot rocks aplenty doing some coil testing.As i had cut through to shorten my walk i hit a clean signal in this spot full of iron and it stopped me in my tracks.Thought well must be modern trash.dug hole open targets till there then diug some more about 7 inches or so out pops a dropped 3 ringer .58 caliber.I said huh really?The got a pack stud about 3 feet away another clean hit.Now this is in awful iron and I was still I'm mixed mode from the woods hunt I had been in and 12kHz. 

Later that night I was talking to Dimitar on the phone and mentioned before hanging up about the bullet and it surprised me being so clean sounding.I was surprised Dimitar was not.He ask some particulars about the targets and the nails etc in the hole and he just laughed and said Yep! 

It was in my mind about that laugh so I went back to same spot And set it for optimum audio intelligence in heavy iron.Yes its still noisy like this but this site is eat up in iron.My first target was a solid lock at ID of +2 out of +30 then I couldnt find it and was barely audible in the spoil pile.When I did find it it was a Shotgun primer. the little primer out of the center of a paper shotgun shell casing.I thought come on with this big coil I got that so clean of a hit?

Then chased some weird hits then the audio in here hit me.nail falses were quick dead sounding but real hits had a sonar ping.clear ping echo type hits.So it was partial pip pip pip high tones then a sonar echo high tone Sort of reminiscent of those WW2 Sub movies where the operator gets sonar pings.So in this one area around the well I dug a good 10 to 12 pieces of lead .Flat button.Old smoothed out penny.twisted up brass pieces etc.50 caliber round ball.they all were clean?Anywhere from inch down to say 4 or 5 inches down.I left the site with a new appreciation of the tarsacci for iron hunting. 

What I had seen with the Tarsacci in the woods on unmasking targets from bad dirt I was also seeing in iron unmasking. 

What I have so far come to see With The tarsacci is it sees what others cant in terms of either the soil mask a target of a certain size or conductance.This is usually smaller than a dime from say couple of inches down to about 10 -11 inches.Things a normal machine cant see from Soil overpowering the target it can be small items or low conductance items.Things that the soil wont let break through.the other machines in these sites like VLF FBS BBS etc have gotten alot but the strength of the soil shuts targets down at some point.as the Soil mineral increases the more the conductance and size of targets you find EASILY with the Tarsacci increases. 

Now we have some iron See through too.And most of the targets I have found so far in heavy iron in mild soil or bad soil has been the same low conductance or small.So what we have going on is actual see through it seems.Not that I'm seeing through a piece of iron but the Tarsacci has the ability to tell a non ferrous target from a ferrous target when they are intermingled and allow the good target to be more SEEN. 

Dimitar has told me mineral enhances the target and hes right targets in the soil at times sound cleaner than when out of the soil.Iron ore dirt buried targets sound cleaner buried than exposed to air.So now I see targets that are in coil view in iron sound cleaner than just lying alone.the iron is also enhancing the non ferrous report.Its almost the OXIDE of iron is enhancing the targets through say leeching.Plus the iron sites like site above is already in iron ore soil.Like a target boost.Other machines may also be seeing these targets but the oxide and ore is destroying the clarity. 

Any non ferrous target and any shape is hit i might add in this sceanrio. 

The Tarsacci is not a normal machine and its doing things out of the norm that we are not used too.THIS IS REAL TECHNOLOGY like I havent seen in my soil.This is the type unit you have to set it up right for your site but its doing the work for you easily once it gets purring. 

Dont try and run mixed mode in heavy iron even though it sounds more VLFish.Mixed mode filters are set low to bleed more audio as high tone even deep iron.Disc mode is set to dissect with some stronger filtering to stop iron high tone bleed.Dont over power the unit the see though is the magic and even on sens of 6 I can see a ten inch dime in bad soil.Dont let the machine see too much soil if its bad let it be able to discern a real target from mineral or iron. 

This machine is as close as I've ever seen to a P.I. with disc. 

Dont give up or dismiss the technology if you have one its the real deal!This has the feel to me like a FBS gave me 20 years ago..Its different and we have to learn how to use it.ITS HIGH TECH!Its quirky and all and not perfect but what it does do is like I've experinced now for little over a month.It sees things others cant or struggles with.Get used to the audio and rely on its accuracy and it will become second nature like any machine.it has an different feel for sure but it should its different tech.When you get it set right and you can tell when you do once you accustom yourself to it its pretty dang SLICK! 

I had a hard learning curve with the machine for reasons only known to the designer.BUT I'm glad he subjected me to it on purpose.it gave me deeper insights.I started off backwards. A set up unit that would not hardly run in my soil.then went to a normal set up unit and that showed me so much and why this and that happens. 

Keith

Hi Keith. I am testing the MDT tomorrow in the red dirt of Culpeper VA. In a field that has produced plenty of CW relics. No VLF machine has worked there.  I will be following a GPX. But wondering what would you set the MDT at for this soil? 

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Sorry.  Thought Keith posted this. :) 

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3 hours ago, Dug2gld said:

Hi Keith. I am testing the MDT tomorrow in the red dirt of Culpeper VA. In a field that has produced plenty of CW relics. No VLF machine has worked there.  I will be following a GPX. But wondering what would you set the MDT at for this soil? 

First of all, I suggest the GPX follow you.   😉

Despite what you may have heard, the Tarsacci will not give you GPX like performance in hot dirt.  
 

That being said, forum member abenson and I got the opportunity to use our Tarsaccis in Culpeper last fall as a change of pace from our GPX’s and had some moderate success.  It is not going to work miracles, so set your expectations accordingly.  I feel it has the same raw depth as the Equinox or perhaps an inch or two deeper under hot soil conditions (note this is with the 9x11 Tarsacci coil vs. Equinox 11” round), but you will definitely get a non-ferrous target ID deeper than the Equinox (in other words both detect a non-ferrous target at depth up to about perhaps 9 to 10” or so max, but the Tarsacci is more likely to give you a non-ferrous ID whereas the Equinox is more likely to give you a ferrous grunt on that deep non-ferrous target).  In thick iron, I think I would prefer to go with the Deus or Equinox, over the Tarsacci, even in Culpeper, because maximizing recovery speed and unmasking of shallower non-ferrous targets in machine gun iron are their strong suit vs. Tarsacci.  That being said, Tarsacci is no slouch on recovery speed.

See Andy’s post below on setup and settings hints.  The key is using a high salt balance setting (typically between 40 to 50) in hot soil to quiet things down.  Good luck.

 

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6 hours ago, Dug2gld said:

Hi Keith. I am testing the MDT tomorrow in the red dirt of Culpeper VA. In a field that has produced plenty of CW relics. No VLF machine has worked there.  I will be following a GPX. But wondering what would you set the MDT at for this soil? 

 

3 hours ago, Chase Goldman said:

First of all, I suggest the GPX follow you.   😉

Despite what you may have heard, the Tarsacci will not give you GPX like performance in hot dirt.  
 

That being said, forum member abenson and I got the opportunity to use our Tarsaccis in Culpeper last fall as a change of pace from our GPX’s and had some moderate success.  It is not going to work miracles, so set your expectations accordingly.  I feel it has the same raw depth as the Equinox or perhaps an inch or two deeper under hot soil conditions (note this is with the 9x11 Tarsacci coil vs. Equinox 11” round), but you will definitely get a non-ferrous target ID deeper than the Equinox (in other words both detect a non-ferrous target at depth up to about perhaps 9 to 10” or so max, but the Tarsacci is more likely to give you a non-ferrous ID whereas the Equinox is more likely to give you a ferrous grunt on that deep non-ferrous target).  In thick iron, I think I would prefer to go with the Deus or Equinox, over the Tarsacci, even in Culpeper, because maximizing recovery speed and unmasking of shallower non-ferrous targets in machine gun iron are their strong suit vs. Tarsacci.  That being said, Tarsacci is no slouch on recovery speed.

See Andy’s post below on setup and settings hints.  The key is using a high salt balance setting (typically between 40 to 50) in hot soil to quiet things down.  Good luck.

 

LOL. Thats funny!! Thank you for the reply! I tried the deus up there a few months ago, it was a no go. I have used the deus for the last 7 years in the nice sandy soil in this area.  I love that machine!!  I recently purchased a Garrett ATX for the red dirt in Northern VA.   I like that machine as well, but its a beast to swing!! I am very impressed with the Tarsacci, I swung it for a few hours the other day. I think they did a great job on putting this machine together.  I will be swinging tomorrow in the red dirt of Culpeper, I will for sure let you know how it goes, thanks again for the help!! 

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