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How Many Target Types Do You See?


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I see way too many new hunters who hope to find some gold but think it’s the first thing they are going to find..sorry bad news–its not   In most conditions, random digging is not going to do much for you.  While its good to dig a lot of targets, the key is to continually work on your selectivity.  By all means the way to get used to the target sounds of your detector is to to dig but along with this learning over time it’s important to be able to recognize some various basic target types.  In the picture we have a nice array:  too big–(cigarette pack), elongated: (Allan keys, glasses arm and bobby pins). too small and weak: (some of the smaller foils at left),, alloys (caps).  Not shown here are some iron targets–(bolts, that type of thing).  With practice these are all recognizable targets–they have “problems” either on the meter or when checked on the cross sweep or in pinpoint. “There are also several “good” targets–a few coins, and some of the more solid foil pieces.  While it might not be as exciting as getting out and digging–just getting a few of each target type and testing them on an upside down cardboard box can increase your accuracy a lot.   While there are sites where “inclusive digging” is the way to go–remember–an exception does not make a rule.  Learning how good targets respond is a more productive way to learn than “going begging” with weak, elongated or out-sized signals.   The “iffy” ones can come later.  clivesgoldpage.com

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Very good points made. I was just thinking that as I took my Tejon over an area I had hit pretty well earlier in the week and because I know the Tejon so well I was surprised how many coins I skipped thinking they were trash and how little trash I actually dug with the Tejon. Knowing the machine is so critical and relying on VDI's opens opportunities for other seasoned detectorist.

I would rather dig a suspect target than go home thinking What If...

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I agree with you for the most part but that would be for shallow targets. Deeper targets pose a slightly different challenge depending on the the soil conditions and rock. I can't tell you how many times I dug faint crappy sounds and pulled up silver. On the other hand I've had some great sounds and dug 14'' only to find a bobby pin under two brick sized rocks. In all honesty I pass on a lot of targets, but if I return to the area with a different coil or machine I always end up finding something good with a different setup. No matter how good we think we are at discriminating out the junk with our ears, we always end up regretting not digging. So I say dig all iffy targets (could mean the difference in bringing home something really good)

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7 hours ago, Denny said:

I hate those modelo foil covered bottle caps they fool me everytime.

ya those are unusual.  I see Heineken as the "median" cap--lots of aluminum in them they are half ferrous and half non ferrous. When those alert you--you are being pretty thorough.

cjc

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I find my self doing better with the analog only and no vdi. I dig less trash and find better targets. Not sure how well you can apply this to a vdi machine but the way I run my Tejon and for those that aren't familiar with them you have 2 dscrimination circuits you can toggle between. In an unknown area I will start with disc 1 set to just trim out iron rust like nails and rusty halos etc. and if i start hitting can slag or modern trash I will nudge it up past foil and even at the bottom line of nickel. 2nd disc I use as a range check. Usually set it for pull tab which is the bottom of zinc pennies. Poorly degraded zincs will break at that point too.

When I hit a target the first thing is located it. This means hitting the target in a couple directions to make sure I am over it. Next I listen for duration of the sound as i pass the coil over. This tells me size. Next I check how loud it is which can tell me a couple of things such as depth or extremely high conductor like a can or screw cap. Lastly with the pin point mode I check how the vco reacts. Does it have a flat tone as I pass over, usually aluminum has a bright flat sound, or does it have a roll to it.

To access the disc 1 you just run the machine, disc 2 by pushing the trigger forward and pinpoint vco you pull the trigger.

Now why do I do better with this? Really simple. I don't have numbers telling me what the target might be so I have to rely on my imagination and experience with the machine to determine whether or on I should dig. I find that when I use my AT Pro or my Kruzer I catch myself doubting the target and too many times passing over. I also find myself tired if it is just beeping too much. The Tejon when set properly is quiet as a mouse and you only hear targets in the range your looking for. This means sometimes making another pass with different settings in if your cherry picking but for the most part it isn't necessary and I only do that in extreme trash conditions.

There are a couple of tricks I learned with the Tejon that seem to help on the vdi machines but find the vdi's don't necessarily blend frequencies as well As an example if I have small iron that I disc so it just breaks (broken signal) on an iron nail and put a dime near it, I will actually gain depth on that dime. This is because the signal on the dime is typically weak on the Tejon as it picks up on lower conductors better (louder) and the iron brings the dime down so I hear it louder. It don't believe it makes the dime signal stronger in the sense of depth but more it changes the bias of the machines detection to make it just louder.  Last bit on the Tejon I found is you don't always need to blast if full gain all the time as it tends to flatten the audio especially on shallow targets in the case of coin shooting in a park. Depth loss when dropping sensitivity is not that much maybe an inch or so between 50% and overload (quarter turn past 10). I usually start at 10 and if I am blasting too much trash and can't hear the difference I will drop the gain back. If I have a fringe target I will just crank it up.

Keeping that in mind and using good coil control with consistent level sweeps enables me to be more productive with no #'s. That doesn't go without saying that the numbers do help. But how many times can you catch your self looking at the numbers first when you first get a hit and not the coil and try to locate the target first THEN use the #'s to take some of the mystery out.

Try digging some targets without even looking at the #'s just the audio.

Just something I think may help.

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