Tried F2/2 Setting Today

[F350Platinum]

Finally got a good day to go out in the farm, the last two were pretty miserable. It was another day to find lots of tacks and buckshot, unfortunately the tacks fall in the numeric range of the nicer buttons, and the buckshot tends to come up like tombacs, so I pretty much have to dig 'em all. 😵 See my first pic for all the trash! I don't usually bother to show it but y'all have to see the amount of buckshot, bullets and tacks I dig in a day. 😀

Much mention has been made of the FE and F2 settings on the Equinox, so I decided to give F2 a shot since I've been running the detector in FE/0 with Field 2, and finding that I'm wasting a bit of time inquiring targets that turn out to be heavy or really rusty iron. I thought from reading a bit that I could try F2/2 for a bit hoping it would help. Didn't go to 3 or 1. After I dug the nails and the large nut in the bottom picture, I changed the settings.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but F2 seems to "tighten up" iron, causing it to not register as much in the 9+ range. While maybe a couple of the iron finds still falsed, for the most part a quick change of sweep direction turned the whole signal to iron. Found the tombac almost immediately, they usually give a small iron sound because of the iron shank or remnant but this time it was a solid 7. For the rest of the day I didn't dig a single piece of iron! 

Now they need an update with a Pb setting... 🤔 😀

The smaller button next to the tombac (neither are larger than a dime) says "PLATED" on it, and the little tag is odd, "xed fe" and the number 61 are stamped on it. The elongated bullet seems to have a 2 on it! I find a LOT of buckle fragments.

[Badger-NH]

F2/2 is basically the same as FE/0.

I'm pretty sure F2 is wider in both directions so it goes higher than FE/9 and lower than FE/0.

 

[F350Platinum]

26 minutes ago, Badger-NH said:

F2/2 is basically the same as FE/0.

I should have mentioned that I have a 600, so F2/2 is the equivalent of F2/4 on the 800. 

Rained lightly last night and today is going to be sunny and warm for February. I'm going to see if I can get more fiddling in, switch F2/FE modes when I find an iron target to see what it does. I doubt I'll find anything different than already belabored on this forum, but it was great to try something instead of running it vanilla. That's what I'm here for! 🙂 Just got curious because of the surveys.

[Badger-NH]

2 hours ago, F350Platinum said:

I should have mentioned that I have a 600, so F2/2 is the equivalent of F2/4 on the 800. 

Rained lightly last night and today is going to be sunny and warm for February. I'm going to see if I can get more fiddling in, switch F2/FE modes when I find an iron target to see what it does. I doubt I'll find anything different than already belabored on this forum, but it was great to try something instead of running it vanilla. That's what I'm here for! 🙂 Just got curious because of the surveys.

 

It doesn't matter what Equinox you have, F2 gives you more adjustment which is a good thing. There is no drawback to using F2. They should have just replaced the old FE with F2 and called it an improvement instead of keeping both.

 

[F350Platinum]

Day 2 of F2. Didn't dig a single piece of iron! There is quite a lot of it in the field, some places littered with nails, and lots of broken farm equipment parts.

Today's haul is interesting, 4 buttons, one of which was silver plated and two are decorated, what I think is a rein guide boss, and what might be a tuning key from an instrument. Also some kind of weight notched for string or wire, and a drawer pull back plate. As usual I also found an interesting piece of buckle. This field just keeps on giving up old relics. I wish I would find more coins, but after searching about 40 acres so far, buttons make my day. 🙂

[Badger-NH]

I run mine at F2-0 most of the time but it seems that no matter where I set the Iron Bias, I always end up digging at least a few pieces of iron. Even at the max setting, some iron will still give me those iffy high tones. Most of these I can reject but some I have to dig. Every once in a while they turn out to be a non-ferrous target comingling with a piece of iron. That's why I set it at 0. I want to hear every possible non-ferrous target. I'd rather use my ears than let the detector decide what to dig.

 

[F350Platinum]

21 minutes ago, Badger-NH said:

I'd rather use my ears than let the detector decide what to dig.

 

Totally agree 🙂 I got a few falses with some iron, but a quick 45 or 90 degree turn showed it up. I was reluctant to change any settings from Field 2. This is only helping a little. I appreciate all advice I get.

Again I hope y'all will pardon my enthusiasm, I'm grateful the ground hasn't frozen and I can still get out. Gotta get as much out of this as I can before spring.

[Badger-NH]

Here in NH, the fields usually freeze by early/mid December. When that happens, we switch to hunting the woods. You can almost always dig in the woods where I am and we usually don't get much snow. When we do get snow, there is always the beach. So we've got it covered for hunting year round.

[GB_Amateur]

13 hours ago, F350Platinum said:

I got a few falses with some iron, but a quick 45 or 90 degree turn showed it up.

I've recovered non-ferrous (actually coins) when a 90 degree re-sweep showed only iron tones.  (I run wide open -- no masking anywhere on the scale.)  True that most of the time this will be a telltale sign of a ferrous target, but no rule-of-thumb is foolproof.  (I take that back; one is:  dig all.)  Having said that, often your time will be better spent ignoring the most suspect hits.  It's a tradeoff and every detectorist has to decide where his/her breakover point is for a particular time and place.

I hunted a 19th Century farmhouse (permission) thinking I'd be unearthing coin after coin.  I found a few Wheat pennies (3 or 4) and some modern coins (including a clad half dollar) in a 4-5 hour hunt.  I didn't come close to covering the entire property and hope to go back, assuming I'm still welcome.  My conclusion was that some people were way more careful with their money, didn't hang outside with money in their pockets,...  So you may be experiencing such a site although it could be you just haven't found the 'garden spot'.  (Neither did I.)  And those antique relics are pretty good consolation prizes, IMO.

It sounds like you have access to this spot anytime you want, which is a big plus.  And being able to learn the nuances of your detectors and their settings -- you can't ask for a better site.  (Well, you could, but that would be greedy.  😉)

[F350Platinum]

2 hours ago, GB_Amateur said:

It sounds like you have access to this spot anytime you want, which is a big plus.  And being able to learn the nuances of your detectors and their settings -- you can't ask for a better site.  (Well, you could, but that would be greedy.  😉)

Hey GB, thanks for the advice. 

I do have "all access", and the farmer said I can keep all I find. Could not have been more lucky! The ground is like butter here, very few rocks. Mostly thin topsoil, Blue Marl, clay and sand. It's been farmed for almost 300 years. I'm out here right now taking a break. This site is huge, about 180 acres in front of my house, and over 200 more up the road. So far (since November) I've searched about 50.

Pictured below is my typical find when I get tones in the 12 - 16 (sometimes as high as 20) with iron on the cross sweep. I've been whining about these tacks, I just dug that and the old nail  to illustrate the point. Here I rarely ever get anything over 23, even the Spanish Reales are a solid 18. 😀 I think I'd have to wash my pants if I ever see a signal above 30! The only time I ever saw one was with some steel in the site across the road, a 19th century site. The house is gone now, they pushed it in the woods about 15 years ago.

Yesterday what I thought was a tack turned out to be a button! 😀 I will keep your advice in mind.