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2021 Detecting Quest


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Yes, GBA, I was aiming that comment at you 🙂 .  But the same can be said for many many of the members here... so shout out to all of you!.. and thanks to all of you for being so open to share and answer (most) questions without judgment :). 

And by the way, I would absolutely attend a Detector Prospector Convention!!

~Tim

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Just for reference on what I'm dealing with.. Just a day or two after the cold weather that devastated Texas... including the Houston area - the sun came out yesterday... so I decided to go to old school ground I referenced above while I waited for my water to be turned back on.

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I spent 2 hours doing some "exploration" using my old Explorer SE Pro, and then some with the Tesoro Silver Sabre disc'd to allow nickels.  I was digging coin tones - as iffy as they may have been...  As I mentioned, I have been over this same area countless times with my Equinox... and as much as I would love this to be a Quest Goal Target success story, I do find it promising that I was able to pull some high conductors that I didn't see before (many hours of swing time previous to my quest) - even if they were just copper memorials.  Anyway, the pic below gives you an idea of the ground I'm picking through.... all the more reason finding one or more of the items on my goal list will be a very happy day for me.  

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The large coin shaped item is a batting cage token.  14 Lincolns (mostly copper, a few zinc).  One clad dime.  Trash.  The trash is mostly deep... I did clear some surface junk... but really, most of these were 5+"  A few of the tin and aluminum shards were deeper than the end of my Lesche handle.  

I'm sure this is somewhat normal for areas you all have hunted....  I will be heading back out there today with the EQX 800/11" and the EQX 600/6" (waiting for it to get above freezing temps).  I won't bore you all with non-Quest goal targets in the future (which means it may be a while before I post on this thread again... if ever - haha!), just thought I would share the joy of my first run.

~Tim

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Glad to see you are defrosting down there, and happy for you to get out and dig some targets. May some shiny metal pop out and warm your day next hunt! Thank for the report also well done.   😃ht

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Hi Tim, I don't know if this will work in your area, but I noticed my 6" coil performed much better when I reduced the sensitivity a bit. I don't know if it gets overloaded at normal sensitivity (18-20 in my mineralized ground), but when I knocked it down to 15-16, it seemed to focus better and cut right through the trash layer and got me 3 rings ( 1-gold, 2-silver) in a very trashy area. Of course I wasn't trying to hunt with it or go super deep, but I had been over that ground with the 11" and felt there was something else there and the 6" pulled them out. So try reducing your sensitivity a bit on the 6" and see if that helps.

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3 hours ago, CPT_GhostLight said:

So try reducing your sensitivity a bit on the 6" and see if that helps.

Thanks CPT!  I'll give that a try.  Tim.

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GB gave me a good tip a while back, Use historic aerials to bounce through the time lines on the property. You will see over time when the soil was changed or moved around, Hunt the fringe lines. I bring flags, and place them after the first good target, and continue to place them after each good target. Sometimes you will see a pattern in your finds and you can focus on the pattern edges. Another good idea is to do what I call a trash day. This means dig all the crap from a grid area and later go back and focus on the good stuff. That being said, Sometimes the targets are just to deep. Just go slow and good luck with the spot. Glad your warming up!!

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Hi Tim I use the 6inch coil nearly all the time, and I also noticed it seems better with the sensitivity down to mid teens or lower. It may just be the ground but it seemed to work better.

I completely agree a site is never worked out. I see the suggestion of aerial photos has just been made, on a similar line can you access maps going back over time. Along with building changes sometimes subtle things change like entrances and pathways. Any old trees that used to be there (back in 1915) for which there may be no obvious sign nowadays. Any outdoor seating. If there is a water run off, is it near the school or is there a channel leading to it. Children love to jump these things and have the coins shake out their pockets when they land - both now and in the past.

Best of luck on your quest.

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Not sure how bad your ground is and why masking may or may not be an issue for lack of silver but I did do a mask ID test and posted my results here:

I did the test so I could learn how to discover objects that maybe masked. Couple things to note is sometimes a slower recovery and true threshold based all metal mode may reveal a target better than a machine that tries to separate one target over another giving jumpy id's. 3d masking seems to be a dual edge sword when it comes to recovery speed. If a target below is away from the mask above then faster is better and a narrow coil center will work good but if the target is directly below then the id will be jumpy as the machine tries to report 2 targets in the same space. All metal may give you a descent tone that you can follow by size of the sound and you may not be able to get an id or the id may be down averaged or up averaged depending on frequency and the target and mask type.

So in other words take that vequaro out dust it off and chuck in a fresh set of batteries. Set your tone break to just above iron and use your pp to listen for any hint of a double target.

Usually if an area lacks silver is because it has already been picked out but the old analog may sniff some out for ya.

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55 minutes ago, dogodog said:

Use historic aerials to bounce through the time lines on the property.

Thanks Dog, I did go to Historic Aerials, great info there..  that is how I found out the estimate age.  Unfortunately, in this area, while topos go back to 1915, the aerials only go back to the 50's... which is ok, plenty to gleen from the 50's too.  

Great idea about flags, I will try that.  

~Tim

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47 minutes ago, Stu said:

If there is a water run off, is it near the school or is there a channel leading to it. Children love to jump these things and have the coins shake out their pockets when they land - both now and in the past.

Thanks Stu!

Hmmmm, I haven't noticed this around the area, but it is a great thought, I will see what may be around the area.  

Also, I appreciate your confirming the lower sens with the 6"... definitely giving that a go next time out there. 

~Tim

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