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Ferro Check, What An Awesome Feature


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The tone (having extension) meter (not too "wild)" and the Ferrachec are a good combination to keep you off the iron and caps.  When you hear a broken tone and see big meter changes on the cross  sweep--the Ferrachec confirms it.  Maybe not definitive, but a good clue amongst the others.  I  think it's important to get a feel for how deep it goes though in that there's a point where using basic target testing skills become the go to.   There's also the "too wide a sweep" margin for error. 

cjc

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On 4/23/2022 at 10:10 PM, Tahts-a-dats-ago said:

I made it a point to pay attention to the ferro-check today. I went to what is probably my most difficult permission. This location has had human activity (not counting natives) dating back to the late 1600's. Over time there has been a glass house (glass slag all over the property), a blacksmith, a slaughterhouse, a timber mill, a feed mill, a junk yard, and a mechanic shop (he worked on boats and vehicles). The current owner (a friend) grew up on the property - his father had the mechanic shop and what was essentially a junk yard (scrap metal, vehicles, engines, etc..). That's the history that I am aware of.

The soil is fairly mild (2-3 bars on the Deus mineral meter) but so chock full of bits and pieces of various metals that I don't bother trying to ground balance. The metal pieces run the gamut - square nails, iron bits, brass, copper, tin, aluminum, etc.. There is so much trash in the ground that I don't believe I've ever dug a target that didn't have some sort of metal trash in the hole.

The area that I hunted today (maybe 15 X 30 feet) must have been a burn pile, or perhaps a building had burned down at some point in the past. Around 6 inches (give/take) down it is clear that everything was burned, and in sections there is a lot of what looks like lump charcoal (forget what it ID's at, but it gives a nice mid tone) 4+ inches below the surface. There is a heavy layer of fist-sized and smaller rocks ranging from 4-6 inches below the surface over most of that small area.

I never try for depth on this permission, because all the metal trash makes depth an impossible thing. 

I dug every target that gave a good tone (even 1-way)(provided the target isn't large) as I always do at this location. But this time I paid attention to the ferro-check. I never had a signal that didn't show at least 1 bar in the ferro-check meter, but that's because there was some sort of [ferrous] metal trash in with the "good" targets. I say "good" because a number of those "good" targets were brass, copper, or aluminum. I did dig some targets that the ferro-check filled halfway or better - all were ferrous junk. They were, at best, very iffy tones to begin with.

From what I saw today, the ferro-check is a pretty effective tool down to a depth of 5 inches or so. I didn't dig anything deeper so I can't really say just how deep the ferro-check can be effective.

I continue to be impressed with the capabilities of the Legend. In spite of the claims made by some, it does very well in trashy sites.

So why do I bother with a location that has that kind of metal trash?

There's silver in there. 

Today's take, after about 3 hours of hunting, was 3 Wheats, 2 copper memorials, and a Merc. I also dug a small compact that dates from 1920 - 1925. The brass and copper items were donated to a friend who saves that stuff for recycling at the local scrapyard.

 

Very nice write up Tahts!  Looking forward to hearing about more of your ferro check thoughts and thoughts in general using the information the legend is providing. 
Thanks!

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On 4/23/2022 at 3:45 PM, Jeff McClendon said:

I couldn’t agree more.

I also don’t understand the negativity aimed at the FerroCheck feature by some unless it is coming from a lack of time using the Legend.

It works very well within the limits that Nokta Makro set for it. Is it perfect…of course not. Is it reliable contrary to what a very famous YouTuber is claiming? It has been very reliable for me on iron targets, steel alloy targets and non-ferrous targets that are giving strong enough signals to be in range of this feature’s capabilities.

I have hunted trashy parks on purpose with the Legend for the past 3 weeks. My non-ferrous to mixed alloy/ferrous ratio of recovered targets per hunt is around 60 non-ferrous to 1 or 2 ferrous and those are usually deeper iffy targets that turn out to be rusted iron nails that were out of range anyway. I have dug 4 rusted bottle caps in 3 weeks of almost daily hunts that fooled me. That is out of more than 800 targets recovered with the Legend during that time in thick bottle cap/pull tab trashed areas.

Where I detect, that effective range is between 4 and 5” depth on coin sized objects which is plenty for the average steel crown bottle cap trashed sites around here. I have used several other detectors that cost up to double the price of the Legend that are not nearly as reliable for  distinguishing shallower steel alloy trash….

I have not been able to use it yet for gold prospecting or large iron relic hunting.

I expect FerroCheck will be even better with the user adjustable iron bias settings coming soon.

Well done Nokta Makro.

 That’s awesome Jeff! I’m really enjoying learning the Legend. I will most likely never use it on the beach or in the gold fields so for my hunting locations it’s proving to be a great machine. 

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1 hour ago, cjc said:

The tone (having extension) meter (not too "wild)" and the Ferrachec are a good combination to keep you off the iron and caps.  When you hear a broken tone and see big meter changes on the cross  sweep--the Ferrachec confirms it.  Maybe not definitive, but a good clue amongst the others.  I  think it's important to get a feel for how deep it goes though in that there's a point where using basic target testing skills become the go to.   There's also the "too wide a sweep" margin for error. 

cjc

cjc ,exactly! There are a lot of clues given that when you pick up on them will sure help out.

 You’re absolutely right about the to wide a sweep. When I’m working a target the sweep widths get smaller and smaller till I can zero in on the location of the target. The old minelab wiggle so to speak lol. Normally I like to wiggle off the target. There’s info there too when the coil comes off the target. You have to do that with the deus1 or you’ll dig a ton of bottle caps. 
Thanks for the info. Good luck and HH!

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  • 3 weeks later...

The sense I get with FerraCheck is that its not meant to stand alone.   Combined with using the coil, meter and audio (especially in 6 or 60 tones) its a great tool for shallow targets.  It's also a great learning tool for new hunters in that they can take the entire body of target information and then see visually what the machine is telling them.  It's like may have gotten the idea that a detector is like a cell phone--and they can just push a few buttons and dial up some gold...😆.

cjc

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  • 1 year later...

My wife won some money at a casino and gave me enough to buy a Nokta Legend.  
I’ve had it about 3 weeks and I really like it.  
I found a man’s wedding band in a local park Monday. 
it appeared to be plated.  
However, when I got home and cleaned it there is a marking on the inside that says “18K-PLAT”
Looked it up and it is 18K gold inside and Platinum outside. 
I think I just paid for the Legend. 

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With some nice boot!

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