Some Unconventional, But Interesting Air/depth Tests

[runningnorth]

Hi all,

Just thought I'd show these informal air tests I did a few months ago. 

First photo is a steel pole @ 5.5ft.

 Second photo is a steel plate in a ravine approx. 5-6ft away.

Third photo: a pile of junk(things I dug/found at my favorite secret site.). Detector has strong response @ 4 feet.

Fourth photo:  my lovely 2020 Mazda Miata @ 7ft.

Fifth photo is a 150,000 gallon diesel storage tank @ approx. 12ft. away.  The wall has rebar in it and is 8ft. from the coil.

These all were done with the Beast coil at max sensitivity.  These results are simply outstanding - the best results I've seen from an IB detector with a mid-sized coil on large ferrous objects.  Tarsacci seems to be maxxed out @ 8 ft. (in the air), no matter the size of the object. I have some even more interesting in-the-ground results - I'll share these in a subsequent post....

[JCR]

If you don't have a 2 box detector, that kind of sensitivity would work fairly well to find bottle/trash dumps. Should be even better in-ground.

[Guest]

11 hours ago, runningnorth said:

These results are simply outstanding - the best results I've seen from an IB detector with a mid-sized coil on large ferrous objects. 

Thanks for this contribution RunningNorth. As JCR notes, there is an unexpected application there for this. Also it may help explain how the Tarsacci behaves in some situations. I had no idea it might be picking up big metal anything like that far away, this is good to know.

[JCR]

As with any detector, it is good to know how close you can get to large metal objects/fences off the EDGE of the coil & not get swamped.

[GB_Amateur]

Corrugated galvanized culvert pipes are decent in-ground targets to estimate m/l real life depth limits.  Plenty of those around in USA, anyway.

[Dancer]

Another good test would be.  How close you can detect a coin near these targets.     By adjusting the settings.

[dewcon4414]

Or…. go to a playground… those can be tuff to hunt near say monkey bars or slides.  The MDT has a coil HALO much like a Sov.  You have to wind down the power.  I suspect the standard coil would do a better job…. and I’d still use AM.

[Guest]

43 minutes ago, dewcon4414 said:

Or…. go to a playground… those can be tuff to hunt near say monkey bars or slides.  The MDT has a coil HALO much like a Sov.  You have to wind down the power.  I suspect the standard coil would do a better job…. and I’d still use AM.

The MDT will hunt and signal targets to within about 6-8” of playground equipment, and 8-10” of aluminum chain link fence. Approximate is about the best that can be said about that stuff because how these things are anchored varies a bit. 

It of course does much better if the power and threshold are both turned way down. Setting to hunt even moderately hot, you will need be out considerably further. This could cost you, hunting as close as possible to the structure of your site gives advantage. Not exactly the strong suit of the Tarsacci. 

A person can turn the nose pointed right at the stuff (90 deg) and moving it or walking the fence with it in this orientation allows about as close as you will get with the MDT coil. The most sensitive part of the coil begins about 1-1.5” back from the tip of the nose, so you snug up a little better if good targets are hanging there. Deep targets will still be masked by the big iron anchors and aluminum fence, but good shallow targets like coins will come through anyway. You can pick them out even of it is noisy.

On ball fields, you care more about what is where the folding camp chairs get put than tight to the fence. On the ball field fence you want to be next to the fence on the player’s side. People lean with their arms on the fence and hands hanging over by first and third. For next to the playground equipment, a Compadre with a little coil will beat the pants off you.

In my experience, the stock coil does not beat the 12” coil for this. I get better sensitivity at minimal settings with the 12”, and stability too. I swear the round coil does better for jewelry and coins on edge by far. What I do not get with this is better specificity. I will make the trade off, I find more with it, even in bad ground. It can be a little noisier sometimes, I am ok with that.

I note the round coil there because I believe that is what makes the difference in these coils. Very little more ground is covered with the round coil, even though more ground is under the coil at any given time. It just is not that much longer so you only get a little more new ground on a swing. To my mind, the round shape matters enough to be worth the weight penalty.

[Guest]

Today while out at a ball field I paid closer attention to how close I was getting to the chain link fence with the edge of the coil. I see my estimates are way off, and it is more like a foot where even the side of the coil signals. Much worse than I thought, even at very low threshold and sensitivity settings.

Sorry about that Chief.

[Dancer]

Well hey,  you wouldn't take a Battleship up a river to Battle small craft.    Thats what River Patrol Boats or maybe Destroyers are made for.       For close- in fighting along fences and Tot lot slides ect , gotta pull another tool out of the bag.