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Unexpected Change


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This is a thing discussed before, but I forget where. Today I was out for a little while and found a most unusual amount of quarters and dimes. The  TID of these things was all over the place, meaning that there was no usual TID number for anything, but they had a nice clean signal. A lot of pocket change in general today, which is usual, but an unusual amount of quarters and dimes with no consistent number but had good signal tone. This I have seen many times before, but have not ever had a good explanation for. The Christmas money for my girls is mounting up. 

These are easy targets for any detector, and not usually passed by anyone. Of course lots of people ignore zincolns, but in well hunted areas it is rare to see so many quarters and dimes. Nickels I expect to be there because they look like pull tabs usually, but the Tarsacci loves round and I dig everything not obviously iron that sounds good, so I get them often.

My theory of this is that something in the ground matrix, or in the state of the coin from being in the ground awhile, changes target ID enough that they are not properly identified by the detector for what they are. I would love to hear the thoughts of others. I see this regularly. I find no setting that returns these to their usual TID without losing trash suppression.

Thoughts anyone?

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On the MDT8000, a correct Salt balance seems to have the biggest effect on TID accuracy. If you are in heavy minerals, Black Sand active will also help keep TIDs closer to "normal". I usually hunt by ear like you. TID is very secondary.

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You hit on why the MDT gives a clean sound even thou the digits drift……ROUND.  I can’t see the screen a lot when water hunting but I listen for round tones that are deep.  When I switch from AM to disc I also listen for high and low tones combined.  Those have never produced gold for me.

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It is defiantly an audio machine.

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10 hours ago, JCR said:

On the MDT8000, a correct Salt balance seems to have the biggest effect on TID accuracy. If you are in heavy minerals, Black Sand active will also help keep TIDs closer to "normal". I usually hunt by ear like you. TID is very secondary.

Black sand and Salt balance are useful to help deal with junk, I use them all the time. Maybe something there. The large coil shifts the TID a little too, no way I am taking that off.

3 hours ago, dewcon4414 said:

You hit on why the MDT gives a clean sound even thou the digits drift……ROUND.  I can’t see the screen a lot when water hunting but I listen for round tones that are deep.  When I switch from AM to disc I also listen for high and low tones combined.  Those have never produced gold for me.

Exactly. All the good stuff is round or signals hard for some reason. I found a little pendant yesterday that had broken off it’s chain. A tiny silver elephant but still signaled hard even though the shape of the sound was not clean edged. Had to dig that anyway because it sounded like one of those lattice rings. A lot of noise for such a tiny thing.

I run mixed mode all the time. For what I do it helps. It gets a little chatty in heavy junk of course, but when round comes around it is hard to miss.

23 minutes ago, JCR said:

It is defiantly an audio machine.

Here you both see the essential thing to my thinking. Good targets sound good. Running through heavy trash with a large coil, the audio is the best thing to sort out what might be good from what is probably bad. Might and probably do not seem like the pinnacle of certainty, and of course it means digging pennies that sound like dimes and pull tabs that sound like gold rings, but it does allow hunting in heavy trash better than anything I have tried before.

I still would like to know what shifts the TID so much some places.

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My reason for posting this at all to see if anyone has ideas on why the TID shifts like this. We know that the large coil can shift it, salt balance and black-sand maybe, ground balance shifts it, and probably more. But why some coins, and especially some coins at some places shift given the settings as more or less a constant for me. The coins are always heavily discolored and sometimes crusty too, if that might matter.

Not sure how to ask the question properly, but the TID shift I am asking about tends to be in places where the junk is high and often some bad soil or EMI too. There always tends to be a lot more quarters than are ever seen in areas without this effect. Clearly these coins are masked from other detectors, but I do not know why. 

High trash areas seem to be where I have the best luck anyway, probably because fewer people like to hunt in heavy trash. There is always masking in such places and it seems like one of the effects is that unmasking creates this shift. I also use the large coil in heavy trash which puts more junk and bad soil under the coil at any given time too. 

Just thinking that any sense of why might allow a more effective setting profile based on a specific site rather than a fuzzy general sense of what seems to work most of the time.

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You can always call Dimiter to discuss things, He has always been patient & helpful with me.

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22 hours ago, JCR said:

You can always call Dimiter to discuss things, He has always been patient & helpful with me.

That may be the right way to go. I have asked him about the quarters before, but did not get anything useful. 

Whether or not I understand why is less important than simply getting the targets, and getting them in well hunted ground. Clearly masked targets to my mind. Perhaps understanding more will add nothing more to it.

It is an interesting thing to think about is all.

 

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Figuring things out is part of the fun for me.

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