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Winter's Over... Now Need Some Expert Advice!


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I've been out of the picture for the last 4-5 months due to winter conditions here in the OKC area and duties as the Senior Spouse for my wife's Military Command on the Base here. Weather is finally moderating and time to start hunting again.

I have two questions for you full-timers.

1. I have never been interested in seeded group hunts/tournaments, but my son who is 11 is now going out with me regularly to TH with his Garrett Ace 300, and there is a big annual seeded hunt coming up about a hundred miles from us in April run by the Three Forks Treasure Hunters Club. This would be a fun trip for my son, and they have a kid's hunt on each day as well as regular adult hunts. 
I have NEVER done one of these before as it isn't my thing, but for my son, we're going and wondering what you all would suggest for setting my 800 for seeded conditions. (The 300 is easy for him) The hunt will be in the Creek County Fairgrounds. We'll rent an RV for the weekend and give my son Kai an adventure...but I'd like to win some stuff too!  

2. I have my new 6" and 15" coils inbound and wondering if I should use the 15, or the stock 11 for this kind of competition hunting?

Your assistance is appreciated!  Next two weeks will be in the woods Morel Mushroom hunting, but back to the detectors in force following that.

Cheers,

Frank

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I would use the 11 inch...The hunt will be fun for your son.

I went to one hunt many years ago...it was fun but not my thing...

How do you know a morel is a morel? I believe I had some come up this year but was afraid to try them. I offered some to my wife but she would not play...

fred

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6 minutes ago, fredmason said:

I would use the 11 inch...The hunt will be fun for your son.

I went to one hunt many years ago...it was fun but not my thing...

How do you know a morel is a morel? I believe I had some come up this year but was afraid to try them. I offered some to my wife but she would not play...

fred

a spore print is a way to identify a mushroom, never eat any mushroom unless your 100 percent sure you have it identified as some can kill with a single bite ingested. a morel resembles a sponge somewhat and occur in areas that burned the previous year 

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Although it's not really my thing either, I've done several.  It's actually more fun then you may imagine, and it's quite competitive.

For me the best way to hunt is to use the lightest detector you own!  Use something that isn't an EMI magnet, with hundreds of other detectors in use at the same time in the same field, the EMI is insane, some machines will get totally blown out.  God save you if some moron is using a PI machine, and no matter how low you set your gain, there always seems to be a a few detectors that you'll have to avoid hunting around or you'll get blown out.

Nothing will be deep, usually they just kick dirt over the targets or throw them in the grass, so drop the sensitivity way down, that will help with EMI and you won't waste time investigating targets that were dropped a year ago and are now 4"+ deep (I'm always amazed to see people on these planted hunts digging 6" deep clad ?

Some seeded hunts don't allow coils larger then 11"-12".  I've seen several clubs do this to prevent people from using the Big Foot coils, as they don't make them for many detectors and some people felt that provided them an unfair advantage.  If you're going to use the Equinox, I wouldn't use the 15" coil.  It's a great coil, but the added weight will slow you down and any perceived coverage advantage will be lost as you slow down from swinging that big coil. 

At the end of the day, the faster you can run around to hoover up targets and not mess around with settings, EMI or investigating targets, the more targets you'll bag and the higher odds you bring home the tokens for prizes!

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I use my Deus on these things.  It's a social event (adult Easter egg hunt) more than anything else, but still fun and competitive.  The ones I attend are usually at beach venues but I have done turf hunts too.  For the Equinox use the 11" coil and Park 1 settings at the default and lower sensitivity to 15 or so to prevent EMI pickup from others.  Over the last year I have seen a lot of complaints about EMI FROM the Equinoxes to the point that at the last seeded hunt I attended, they required the Equinoxes to be in single frequency, lol.  I wouldn't be surprised if some hunts banned them altogether (most of these hunts ban PI detectors for similar reasons).  So if you are relegated to single, just pick 10 khz and swing away.  It should be great fun for you and your son.  The name of the game is efficient target recovery, so practice that skill most of all.  Like Cal said, do not waste your time going after anything deeper than 3 or 4 inches.  Most targets should be within detect range of your handheld pinpointer brushed against the ground, so beep, drop, pinpoint, pop the target and move on quickly.  

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  • The title was changed to Winter's Over... Now Need Some Expert Advice!

As said previously EMI and interference from other detectors is an issue with these types of events...due to the closeness of many detectors.

You can try to get out away from others as much as you can during the event.

With you Equinox maybe changing to a single frequency might help you if detector chatter  becomes a problem.

Personally I would lower the Sensitivity too and most (or all)  targets are usually shallow or on top.

As Cal said most comps have a coil size limit of 11" to keep a level playing field as best as they can.

good luck and have fun, they are a good social day and a chance to talk with other detectorists.

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Id reduce sensitivity to 10ish.... and use recovery 6.   That reduces MOST EMI.   Efficiency....11" coil.   IF you know the type of targets being buried.......use a pattern open enough to get those target yet rejects other distractions.   IF they allow a PPer...... use it.   Find out what they allow as a digging tool.   Wear a pouch.... most require you to pick up your trash.   They normally require the use of headphones..... and can require not talking to other sharing info.   Dig the hole...... fill the hole.... just know the rules.  Normally a time limit........ and in the first 20 min. most targets are recovered ..... dont get hung up on digging deep targets.    OVERLAP swings.....

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22 hours ago, fredmason said:

 

How do you know a morel is a morel? I believe I had some come up this year but was afraid to try them. I offered some to my wife but she would not play...

fred

1

Morels are actually quite easy to identify. The only shroom that some people mistake for morel is one that looks like brains. Other than that one, it's pretty easy to ID the morels...and BOY are they tasty!  They are also grossly expensive if you buy them. They can cost as much as $50/lb fresh.
Here is a picture of a morel and the other one that some mistake it for. Easy to tell too because the stem of the morel is hollow. False morel stems are solid through.  Go hunt! 

Morels 1.jpg

234px-Verpa_bohemica1.jpg

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Thank you guys for GREAT advice on the seeded hunts!  Super info!

I'll go with the 11" and use the suggested sensitivity and recovery settings in Park 1. I'll also consider the 10khz single freq option if EMI gets bad.

I think they are using painted Wheaties for the Gold Hunt. and Silver coins for the Silver quarter and Half Dollar hunts, so I'll open the range for those and close everything else.  My son will be swinging an Ace 300 for the kids hunt, so discrim will just be set to block the crap.

Cheers all!

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