Mountain Mike

When I clicked on this topic I thought surely by the time I read to the end I would be wanting the manticore. Now Im thinking that I should really be looking at the 900 when I upgrade the 800.

I managed to get out and play in the test garden for a bit. I found the 4khz to be impressive. It hit much better on some deep coins in my garden that 5khz and multi struggled with. My soil is pretty highly mineralised. I will be curious to see how it responds in and around iron.    Also want to test it with the 6" coil.

I got a chance to try out some of these tips today and was very happy with the results. I was using the 6" coil.

Park1, sens 14-19, speed 6, fe 2, ran in 2 tones

I think the most important factor in hunting in heavy iron is getting your mind right. I planned on going slow and knew I was gonna dig some iron. I spent 4 hours in a 30x50 foot area of thick iron. I had to turn the iron volume down to 1. I managed to pull 21 coins out of an area that I had almost wrote off. Included 7 wheats and a merc.  Thanks for the tips.

1 hour ago, Vez said:

I dial back my sensitivity to 14-16.  I still get solid hits on coins at 8" with 16 sens.  FeBias at 3.  Give it a shot and see what you think!  I do alright like that!

Thanks Vez. Sensitivity was one of my main concerns. 

I finally got a permission that I have been wanting for a few years. It was a small church built somewhere around 1890. Later years it served as a school and it has a few acres. The new owner told me that he thought the structure had been rebuilt on the same foundation at some point. After getting there I immediately went to the front yard and started detecting. I couldn't believe how much iron was there. It has a blanket of small square nails in the entire front yard. I must assume that the original structure burned at some point.                                                                                                                                  How are you guys setting up the nox to deal with sites like this? Mode, sensitivity, speed , iron bias, etc.?? I have found a bunch of coins just past the iron zone so I suspect there are some good targets there. What's working for others? I do have the 6" coil.

19 minutes ago, Cabin Fever said:

Awesome find.  Morgan in the hole would be a shocker for sure. Nice looking coin too.

Bryan

16 minutes ago, strick said:

That's a dam nice coin! Congrats

Strick

Not only a Morgan but in great condition. This is a really early coin for my area. About the earliest map I can find for my area is 1905.

We have all had the dream of huge silver appearing in the hole. In my dreams it was always a Morgan. Today it actually happened!!  I love my eTrac but left it in the Jeep. I wanted to get some more hours on the Nox 800. This was actually a backup location as there were to many people at my intended location. I got a sketchy high tone with the depth gauge pegged. I dug down about 9 inches and realized I had missed the target. After a scoop into the sidewall a huge silver lay in the bottom of the hole. The coin must have been on edge or very close. I stared at it saying "No Way!". I Also dug a silver Washington 3 ft. away. I have been over this area before with the eTrac and missed these coins. Truly a day to remember!

Well my Nox 800 finally came today. I started out ordering at Kco and cancelled that order. Then I ordered at Cabelas and when that was backordered I cancelled that. I finally called around 20 small dealers in my area and surrounding states. It was time well spent as I found 2 dealers with no waiting lists. I ended up ordering from David at Dixie Metal Detectors. I cant say enough good things about him. We chatted for a couple hours over the last week. I'm glad I could buy from a small business and he will now be my dealer going forward.

I have taken quite a few notes on as many tests as I care to watch. It seems pretty universal that testers in are saying park2 is special. In separation, iron, and depth of both high and low conductors. I'm pretty sure this is the mode that I'm going to be the most interested in testing. The park 2 anomaly is not lost on me. Only actual field work will truly answer that question for me though.

1 hour ago, Steve Herschbach said:

After seeing how nickels rang up at 13 I did an experiment. I notched out every single number on the Equinox except 12 - 13 - 14 and dug every target that rang in that range. Here were the results. The nickels were all 13 as were most of the square tabs. One crown cap read 13. Everything else was 12 or 14 or 12/13 and 13/14 readings. If I did it again and just went for the 13, I figure the trash would be a third less, but same number of nickels.

After seeing those results I feel pretty encouraged. It looks like you were around 50% and say you could have easily done better. I'm good with that.

I really don't understand how the reported small wiggle matters. What am I missing?

Yes I admit it sometimes I go to a couple spots and cherry pick a few coins. These spots have been used extensively since the 80s. As I mentioned before I do some fairly quick coin stabbing. I do not dig every nonferrous signal in areas like this. Yes I am aware that there is some possible good target for every number on the ID scale. I am buying a detector with discrimination because sometimes I discriminate. Yes sometimes when I'm in a sea of zinc pennies I skip them. Obviously if I were in a site with any kind of history this is not how I would hunt. I'm not promoting cherry picking just asking a simple question about nickel (tells). Thanks

Hopefully I will have my detector by the end of the week and can do my own experiments. And at the end of the day there might not be any "tells" at all but it will be fun trying to find one. I plan on digging all the signals till I figure it out. I also agree about the round sound.

14 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

I am an admitted weirdo on this whole subject.

Well look on the bright side at least you're the head weirdo.  I hear what you're saying about digging and not missing targets. Some days I just go coin popping for the fun of it. I have a couple spots that are just loaded with clad and I use it to pay for coils and such.  I was just hoping someone has spotted a "tell" one way or the other. I will investigate the book.

It looks like I have an 800 coming next week but I will feel better when I get the tracking number. I Do a fair amount of park hunting and see that the tabs and the nickels seem to hit about the same on the Equinox. Now that there are a few machines out there I wonder who has figured out any way to tell nickels from tabs. Has anyone found a way to at least up the odds on nickels vs tabs? I am familiar with some of the Deus tricks (raising the coil) (frequency shift) etc. Have any of these tricks helped with the Equinox?

I know people like hearing the details about whos getting what. Cabelas said they got 12 allotted to them this week and orders are supposed to be filled in the order they were received. I ordered at 8am.

Thanks for the tips.

Ive just been sitting back waiting and reading. I cancelled my order with Kco when my Cabelas order went thru. At this point I have no idea if that was a good move.

Just got my cancelation email.

I have no idea whats happening. I have not received that email from Cabelas. Also there still is no tracking info. So I haven't a clue what to think. Yeah that's about right.

wait! what! when did you get that? When did you order?

Has anyone else lost their enthusiasm for the whole thing. I have gone thru highs and lows for a couple months but at this point I'm having a hard time even trying to be excited.  When I got my order in with Cabelas I thought the endless disappointments were over. Now here I am doing the exact same thing. Checking forums everyday looking for a morsel of information. At this point I'm not mad or sad just tired.  Anyone else feel like this?

I also paid for shipping.

So when you track it what is the expected delivery date?

No tracking number for me. If I track my order from the bottom of the page it simply takes me back to the order details page. hmm