Hello

So I was just practicing and testing with the detector again. We tried another lawn, first we did noice cancel and ground balance. Then we took Field 1, held the detector with the coil down and had it still, it sounded a lot, the same when we held it in the air, so I guess it was EMI interference. But we changed the sensitivity from 25 to 15 and it went well and gradually tried to all the way up to 21, no noise then and tried different frequencies such as 15, worked well. I then went back to the lawn I first wrote about which was problematic. I also first did noice cancel and ground balance, Field 1, but it sounded a lot of noise, but when I lowered the sensitivity to 15-16 it disappeared. When I tried to sweep it over the ground, it pepped sometimes and sometimes not, so that should be a sign that it worked well? It was the same on the other lawn. Something that surprised me was when I tried to put it in the ground and hold still and sometimes lift it above ground in the air, still Field 1, sensitivity 15, and it went well in 10 KHz, 15 KHz, 20 KHz and 40 KHz, no strange sounds when still with the coil in the grass, or still in the air. But with the same sensitivity 15, it made a lot of noise at 5 KHz and in multi mode. That it would make more noise in the multi mode I had expected, but that it would make a lot noise in the 5 KHz mode surprised me. Shouldn't it be the other way around, that 40 KHz makes the most noise, 20 KHz less and 5 KHz the least? Only when I changed the sensitivity to 11 did the 5 KHz stop making noise when I held it still, while the multi mode stopped at sensitivity 13. How can that be, should not 10 + KHz be more sensitive to EMI than 5 KHz? So the higher the frequency, the more sensitive to EMI? But here the lowest frequency, 5 KHz, seemed to be the most sensitive and made noise while the others (except multi) were silent. How can that be? I was maybe 50-70 meters from the powerline, when testing, but in addition, I went closer to the powerline, and tried to stand almost below the powerline just som meters from it, and it did not seem to give any EMI when I tried with 15 and 20 KHz, with sensitivity 15 and some higher. It seemed that there was less EMI, the closer I got to the powerline. Does that seem strange? Maybe it was something from the two houses by the lawn that disturbed the most, maybe satellite or similar? Maybe the frequency in the powerline right now was weaker today maybe?

Thanks. Yes that to. We had a smart phone and was looking on som video about how to do noise canceling and ground balancing on youtube. So that might have caused it too? I did not think about that.

Thank you all for the answers. The pinpointer was not on. Also we got two cell phones on. When you say EMI, it may have been EMI interference! Powerlines maybe 50-60 meters or so, from where I was trying to detect. Something like this: https://lrf.imagevault.media/publishedmedia/owsse6zjb6kddcq2rriy/ElledningKlyftamonALH.jpg When I think about it now, it is electricity network I guess, which goes through a fairly large town with 5,300 inhabitants, so may have to assume that it is really strong and powerfull powerlines, and that it therefore disrupted the detector. I did use it on Field 1, multi, but also tried 5, 10, 15, 20 KHz but still making a lot of noice. The sensitivity, I think we tried from 25, to down 15 and below, but still we heard a lof o noice. And also tried noise canceling and ground balancing. It happened all around the yard, and in the forest near.

So we practiced with my Equinox 800, on a simple yard, lawn. We read in the manual (pages 39-40: https://www.minelab.com/__files/f/326548/4901-0249-1 Inst. Manual, EQUINOX 600 800 EN.pdf) about auto ground balancing and noise cancellation, and we did that. We tried Filed 1, multi and all other frequencies. But the detector sounds wherever we search on the ground, so it gives the sound and shovel symbol and so on. It also sounds and runs crazy when we hold it in the air and so on. A few weeks ago I tried it on a field, and used Filed 1, then it worked well. I did not do auto ground balancing and noise cancellation then, but it worked good. When I sweep around it, it was sometimes quiet, then it made a sound when it found an object, and then I dug up metals, so it found good. But now that I tried on a simple lawn, and to learn auto ground balancing and noise cancellation, I do not understand at all what is happening, or what I am doing wrong. Whenever I sweep it, it sounded all the time, and I could not find a single place where it did not make a sound. I do not know if ground balance worked properly, although it seemed to work, same with noise cancellation. On page 40 under Auto Ground Balance, point 3 it says: "Raise and lower the coil repeatedly over a clear patch of soil that does not contain any targets." But if I do not find a clear patch of soil that does not contain any targets or that is not making sounds? Wherever I sweep the coil, it sounds like it has found a target, even when held in the air. What do you think I'm doing wrong? Thanks.

Thank you schoolofhardNox, GB_Amateur, and nordic for the info.

Good point Nordic, thank you. If you want to be discreet when looking for metal. Do you guys think it might be a good idea to take a thin garbage bag around the detector, so it is not visible what it is you are holding? It should be fine to search anyway, or do you think it damages the detector's ability to find metal? I'll try it.

Thank you for the help schoolofhardNox. The two last pictures are those also musket balls? The last one looks just like a metal thing I found! But I have no idea of what it is or how old it is etc!

Good points GB_Amateur, thank you. I do not know if I understand your definition of "hot rocks", can you explain it? (When I search for the picture, some music group comes up) In any case, I dug up large stones that the machine found and made noises from. I went up in a dense forest, by a big mountain, when big rocks, many roots, etc., so was probably a difficult terrain. But I later tried with the detector on a field, set to Field 1 and multi, and then I found a lot easily, found old bullets from Swedish mauser rifles among other things, so it went well. Thought about what you guys wrote in the thread, tried different frequencies, etc. And I think if I found such bullets etc in that field, it is probably that I can find the musket bullets in the similar field, because they are probably coarser than the bullets from mauser gevers.

Thank you very much schoolofhardNox. Interesting about the battles. Yes Massachusetts, I guess that makes sense, in the east coast in the heart of the oldest parts of USA, many battles in the history there I guess. schoolofhardNox: "Also plowing can bury deeper the round ball you are looking for." Yes, and I guess the machines can also unfortunately break the bullets? Sometimes it can be positive if you are lucky, that the machines, on the contrary, plow up what you want to find so it will be easier to find, right? schoolofhardNox: "I find the smaller round ball are harder to find as they get deeper. So, the lower numbers are usually the small ball. " Good to know. The small bullets, are they usually from musket pistols, rather from musket rifles? The musket bullets you found from 1637-1812, how did they look in general? Where they round, and did they look like musket bullets/balls, or where they flat and rather unrecognizable metal objects? After they have been fired and lying in the ground for 200-400 years, maybe they have usually changed a lot and do not look like typical round musket balls/bullets? schoolofhardNox "A: Yes, go to 20khz or 40 khz if you are having too much trouble in multi near power lines." And if too noisy, then go down to 15 kHz or 10 kHz etc as Badger-NH wrote, right? But 20 kHz lean more towards lead (like musket bullets right?) as Badger-NH pointed out, but just a slight advantade over 10 or 15, the differences is not to big right, is that your experience too? And then first use a recovery speed as you wrote 3, or 4 as Badger-NH wrote, but then if too much noise then raise it to 5-6, and in extreme amount of iron, raise to 7 or 8, you do that too?

When I tried yesterday and searched in the woods, it started beeping, then I used pinpoint and it gave sound several times, in a couple of places, but when I then picked the detector up and used pinpoint again at the same spots, the sound was gone and it no longer makes sounds and it happens quite often. What could it be due to?

By the way, do you guys hunt with the headphones or without them? I have been hunting with my brothers and then without headphones so we can all hear the sounds, but I read somewhere that some people think that you hear better with the headphones and that you otherwise risk to miss some sound, that is hard to hear otherwise? What do you think about it?

Great points, thank you GB_Amateur.

Hi and thanks for your reply Stu. I have also thought, and tried to figure out what it might have looked like 300 years ago. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be much information or maps in the place I want to search. Thanks for the info, I have not thought that the musket shots often become flat, very good to know, and that is the un-fired ones. What about does fired, that miss the targets and did go down in the ground in battlefields, what could and should we expect them to look like after 300 years in the ground, in general?

Thanks for your reply Badger-NH. "Unlike metal targets, false signals will not repeat the tone over the same spot. Just swinging the coil over it should confirm if there is no target there." Except from false targets as hot stones, right? You wrote earlier that: "Looking at your field, I would use Field 1." Why do you prefer field 1 instead of field 2 in this case? Is there anything about field 1 that makes it more convenient and better to find musket bullets than field 2?

Thank you Badger-NH and GB_Amateur for the help. "Notching means discriminating out a specific ID number or group of numbers." How do I do that? "If you don't hear any false signals coming from the ground, then the machine is okay, you don't need to ground balance. A false signal is one that is caused by the ground and not a metal target. False signals are random beeps caused by the ground conditions. They move around and cannot be pinpointed. If you are experiencing ground noise, that is when you need to do the GB procedure. " Aha, ok so if I suspect it is false signals, the way to find out is to use the pinpoint, if it sounds as usual when I use the metal detector but does not sound when I use pinpoint, there is false signals caused by the ground? Does the sound, sound very different when there are false signals caused by the ground, unlike the usual signals caused by metals? "If Multi is too noisy, 15 kHz is a good all around frequency to use. 10 kHz leans more towards silver. 20 kHz leans more towards gold or lead. If necessary, pick the frequency that is quietest. The differences are minimal." By the way I think muskel balls/bullets, often are made off lead, so 20 kHz might be ideal for searching for it? Do you think I should leave my cell phone in the car?