JCR

@midalake I sure hope you will let us know your impressions &thoughts on how the Legend performs in you tough conditions.

The legend's wireless transmitter is Bluetooth. You would need the dongle adaptor to use wired HPs. I am almost positive XP wireless is proprietary.

4 hours ago, F350Platinum said:

Terrific tale and finds, JCR. That's a rare feat to get something with that much family juju. 🙂 

Oh, to pay $680 for a new vehicle, especially a Superior Utility Coupe... 🤔

It's all relative. $680 would have been close to a good job's annual wage.

4 hours ago, Glenn in CO said:

Thanks for sharing your story and photos.

Here’s a Chevrolet bowtie mounted on the radiator on my 1928 Chevrolet.

 

That is it exactly, missing the back plate.(and the rest of the car) Maybe I should go back and dig some of those big iron signals.🙂

2 hours ago, GB_Amateur said:

Excellent story to accompany your nice finds.  Coincidentally I've visited your grandfather's hometown 2 or 3 times for meetings and tests at the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility.  I recall it can get quite uncomfortable (as in hot+humid) in the summer months.  I see why you want to get out now before that starts!

It’s a small world sometimes when you start scratching around.  I have had many friends & customers at the dealership who worked at the Ballon Base. We were in business for 83 years, sold in 1997. I spent 25 + years there working.  As a kid it was always a big deal to see the balloons going up.

 I had the chance to get out a few times over the past week, hunting here & there. The weather has been nice and the bugs aren't bad yet. The first site is an old swim park/picnic ground that had an early Tourist Court in it's latter days. It has been a very good site, almost virgin from the finds. I had not detected the tourist cabin area nearly as hard because there is considerably more trash & the good finds are from the 1920's thru mid 1940's. The site is now being developed for resale as commercial property so the window is closing fast. The better finds for that hunt were a 1920D Mercury dime, 1943S & 1945D War nickels.  I also dug 7 Wheat Cents that were in fair condition for the normally wet ground.

 The second hunt was on one of my favorite relic sites, but in an area away from any of the old building spots. It is actually where two old roads made a "T". The intersection was curved and moved over in the late 1950's. I have found more modern items here as opposed to 1850’s items. Many of these items indicate people used to gather at this intersection. Forks, spoons, a complete wine bottle and a salt shaker are past finds. The best item from this day is due to the proximity of the road, and probably an auto accident. It is a Chevrolet bowtie emblem that would have been on the radiator cowl of a car. my references show 1918-1928. The special thing about this find is that my Great Grandfather was the first Chevrolet dealer here, beginning in 1922. There is a very good probability that the emblem is from a car that he sold, or at least was in his shop at one time or another.  This is actually the 3rd such find I have made detecting. The first was a hub cap, also for a mid 1920's Chevrolet. The second was also a hub cap, but from a pre 1920 Ford.   The same Great Grandfather started in the automobile business as the first Ford dealer here in 1914.  He dropped Ford because he did not want to handle Fordson tractors, and moved to Chevrolet. So, three items found that have a special connection for me.   Providence or Serendipity?  What a great hobby.

8 hours ago, AirmetTango said:

Don’t get me started on the Legend manual! One of my pet peeves about the machine is the manual’s “fuzzy” treatment for many settings. I come to the Legend after 5 years using and fully understanding my Equinox 800 settings, so I had no problem filling in the glaring gaps in the Legend manual with my existing knowledge. I often wonder just how confused I would be if I were a new detectorist just starting out and reading the Legend manual.

That said, all we are told about the actual function of Stability for Iron Filter on the Legend is this:

 

Not a lot to go on, but I’ll assume that stability (for Park, Field, and Gold modes only) is just that - a fine adjustment of iron filter for those users who feel they need a little extra tweaking on a given Iron Filter setting. If you’ve ever used a good, old school scientific microscope, the instrument has two focusing knobs - a coarse adjustment and fine adjustment. The coarse focus would get you in the ballpark, but the fine adjustment would really allow you to bring an object into the sharpest focus. That’s how I think about Stability on the Legend. For example, I’m assuming that IF 3, Stab 1 is a slightly higher iron bias setting than IF 2, Stab 5, which in turn is a slightly higher iron bias than IF 2, Stab 3. I’m guessing Nokta decided to provide Stability as a separate setting to IF, because for most folks, the 10 IF settings available in each of the Park, Field, and Gold modes is sufficient for most hunters. Combined with adjustments available at IF 0-7, adding Stability essentially means there are 42 potential Iron Filter settings, which might seem overwhelming to most users if IF ranged from 0-41.

Anyway, to answer the actual question…no, I don’t really actively change the Stability setting. I generally set IF at 2. When I first started using the machine in January, I left stability at the default 3. For the last few weeks, I’ve moved stability to 2 just for kicks and giggles, but I haven’t noticed a real difference. But the theory would be, if you’re noticing more iron falsing than you’d like, you can bump the stability up a number or two as opposed to going up a full IF number to address the issue…using a scalpel as opposed to a butcher’s cleaver, so to speak.

For me, the question about stability extends into Beach mode. The manual specifically warns that Stability in Beach mode is not the same thing, and then gives a functional description that leaves me scratching my head a little:

I’m not sure how that description of Beach mode’s Stability describes something different. If Stability in the other modes is “just” a way to fine tune Iron Filter, and I can use Iron Filter to help minimize false signals and, by extension, some ground noise…I don’t see or understand a difference here. 

 

 The Stability setting in Beach Mode is a type of Salt(very low conductor)sensitivity filter.

Your experience matches my first impressions of the Legend. It will hunt. I haven’t been disappointed.

I actually used my belt hook for the big DeWalt drill driver the other day to hang my Nomad. I was making a video and did not have a free hand.  It worked well until I tried to back up.😊

You may just have to get on the ground after carefully considering where the period roads were combined with level ground. A typical horse/surrey track would be Quarter mile or Half mile, so 1/8 or 1/4 mile end to end. The turns would have been banked on a better track. These may show up on LiDAR.  So between historical accounts, Historic Aerials, Topographical, LiDAR you should be able to narrow the search.  Concentrations of nails & horse tack items will be in the stable & outbuildings area which would normally be on the Starting Lane at one end. There will also be some evidence of a housing area for the on site workers. The spectator area would be on one of the long sides toward the Start/Finish line end. The view toward the track would not be looking into the Sun.  This is what I have found out researching and hunting a late 19th century Surrey track. Not much in the center of the track oval.

The Nomad is what I use 90% of the time in woods & open fields. It is excellent all around. Sturdy but light, easy to carry and digs nice clean plugs. Roots are not a problem. I have all 3 of Radius’s Root Slayer line, plus both of their hand trowel models.

Nice hunting and some good finding too.

You might want to contact MInelab service to ask what they recommend.

Signal processing, including utilizing AI is still advancing. That is going to be the key aspect going forward.

If you want to find some arrowheads & pottery shards, walk the freshly plowed fields after a good rain. Especially fields that have running water close by.  Any area close to running water has high potential. High ground is the best for camp/village sites.

Welcome from East Texas.

My understanding of Recovery speed/Reactivity is that it is actually a Ground Filter. It functions by adjusting the detectors response to how quickly it reacts to changes in the receiver's field.  Mild ground's signal response changes slowly, so you can use less filtering. Highly mineralized ground changes more rapidly & requires more filtering for stable operation.  How this same Recovery/Reaction control also effects actual target separation may or may not be be incidental or intended. Someone like @Geotechwould have to explain it for me.    What I do know is that in my experimenting with the Legend and my other detectors that have this control, it makes a noticeable difference in having it set to match the Ground.   More so than trying to separate closely spaced targets. The deeper the target and/or the worse the ground, the more important.   The difference on the Legend is not as pronounced as on say the Rutus Versa.  Each detector seems to have it's own sweet spot on sweep speed vs Recovery setting. At some point you can out swing a low Recovery setting.  On the flip side, you can shorten audio response or limit detection depth with a fast Recovery setting to the point of over running good targets & never hearing them. You really just have to spend time experimenting with all this if you want to understand the detector at these kind of levels. For the Legend, in that days test bed conditions, Recovery 6 seemed to give the best response. 4 was not quite as good, nor was 8. 5&7 were pretty close to the same as 6.  On my similar field sites I usually just go with Recovery 6 for non busy areas and listen closely for targets & changes in the ground signal by using NO Disc at all.  Higher than Recovery 7 really cuts the audio response for me and kills depth sharply.

 As far as Ground balancing, my understanding is that a SMF detector typically uses a low frequency out of the simultaneous group to balance to & monitor the Ground response.  Since a good effective GB is made on a target free spot, any subsequent change, whether from changing ground minerals or an actual target will give an audio indication.  I think that what I was trying to demonstrate in the above video is an example of this.  The small targets are being masked by the larger Ground signal to the point of being identified by the Legend as a ground response of TID1. In order to notice this, a good accurate GB needs to be maintained.   My suggestion to @Nokta Detectors of adding a Hot Rock control would mitigate this effect by adjusting the detectors internal phase scaling.

 Sounds like your making good progress on you mining camp site.  I have a few Hot Rocks but nothing like you are dealing with.

Thanks Jeff.  Iron Filter/Stability was at 1/3.  V1.11 performs the same. The LG35 coil will perform better.

You may very well be correct on a bad batch of coils, but Nokta will make it right, that, I am sure of.

@HardPack,   Lifting the coil should help on the hot rocks.  I would recommend testing to see what level of sensitivity/depth loss it costs you on the type/size targets you are wanting to find.  Trying to Ground Balance to the hot rocks if possible would help also, or even running a GB manual offset.  Again, test to find what the trade off may be.  Basalt would be a pretty tough environment. I’m thinking your ground conditions and mine are on on opposite ends of the scale. My TID 1 tone setup may not be practical for your conditions. You will just have to experiment.  I’m kind of outside the conventional box getting into the weeds on the video. I hope it was thought provoking at least and maybe helpful to some.

The Legend was my first SMF detector, and it has really impressed me with it's performance, especially on my mineralized relic sites. These are red dirt sites that I had worked over hard with Single frequency machines, to the point of seeming worked out. The Legend made them seem like new again. Now, 2 years later, the same sites seemed to be getting thin again. A second, different SMF detector, the Rutus Versa has shown that there were still good targets to be found. These have mostly all been small to very small, but a few larger surprises. It is amazing to me how different machines "see" targets/ground & report in their own way.  This tells me there is no ONE BEST detector, and a site is never completely worked out. This is a good thing to me, because I like fooling around with detectors and learning what works & why.

 I have been experimenting on & off with ways to make the Legend perform better on smaller coin size targets in my red dirt minerals. One that shows promise is taking advantage of the Legend's adjustability to set up a special 4 tone audio profile. This profile is to capitalize on the fact that the Legend actually sees a smaller/deeper target in my mineralized soil, it just sees it, and calls it as a Ground response of TID 1.  The special audio profile puts TID 1 in the first tone bin by itself, with a medium high pitched tone. The second tone bin is for iron, with the normal low tone & breaks at 7. The third tone bin is a normal mid tone, and the fourth the normal high tone.  This works quite well, at least on my test bed. I have had some success with it in the field but need to do more hunting with it.

 What I really think @Nokta Detectorsshould consider is adding a Hot Rock control to the Legend. The Rutus Versa has this feature, and it makes a big difference in bringing out non ferrous targets that are being swallowed up by the Ground mineral response.  By adding a positive adjustment, the TID scale is shifted slightly to bring targets back around to a non ground/non Iron TID/Tone.  I demonstrated this in the first video I posted several weeks ago on my channel Red Dirt Detecting.

 Here is a video of the Legend, running thru the same test as the Versa previously. Please forgive the crudeness of my second only video attempt. I will try to improve in future.

First impressions last a long time. I'm glad you are making the effort to put out some videos. I guess it all depends on what & how you want to portray. You could always make a disclaimer in the description.

Nice hunt. It is fun to speculate & try to figure out why a "hot spot" would be where it is in a now wide open empty space.

I know that is true, Sir. 👍   I actually find hunting in iron to be more logical. Al trash is just so all over the place. The darned older pull tabs will actually up average to a IHP range at times.  I have never hunted a saltwater environment, just inland. 

Working in Iron trash is not a straight forward task. There are multiple variables and endless combinations. There also seems to be differences in terminology. Separation seems pretty plain to me. It is a matter of distance/ coil/recovery & coil control. Masking is all that and more. No matter what you call it, desirable non ferrous targets are influenced by the relatively “fat” signature of co-located iron. The co- located positions can be same plane 2D (rare), or some degree of 3D (common).  They are both a matter of relative Signal response. The 3D factor is exponentially more crippling.  You certainly can’t see these co-located targets in the ground, but you can make an educated guess based on digging a fair number of the iffy signals and some of the obvious small iron/nail signals.    You can also successfully approach the site’s conditions by using techniques that are effective to some degree.   If you want to have success, read & look at what competent iron sifters do. They learn, they test. They know detecting basics and they know their individual detectors like an old companion. Then, they dig those iffy hits you may very well walk right over. They also dig that big & mid size iron to get it out of the way.

As far as “testing”,  it is invaluable to me. It is how I come to know a machine/coil’s capabilities and limitations.    Air/above ground tests are easy to setup and easy to visualize. They teach the basics plus things like down averaging of targets & audio signatures.    In ground tests are more realistic. The more mineralized your soil, the more important they are. Target up averaging may show itself. In ground test targets are harder to set up but not too much so. You can visualize them with a diagram. This is where the post graduate education begins.

  Digging those iffy sounding compromised signals in the field, on your own sites, is the Internship that morphs into a career of being a successful hunter in the iron.   This is from a relic hunters point of view, but applies to any type of hunting if the site is worn out. Digging some iron does not shame me. I don’t keep target ratios. I do find some neat stuff that surprises me almost every hunt.   Tekkna, or any other specialty program can be great in the right circumstances, but they are special circumstances. I have used them myself.

Now, can anybody give me some tips on hunting in Aluminum trash?🙃