UT Dave

Excellent idea! I suppose 38, 39 and 40 might not always be considered iron range tones, but those are the ones I'd like to quiet down a bit. - Dave

Yes, in those type of sites, I see a lot of 39's. And every 39 I've dug so far, has been rusty iron. Either big iron, bent square nails, or a pile of square nails in various orientations. I don't dig near as many of them as I did even a month ago 😁. I'm finding these signals mostly don't stand up to cross sweeps, with the horseshoe button engaged. They'll give a beautiful tone and show a high 30 sweeping one way, but usually start to break up on cross sweeps. Not the bent square nails though. They sound GOOD from multiple directions. Too good not to dig. For me, at this point, at least... Silver coins are the prize finds. I'm happy as heck with just about any interesting nonferrous relic though. Buttons, Levis copper rivets, old spent ammo cases, harmonica parts, lantern parts, tools, whatzits etc. I'll dig pretty much any two way repeatable signal on these hunts. Do dig a lot of iron. Sometimes, too though, I'll dig a big iron piece on purpose, out of curiosity. I got a mule shoe and a valise frame last hunt doing that 😀. Nonferrous, some old Schofield .45 Colt cases, a .40-65 case, an Eley Bro percussion cap tin lid. And, a single Mercury dime, only coin I found all day. - Dave

Very helpful. Appreciate the input! Increase iron filtering, if digging too much ferrous. But, with a trade off of increased potential for masking? That's a helluva conundrum. The more iron you are in, the more likely a good target is in proximity to the iron, but reducing the effects of the thick iron on the audible signal by increased filtering, increases the chances of missing those good targets in close proximity to the iron. In other words, hunting a rusted iron infested site and particularly hoping for old coins. "Turning down" the iron influence by increasing the strength of the filter, has a drawback that might, cause one to miss more good targets than simply "living with" the iron being allowed to speak for itself. What do you guys think is the most direct tradeoff for increased recovery speed? Depth? With caveats? Sure. Optimal settings for a specific target in my backyard. My method for arriving at them could likely stand some improvement? I always noise cancel and use a manual/automatic ground balance. EMI is not bad in my yard - the machine never chuckles or sounds like it's attempting modem transmissions over a phone line when I first turn it on in my yard, like it does at some locations. I don't know that the numbers of the ground balance scale mean anything I can interpret. I've no idea what the data values are. But they are consistently below 5 in my yard. Using 50 tone audio. I just started using 50 after the first week or so with the machine and feel kind of handicapped running it in 5 tone now. I ran everything Multi. I didn't mess with the Beach modes. On a 7" silver dime and a 10" silver quarter that have both been in the ground quite awhile. All modes I tried hit both above targets at least one way, at least most swings. Park 1 seemed to give the best signals of the factory presets with solid cross sweep signals. Gold 1 and Gold 2 were definitely hitting the targets well too, but I like the sounds of Park 1, 50 tone better. I never messed with FE,. Just went to FE2. Ended up at FE=2 giving what I felt was the best signal. Recovery ended up at 4. I habitually run sensitivity as high as stability will allow. That's 22 in my yard with the above other settings. Even if, all that is well and good though... My back yard doesn't resemble where I most enjoy hunting. My favorite spots so far are old (by Great Basin standards), and heavily infested with iron. The oldest sites, the ones I like best, seem particularly heavy on rusted square nails at depth. Using the above settings, makes for a pretty sparky running machine in these sites. Lots and Lots of iron hitting high 30's. Right now, at this point in my experience, I like letting the iron speak up a bit and listening carefully for a non ferrous tone in there that doesn't get too flutey and that I can get to repeat from multiple directions. I really don't know how well I'm doing, compared to what's possible. But I feel like I'm doing at least okay picking some good finds out of the iron this way. I've found several silver dimes in carpets of nails. But the iron is a constant attack on the ears. - Dave

I'd like to increase my knowledge and skill in tuning my Nox 800 for specific conditions. Those of you who tune your machines off the factory defaults, please share what you have! Not what your settings are, but how you arrive at those settings. For instance, is there a relationship between different settings, such, that a preferred order of operations is suggested for optimal results? I noise cancel, then ground grab, then adjust sensitivity. FE2, Recovery, Threshold, is there a best practice for the order in which they are set? How do you know when you should increase or decrease FE2 or Recovery? What factors or indicators go into that decision? I've arrived at my current default beginning state, by trying to make things first "worse" in my test garden. By adjusting each setting individually up and down though the full range of adjustment, noting whether signal got better or worse at each step, to get what I considered the best signal on a deep silver coin. But doing so in a controlled situation with a known target like that is one thing, knowing how to read variable conditions and how to tune accordingly is quite another. How do you make your tuning decisions in the field? What are the settings you most frequently find need adjusted to accommodate search conditions? - Dave

Thanks for the encouraging words all! A Seated would be awful sweet! - Dave

As someone who just did his research and decision making and landed on the Nox 800 only a couple of months ago... This looks killer on paper. On paper it looks like a better built 800 with more user profiles, two coils and a spare, field replaceable battery and some other nice touches - for less money. If I were just starting to do research and decision making now, and hadn't already bought the 800, this does, look, killer. But, if were looking to buy, right now, didn't want to wait for a good sampling of field reports on performance with the Legend, I wouldn't feel bad just buying the Nox right now. And I certainly have no regrets on having bought the Nox. And this doesn't look likely to make me want to sell my Nox and switch. But, if field reports are good come spring time, and I didn't already have a Nox and I was just getting into the market... Eh... Legend looks like a better value - if, performance is there. - Dave

Found my first Barber yesterday! And a Model T key, too! An old, long abandoned ranch site in the middle of nowhere. No standing buildings or anything, just rubble and outlines. Found both very close to what I think was the house. Both less than an inch deep, on the hard rocky desert. Darn shame that winter snow is probably going to hit soon and lock me out of going back until next year! - Dave

I "think" you're right. I have really enjoyed seeing and reading your finds on here. From another post, that button with the .22 slug in it is way interesting. Makes me want to imagine the button was still attached to a garment and saved some ones life 😀. My first thought, on the pointed bullet, was .442 Webley. Because I found one very similar a few weeks ago, not far from a .442 Webley case. And the bullet I found measures exactly .442. Looking at yours more though, I think you are probably right on the .44 Colt. Here's the Webley case and what I think is a Webley bullet. Flanked by some old .50-70 cases, identifiable as very early type by the crimp above the rim, and an undetermined .38 caliber bullet. All found within about a hundred feet of each other. [img]https://photos.imageevent.com/daffleck/misc/untitled-1W_2.jpg[/img] Interesting note on the .442 Webley case - the primer hasn't been popped. Case may have cooked off in a fire? Mining camps burned down fairly often... The case is also identifiable as a very early Webley loading by the Eley Bros headstamp and the "rivet" style primer that attached the rim to the main body of the case. The bullet has definitely been fired and deformed upon impact though. Anyway - love the interesting finds you post and the way you describe the hunt. - Dave

New member, first post. Been reading a LOT on here, not many questions asked that I feel qualified to answer, but I can answer this one. The show did color my initial view of the CTX-3030. The show didn't "inform" my opinion, but it did bring the CTX-3030 to my attention. After about ten years off from detecting, I wanted to get casually back into it, and had decided I wanted (needed?) a new machine. Since, my old XLT, was really struggling with some of the coins in my 15 year old coin garden. I knew the CTX-3030 is what Gary Drayton was nearly always seen using. I agree with all of the above, about the TV image being over blown, and all that, never took it too much to heart. But, my own observation of the show, also agrees with the above, that he certainly seems a very experienced, competent and even accomplished detectorist. And, to my reading of the tea leaves watching the show, I too feel like he was just really familiar and confident with the machine and used it because that's what he wanted to be using. That said... Yes, when I decided to start researching new machines, the CTX-3030 was the first one I looked at. But after much research, I chose the Equinox 800. Price was a consideration, but if I had really been convinced the CTX was the better machine for my applications, I'd have spent up for it. I decided the Nox looked better for how I would be using it, without even taking the much lower price into consideration. I've only had it two months, with about 60 hours on it. Which, by the way, I NEVER expected to put 60 hours on it the first two months - I didn't foresee becoming as addicted to the beep as I seem to be. Have been very happy with my choice. From my perspective of limited experience, it sure seems to be a lot easier to dig good stuff out of the trash with than my old XLT. And, I too, can't swear to it, but I thought I got a quick glimpse of an Equinox in that last episode? - Dave