Equinox / Vanquish Iron Bias " Bug "

[digger1955]

Once, using my beloved Fisher F2 years ago I was doing some testing using some clad and silver quarters.  Clad quarters all tested at one number consistently while all silver quarters tested at one number higher which was nice to know.

Then I tested two quarters together of each kind and then 3 quarters...in each instance I got up -averaged numbers higher than single quarters which was expected.

The last thing I did was run my coil over a full roll of clad quarters...every time on every pass that roll showed up as iron, not a hint of any high numbers at all, just iron.

Was this a bug, no, just the filtering system going bonkers over this particular type of target...at no time did I get upset believing there might have been who knows how many rolls of buried quarters out there I might have been missing on my hunts.

Years later I just updated the Nox to the new firmware with the F2 iron bias profile so I went over to my local park in my neighborhood to test it out and see if I could find just one good target.

The area I hunted was a site I have hunted literally hundreds of times in the last few years, this park is 1/2 block from my home and my go-to site when I don't have time to travel far and despite the fact that it was considered hunted out years ago by most hunters I spend so much time here I still find something great here and there because it is an old park and I spend so much time there.

In my area depth is pitiful because of the red clay mineralization but more than that we have massive issues with iron masking because we have heaping helping of extra iron from tiny to huge at most sites because of the history of the major iron and steel industries that built this city and tons of slag that for some reason seemed to be mixed into the fill dirt that was used when the city was being built...even in the lawns of private homesites.

Most of my public hunting areas where sites where at least a few old homes if not entire neighborhoods were knocked down to make these public parks and sites and most are all still littered with nails, screws, copper tubing and sites and all the other brass, steel and iron junk you find at typical old homesites.   Add to that this specific area I was hunting was situated not to far away from a part of this park that was a known garbage dump...I had found and dug up too many old car, parts, motorcycle parts and a slew of other large pieces of junk that had no business being there, otherwise.

Still, despite all the issues in this area I also found a Barber quarter here a few years ago and a Peace dollar before that right near the edge of where that dump was supposed to be so I scour this area regularly just in case the severe masking issues are hiding something else great. Those that gave up hunting this park thinking they got it all years ago were wrong, there are still great targets here but they are few and far between and most are masked to the hilt so they were missed for many decades by myself and so many others.

I rolled over one small area with the Nox, an area near where I found that quarter and where I had hunted previously more times than I could count with a Vaq and 3 different coils, an F70 with 5 different coils and a Compadre, too.

The Nox was in Field 2, 5 tones, Multi, F2 iron bias on 0 or 1 with recovery speed on 1. Sense was on 12 because I put it there to quiet it down when I was checking it out in my house after the firmware upload and I forgot to turn it up again when I went hunting.

There was noise and jumping galore, I got a pretty decent very short but still consistent high tone hit as I moved my coil around one square foot area with tons of high tone falsing that was a sure indication of iron in that area too...a lot of iron. The iron was deep and massive, I know this because after I was shocked to recover the sweet target that gave off the actual high tone I ran the Nox with the horseshoe on all over the site and it went crazy with a large iron hit and then I widened the hole and dug pretty far down and ran my pinpointer all around the area and all over the hole as I dug deeper and deeper looking for what this huge thing could be because I was curious. A very loud and solid signal...no matter where I moved or pointed my pinpointer or detuned that tool would not shut up.

To this day I have no idea what that thing was that set my detector and pinpointer off so loudly over such a big area, might have been an entire car down there for all I knew...or at least it seemed that way at the time.

Didn't matter, in an area that defined the term masking the Nox was still able to sense a great target laying directly over that massive iron whatever and could give me enough information to trigger my digging instinct enough to go after it.         

What I found is in the pic below...another great Zippo lighter and I love finding me some Zippos anytime and anywhere.

After I realized it could do this great thing in such challenging conditions I am not ever going to worry about such a rare possibility missing an odd dime that might be masked by a wild nickel. As a matter of fact I have found at least two coin spills with both dimes and nickels in the same hole so I continue to hunt happily and confidently...and probably always will.

 

 

[GB_Amateur]

2 hours ago, digger1955 said:

...Recovery speed on 1. Sense was on 12...

You might be the only person ever to use that combination.  (I'm assuming you are referring to Equinox 800, not 600....)  Possibly the low sensitivity brought down the iron background to a level that the non-ferrous target was noticeable.

How deep was the lighter?  I'm not a Bama fan, but I suspect you can find one within, oh, a few feet in any direction you look (if you live in Alabama). 

[digger1955]

22 hours ago, GB_Amateur said:

You might be the only person ever to use that combination.  (I'm assuming you are referring to Equinox 800, not 600....)  Possibly the low sensitivity brought down the iron background to a level that the non-ferrous target was noticeable.

How deep was the lighter?  I'm not a Bama fan, but I suspect you can find one within, oh, a few feet in any direction you look (if you live in Alabama). 

Yes, the 800, I am big on tweaking and experimenting so I wanted all the features to see what might work in the mineralized devil dirt I hunt in. I have used them all including the gold and beach settings...they all seem to work pretty well..

About 3" deep. I dug down past 7" to find whatever huge thing was under it but no luck. ..it was big and it might have been very deep.

 Usually I hunt way higher, high teens, low 20's up to max if it is not too noisy but the bulk of the old stuff rarely lies too much deeper than 5-6" around here so even 12 can get me to where I need most of the time. Once in awhile I still experiment and go real low after this experience and still seem to find most targets in my usual range.

I think.

You are probably correct about those Bama Zippos, might be as prevalent as bottle caps around here but I never found one before so...yea me.

[GB_Amateur]

4 hours ago, digger1955 said:

(I) ran my pinpointer all around the area and all over the hole as I dug deeper and deeper looking for what this huge thing could be because I was curious. A very loud and solid signal...no matter where I moved or pointed my pinpointer or detuned that tool would not shut up.

I just did a quick experiment.  On my patio I have a table with a 41" aluminum top.  With the Garrett Carrott at max gain I was able to get it within 6 inches of the center of the top before it sounded off.  If what you were detecting was a large piece of sheet metal then you were getting close.

Another possibility, though, is just the surrounding soil itself.  I've seen the Carrott get excited near a large conductive graphite loaded rock whereas breaking off a chip of it and putting it near the tip gave zilch response.  When my soil is wet, even though it's not heavily ferrous, it will cause erratic falsing with both my pinpointers when they are put several inches into a hole.  (I know the trick of turning on the pinpointer which the tip touches the ground but even that doesn't silence under the just described conditions.)  My vote is that you were picking up the surrounding heavy ferrous/iron content that you said this local area possesses.

 

[digger1955]

Don't believe so, I have hunted for thousands of hours around here in every kind of dirt imaginable from rare black stuff up to and including at one site where the red dirt was exposed and my F70 GB'd at an insane high 80's with the mineralization meter pegged and have never come across any dirt that affected my pinpointer like that there, before or since.

It was weird but weird and strange is what I deal with almost every day. Something real thick and heavy like a metal bumper off an old car could have done it if it was just below the area I stopped digging..I talked to a guy  while I was walking around hitting curb strips a few blocks away a few years ago and said he was digging in front of his house to plant new bushes and dug up an entire vintage metal bumper buried there so I assume nothing and just deal with things as they happen.

Sometimes strange things happen and I just shrug and move on. See enough weird things and you just get numb and don't bother spending the energy looking for answers about why...it just cuts into my digging time if I do too much of that.

I used to, but now I am just too old, tired and jaded, I guess.

[GB_Amateur]

12 hours ago, digger1955 said:

Something real thick and heavy like a metal bumper off an old car could have done it if it was just below the area I stopped digging.

Makes sense.  A junkyard or old trash dump is one of the most difficult conditions for a metal detector.  I've been invited to three different ones (all on private property) and given up after a few minutes trying.  I don't know where to begin.  They are prime bottle hunting territory as well.  Ever do any of that?  Takes a special breed of patient person to get good at such, IMO.

I have a school yard where a previous school was razed.  I've found quite a bit of copper tubing there, which I don't mind since it's salvageable.  A few old coins, which is what I'm after, plus a few keeper relics.  There are places where my Fisher F75 would scream in overload over a fairly large area (few feet by few feet) that I just had to move away from.  I assumed it was large pieces of sheet metal, but I wasn't going to excavate to find out.

Keep at it and report back.  In the meantime let's see if we get any more advice on whether or not Iron Bias will help deal with these challenging sites.  I know Steve H. has reported some positive results using Iron Bias near old mining structures.  (Hope that reports was in among those I linked.)  In the meantime I'll continue to experiment when I'm out detecting (maybe this afternoon, or at least tomorrow).

[digger1955]

I also use a Mojave once in awhile and I still pull out my beloved F70 here and there. I am extremely good with that one after 7 years and thousands of hours standing behind it. If there is a possible setting combination I have probably tried it and reported back on several forums about my positive results so much so that I have been called a master of the F70 by many, but I don't think anyone really masters anything...I have just tried more things than most and have good observational skills.

I went over that same exact spot with the Fisher more than once, I assure you, but never got a signal on that lighter that triggered me to dig. Probably the iron overwhelmed it despite the fact I have used all metal and all the different tone choices and different disc settings while hunting in that area.

I still enjoy using it more than the Nox because I am used to it and understand it so well and it isn't so compressed in the number range which I enjoy more but the Nox just deals with my masking issues a bit more easily in my devil dirt. It makes things easier to notice...like that lighter hiding over massive iron.

Could be the low 12 sense helped on that one, but who knows? 

Serendipity...I will take all the good luck I can when hunting because it is us against the universe out there...and the universe can be sly and likes to play tricks on all of us.

[GB_Amateur]

11 minutes ago, digger1955 said:

Serendipity...I will take all the good luck I can when hunting because it is us against the universe out there...and the universe can be sly and likes to play tricks on all of us.

Yes, it's a battle, and I'm glad no one is keeping score because I'm losing big time.  But like most things, if it weren't a challenge I wouldn't be interested.

[digger1955]

Hey, if it was super easy everyone would be doing it and succeeding.

Glad it isn't...I also love a good challenge!