Any Tips For Digging Clad?

[KDX]

I live in Canada so clad is the common coin here. I'm new to the Manticore (about 3-4 hours use so far) and would be considered an amateur detectorist by the regulars here. This afternoon I went out in the back yard and made a small test garden. I buried a zinc penny, a nickle, dime, quarter, loonie, toonie and a silver dime at 3 foot intervals. There are all down about 4-5 inches. I had to have the sensitivity down to 16 or else I was getting a fair amount of chatter. Using all terrain general I found (with my limited testing) that I had to have the recovery at 2 to get a repeatable signal on the clad coins. If I went up to 4 or higher the numbers and trace would be all over the place. Any tips or tricks would be appreciated.

[TampaBayBrad]

Are you ground balancing by holding the GB button down and pumping the coil or just a single press or tracking? Did you long press the noise cancel at least 2' above ground until it settles on a single channel before setting sens.?

Some soil may not allow sens to go higher than 16 without chatter, but some people handle more chatter better than others. Not sure where you stand when you say a fair amount of chatter. I don't mind some, but think my amount may bother others if listened to long enough. (ear fatigue)

If you have power lines around your back yard or anything else that could cause EMI.....try a different location out in a field somewhere away from EMI sources with the same settings and see if the chatter lessens.

All told, 16 sens is not too bad a spot to go hunting with. (could be better, but ok.) I can run 4 recovery and get repeats on most good targets, changing maybe 1 or 2 digits is normal for me. But.... I run Beach programs only.

[UT Dave]

I'm finding the Manticore a fantastic coin cherry picking machine.  But I'd hesitate to suggest settings.  Not only your soil may be very different, but your ferrous coins are something I've zero experience trying to cherry pick.

You may want to actually try raising the recovery speed on your test targets.  Can't hurt to see.  Not sure what mode I'd want to use for the Loonies and Toonies, those are compositions I don't dig.  But I'd definitely try ATLC.

When cherry picking turf for coins and silver jewelry, I've got to where I almost always run ATHC.  With sensitivity usually 19 or 20, rarely any higher but down as low as 16 is not rare.  Recovery speed, in my conditions and the way I like to run, I usually end up with a recovery or 5 or 6.  That's tuning for TID stability, basically, and letting depth take care of itself.  But I've gotten very good depth with the machine in hot park turf.  The machine really scrubs the clad and silver out of the trash in the parks around here.

- Dave

[Digalicious]

All terrain general wouldn't be the best choice for Canadian clad. As Dave mentioned, try all terrain low conductor which uses higher frequencies. Possibly even better, try the single frequency of 40 khz. Reason being, 40 khz might be even more sensitive to Canadian clad than ATLC. Plus, 40 khz will be much quieter in EMI than the multi frequency modes, which means the sensitivity can be raised much higher (notably more depth).

Also, the reason the lower recovery speed gave you a better signal, was because a low recovery speed allows the detector to get more information from the target (better target identification). Keep in mind that a high recovery speed will significantly reduce depth. A mid level recovery speed is a good starting point.

 

[KDX]

Thanks for the replys gentlemen. I do the noise cancellation first which usually settles at 2 and then I hold the button down for the ground balance while I pump the coil. It settled on 36 if I remember right. The power line to my house is underground 20-30 feet from where I buried the coins and about 3 feet down so that might be the reason for the chatter.

I will try the ATLC mode and see how that works with the clad. Will the ATHC mode be a waste of time trying with clad?

I'll also try the 40 khz and see how that works.

What would be the recommended place to start for fresh water beaches, bearing in mind the clad we have here?

[fishersari]

8 hours ago, KDX said:

What would be the recommended place to start for fresh water beaches, bearing in mind the clad we have here?

Where do the clad resides on the 2d screen on air test? The good thing about manticore is I can modified the ferrous limit as custom as I want, assuming your ferrous clad is not on the center line... Its not 100% working as intended due to soil, masking etc.. same goes to bbq grill netting.. I can open up or close the ferrous limit on where the trace resides for that particular target

8 hours ago, KDX said:

I do the noise cancellation

Short pressed or long pressed noise cancel?

 

[KDX]

Long press noise cancellation. The clad makes an elongated smear along the top of the lower ferrous limit line in the 22-26 range (if I remember right). I'll try to get some pics to post later this week when I have some time.

[Yatahaze323]

I remember this video where they were changing the limits to accept Canadian coins, might be helpful.

 

 

[KDX]

Thanks. I appreciate that.

[KDX]

I changed my ferrous limits like those suggested in the video. I went out into the back yard for a bit this morning and tried some different modes and running it in 40 khz. From my initial testing if I kept the recovery down to 3 in the all terrain general mode I could get some repeatable signals that were recognizable because there would be a blob on the lower ferrous line and a blob in the upper notched out areas that were not connected. It looked like 2 different objects/signals. When I would turn up the recovery speed the top one would disappear and the lower one would be more inconsistent. I noise cancelled between modes and kept the ground balancing in tracking mode for more consistency. This machine will take a lot of trial and error for me before I figure it out, but I guess that's part of the fun.