Advice Needed Please

[Andy2640]

Hello you lovely buggers, i need some advice please.

 

Just got the permission of a life time.  4 HUGE UK fields in a historic area.  The main focus is on field number 1, which is plughed soil, very loose and easy to dig and the nox finished its Ground balance at 7.

Nox was hitting a lot of iron which i could see silently appearing on the display as -9, -7, -3 etc....... , and was getting loads of iffy signals. Sorta like 21 mixed with -9 etc and lots of one way chrips.  Maybe lots of masking going on.  I did recover a load of buttons and 2 defaced silver coins, which chirped up smoothly and effectively.  Here were my settings.

Iron bias 0

Sensitivity 23

Field 1

Discrimination -9 to +2.

All metal

Recovery 4.

 

Can this program be improved upon?  Maybe higher iron bias?

 

Your expertise would be massively appreciated.

 

\Andy.

[Sinclair]

My evergreen advice: Try lowering the sens. You won't loose a lot of depth (if any). On the dry sand beach I run sens at 18 or lower if necessary.

[Chase Goldman]

6 hours ago, Sinclair said:

My evergreen advice: Try lowering the sens. You won't loose a lot of depth (if any). On the dry sand beach I run sens at 18 or lower if necessary.

Agreed.

15 hours ago, Andy2640 said:

Hello you lovely buggers, i need some advice please.

 

Just got the permission of a life time.  4 HUGE UK fields in a historic area.  The main focus is on field number 1, which is plughed soil, very loose and easy to dig and the nox finished its Ground balance at 7.

Nox was hitting a lot of iron which i could see silently appearing on the display as -9, -7, -3 etc....... , and was getting loads of iffy signals. Sorta like 21 mixed with -9 etc and lots of one way chrips.  Maybe lots of masking going on.  I did recover a load of buttons and 2 defaced silver coins, which chirped up smoothly and effectively.  Here were my settings.

Iron bias 0

Sensitivity 23

Field 1

Discrimination -9 to +2.

All metal

Recovery 4.

 

Can this program be improved upon?  Maybe higher iron bias?

 

Your expertise would be massively appreciated.

 

\Andy.

Go with Sinclair's advice on lowering sensitivity.  Increasing iron bias only increases your chance of completely missing a partially masked non-ferrous target amongst the iron.  I don't really like filters of any sort in thick trash. 

Lowering sensitivity in thick iron (also called sifting) will lesson the tendency of Iron to overwhelm the detector and may make shallow, partially masked non-ferrous keepers to pop out of the muck.

One thing threw me in your description, you are running all metal but you must have iron volume turned all the way down if you are  "see[ing iron] silently appearing on the display as -9, -7, -3 etc."  Sometimes the iron audio grunts clue you into a mixed ferrous, non-ferrous signal which can help you make a dig/no dig decision on a target with a questionable audio signal.  If you can't hear the iron then you lose that vital piece of information.  If I am bothering to run all metal, I may lower iron volume but I still want to be able to hear it.  Seeing the iron TIDs flash across the screen without the corresponding iron audio does nothing for me FWIW.

Happy hunting at what appears to be a great permission.  Enjoy.

[Andy2640]

Thanks chaps. Sensitivity point duly noted.

Goldman, you are right, i am running all metal but have audio on iron at 0.  But i still hear the low "dum's"  of iron.  So you saying it would be better to have volume on iron relatively audible?  That makes sense to me if so.

 

Another strange one yesterday, and one i have never experienced with the nox, was double blips.  As in making me think there are 2 separate target in the ground next to each other.  I skipped about 4 of these signals thinking it must be some farm junk, but when i dug a few later on, they were only single targets, and good ones at that.  Have you guys experienced this

 

Much appreciated fellas.

[GB_Amateur]

10 minutes ago, Andy2640 said:

Another strange one yesterday, and one i have never experienced with the nox, was double blips.  As in making me think there are 2 separate target in the ground next to each other.  I skipped about 4 of these signals thinking it must be some farm junk, but when i dug a few later on, they were only single targets, and good ones at that.  Have you guys experienced this

When I get a double blip it means something is very close to the bottom of the coil (within maybe an inch).  When searching in grass it's usually right there hidden under the blades.  You might try an air test getting the object close to the coil, and 'swing' it from one side to the other, not just at coil center.

[Andy2640]

Thanks GB, i have air tested a good few times, but never experienced that, but good to know it happens to others.  I will now dig those pesky double blips ? 

So guys, if you were in a heavy iron field, what audio level would you have the iron on in all metal mode, if the non ferrous range was set at 25 max.

 

On a side note, im wondering if ive been confused in remembering my settings over the past few days.  I think on the first outing my iron signals were just appearing on screen with no low tone "duds", but then yesterday i was hearing the iron "dud's".  So are we talking about having the "duds" set at around the same volume as the non ferrous blips"?   Apologies for the confusion, its my brain, it dont work so good sometimes ? 

 

Cheers.

[Jackpine]

I like the iron audio to be in the background, just loud enough to come thru clearly.  Kinda like you would set a threshold level.  Can't give an exact setting because it will depend on you hearing and the headphones used.   Depending on the phones I'm using at the time it may be 1 or as high as 4.

[Andy2640]

Thanks for that Jack,

Out of interest, if you were in this field, and you came across a nice blip at say 21, but on the next left swing you heard a "dud" and after trying from another angle you heard the same, would you:

1. Assume it was a good target next to iron

2. Or assume it may be junk with say a washer attached to it.  

3.  Or not sure, and dig and find out.

4. Leave it and move on.

 

Thank you in advance!

[Sinclair]

1 hour ago, Andy2640 said:

So guys, if you were in a heavy iron field, what audio level would you have the iron on in all metal mode, if the non ferrous range was set at 25 max.

Default is 4 when using Field and Beach modes, 12 when using Park modes. I usually let it sit at 4, which is just enough to be heard when it's windy. Imho the low pitch and low volume really make the AM mode enjoyable on the Nox

[Jackpine]

 

As with most detectors I have yet to retrieve a good target that didn't repeat from at least some off swing angles.   A one way hit say left to right only deserves attention if it's a clean sounding coin size blip.  Even if the right left shows iron,  changing up the  angle of approach a bit should make a valid target more repeatable.  Getting your brain around what is "a coin sized sounding target response"  is part of the key.

The Nox gives the same clues as other machines once learned but IMO takes it to a higher level of see through ability on tough targets..