Looking for input on a new program I made for iron

[Gridwalker306]

Ah, the age old problem of trying to get great depth while picking through the iron. My best spots, of course, are full of iron. I've made some good finds with my standard full tones program amongst iron, but I feel like I'm missing good targets. I copied the program to an open slot and did a lot of tweaking after watching a bunch of videos. I'm thinking using two different programs at places like this is the way to go. One for maximum depth, and one for maximum iron separation. Maybe a third that is a happy medium.

The tweaked program I came up with seems pick up coins beside rusty nails better than my old program, and actually goes deeper too. The new program is picking up a silver quarter next to nails nicely around 11" deep. That's about two inches more than my old full tones. I'm kind of regretting not doing this sooner, but I guess it's a learning process.

Here is my updated version, I call it IRONMAN.

Freq ......................11.7
Iron vol...................1
Reactivity...............1
Silencer..............-1
Audio response......4
Notch....................00.00
Disc......................4.0
Full tones
Sens.....................95
TX power...........2


I set this up in my garage tonight, hopefully I'll be able to try it at my site tomorrow. I'm hoping some of you more experienced folks can chime in with any additional info that may help. Is there anything I need to change?

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Minelab PRO-FIND 35 Waterproof Pinpointer Metal Detector for Experts with Tone ID & Adjustable Sensitivity - Grab it through Amazon!

[Tedyoh]

Interesting - how chopped do the coins sounds next to the nails? With the low reactivity I'm surprised you're getting the separation. Try R2 S2, gets great depth for me. I can hit a dime at 9" by iron in my garden, so a quarter should be good at 10" to 11" I'm guessing.

 

[Gridwalker306]

Interesting - how chopped do the coins sounds next to the nails? With the low reactivity I'm surprised you're getting the separation. Try R2 S2, gets great depth for me. I can hit a dime at 9" by iron in my garden, so a quarter should be good at 10" to 11" I'm guessing.

I made a change, I lowered the disc to 0.0 and things are registering even better.

I'm testing a silver quarter surrounded by three rusty nails, one being fairly large. I did try the reactivity and silencer up a bit like you mentioned, but the depth decreases in my test. With the reactivity at 1, there is less separation but it's a smoother sounding sweep, and there is an unmistakable sweet sound. I find that the higher the reactivity the harder time I have getting a repeatable good sound at depth. It's like the reactivity is working so hard to separate, it's sounding a bit choppy, especially the deeper I go.

For example I tested a Morgan dollar with the three rusty nails. In my regular full tones program (reactivity 3, audio resp 3), I was getting a pretty good repeatable signal at 10 inches. In the new tweaked program I was getting the same sound at 14.5-15 inches!

I've been testing like crazy (it's been raining constantly sigh), and the orientation of the iron in the test makes a big difference. I've been trying specifically to make a program that will find a coin that is slightly deeper than the iron. This is difficult, the coin is much easier to detect when at the same or shallower level than the iron junk. There are so many variables it's maddening lol.

I raced to get my work done today, got home early--started raining. If it lets up I will go try this out and let you know how it works.

 

[Jeff H]

I would also raise the Reactivity to 2. Yes, R=1 in theory will give you better depth, but in an iron patch, if you use R=2 and swing slow, I think it would be an improvement over R=1 on those smaller silvers. But if the iron isn't too thick and you swing slow....R=1 might find you some extra deep targets. I think R=0 would even hit on a big Morgan dollar. If your mineralization is weak, 8 kHz will hit a bit better on those high conductors than the 12 kHz. Good idea on the 0 Disc.

 

[Gridwalker306]

Thanks, and once I was able to put the nails/coins outside on the ground, I did end up putting the reactivity up to 2 and disc at 2.

I got out between showers for 30 minutes and dug everything that even made a slight chirp. Got a back pocket full of nails and iron crap. Then got caught in a downpour haha.

Thanks for the input guys, I'll keep experimenting.

 

[vferrari]

FWIW - Anything above Silencer = 0 will sacrifice depth. No need to go above 0 unless chatter is a big problem (and I would try other tweaks before raising silencer).

 

[Gridwalker306]

FWIW - Anything above Silencer = 0 will sacrifice depth. No need to go above 0 unless chatter is a big problem (and I would try other tweaks before raising silencer).

Yep, I like silencer at -1. After tweaking all this stuff to sound better, I wound up basically back at my standard full tones program I have used for nearly a year. If it ain't broke don't fix it I guess.

My usual program is

Freq 11.7
Disc 0.0 or 1.0
Full tones
Audio resp 4
Reactiv 3
Silencer -1
Iron vol 2
Sens 95

I have pulled coins from amongst heavy iron in the past which my other machines have missed. I guess I am just want to squeeze the best depth/iron unmasking that I can.

Any further advice is welcomed!

 

[Tedyoh]

Good reading here....I have a few spots that have heavy, large surface iron, what helps in these spots is turning down the sensitivity to 70 to 75, i dont overload on the iron that way, but depth does suffer.

 

[Gridwalker306]

Well I gave up on the new program, the reactivity being low isn't helping for depth and separation like I hoped. I switched back to my regular full tones program and have been having really good luck.

Finding coins in the iron is ok when the coins are above, or even, with the iron. Finding the coins that are deeper than the masking iron is the hard part. Even in my air tests the coins want to null out below iron. If anybody comes up with a solution, let me know![emoji41]

 

[Tedyoh]

The Silencer helps "silence" the iron and rust that sometimes sounds oh so good.....try bumping it up (no higher than 2) along with the Disc. (not sure if you are at 0 or 4). There's no detector that will find a dime sitting directly below a rust washer the size of a silver dollar, but if that dime is sitting offset an inch or so the Deus will give a high tone, crappy high tone mixed with iron, but you'll hear it.

Bottom line is you can't hunt in nail beds and iron fields and get perfect coin signals at 9" to 10"

What I usually do is 1st run R2 S2 at iron infested sites, then go over again (grid pattern) at R3 S0, then R4 S0 and lastly at R5 S-1.

The first and last usually produce the goods for me. R5 S-1 still gets the goodies at 6"

 

[tnsharpshooter]

Here's what I found that works,,,
Disc 2.5, 18khz,, reactivity 2 silencer -1, full tones, sens 95, tx power 2

This will get the goods,,9" coil btw,,,,if a person uses a 11" coil may have to raise disc to 3.0 approx-- due to ground feedback.

Also I run my GB at or a couple points higher than ground reading.

One note here--- if you think all the nonferrous targets will ring in clearly with high tone-- better think again,,,so,e targets will report low tone, no grunt smoother than iron,,,and can be broken tone as well.

Resweep any and all targets giving tone-- and listen close,,,,many targets providing tone are actually nonferrous,,and a lot of folks are not aware,,,,some even sound more like mini iron wrap signals.

These settings above are really working for me,,,even in sites where I used full tones and 0 disc on numerous previous hunts at the very same sites.

Cheers.

 

[vferrari]

Thanks. Why not Tx 3? What are the typical soil conditions?

 

[Tedyoh]

Here's what I found that works,,,
Disc 2.5, 18khz,, reactivity 2 silencer -1, full tones, sens 95, tx power 2

This will get the goods,,9" coil btw,,,,if a person uses a 11" coil may have to raise disc to 3.0 approx-- due to ground feedback.

Also I run my GB at or a couple points higher than ground reading.

One note here--- if you think all the nonferrous targets will ring in clearly with high tone-- better think again,,,so,e targets will report low tone, no grunt smoother than iron,,,and can be broken tone as well.

Resweep any and all targets giving tone-- and listen close,,,,many targets providing tone are actually nonferrous,,and a lot of folks are not aware,,,,some even sound more like mini iron wrap signals.

These settings above are really working for me,,,even in sites where I used full tones and 0 disc on numerous previous hunts at the very same sites.

Cheers.

TN - can you elaborate more on your "if you think all nonferrous targets will ring in clear with high tones better think again...." or actually an example of what you mean would be even better.........

 

[Gridwalker306]

The Silencer helps "silence" the iron and rust that sometimes sounds oh so good.....try bumping it up (no higher than 2) along with the Disc. (not sure if you are at 0 or 4). There's no detector that will find a dime sitting directly below a rust washer the size of a silver dollar, but if that dime is sitting offset an inch or so the Deus will give a high tone, crappy high tone mixed with iron, but you'll hear it.

Bottom line is you can't hunt in nail beds and iron fields and get perfect coin signals at 9" to 10"

What I usually do is 1st run R2 S2 at iron infested sites, then go over again (grid pattern) at R3 S0, then R4 S0 and lastly at R5 S-1.

The first and last usually produce the goods for me. R5 S-1 still gets the goodies at 6"

I'm usually running disc at 0.0 and silencer at -1.

I will try adjusting the settings like you mentioned, thanks

 

[Gridwalker306]

Here's what I found that works,,,
Disc 2.5, 18khz,, reactivity 2 silencer -1, full tones, sens 95, tx power 2

This will get the goods,,9" coil btw,,,,if a person uses a 11" coil may have to raise disc to 3.0 approx-- due to ground feedback.

Also I run my GB at or a couple points higher than ground reading.

One note here--- if you think all the nonferrous targets will ring in clearly with high tone-- better think again,,,so,e targets will report low tone, no grunt smoother than iron,,,and can be broken tone as well.

Resweep any and all targets giving tone-- and listen close,,,,many targets providing tone are actually nonferrous,,and a lot of folks are not aware,,,,some even sound more like mini iron wrap signals.

These settings above are really working for me,,,even in sites where I used full tones and 0 disc on numerous previous hunts at the very same sites.

Cheers.

My regular program is pretty close to yours, except I'm running zero disc, and 11.7khz.

As for good targets not ringing in clearly amongst iron, I agree it does happen. Many times I have dug a terrible signal to find a coin mixed with iron.

A hundred years ago, some of the sidewalks in my town were filled and "paved" with the remnants of the leftovers from the combustion chambers of steam powered locomotives. This is what I'm told anyway. It's like this weird sandy asphalty coal chunk crap that gives a bizarre signal. Sort of like a thin layer of rust or something. High tones everywhere, only to disappear, although all of the material sets off my pinpointer. Finding a coin in there is difficult, although I have in the past. Maybe a change of ground balance would help.

I dig a ton of iron because I dig everything that has even the smallest hint of a solid signal.

 

[Gridwalker306]

Thanks. Why not Tx 3? What are the typical soil conditions?

My ground balance is typically in the 80-88 range.

 

[Gridwalker306]

When I put two rusty nails on either side of a silver dime at an even level, there is no problem finding a sweet tone depending on the swing angle.

However, the same scenario but with the coin roughly 3/4 of an inch deeper than the nails, the VDI is extremely low, and there is no high tone. It's become a really tough signal to interpret. I'm sure there are good coins deeper than surrounding iron at my spots. It would be nice to be able to clean up these signals.

I did this test with my usual program, swinging at roughly 6 inches. And don't get me wrong, the Deus has really surprised me with pulling coins out of the iron so far, better than any other machine I've had.

 

[Tedyoh]

What happens when you use R5, S-1

 

[vferrari]

My ground balance is typically in the 80-88 range.

J Cache, thanks but I was responding to TNSharpshooter. I wanted to know what the soil mineralization bargraph was saying not soil conductivity. I bet your mineralization bargraph goes nuts when you pass the coil over that slag/coke stuff in the sidewalks you were describing, J Cache. The reason I was asking about mineralization is that generallyif mineralization is low, there is no reason to keep Tx power less than 3.

 

[Gridwalker306]

What happens when you use R5, S-1

Thanks Ted, I will give that a shot when I get a chance to experiment this weekend.