Anyone have a good setting/set up for hunting cellars.

[SultansOfSwing]

I have 600 and was wondering if anyone has some settings they'd be willing to share that helps cuts thru the iron close to the foundations

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Family Maps of Hinds County, Mississippi, Deluxe Edition - Grab it through Amazon!

[RelicsRings]

I've had my 600 out hunting a number of military camps and ghost towns in the west and I'm finding the 11" coil is too big for thick iron. That being said it is usable in iron, you just need to slow down and work the area in multiple directions.

My settings on the 600 for iron are; field 1 multi frequency, because there's not as much falsing vs field 2, you can even run beach 1 for that matter. Iron bias 0, recovery 3, sensitivity 20 or less, 5 tones, ground balance 0, run some iron volume if desired. These settings are to tame it down as your not looking for depth in iron you want separation.

The thing I've found with the Equinox is that it loves high conductors in trash, they will jump right out of iron. Low and mid-conductors kind of get lost in the confusion of all the iron though. Let me explain; flat tin sounds real good on the Equinox, it does on most detectors, but on other detectors there are clues you have big iron under the coil. The Equinox also likes to false on iron nail heads in the 12-19 range which are numbers most relic hunter want to dig. So I find myself wasting a lot of time checking each signal 90 degrees which is very time consuming when you have multiple targets under the coil with each swing. Now you can switch to 5 or 10 KHz on questionable targets to help ID iron, but again it's time consuming. Don't get me wrong the Equinox will lock onto a low or mid-conductor, it's just hard to pick it out of the iron mess of mid tones.

When the 6" coil is available it's going to a lot better at relic hunting IMO.

 

[SultansOfSwing]

Thank you for that good explanation

 

[vferrari]

RelicRings - For nails, you don't have to go 90 every time, try punching the all metal (horseshoe) button to see if you are getting an iron grunt with the false if its clean, dig, if not make a decision (does not work on the tin though - ration cans drive it crazy). I agree with you on the modulation. The main thing I dislike about the Equinox but I have learned some workarounds, including using the pinpoint mode to get a bead on big iron or big aluminum because you can "see" the size of the target with pinpoint.

For relic hunting in thick iron, cellar hole try Field 2 first, if its too hot, then you can try either Park 1 or Field 1 which are less hot on mid conductors and hit high conductors hard. Field 1 is naturally 2-tone so you have to switch to 5 or 50 tone as preferred. Park 1 has more iron bias cut in, which is fine for falsing but you might miss a masked mid or high conductor in the thick of iron. Don't be afraid to dial back on sensitivity, especially near large ferrous objects or concentrations of ferrous. You are not going for depth, but for separation, so dialing down sensitivity to 15 +/- may help on falsing and will help the mid and high conductor keepers to pop out. This is called sifting in Deus parlance. Another approach is to use Beach mode as suggested by RelicsRings because that is the least hot mode and is similar to turing down your sensitivity, especially if you are after high conductors (if after mid conductors like brass, then Field 2 or Park 2 are your best bets, but they will false more on iron because they are "hotter" modes than the "1's" - Park 1, Field 1).

Try to stick with the defaults if you can, but tweak as necessary. Should not need to make huge tweaks in iron bias or recovery speed, in general. Don't mode hop. Stick with one mode if you can.

Each mode is like a different detector - so you need to noise cancel and ground balance each mode separately. MultiIQ is very tolerant of a less than ideal ground balance, so in "normal" soil you can probably get away without ground balancing, but it only take a few seconds, so I recommend just doing it.

HTH

 

[gene the machine]

that's some great advice vferrari....

 

[Tedyoh]

Park 1 has more iron bias cut in, which is fine for falsing but you might miss a masked mid or high conductor in the thick of iron.

Iv'e found wheats (4) in my yard, where an older barn once stood, that the Deus missed, with Park 2 and I.B. set at 2.....kinda doesn't make sense, so now I'm wondering what the Deus may unmask with the Siliencer bumped up to 1 or 2....

 

[RelicsRings]

RelicRings - For nails, you don't have to go 90 every time, try punching the all metal (horseshoe) button to see if you are getting an iron grunt with the false if its clean, dig, if not make a decision (does not work on the tin though - ration cans drive it crazy). I agree with you on the modulation. The main thing I dislike about the Equinox but I have learned some workarounds, including using the pinpoint mode to get a bead on big iron or big aluminum because you can "see" the size of the target with pinpoint.

HTH

Using the horse shoe is something you can do, however I generally hunt in all metal anyway so turning 90 degrees is what I do to make my decision to dig. I didn't mention that in my original post because a lot of people don't like all the noise you have to sift through. Pinpoint is something I will have to try, I usually only use pinpoint in parks. Thanks for the workaround.

 

[cudamark]

I've had my 600 out hunting a number of military camps and ghost towns in the west and I'm finding the 11" coil is too big for thick iron. That being said it is usable in iron, you just need to slow down and work the area in multiple directions.

My settings on the 600 for iron are; field 1 multi frequency, because there's not as much falsing vs field 2, you can even run beach 1 for that matter. Iron bias 0, recovery 3, sensitivity 20 or less, 5 tones, ground balance 0, run some iron volume if desired. These settings are to tame it down as your not looking for depth in iron you want separation.

The thing I've found with the Equinox is that it loves high conductors in trash, they will jump right out of iron. Low and mid-conductors kind of get lost in the confusion of all the iron though. Let me explain; flat tin sounds real good on the Equinox, it does on most detectors, but on other detectors there are clues you have big iron under the coil. The Equinox also likes to false on iron nail heads in the 12-19 range which are numbers most relic hunter want to dig. So I find myself wasting a lot of time checking each signal 90 degrees which is very time consuming when you have multiple targets under the coil with each swing. Now you can switch to 5 or 10 KHz on questionable targets to help ID iron, but again it's time consuming. Don't get me wrong the Equinox will lock onto a low or mid-conductor, it's just hard to pick it out of the iron mess of mid tones.

When the 6" coil is available it's going to a lot better at relic hunting IMO.

If you're not concerned about depth and want better separation, try using a higher recovery setting. I've run it all the way to 8 in heavy iron with good success.

 

[RelicsRings]

If you're not concerned about depth and want better separation, try using a higher recovery setting. I've run it all the way to 8 in heavy iron with good success.

On the 600 3 is as high as you can go which is equal to 6 on the 800. I know confusing, I don't know why they just didn't have it skip from 2 to 4 to 6 so people using the 800 vs 600 could relate to each others settings.

 

[SultansOfSwing]

I'm hitting a string of about 10 cellars tomorrow. I'm going to put all of your guys tips into action. Wish me luck. Thank you for all of the help

 

[sgoss66]

Sultan -- I'll be interested to hear how you do. Living in Oklahoma, there aren't really any old "cellar holes" available. But, I'm travelling back home to PA for a long visit here in late June/early July, and I know of a cellar hole I'm interested in hitting. I'll be curious to hear what you find/found...

Steve

 

[SultansOfSwing]

We hit a bunch of the cellars. Finds were sparse due to us not being the first ones there. I nabbed a few buckles and my friends each got an indian, buckles and buttons. Very suprised at not finding any large cents.

This was my find of the day. Sorry for the sideways picture. If you click the photo twice it enlarges to right aide up.

This was right in the iron patch around the cellar and rang up in the low 20s. It had a double tone due to the 2 pieces that make up the badge.

Its one of my best relic finds and i love it.

 

[vferrari]

Nice find. How did your battery hold up?

 

[SultansOfSwing]

Between hiking and detecting it was a 9 hour day, about 5.5 of it detecting. I was down to 1 bar after about 4 hours.

I was looking at my charger today and its a travel usb charger and it only outputs .08 of an amp. doesnt meet the minimum that minelab recommends. So I will do a full charger with a proper 3a charger and see how she does.

 

[sgoss66]

NICE dig, on the badge! NHNG = New Hampshire National Guard?

Steve

 

[SultansOfSwing]

Yes new hampshire national guard. Sharpshooter is the 95% or better catagory. I believe using the springfield 1873 45-70 rifle. I have the name of the first initial and last name of the homes occupant . I have to check the historical society to see if i can get more info.

 

[Wild Colonial Boy]

I was having frustration with nails falseing especially the hammered hand made ones

My only resolve is I search completely open in all metal
And the strong repeat tones I dig
I am in field 2, set to 5 tones and bias at 3 and recovery 5
I have found tiny bronze and copper items
That got discriminated in regular Park 2
I still get falsing but when doubt I drop down to 5khz
And if it blanks or mixed signal I walk
And or I check with
a user program set in park 2
Set at 2 tone, I adjusted tones where iron is at 1 and low volume
And tone 2 at 20 pitch and louder volume
If it is iffy and numbers and sound all over the place
I walk and don’t dig