whats the best setting for finding coins that are close to or underneath nails?

jb58

Hero Member
May 22, 2009
665
158
missouri
Detector(s) used
minelab equinox 600
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
hi all i have the minelab 600..i hunt a nail infested park.. and it is loaded with old nails..i am sure there are coins in and around these nails that i am missing..can someone recommend their favorite settings for this type of hunt? i have not yet tried the iron bias or really moved the recovery speed off of 1 as of yet..i have found quite a few silvers but now i want to see what coins i may be missing because of these nails..thanks and HH!
 

Tpmetal

Silver Member
Jan 4, 2017
4,407
7,507
Western ny
Detector(s) used
equinox 800, Whites mx sport, Garrot carrot, bounty hunter time ranger
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
hi all i have the minelab 600..i hunt a nail infested park.. and it is loaded with old nails..i am sure there are coins in and around these nails that i am missing..can someone recommend their favorite settings for this type of hunt? i have not yet tried the iron bias or really moved the recovery speed off of 1 as of yet..i have found quite a few silvers but now i want to see what coins i may be missing because of these nails..thanks and HH!

Theres only so much you can do with stock coil in heavy iron infested sites (with out digging all the iron out). That goes for pretty much every detector out there, a smaller coil helps tremendously. Now what you can do with the stock coil is increase the recovery speed and drop the iron bias, so that you have a better chance of hitting those iffy signals. Yes you will dig more of those nails, yes you will lose a hair of depth. But you should find a few more goodies. Also try searching in single frequency modes to target the specific thing you are looking for. im sure vfarrari or someone can give a bit better directions than I did here.
 

Tedyoh

Bronze Member
Apr 13, 2013
1,566
1,619
N.E. Ohio
Detector(s) used
XP Deus, NOX 600, XP Deus II
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Try running park 2 and keep lowering the sensitivity...to say where half of the nail signals disappear.....you will lose a lot of depth but you should or may squeek out a few shallow coins.
 

cudamark

Gold Member
Top Banner Poster
Mar 16, 2011
13,173
14,464
San Diego
🥇 Banner finds
1
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
3
Detector(s) used
XP Deus 2, Equinox 800/900, Fisher Impulse AQ, E-Trac, 3 Excal 1000's, White's TM808, VibraProbe, 15" NEL Attack, Mi6, Steath 920ix and 720i scoops, TRX, etc....
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
You haven't mentioned how deep you need to go, but, to work in heavy iron, what tpmetal had to say is pretty good. Using the 6" coil will certainly help, but, is depth limited. Reducing the sensitivity can also help in certain conditions to reduce the number of false signals. I find using 50 tone helps with audio nuances too.
 

ripvanb

Sr. Member
May 7, 2017
316
544
Connecticut
Detector(s) used
Equinox 800 & Tesoro Compadre 8"
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
also maybe slow down your swing speed.
 

sprailroad

Silver Member
Jan 19, 2017
2,577
3,980
Grants Pass, Oregon
Detector(s) used
Garrett A3B United States Gold Hunter, GTA 1000, AT Pro, Discovery Treasure Baron "Gold Trax", Minelab X-Terra 70, Safari, & EQ 800, & Nokta Marko Legend. EQ 900.
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Recovery speed of 1? You might gain a little in depth, but separation would be awful I would think in a lot of nails.
 

smokeythecat

Gold Member
Nov 22, 2012
20,684
40,651
Maryland
🥇 Banner finds
10
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
XP Deus II
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Nails confused the snot out of the 600's I have used. I had to use another brand machine to outsmart the nails.
 

SD51

Silver Member
Aug 24, 2016
4,829
9,950
MI
Detector(s) used
E-TRAC
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I use an E-TRAC but there are similiarities. Like others have said, use a small coil and go slow. If there's a coin under a nail, the detector will show a nail, no way around that. If there's a coin next to a nail, you should see a difference when sweeping left to right and right to left. The E-TRAC can be set-up to display the better of the two signals.

I have an area littered with square nails too, and I decided to take a very small area and dig every signal. Dug a lot of nails but now they are gone. Didn't find many coins there but I know there has to be some. Don't be afraid to dig up some trash, you never know what' there.
 

OP
OP
jb58

jb58

Hero Member
May 22, 2009
665
158
missouri
Detector(s) used
minelab equinox 600
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
thanks all..i love the 600..i will just have to keep working it! HH!
 

RobNC

Full Member
Jan 5, 2019
230
405
NC
Detector(s) used
EQ800 (Stock Coil), XP ORX (X35 11")
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
I've also experienced this in the limited time I've used an Equinox 600. 1900's homestead littered with iron and all I could get is clad?? yeah that isn't right. Was using a 6 inch coil also.
The question is, does the 800 offer more ways to deal with this problem? I also like the Equinox but do not like this iron problem one bit.
 

vferrari

Silver Member
Jul 19, 2015
4,910
8,376
Near Ground Zero for Insanity
Detector(s) used
XP Deus with HF/x35 Coils and Mi6 Pinpointer/ML Equinox 600/800/ML Tarsacci MDT 8000 GPX 4800/Garrett ATX/Fisher F75 DST/Tek G2+/Delta/Whites MXT/Nokta Simplex/Garrett Carrot
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I've also experienced this in the limited time I've used an Equinox 600. 1900's homestead littered with iron and all I could get is clad?? yeah that isn't right. Was using a 6 inch coil also.
The question is, does the 800 offer more ways to deal with this problem? I also like the Equinox but do not like this iron problem one bit.

You didn't say how deep you were recovering the clad (probably not too deep if using the 6 inch coil with the ferrous junk). But the fact that you were recovering clad means that there is no reason that you shouldn't be recovering silver also...if it was there. So that makes me think it is more of a site issue than a detector issue in your case.
 

smokeythecat

Gold Member
Nov 22, 2012
20,684
40,651
Maryland
🥇 Banner finds
10
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
XP Deus II
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Yup, if it's not there, you won't find it, that's for sure.
 

GeoW

Hero Member
Jul 12, 2005
527
568
Coastal Georgia
Detector(s) used
XP Deus II, XP Deus, XP ORX, Nautilus DMCllBa, Troy X5 Shadow, Tesoro Vaquero, Tesoro Outlaw
I have seen very little difference in depth, in my soil, between the two coils.

g
 

Top Member Reactions

Users who are viewing this thread

Top