I embarassed myself again.

[Argentium]

In a reply to mlhudson on todays finds , I embarassed myself by being meanspirited and smallminded (stupid)

In addition to apologising to him, to all of you who witnessed my ignorance , I am genuinely sorry ! Argentium.

 

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[MD Dog]

Don't worry bud, we all make mistakes, and you've shown your true grit with that public apology. No one and I mean no one can find fault with another human being when that human being is humble enough to admit his mistakes openly as you have. Now let me get to the root cause of this misconception, digging everything.

You have got to understand Some things about this sport. To some people this is a weekend hobby, and that is fine it is what it is to them and to you. For me I call it a sport because I'm retired and can't stand golf. So I think of it just like many of my older contemporaries who spend their remaining days on earth chasing a little white ball over field and dale and calling this exercise. Some peole here actually call this MDing work and try to make a living of it and it's associated counterparts; IE bottle digging, antiquing etc....

So what do you call MDing are you just a week end kind of guy ? If so this may explain your dislike for the dig it everything kind of advice. Most weekenders only have time to dig the shallow confirmed targets and thus they tend to dig fewer targets and get fewer good finds.

Are you a sport hunter like me ? I am still relatively young and yet I hunt just about five days a week. SO I have the time and inclination to find and dig as many targets as I can. True it can be frustrating, time consuming and allot of work. But in the end I think my finds make it all worth while. You see for me It isn't just about the exercise. I also like to think of how great it will be to one day take my Grand children into my living room and light a fire in the fire plae and tell tall tales of treasure hunt adventures. And after words being able to provide visible proof of these adventures paying off. I think kids need reasons to dream nowadays more than ever.

Do you call treasure hunting your passion or job ? If so your gonna find it really hard to be successful without first discovering most of the answers to good prospecting idealism. That is what most unsuccessful hunters lack, that one very definable quality that sets the winner above the average Joe Shmoe. You gotta have perseverance, without that, you're gonna quite inches away from that treasure you've been hunting a lifetime for.

Now as for the technical reasons to dig everything. Are you aware that no matter what you paid for your detector it isn't a majic wand. you know that even the best detector only has "good" Target ID down to a depth of 6" And if you aint swingin the best your target ID will be even worse than good. Most are only about 30% accurate. All detectors are completely fallible below 6". Even if you buy a six thousand dollar gold hunting expert top notch machine it will be wrong about Target ID 99% of the time deeper than 6".

Then there's this thing called masking, have you heard of it before ? Oh well no never mind I'll explain it for any other newbie who hasn't heard fo it before. You see when your detector is faced with a sitiuation where it is swung right over top of say a gold five dollar piece, but it is also swinging over a tin foil gum rapper what do you think the machine will react to ? Since the gum rapper is bigger it is going to read foil. So you dig and dig and keep getting that foil signal and after the first two or three times you give up because you think it is just some more foill from that gum rapper. But since that Gold coin and foil will read the same you may have just passed up that signal. Here's a much more common situation. You get an Iron signal and you don't wanna dig it since you don't hunt relics. But you've just read my post so you think ok I'll try it out so you dig it and get disappointed by the nail you find. So you start to swing again and get another Iron signal right in the exact same location but deeper. o this time you pass it up knowing for sure it is another nail, which it probably is. But what if, just what if, it is actually a good silver or gold target that is at eight inches deep that you are now detecting because you removed the rusty nail, but good targets deeper than 6" give iron signals. Ok last scenario, you get a iron signal so you dig it and it turns out to be a liscence plate, so now you scan the area after clearing out the liscence plate and you get another signal ten inches to the right that say it is a good target. But that signal wasn't there before you dug the liscence plate. That is the power of masking, the liscence plate was being picked up so strongly that your good targets were completely hidden from your detector until you dug up the liscence plate and removed it from the scene.

Well I know I run on, but after reading your apology posts, both of them I took an instant liking to you and wanted to help you out. Just ignore me if I have been too presumptuous, I often am that as well. Take care MD Dog

 

[jeff of pa]

We all loose it at some point I Guess

By the way.

I Dig it all & The Only things I find false about my statement is

Nobody can dig it all. Plus I Have Iron Mask so Some
items don't even give a Signal.

No Matter how many targets I Dig.

IF I Go back I find more.

but if you at least try to dig it all
you get some pretty cool resaults sometimes

 

[BuckleBoy]

I dig everything but the nails. 8)

 

[Argentium]

MD Dog, Thanks for an infomation packed post ! While I am a relative newbie to the wonderful world of metal

detecting , I take the finding of old coins fairly seriously , and am learning to dig a lot more of those "iffy" signals

What I get from your post is - dig more of those deeper signals even if they are downright sketchy on the vdi.

Thank You !

 

[au4me]

I dig everything except GOLD coins. But I still have fun.

 

[johnnycat]

Gee, if I had a dollar for everytime I've had to apologize I would be sitting pretty

 

[Seamuss]

I dig everything but the nails. 8)

I remove the nails from the dig site so I don't detect them again. Especially if a vehicle might park new the spot.

 

[Seamuss]

I dig everything except GOLD coins. But I still have fun.

I only throw the gold coins back when I'm looking for platinum.

 

[Seamuss]

Gee, if I had a dollar for everytime I've had to apologize I would be sitting pretty

I only open my mouth to rotate feet.

I am abusing this post. Sorry.

You can always tell anIrishman,
but you can't tell him much

 

[jeff of pa]

MD Dog, Thanks for an infomation packed post ! While I am a relative newbie to the wonderful world of metal

detecting , I take the finding of old coins fairly seriously , and am learning to dig a lot more of those "iffy" signals

What I get from your post is - dig more of those deeper signals even if they are downright sketchy on the vdi.

Thank You !

Exactly .
They havn't Made any detector Fool Proof
yet.

Some may be Close But No Apple

 

[Goodyguy]

For what it is worth I have a low end detector with no bells or whistles, However I get a lot of good finds with it.
And my buddies who have the high end detectors that do everything except dig the hole for them, wonder how I manage to find just as good targets as they do with a detector that cost less than their headphones.

They are often surprised to see a stack of money with eyes looking at them while they are detecting ( it's the money they could have saved by switching to Bounty Hunter)

Seriously though, the secret to my success is that I use all the power my detector has to offer by hunting in all metal mode with the discrimination turned off. I have to dig more, a lot more but I like to find what ever is there and even if it's trash I don't really care because I'm digging a target. I'm not out to win a coin contest I just want to see what all different kinds of things I can find, coins, rings, gold, relics, artifacts, chains, anything metal. Sure I dig a lot of trash but I get a lot of good stuff too. Of course I try to stay away from the really trashy areas when hunting parks by keeping away from the picnic tables, shelters, restrooms and swings etc. But then, I hardly ever go to a park to hunt in the first place.

Don't get me wrong the high end machines are capable of much better results than the cheap ones as long as you learn how to use them properly. However, some high end detectors are just too complicated for the novice, therefore they don't get full use of their detectors maximum potential because of it.


GG~

 

[bazinga]

Now as for the technical reasons to dig everything. Are you aware that no matter what you paid for your detector it isn't a majic wand. you know that even the best detector only has "good" Target ID down to a depth of 6" And if you aint swingin the best your target ID will be even worse than good. Most are only about 30% accurate. All detectors are completely fallible below 6". Even if you buy a six thousand dollar gold hunting expert top notch machine it will be wrong about Target ID 99% of the time deeper than 6".

I do disagree with this paragraph here. But I am not in the mood to try and argue my case here.

So I just thought I would say that I disagree with it.

 

[MD Dog]

Now as for the technical reasons to dig everything. Are you aware that no matter what you paid for your detector it isn't a majic wand. you know that even the best detector only has "good" Target ID down to a depth of 6" And if you aint swingin the best your target ID will be even worse than good. Most are only about 30% accurate. All detectors are completely fallible below 6". Even if you buy a six thousand dollar gold hunting expert top notch machine it will be wrong about Target ID 99% of the time deeper than 6".

I do disagree with this paragraph here. But I am not in the mood to try and argue my case here.

So I just thought I would say that I disagree with it.

So you do have a majic wand then ?

 

[bazinga]

Now as for the technical reasons to dig everything. Are you aware that no matter what you paid for your detector it isn't a majic wand. you know that even the best detector only has "good" Target ID down to a depth of 6" And if you aint swingin the best your target ID will be even worse than good. Most are only about 30% accurate. All detectors are completely fallible below 6". Even if you buy a six thousand dollar gold hunting expert top notch machine it will be wrong about Target ID 99% of the time deeper than 6".

I do disagree with this paragraph here. But I am not in the mood to try and argue my case here.

So I just thought I would say that I disagree with it.

So you do have a majic wand then ?

6" is not very deep for some machines.

 

[Old Fart in TN]

I dig everything except GOLD coins. But I still have fun.

A priceless quote, well said.