Metal detector test kit

[Richard Ray]

I carried these object in my wallet since 1971 along with a couple modern coins and an European gold ring and a pull tab in a small plastic bag, usually all inside a little jar. I used them EVERY time I went into the field to set my detector, whatever brand I was using..
Richard Ray

 

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[Terry Soloman]

I carried these object in my wallet since 1971 along with a couple modern coins and an European gold ring and a pull tab in a small plastic bag, usually all inside a little jar. I used them EVERY time I went into the field to set my detector, whatever brand I was using..
Richard Ray

Why?

 

[Woodland Detectors]

Interesting.

 

[spartacus53]

What would yo do with them? Toss them into a field and then try to recover them

 

[lookindown]

How do you "set " your detector using targets?

 

[Dano Sverige]

I think he means he uses them to remind him how certain things sound. I do the same sometimes. I keep a gold and silver ring in my finds pouch, bury them in the sand at the start of a session and memorize the tones they give, and then i'm off.
It helps.

 

[Richard Ray]

How do you know your detector is set (tuned) correctly for the soil condition of the day, if you don't tune it every day? Things change constantly with the weather and type of soil, rainfall, magnetic storms, negative ions, etc., etc... Many, many times I've been detecting right behind some well known detectorist and find good stuff, they empty out their pouches and have a lot of pull tabs and junk. My wife did the same type of tuning, once she had several men comment that "there was no way a woman was a better coinshotter than them". After a couple hours hunting in the same area the four men and my wife emptied their pouches and she beat all of them put together... Also remember that in those days we didn't have all the bells and whistles on our detectors and we DIDN'T WANT THEM cause many times I proved that a plain detector reads deeper. Once hunting a historical site right after a heavy rain and with plenty of witnesses, I found a shield nickle almost two feet deep, in fact the group dug it up for me. So many times valuable things are missed by depending on these modern identification machines. My engineer and I built the first identification machine in 1970's AS A JOKE, showing it off at a detector convention. That started a race between detector manufacturers, to build their own models. We found it NOT practical because it took too much away from the depth. Instead we went with multi-frequency option which we integrated in the mid 1980's. I've proved that fact too many times in head to head competition, like at the Freemont Expo where I beat every manufacturer in a private test... That's my opinion and experience, of course I have a few hundred thousand hours on the end of a detector and shovel for almost fifty years. That's not to say that everybody should follow my lead, after all, electronics has come a long way over the years and everyone is entitled to their opinion and preference in detectors. And YES, I've dug a lot of junk, tons of it (there's a huge pile on my office porch right now) but at the same time I've found a mountain of valuable stuff that would have been missed by setting the detector to discriminate too high. The TWO detectorist that I've had to my home place to see PART of my finds, always shake their heads in disbelief of the amount..
Good Luck
Richard Ray

 

[spartacus53]

Honestly, I don't discriminate any sounds, I dig them all, good, or bad...

So just what will I miss, if I dig everything

 

[Richard Ray]

Please read my statement well, I said you miss stuff IF you discriminate TOO much. Why else would I have a huge pile of junk? I dug everything, thousands and thousands of holes but also found guns, knives, swords, cannonballs, etc, etc., that would have been missed otherwise. I guess high discrimination has it reward of less digging. I forgot to mention that "reverse discrimination" allowed us to know a lot about the target BEFORE digging. A null would indicate iron, a rise would indicate precious metal, in between were other metals like nickle, aluminum, clad coins, etc. The parameters could be set (using your kit) to narrow down the targets you wanted to recover, IF you were looking for a specific type of target, like gold rings or arrowheads... Yes, arrowheads, they are usually a different material than the soil in which they are laying, It sounds outlandish but possible. Many times I've had people challenge me to blind test to identify all sorts of objects, even paper money or identify the carat weight of a gold ring or natural gold nugget. It can be done, if you get enough hours on the detector.
Richard Ray

 

[CrazySlasher]

"any times I've had people challenge me to blind test to identify all sorts of objects, even paper money"


How?

 

[spartacus53]

CrazySlasher, maybe because paper money has no ring tone

 

[CrazySlasher]

CrazySlasher, maybe because paper money has no ring tone

My buddy and I actually have a running joke about people who ask if my detector can find arrowheads.

 

[spartacus53]

CrazySlasher, no offense, but I laugh at you... I have not only the ability to tell it's paper currency, but with 3 waves of my detector, I can even give you the denomination...

Top that

 

[Dano Sverige]

Honestly, I don't discriminate any sounds, I dig them all, good, or bad...

So just what will I miss, if I dig everything

You're only digging everything your Ace250 can find...so basically you're missing...everything!

 

[Richard Ray]

CrazySlasher, maybe because paper money has no ring tone

My buddy and I actually have a running joke about people who ask if my detector can find arrowheads.

Don't know about your modern machines, but some of the old ones could. I've seen cigar boxes filled with them, myself I have peanut cans filled with them along with other items made of flint, flint knives, scrapers, drills, etc.

 

[spartacus53]

You're only digging everything your Ace250 can find...so basically you're missing...everything!

You got that right No wonder I have never posted any finds

 

[CrazySlasher]

CrazySlasher, maybe because paper money has no ring tone

My buddy and I actually have a running joke about people who ask if my detector can find arrowheads.

Don't know about your modern machines, but some of the old ones could. I've seen cigar boxes filled with them, myself I have peanut cans filled with them along with other items made of flint, flint knives, scrapers, drills, etc.

How does that work?

 

[dld]

Don't know about your modern machines, but some of the old ones could. I've seen cigar boxes filled with them, myself I have peanut cans filled with them along with other items made of flint, flint knives, scrapers, drills, etc.

ok I am game how do you use those items to set your machine?