Is there such a detector?

G.A.P.metal

Gold Member
Jul 5, 2010
6,468
7,387
"Kan-a-we-o-la" Head on a Pole N.Y. Seneca Territo
🥇 Banner finds
1
Detector(s) used
Deus, 11" Low Freq. , 9" X35 Coils, MI 6 Pointer...
Land or Sea Pointer
King Of Spades 40" KS-D SA and 40" KS-S-SA
L
Primary Interest:
Relic Hunting
I think Bounty Hunter years ago used to make a couple with "Surface Blankers",but i don`t think any company does anymore.
Gary
 

G.I.B.

Gold Member
Feb 23, 2007
7,187
8,537
North Central Florida
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
CTX 3030 / GTI 2500 / Infinium LS / Tesoro Sand Shark / 1 Garrett Pro-pointer / 1 Carrot / Vibra Probe 580 (out on loan) / Lesche M85 / Mark1 MOD1 EyeBall
Primary Interest:
Other
There are some that can help eliminate surface trash, but I don't think that any of them will totally block that range out.
 

JackalopeZL1

Bronze Member
Nov 22, 2014
1,721
2,893
Tennessee And California
Detector(s) used
CTX 3030, Deus 2, Soon to be manticore
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Volume gain is your friend. Many detectors have this feature. It does not take away the shallow ones, but the deeper they are the softer the sound. I hunt all the time ignoring the shallow targets. Heck the AT pro in pro mode does it. after a while of running it you get the hang of it.
 

OP
OP
Truth

Truth

Gold Member
Apr 13, 2016
14,332
32,142
Abita Springs La....Born in New Orleans
🥇 Banner finds
2
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
EQUINOX 800
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
Volume gain is your friend. Many detectors have this feature. It does not take away the shallow ones, but the deeper they are the softer the sound. I hunt all the time ignoring the shallow targets. Heck the AT pro in pro mode does it. after a while of running it you get the hang of it.

I have the AT Pro and looking to get something better for deeper silver and this question just popped in my mind. A little research I see that the Garrett GTI 2500 has that feature. It was pretty interesting and very green.
98eddff56cd0d0ce60c044a0a59d6ad2.png



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Xraywolf

Silver Member
Feb 28, 2005
3,576
4,360
MI USA
Detector(s) used
Ace 400, AT Pro, equinox 800, Simplex,Vanquish 540
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
Depth and ID detection are simply electronic best guesses ,,,,F75 even has a "confidence meter" to give you an idea how sure the circuitry is that it is telling you the truth. So sure, would be simple for a manufacturer to program an option/setting to simply not alert on what it thinks are coins at what it thinks is less than 4".


Outside of the fact that I have found the majority of silver I have found 4" or less with an Ace 250, if I had that feature I wouldn't want to use it except out of occasional curiosity. Imagine the things you'd be passing over, trash yes clad yes and who knows what else.
Really, I guess that concept is the opposite of the "dig everything" group, the "dig very little" group, that is cherry picking on steroids ... And we know in advance what the tally would be between those 2 groups would be.
 

Last edited:
OP
OP
Truth

Truth

Gold Member
Apr 13, 2016
14,332
32,142
Abita Springs La....Born in New Orleans
🥇 Banner finds
2
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
EQUINOX 800
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
Depth and ID detection are simply electronic best guesses ,,,,F75 even has a "confidence meter" to give you an idea how sure the circuitry is that it is telling you the truth. So sure, would be simple for a manufacturer to program an option/setting to simply not alert on what it thinks are coins at what it thinks is less than 4".


Outside of the fact that I have found the majority of silver I have found 4" or less with an Ace 250, if I had that feature I wouldn't want to use it except out of occasional curiosity. Imagine the things you'd be passing over, trash yes clad yes and who knows what else.
Really, I guess that concept is the opposite of the "dig everything" crowd, "dig very little" ... And we know what the tally would be between those 2.

I would more or less use that feature on the areas like old public parks that I've already pounded out the clad but the trash hinders my 8" targets.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

mrwilburino

Hero Member
May 7, 2010
680
617
Northern Ohio
Detector(s) used
Fisher, Teknetics, Minelab, XP
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
I would more or less use that feature on the areas like old public parks that I've already pounded out the clad but the trash hinders my 8" targets.

A surface blanker would simply "not report" a target that that the machine determines to be within a certain shallow range. Any deeper target that is being masked by the shallow target will continue to remain hidden. There's just no way around that with current technology.
 

Charlie P. (NY)

Gold Member
Feb 3, 2006
13,003
17,106
South Central Upstate NY in the foothills of the h
Detector(s) used
Minelab Musketeer Advantage Pro w/8" & 10" DD coils/Fisher F75se(Upgraded to LTD2) w/11" DD, 6.5" concentric & 9.5" NEL Sharpshooter DD coils/Sunray FX-1 Probe & F-Point/Black Widows/Rattler headphone
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
Is there such a detector that can block the first 4 inches and just detect 4" to 10"?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

No, but there are tricks you can use. Lets say you have a detector that shows depth. Usually that is based on the assumption it is a quarter size and shape. If you lift the detector while sweeping over it and the signal stays good it is either a shallow target or a bigger target. also, as mentioned earlier, detectors like the F-75 have a "confidence meter" as well as ferric display, depth and conductivity, and the audio is a separate. You have to use all the clues to determine if it is worth digging. And you learn them by digging everything until YOU gain the confidence. And even then with billions of conductive possibilities you never know until you dig.

Also, a nail at 2" will fool the detector and it may not show a quarter at 6" right below that signal - especially if you have notched out or masked iron. Better detectors (also pricier) may give you a clue - but you have to interpret the sounds and readout properly. "X" the target, lift the coil, etc.

The best bet is to bury known items at known depths in your yard and practice over them. I have coins , plus coins under junk items in my "test garden" Make sure you draw a good map. ;-)
 

Tom_in_CA

Gold Member
Mar 23, 2007
13,837
10,360
Salinas, CA
🥇 Banner finds
2
Detector(s) used
Explorer II, Compass 77b, Tesoro shadow X2
A surface blanker would simply "not report" a target that that the machine determines to be within a certain shallow range. Any deeper target that is being masked by the shallow target will continue to remain hidden. There's just no way around that with current technology.

+1 Mrwilburino has the right answer. The yesteryear Teknetics (and/or was it BH ?) machines (25+ yrs. ago?) that had this option of "surface blanking", was a joke. All it was , was an intensity criteria filter. Such that if a signal (like a shallow penny, or shallow tab, etc....) triggered a certain "intensity" , the machine's filters silenced those. So that you only got the soft signals (those that didn't move the meter needle so-far to the right, so-to-speak).

And it was wildly mis-understood that it somehow "saw through" all those surface signals. Even the magazine advertisements seemed to insinuate this is what it did. And many people fell for this advertising. And if you tried to show them this was not actually happening, they referred you to the "catchy" magazine ad pix, which seemed to show they saw through (eliminated masking).

But if something were masked (under that surface clad or tab being nulled), you STILL would not get that deeper coin. Ie.: as if the top object were magically no longer there.

And there was a problem with the idea anyhow: Because assume for the moment that you're on the fringe edge of a shallow clad or tab or whatever (ie.: not exactly "centered" over the target). That fringe catch of the target would be interpretted by the filters as being a deep target. But lo & behold, the md'r tries to x-marks the spot (center better or his signal) and it disappears ! (because now your signal is louder). It was a PITA, to say the least. And people un-knowingly chased lots of the signals that were merely the "fringe" of the bigger signal. It was a disaster. Soon pulled, along with the deceptive ads.

Thus, No. No machine exists that can magically blank and see through the surface signals.
 

DizzyDigger

Gold Member
Dec 9, 2012
5,821
11,546
Concrete, WA
Detector(s) used
Nokta FoRs Gold, a Gold Cube, 2 Keene Sluices and Lord only knows how many pans....not to mention a load of other gear my wife still doesn't know about!
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
Is there such a detector that can block the
first 4 inches and just detect 4" to 10"?

Not that I know of, as that would require a level of circuitry
that's currently not in our machines.

Q: WHY would you want to blank out the first 4" of depth?

Object sink into the soil, over time, based on their weight,
viscosity of the soil and physical design of the object itself.
There are many places I've hunted where the best coins are
found 1"-3" down in very hard packed soil..you'd miss them all
with a 4" minimum!

FWIW, deeper doesn't always mean older..dug a zincoln
once that was 8" down in a park, then dug a Merc dime
at 4" just 5' away.
 

Jason in Enid

Gold Member
Oct 10, 2009
9,593
9,229
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
a few companies tried it back in the 80s (especially Garrett) but it never really worked well. The biggest hurdle is that your depth gauge is only somewhat accurate when you are directly centered over the target. Any time else you can get a deeper reading. So you would be getting a lot of hits that sounded good, then suddenly disappear as you move your coil. I can see a lot of digging empty holes from something like that.
 

Limitool

Gold Member
Jun 9, 2013
5,240
6,765
Middle TN. area
Detector(s) used
White XLT Spectrum E-Series
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
Wake me up when they come up with a detector that'll dig the coins for me!

Well I'd like that also... but I can vouch that mine is hell on wheels in finding horseshoes. Maybe I need to detect another place...? Hmmmmm!
 

Xraywolf

Silver Member
Feb 28, 2005
3,576
4,360
MI USA
Detector(s) used
Ace 400, AT Pro, equinox 800, Simplex,Vanquish 540
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
I would more or less use that feature on the areas like old public parks that I've already pounded out the clad but the trash hinders my 8" targets.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Nothing wrong with wanting tools and options that increase the odds of finding the items you want.
It would still be an electronic best guess based on other electronic best guesses - Lots of added complication and, in the long run, almost certainly counterproductive. Serious detectors, whom the manufacturers cater to, would sneer at it as the noob enticing gimmick that it would be, which is likely the reason why its not been done in any meaningful way.

Best thing I think it to put a major effort into learning the detector that you have, and ignore the screamers yourself, which are either shallow smaller metal items or large deeper ones.
 

OP
OP
Truth

Truth

Gold Member
Apr 13, 2016
14,332
32,142
Abita Springs La....Born in New Orleans
🥇 Banner finds
2
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
EQUINOX 800
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
I guess I just see things different on some hunts. It was just a thought that sounded cool. No biggie.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Top Member Reactions

Users who are viewing this thread

Top