Detectors for iron discrimination.

[hollywood13185]

Hey guys Im sure this has already been covered but was wondering what machines people recommend for areas with heavy iron and trash and why? Like best recovery speeds, discrimination and whatnot. Im wanting to get a new detector that goes deep like the minelab explorer se but it seems the se's recovery speed is poor and does not preform well in iron. Any thoughts? Thanks again

 

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[Montana Jim]

I can't help... I dig all the iron...

 

[hollywood13185]

Hehe Ya I would too, but sometimes it gets very overwhelming. In some areas its an iron hit every couple of steps. Fence wire and more fence wire. Damn that wire.

 

[Sandman]

It has been a while since I used a Explorer SE but the Sov GT has a great Iron mask that will only sound off on the larger iron and ignore nails while still reporting on a coin near it and doesn't mask it out like a lot of other detectors. Course a small sniper coil would help get around the iron too. You can also turn down your sensitivity a lot. Don't worry, you'll still get lots of depth.

There are times you just have to put up with it or find a new site.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

I would digress from Sandman's position, and say: Even though a Sovereign can reject iron quite nicely ("iron mask") it will not "see through" iron as well as other machines. Ie.: it can reject and ID iron quite nicely. Perhaps even separate nearby iron verses conductive targets, if you went REAL slow, etc..... But if you put a coin/conductive target under a nail, you would hear the nail reject, not the coin.

Contrast that to other machines that are better at averaging: Various 2-filter machines like the Silver Sabrel, Shadow X2, etc... you can put nail over a coin in an air test, and still get a good "beep" if a coin is under the nail. But of course, they're not power-house depth machiness. And the TID abilities are lacking. There's pros and con's to each. Generally the deeper seeking/better coverage machines will lack at averaging/separating. The better see-through/separating will lack at depth/coverage.

 

[Michigan Badger]

The iron problem has been since the beginning of the hobby and will be to the end.

Like Sandman mentioned, the Minelab product is about as good with iron as you're going to get with a deep seeking machine. That is, if you wish to not even hear the iron.

If you don't mind hearing iron, then the Nautilus IIb or IIba is the machine. The Nautilus DMC system gives two signals simultaneously (all metal and discrimination).

No detector made can see right through iron like those kid's X-Ray glasses of the 50's could see through a girl's dress

The old coin under the nail trick can be done with most any lower quality detector. I have two cheap Chinese units that can do it just as well as any Tesoro. Your higher quality machines like the Minelabs sometimes won't do it due to the iron mast settings.

So, as of today, the best thing to do is dig it all if you really want to clean a location out. I dig it all with the detector and if the site is hot and I can make a mess I'll dig the rest with a shovel and screen the dirt.

If digging all isn't practical, then you know you're going to miss targets. The best strategy then is to use a top machine and a lower level machine at the same site. The Explorer or GT followed by a one of the Tesoros is a nice combo. The Minelabs will almost totally ignore iron but the Tesoros won't pass up large iron. So, the Minelabs will grab all those in-between targets (between large iron chunks) and the Tesoros will remove the largest pieces of iron but will leave those millions of tiny fragments behind. In so doing you'll find more good targets.

Make sense? If not have Sandman translate all the above for you (especially the part about the X-Ray glasses)

Badger

 

[The Beep Goes On]

Even though it can wreak havoc on your ears I try to open up the discrimination all the way in an iron infested site. I except everything. This will preclude the possibility of the detector nulling over the iron causing you to miss a potentially good nearby target. You have to listen carefully and try to discern the good tones amongst the bad. As has been said, swinging the detector slowly is the only way to fly when you do this. I've done this with the SE and DFX and it does work. Sometimes I will discriminate small portions of the pattern to get rid of the high pitched iron. Cleaning out the iron can also lead to the good finds. And, of course, a small coil can help a lot.

HH!
TBGO

 

[Montana Jim]

I agree with sandman about the sniper coil and depth... My bounty hunter can easily pick other metals from around iron while discriminating.

 

[seger98]

I use the Sov. GT & I don't like the recovery time on it when it passes over iron, so I got the X-terra 70 & am much happier with that, The GT I think does a better job at locating objects, but the X-terra is better at telling me what they are. If I had to chose between the two, I'd take the X-terra because of the much faster recovery time!

 

[Sandman]

X-Ray glasses were really something. I was told that dress makers were sewing lead thread into the material when the glasses first came out. I wonder what I ever did with my glasses as I bet I could make a fortune on ebay now. Thanks for the memories Badger.

 

[Michigan Badger]

X-Ray glasses were really something. I was told that dress makers were sewing lead thread into the material when the glasses first came out. I wonder what I ever did with my glasses as I bet I could make a fortune on ebay now. Thanks for the memories Badger.

Here ya go. But as I recall in the old magazines didn't the ad show a gal's legs through her dress?

Anyway...

http://cgi.ebay.com/12-pair-XRAY-NO...ryZ26425QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[vondrewvious]

Like seger said the xterra is a great machine in the iron. I always use mine in all metal and i get good reading in the trash. Being able to switch into a prospecting mode also helps because when you get good, you can actually count how many objects are below the coil. Also I would recommend a low frequency for iron infested areas. Putting the 3KhZ coil on the xterra atuomatically makes the machine less sensitive to iron. Higher frequencies are more sensitive to iron.

 

[bakergeol]

Well first iron masking of coins will always be with us and there certainly isn't anything out there today that will solve it.

But the problems with "iffy" iron signals or iron producing a sold signal is another story.
A lot depends on what you are looking for.

When I am just looking for old coins only and do not want to detect any iron at all or small aluminium such as pulltabs I just use my GS5 which is slightly out of tune with the high conductor coin setting.

Tom has some experience with this on the TDI which is White's variation of the GS5. You can readily distinguish a bar of aluminium from an iron bar in this setting.

There was a lot written about this last year. You might remember the posts about folks using the GS5 or TDI in old hunted out parks with great success. Considering these are PIs that is saying a lot. Probably their success has a lot to do with ease of operation. Depending on your mod- if your high conductor coin tone is positive you just dig all positive tones which sound like coins(you can tell with a little practice) and 90% of your finds will be coins. There are no "iffy" signals, no wiggling the coil or watching the meter bounce. If you have a positive signal just dig. You are not spending half the day analyzing your signals.

Now I know what Tom is thinking and his first thoughts. What about vertically buried nails?
Yes this is true- vertical buried thin iron such as nails may produce a positive signal also for the GS5 and TDI.
If I have a lot of these(which is rare for me) I just attach my magnetometer probe to my coil. My setup is similar to the Badger's Nautilus setup. A mag hit which ids iron will come thru my headphones in my right ear and the detector in my left. As the mag loves vertical nails it is a non issue.

So I don't dig iron period.
George

 

[hollywood13185]

Wow! you guys are awsome. This has been the best forum. Thanks so much for the advice, Now Ill just have to choose a new detector. Wish I could get them all.