ARE NEWER MACHINES ONLY GOOD FOR FINDING THE OLDER COINS........??

[Joe(TX)]

......I guess that I'm well rounded and enjoy finding all types of valuables not just coins......I like finding the old toys, tokens, farm equipment, old and new jewelry, old bottles and old marbles just to name a fraction of what we can and do find everyday!!.............At least to me it sounds like at least the Coin Hunter in our midst is CHERRYPICKING ..........his designated sites and really do not want to be bothered by the readouts that could be Gold Rings and Nickels, also will not dig the Pulltab or the Foil Signals...........this can easily be done today with either the Whites Spectra V3 or the Minelab E-Trac!!..............Now I am not against this ......it has been going on since the invention of the Discriminator Circuit!!................What I am bothered by is that some are touting these Newer Machines and Claiming that they are so Superior to all of the rest just because of their High Silver Coin Count!!...........................Some people are not trying to get a High Silver Coin count because they are also after all of the other type Goodies mentioned already!!...........JUST ANOTHER VIEW FROM ANOTHER ANGLE.....................LOL...............and HH..........Joe

 

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[Joe(TX)]

You never answered my question.....have you at least tried some of the older machines especially a Compass Gold or Coin Scanner or a even a Compass X100

I have been swing a detector for 30 years, so yes I have used many of the older detectors. That is why I must say if you were pulling coins out at 10-12" over 20 years ago, you were the only one. There wasn't any Internet forums back then, but I did get all the treasure mags that told what people were finding and how deep. I used a Tesoro Inca and Mayan for many years and to be quite honest, I don't think I could detect a coin much below 7-8" at the most on a good day. In 1991 I bought a White's Spectrum Eagle and made a good leap in depth. The old TR/VLF's really didn't go that deep.

..............I WAS NOT THE ONLY ONE............I have been swinging a detector since 1970........I guess that you never hunted with any of the old Garrett Deepseeker's or the D-Tex SK50's with the 12 to 15 inch coils.....we could really punch down deep into our soil with those detectors.....a bit heavy compared with todays.....but were very good on depth!!.......Anyway I was referring to Detectors used in my areas Neutral Soil......probably could not do that in a minerized soil.......If you are happey with the New WhizDat machine.....i am happy for yer...........but do not preach that your way is the only way!!.....The old VLF/TR's did go and still go deep......I guess that you did not know how to use it properly.......Also older detectors do not include just the VLF/TR's.....also the older Sovereigns and the older motion detectors such as the Garrett ADS 7X.........but do not say I was the only one........I guess that all is left for you to do is attack me.......................Good luck........you can be just as biased in your views as I am.......LOL.............Joe

 

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[Digger]

Dodge City is a rather small town so we only had one detector dealer. A Garrett deal, and yes I have owned many deepseeker's. I've owned several of the American series, the Freedom series, and both the ADS III and ADS VII. Great detectors for the times and I found lots of nice stuff. Just imagine what i might have found had I actually known how to use it properly LOL.

I will admit it took skill, that has long gone, to properly tune that old TR to the ground, and maintain a constant height to hear those faint signals. Today all that skill is replaced by circuit technology. Another example of new technology replace skill.

 

[BuckleBoy]

Joe, you're right. Too much bragging goes on here about a Certain Type of Detector that does well in Parks finding silver coins that others can't find. Well I say "Big Deal!" That is ONE type of hunting at ONE type of site. That type of hunting will Never find a gold ring unless by chance.

AND I can bet that I have found just as much Monetary Value in my relics and much older coins this past year as the guy who has found 500 silver coins cherry picking the parks.

I think you meant that finding 500 silvers doesn't make one detector brand a God and all other brands Crap. Right On!

Joe, Ive been at it a while too. I would love to hunt civil wars relics or war of 1812. I dig according to digging conditions' where I can I'lldig everything. Nice lawn, as litle as possible. If somone wants to cherrypick why do you care. Since I can remember I've hunted everything from rabbits to elk. If someone told me they only hunt deer, I would be glad he was at least a hunter.

.................CHERRYPICKERS are my FRIENDS..........LOL.........HH.......Joe

Yep. And COIN HUNTERS are MY Friends. They leave the most valuable items in the ground for me.

 

[Digger]

I guess a lot of it comes down to personal preference. After 30 years, of digging it all, I have literally buckets of musket and miniballs, boxes of buttons and all sorts of relics. I have enough jewelry to start my own jewelry store, and I've sold more old coins than many people have ever found. I've become a bit of a selective hunter in my old age. For that reason I choose to use a detector that will give me the very best odds that what I dig will be worth the effort. Sure I'm probably missing so good stuff, I'm happy to leave it for those looking to fill their boxes, but I doubt I leave much behind worth digging.

 

[Joe(TX)]

Joe, you're right. Too much bragging goes on here about a Certain Type of Detector that does well in Parks finding silver coins that others can't find. Well I say "Big Deal!" That is ONE type of hunting at ONE type of site. That type of hunting will Never find a gold ring unless by chance.

AND I can bet that I have found just as much Monetary Value in my relics and much older coins this past year as the guy who has found 500 silver coins cherry picking the parks.

I think you meant that finding 500 silvers doesn't make one detector brand a God and all other brands Crap. Right On!

Joe, Ive been at it a while too. I would love to hunt civil wars relics or war of 1812. I dig according to digging conditions' where I can I'lldig everything. Nice lawn, as litle as possible. If somone wants to cherrypick why do you care. Since I can remember I've hunted everything from rabbits to elk. If someone told me they only hunt deer, I would be glad he was at least a hunter.

.................CHERRYPICKERS are my FRIENDS..........LOL.........HH.......Joe

Yep. And COIN HUNTERS are MY Friends. They leave the most valuable items in the ground for me.

.........BUCKLEBOY........I'M WITH YER..............COIN HUNTERS ARE MY FRIENDS.......LOL.............I never had a 1266X but several of my friends had one back in the day.......it was truly a deepseeker.......I ran back in the day mainly with the older Garretts and the Fisher 1235X with a 10 inch coil.....that FISHER was very good in the local Competition Hunts plus not bad in the parks and older homesites....it was real good at finding the silver next to the iron targets!!.............................Joe

 

[Joe(TX)]

I guess a lot of it comes down to personal preference. After 30 years, of digging it all, I have literally buckets of musket and miniballs, boxes of buttons and all sorts of relics. I have enough jewelry to start my own jewelry store, and I've sold more old coins than many people have ever found. I've become a bit of a selective hunter in my old age. For that reason I choose to use a detector that will give me the very best odds that what I dig will be worth the effort. Sure I'm probably missing so good stuff, I'm happy to leave it for those looking to fill their boxes, but I doubt I leave much behind worth digging.

...........ME TOO............After 39 YEARS of digging it all.......I pretty much feel the same way.......I just choose to use different equipment than you do.....................and my choice of what I want to find is also different..............................BUT THE REST IS THE SAME............LOL.....so the old saying that the more that things change........the more that it is the same.........IS TRUE!!........Joe

 

[dirtscratcher]

I never said I was a cherrypicker. I said if your have fun, who cares. The hunter your referring to is kicking butt. I grew up in Columbus. No Civil War battles near Columbus or Revolutionary either, even less in Western Montana. So you hunt what you got. So if someone was to use an [older] detector with discriminate maxed out and cherrypicked would it become less a detector.

 

[Joe(TX)]

I never said I was a cherrypicker. I said if your have fun, who cares. The hunter your referring to is kicking butt. I grew up in Columbus. No Civil War battles near Columbus or Revolutionary either, even less in Western Montana. So you hunt what you got. So if someone was to use an [older] detector with discriminate maxed out and cherrypicked would it become less a detector.

...........HAVE FUN........Joe

 

[TimC (North Alabama)]

In my mind it's all aout have fun and having so little free time in the first place I'll take all the fun I can get and wether I come away with anything is secondary, at least I enjoyed the time. I have been detecting since the mid 80's and started with a Garrett ADS III that I still have, althought my invertory of machines is nourmous encorporating the state of the art with the old, I guess I my personal perference is the old school analoge like Tesoro, Garrett and Whites. The key words is personal perference, while I love to get out with the new Minelabs and Whites machines the one I grab and carry in my car for on the "Fly" hunts is a Tesoro with no meter just two knobs. Sometimes it hard for me to let go of nostalgia.

 

[Nick A]

What an amusing thread. Seems like the question originally asked in the subject line was diverted quite quickly and we return to the partisan politics of metal detecting! Was the original question in the subject line really what the original poster wanted answered, or was it a setup to stir folks up?

Naturally, newer machines will find modern coins, gold and relics as well as older coins. They are after all, metal detectors... they will all detect metal! A lot depends on what you want to find. I know many XLT and DFX users and some are ring hunters, others relic hunters or coinshooters. Those particular newer machines work for all these types of detecting.

As far as the old Compass machines, etc... if you have one, great! But most of us cannot just go to our detector dealer and get a 30 year old Compass, or any of the other detectors no longer manufactured. We are stuck buying newer machines, so discussing the merits of older machines is really not practical, no matter how good they are or were in their day.

Relic hunter, Civil War hunter, Coinshooter, Ringfinder, Water hunter, Prospector... different strokes for different folks. I may be a coinshooter, but I respect my fellow detector users who seek other treasures. I hope that you can be as happy with your finds as I am with mine. Let's respect our fellow detectorists and their style of hunting, rather than belittling or mocking their chosen pursuit. (Some of us get tired of those boastful "colonial only" posts too, you know? )

Another thing to consider is where you are detecting and the type of digging you can do. In manicured parks and home yards, I'd be hard pressed to "dig all" or even "dig many" - so cherrypicking is a necessary evil. I do my best to choose my signals. A newer machine gives me more data to make an educated guess as what to dig. Estimated depth is one of the most important pieces of information my newer machine gives me, but the suggested ID information is also valuable. If I were digging a pasture, field or woods where digging didn't matter I would take a chance on almost all non-iron signals. So, it's not just preference, it's the limitations on my activity imposed by the sites I have access to. As dirtscratcher said, "...you hunt what you got."

More of the discussion seems to have focused on cherrypicking, rather than detector choices. If someone can buy a new machine and go out and dig a handful of coins their first time out they are much more likely to stay interested in the hobby than if they have to struggle and fight the machine to know what it is trying to tell them. Also, I'd rather have a newbie with no training and their mail order detector not digging every target at the park and leaving it a mess of diggings and dead plugs everywhere. I think most detector users as time goes by, reduce the discrimination they use, but for beginners, discrimination is a great way to learn.

If you're tired of hearing about one brand of machine and one type of detecting, start posting your own finds! Instead of perpetuating the empty arguments let's hear about the relics, rings and nuggets you're finding with your machine of choice. Saying your machine is best and makes the best finds is all well and good, but seeing is what convinces me. I chose my particular detector because I saw, in person and online, people using that machine making the types of finds I wanted to be making. I did not see the results I wanted as overwhelmingly with other brands or models - the other brands and models seemed to be more-or-less like my older machine. So, I purchased that newer detector and learned to use it well and guess what... I'm getting the kind of results I want.

I also noticed that the people who chose the machine I use tended to be more "hardcore" - they were detecting a lot. Not just a Saturday afternoon once or twice a month. These guys were out 10, 20, 30 hours a week and doing lots of research. They knew the history of almost any ground they waved their detector over. The research you do and the time you spend detecting are important too. Any detector will make great finds on a good site that has not been detected before. For example, squeaking one more keeper out of a well detected park that doesn't even have pulltab signals left in it is another story. Sometimes a different brand, model or searchcoil (paired with experience) can make the difference in getting a tired site to produce.

I started with a two knob, no meter machine many years ago and made great finds, and dug a lot of trash along the way but I hope I'll never have to go back to using that old technology again! With my new machine I am digging MORE keepers and LESS trash. I could dig more trash, but why would I want to? It's not my goal to clear out all the metal in the ground or to make a profit, but to end up having a fun day finding goodies. With my new machine I am finding more treasure in my pouch at the end of the day.

I guess something of an alternate answer to the original question is, newer machines are good for finding all the targets older machines could find AND are better at finding older coins, especially in hunted-out sites.

As far as iffy signals, I dig plenty. I have flat buttons, square nails and antique toys as well as gold jewelry and other relics that I treasure. So I am even cherrypicking the iffy signals, if that makes sense. The other advantage of my newer machine is that the signals that were iffy on my old machine are now solid. The new machine is better at target ID than my older machine, so there are less iffy signals to dig. The newer machine gives FEWER iffy signals than the old machine. Nowhere near the iron falsing I used to get with my old machine. So, I am digging fewer iffy signals because the ID is more accurate - there are less iffy signals to dig! Do I know this for sure? Sure, because I keep digging random stuff and iffy signals at times to make sure, and darned if that newer machine is really accurate.

Joe......you have the most unique writing style......lots of ellipsis......no other punctuation and the occasional.......ALL CAPS.

 

[Digger]

Good post Nick.

I will add that newer detectors make finding older coins easier for those new to the hobby. Those with experience know they don't need all those fancy "bells & whistles" but without a doubt it does make detecting better for newcomers, and some of us old timers.

 

[Woodland Detectors]

.his designated sites and really do not want to be bothered by the readouts that could be Gold Rings and Nickels, also will not dig the Pulltab or the Foil Signals...........this can easily be done today with either the Whites Spectra V3 or the Minelab E-Trac!!.





Not true at all. I Own an etrac and a friend owns that spectra. We dig as much as we dug with the older machines. My RW buttons sound like trash. Still have to dig everything....My oldest coin to date was dug with an older Minelab. I still use that machine with great success.

 

[Joe(TX)]

.........NICK A........I'm glad that you like your new machine but do not preach that everyone needs to get one....................If you are so good fly down to Texas..(YOU PAY FOR THE PLANE TICKET).....and I will house you for free for a week......just give me notice so I can get off work........NOT EVERYONE IS THE SAME......We all like different things and to put everyone into a box and only the newer machines will do .......IS NOT RIGHT!!.....................And referring to Compass and saying that discussing its merits are not pratical just cause you can't get it from the local detector shop.....is also BUNK........LOOK ON EBAY.......the Coin Scanners and Gold Scanners are selling like HOT CAKES.....if they are so impratical why are they in such HOT DEMAND!!.......Me and my Compass or other vintage detector against your E-Trac...........COME ON DOWN ...... I AM WAITING............your TEXAS.............PARTNER.............................................Joe

 

[dirtscratcher]

I've read his post 5 times and I dont see any preaching. You keep saying people cherrypick with new detectors, I don't understand how a detector that beeps at metal could be at fault. It seems you blame the detector not the person.

 

[Joe(TX)]

I've read his post 5 times and I dont see any preaching. You keep saying people cherrypick with new detectors, I don't understand how a detector that beeps at metal could be at fault. It seems you blame the detector not the person.

..........I BLAME BOTH.....................How else would you get a high silver coin count...........and then using the high silver coin count to say that my new detector is better than your old detector.........seems like you are preaching too or at least defending that idealogy.........I could Cherry Pick also even with an older machine.....but I enjoy finding the old relics, bullets, rings, etc.........CHERRY PICKING IS NOT THE PROBLEM............it is using that system to find a lot of a particular category of targets such as in this case......old coins.....and then saying the new detectors must be better than the old detectors since the count on old coins is so high!!..........HH......Joe

 

[Digger]

Could be cherry picking or that a detector is very strong/weak for a specific type of target. It can also be the person is not familiar, yet, with that detector. For example, the E-Trac is a silver monster. I've had it for about a month but from day one silver was very easy to distinguish. for this reason I can see a larger number is silvers being found. Just this weekend I pulled 10 silver coins and only 9 wheats. A very lopsided find ratio. Was it from cherry picking? To some extent it might have been, but I was not ignoring coppers.

This weekends hunt I believe is a perfect example of what some of us have been trying to say. My buddies and I have hunted our city park for the last 20 years with many different detectors. You could always use the excuse that even after 20 years me and my buddies don't know how to use a detector properly, but I say that would be a stretch. Each time one of us upgraded to a newer detector the park would produce, for that person, again. Each time a tad bit more depth could be obtained.

I took my new E-Trac to that park this weekend with my buddies and pulled 10 silver coins and only 9 wheats. Cherry picking? not really on purpose, its just that the E-Trac makes finding deep silver very very easy. As I get more experience with the new detector I'm sure my numbers will level out just as they do with any detector. One of my buddies managed 1 wheat and the other zilch. I got a good signal(CO 47) which i was sure would be silver and had my buddy check it with his. He got no signal at all even in all-metal. He knows how to use his detector. He was completely at a loss for words when he watched me pull 2 mercs out at near 12".

I've used a DFX for the last 6 years and feel I'm pretty good with it. When I first got it I was able to pull some deep coins from this park that had been missed by past detectors, but eventually I could no longer pull but the random wheat. I went back to the same small area and pulled 20 keepers. Being very familiar with the DFX's ability, and a long time supporter, I feel most of my finds were not within the DFX's ability.

Here is what I pulled for this very hard hit park. Without a doubt I attribute the finds to newer/better detector technology.

 

[Nick A]

.........NICK A........I'm glad that you like your new machine but do not preach that everyone needs to get one....................If you are so good fly down to Texas..(YOU PAY FOR THE PLANE TICKET).....and I will house you for free for a week......just give me notice so I can get off work........NOT EVERYONE IS THE SAME......We all like different things and to put everyone into a box and only the newer machines will do .......IS NOT RIGHT!!.....................And referring to Compass and saying that discussing its merits are not pratical just cause you can't get it from the local detector shop.....is also BUNK........LOOK ON EBAY.......the Coin Scanners and Gold Scanners are selling like HOT CAKES.....if they are so impratical why are they in such HOT DEMAND!!.......Me and my Compass or other vintage detector against your E-Trac...........COME ON DOWN ...... I AM WAITING............your TEXAS.............PARTNER.............................................Joe

Joe, thanks for the kind offer to come and detect with you. I wish I had the time to detect with everyone who offers! I have trouble just keeping up with my local friends. Is it to prove to me that digging everything is fun? Or that older machines are good? Either way, you don't need to prove that to me. Metal detecting is a fun hobby, regardless of what you decide to dig and what machine you use. I don't think I put anyone in a box, and I don't use you the term "cherrypicker" as a negative epithet. It seems to me that you, Joe, are the one who is so vehemently arguing against new machines and coinhunters.

"Bunk!" lol, Joe, as far as older detectors, if you enjoy the challenges of used old old electronics, good for you. For me, old electronics are like playing the lottery, you never know what you're gonna get. I'm glad you choose to watch eBay auctions for old equipment and track the results, hotcakes! hot demand! Seems like you might enjoy watching the auctions more than actually detecting! Those old machines might be in demand for repairing and fixing those old machines... where else could you get parts?! Most of us understand that these older machines can be unreliable and that by purchasing old or used equipment you are taking a greater chance that it may fail or need repair. I don' t doubt that these old machines are popular with some, just as new machines are popular with others. Perhaps the used machines overall are popular because they are generally cheap. If you don't believe that old stuff is not practical (or reliable) let's give you a 20 year old car, television, cell phone, cordless phone, and computer and see how those work out for you. If an old detector is so good, surely all those other 20 year old machines and electronics must be good too! If you are a person who can only have one detector... not a stable full of them, a newer machine is a better bet, as you don't have a "spare" when that solder on the 20 year old circuit board gives out.

I'm not sure how putting your old detector and my new detector in a head-to-head competition on your home turf would prove anything. I don't doubt that any metal detector will find metal. Since you "dig all" that's all you need is a machine that finds metal... any metal. Old machines will do that, so will new ones. Maybe digging hundreds of screwcaps and pulltabs thrills you Joe, but that gets aggravating to me. We hunt for different things, so how could we possibly compare?

I am confident that in a hunted out park, my newer machine will find more older coins than your older machine. I know this because I am hunting the same hunted out parks I have been hunting for years. I have hunted these parks with older machines, I have seem others hunt these parks with older machines, and others have hunted with older machines in these parks for decades. It never fails that some old-timer comes up and wants to spend a half hour or more of my detecting time regaling me with the days he pulled tons of silver coins out of that very same park. They always seem amazed that I am still finding silver there and say that they haven't found silver there in many years, while they defend their fabulous 20 and 30 year old machines.

I'm not preaching that everyone needs a new detector. I am making reasonable arguments as to why a person may want a newer detector. A few of these reasons are: to take advantage of technological improvements, have more reliable and serviceable machine, and find more good targets due to better discrimination and target ID capabilities. If these advantages are not important to you, then you have no need for a newer machine.

 

[john37115]

Hi Joe, like you I love the older Compass machines we both have extensive collections. I also love the newer technology. I live in an area with a population of just over 1200 people so I have to be pretty diverse on the sites I detect. Or get in the car and drive 50 miles to the nearest city. Locally I have an old fairgrounds a couple newer small parks, some pastures that yield civil war bullets, buttons and whatever else happens to turn up and ton's of old homesteads long forgotten buried back in the woods. I have managed to dig almost 300 silver coins this year alone with the Etrac. WOOHOO. Next year that won't happen because I have exhausted my sites of silver that the Etrac can reach. Guess what I still go back with the old Compass's and find silver I've missed with the Etrac in areas I have litterally wore out with every big and small coil available for the Etrac.
The Etrac is a great machine but have you all tried it on rough plowed fields if so you will know what I mean it is for lack of better words terrible. The Etrac hates disturbed soil and air between the coil and ground. The F75 on the other hand is great in this area and just as deep as the the Etrac a heck of alot faster. I've hear how well the Etrac will seperate in the Iron it does very well but it's no match for a Compass. The old Compass will clean it's clock with ease.
What I have found is each machine has it's strengths and weakness's.
If your looking for deep coins in an old park then get a Minelab
If you want a relic monster get the Nautilus, old 1266 or F75
If you want a machine that will cope well with the nastiest iron sites the F75, Goldmaxx, and Compass machines are your huckleberries.
If you want an all around machine get a Whites.
Yesterday I hunted an area that was trashy beyond belief. I started hunting the cleanest part of it with the Etrac and a 6" coil. I found a couple of wheat pennies in this small area but soon gave up as the ground had just been dozed and was rough and unlevel with roots and rocks sticking out everywhere. I put away the Etrac and got out my little Compass Liberty 50 and started popping coins and relics out with ease that the Etrac was really struggling on.
I think conditions, purpose and intended targets all have a lot to do with my machine of choice.
Different machines shine in different areas.
I compare the old Compass machines to the likes of a Fender tube amplifier with a hot Fender Telecaster/Stratocaster cooking through it. Theres a certain warmth or nostalgia that the old analog technology has to it. For the non musician a 57 Chevy or 68 Camaro pounding the ground with a hot Small/Big block verses a new Corvette/Mustang with it's refined 400-500 hp.
I guess the old Compass machines are the muscle cars of detectors.
Will they find the old coins? Yes Will they find the old coins as deep as the Etrac? No
Will they find the old coins that are highly masked that the Etrac won't? Yes
Do I like the old or new technology best. Can I like both?

 

[Digger]

I've hear how well the Etrac will seperate in the Iron it does very well but it's no match for a Compass. The old Compass will clean it's clock with ease.

John, I had an experience with the E-Trac this weekend I might want to hear. Hunting my old city park I got what the E-Trac called a good solid penny target. I dig down deep to find an old rusted piece of iron. Not surprising since I'm new to the E-Trac, but I thought I'd test it again. I threw the rusted piece on the ground and the E-Trac still saw it as a penny. I was confused because I hadn't seen this kind of problem. Normally I can tell iron pretty easy. I put the piece away to look closer when I got home. What I found, after a little cleaning, is that someone had used a copper token as a washer. Here is a picture of the piece.

Here is a picture of what I found after some cleaning

I've used many detectors in the past 30 years, including a few Compass's, and while I found some nest stuff, none could even come close to the ability of the newer detectors. But then I see there is no point in arguing what can't be argued. I will, however, argue the point of the older amps and cars, although I don't see how they are relevant.

Some people do prefer that smooth sweet sound of the old tube amps, and especially if you love playing that old sweet music. Todays technology has gone a long ways with sampling to produce that same sweet tube sound. Yes you can argue that it is not the same to the trained ear, but you again get what you pay for. Or in this case what you don't pay for. Good quality sampling will get you good quality sound.

And while I'm a big fan of classic muscle, I'm a mustang enthusiasts myself, I do understand my old 1970 Mach I can't hold a candle to a new Super Snake. Again, you get what you pay for. Just because it's new doesn't automatically make it better. You've got to spend a little money.

 

[john37115]

Digger do me a favor bury a silver dime at 4 inches fill 2 inches of dirt in the hole on top the silver dime then take two or three rusty iron nails put them over the silver dime then fill the rest of the dirt back in the hole. Now wave the Etrac over it and let me know your results.