people are too hung up on depth

johny mc.

Full Member
May 18, 2005
232
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I fell victim to that how thing awhile ago.....you know thinking that the deeper you go the more good stuff you will get....now for maybe a select few (and I detect hard and often and have found more good stuff than I ever dreamed) digging at a foot is probably right...but for the rest of us let's stay real.............and I finally figured it out: hunt more space slower and it equals digging to 12 inches all the time....
I have found several nice 1700 coins deep but they were pretty smooth.......so stop worrying about depth.............it's just not that important....................unless you are hunting for caches of gold coins...........lol...lol...
once I had an hour and a half to hunt and spent it hunting 3 targets for a half hour each:::::got a nail, a piece of schlitskey, and a bent wheatie, bent so you can't get the date.

was it worth it? I guess......

so let's say you take your exploder with the stock coil, throw your sensitivity up to 25-26, put the iron mask at 14 and start digging some iffy's...................a lot of fun right?

trust me cover more ground, slow down, and do the reacharelli.....
you know what that is right..........when you see the bush and brambles reach way far under there and listen for the small solid sound of silver, baby!......................

aloha, johny mc. (pennsy, not hawaii)
 

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Mighty AP

Silver Member
Mar 7, 2006
3,058
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Livin' in a tar-paper shack in the woods of Easter
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I think you are absolutely right Johny! I mean, when its time to go all we can.....................oops, sorry. I just read the header & I thought you said "people are too hung up on DEATH"........not DEPTH. Once again, I appologize. :D
 

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Sandman

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Aug 6, 2005
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I've used many detectors and played with a couple that never made it into production. Depth is nice if targets are buried in sand at a shore line, but without good GB and Sens. your wasting your time. Most hunters turn up the discrimination to high to save from hearing a nail or even a pull-tab. Add to this their swings look like a pendulum and the coil is off the ground most of the time and they don't over lap at all. It's any wonder they find anything.

Plus, if your not wearing your Lucky socks, ya may as well stay home and clean the garage like the "Shoe Freak" told you.
 

catlord17

Jr. Member
May 13, 2006
42
0
I agree, swing style is more important than depth for most people I see, because they give themselves away as clueless... swinging it up to their knees, walking at full pace, covering maybe 1/16th of what they are walking over at best... Depth doesn't matter a whit if you don't have the coil on the ground and overlap it. I love following them. And the 200 mph speeddemons who make me wonder how they swing that fast without their arm flying off! Ha! Depth indeed. Not like the coins are usually deeper than 4-5 inches anyway, unless you're in a sand pit... beach sand, volley ball court...

I love digging huge holes in volley ball courts to recover the necklace that turns out to be a piece of foil at 10 inches. lol
 

bk

Bronze Member
Jan 19, 2005
1,423
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SE Minnesota
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Depending the type of places you are detecting, depth is everything. Check out my post about the so called hunted out park. This park has been hammered for over 30 years. After they removed anywhere between 2-6" of sod, it was like starting all over again. The coins were still about 2 to 5" deep after they removed the sod.
 

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johny mc.

Full Member
May 18, 2005
232
1
you are talking about reasonable depth. at 6-8 inches I agree depth "is everything" .........but I was talking about at a foot. Very few detectors will pull coins at a foot...plant a test garden and you will see conclusively...........if you know something I don't please let me know...............and I'm not talking about using a wot or 15 inch coil.....I'd love to know your secrets.
 

bk

Bronze Member
Jan 19, 2005
1,423
65
SE Minnesota
Detector(s) used
Minelab Explorer SE pro, Minelab Explorer XS, Garrett Freedom II (3), Garrett pro-pointer.
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
Johny,
I agree. What I am saying is that there are coins that are a foot deep, and they are probably still there because most detectors won't find them at that depth. (In this area).
 

Willy

Hero Member
Actually, if a person can "train" their ears, most detectors that I've used can get stuff at a foot. Only problem is, the ground noise can be tremendous. Also, quite often there's a considerable difference in detection depth between all-metal and disc. modes. I do a lot of prospecting and a fair bit of relic hunting and depth is everything. It also requires (more so whilst prospecting) running at extremely high sensitivity and learning how the detector responds. Yup, noisy as all hell.. but some real good finds result. ..Willy.
 

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johny mc.

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May 18, 2005
232
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like I said in my original post there probably are people who can "go real deep" and have success.....they are in relatively clean areas for the most part......I pick and choose my battles......in the beginning though I wasted a lot of time.......bk I think we are on the same wave length but semantics got in the way........

I still think the average detectorist gets caught up in the "depth" battle that goes on between folks who like certain machines...... one guy says this one goes deeper...the other guy says this one goes deeper....I
advise newbies to stay away from that because they go into the field find very modest stuff then get sucked into the "if I could only get more depth then I'll find more stuff thing".............and they think they've got the wrong machine....it ain't the machine imho.

I've spent 1.many hours digging deep with my Explorer and to be honest for the amount of time/finds versus 2.covering more ground slowly/finds I have to go with number 2.

And in reference to willy's post I agree in certain areas of the country in highly mineralized soil there are folks who know that feint sound that means Civil War Relics. They have the wisdom of experience to know this sound means this......try that in a trashy eastern city and you might as well bring your backhoe and large sifter.

The average detectorist will never go to that realm of detecting, they are actually sane.....lol...lol

My point is without the wisdom of experience you might as well dig everything which where we hunt is nuts. No average detectorist is going to sort through the cavalcade of sounds coming through the head phones to be able to say:" yea there's a seated dime in there".

not going to happen....
until you are trained enough to know any of that hunt more ground slowly, learn to take your time pinpointing so you get a feel for the size of the elephant you are wrassling and you will have more fun...

getting anxious breeds wasted time.
 

Rusted_Iron

Bronze Member
May 25, 2006
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Corrodedlargecentville
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johny mc. said:
I still think the average detectorist gets caught up in the "depth" battle that goes on between folks who like certain machines...... one guy says this one goes deeper...the other guy says this one goes deeper....I
advise newbies to stay away from that because they go into the field find very modest stuff then get sucked into the "if I could only get more depth then I'll find more stuff thing".............and they think they've got the wrong machine....it ain't the machine imho.

You are so right. I fell into that trap a while back. Now I have a friend who is trying to save up $1200 for a certain detector because it will supposedly find coins at 12-18 inches. The way he is acting now, it's like "every other detector is junk but this one". I don't like the constant insinuation that the detectors we're using now are just a temporary measure until we each get this new one.

I still am not sure I believe the claims about this machine anyway. I saw an air test on this detector once, but it was not done with a ruler, and I can't say objectively what I was seeing. I don't know what mode the machine was in, I don't know much of anything except what I saw briefly.

I do know the machine had a double-D coil on it. I also know $1200 is a little (a lot) over my budget.
 

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johny mc.

Full Member
May 18, 2005
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U-238 ....amen to a man of reason.

I have an explorer and have enjoyed it after a good transition period.
Does it go any deeper than my IDX pro? No

It will if I wanted it to....anyone can find a tone related to a deep target and practice digging. Did it find more stuff than my other detectors? No.........It might have had I used it exclusively.......does it sniff out some good stuff in areas that my other detectors don't? yes no question.....28 freqs does have a benefit at times.

What I was impressed with on the Minelab was its ability to detect buttons, fine jewelry, and smaller copper,bronze coins.

I hunt a lot of cornfields.............or at least did......I practicing asking for permission more now a lot more. In those cornfields you can spend a life digging deep iron, plowshares, horse shoes, nails, and the occasional awesome find.....................its a pick your poison situation.
Yea baby the Exploder drives deep but its like a job at times: digging.

The reality is a lot of detectors will find the good stuff to 6-8 inches, below that there is a group of detectors that will go beyond that.....but get ready to train the body to dig deep.....and its only marginally fun. A nice relic shovel does help.

My detector that has found me the most stuff is my XLT and the reason is not just the detector. In a close second the next detector is the $500 IDX pro and then the Explorer......now some folks will say: you're just not using it right. Maybe.... probably..... who cares.....for me its all in relation to detecting style.

And I'll venture a guess that many folks who are not successful after paying 1000 bucks end up leaving the hobby. It takes time, patience, luck, and locations locations locations......

don't worry if only the 1200 dollar detectorists were successful everybody would be one............ ain't necessary.......

you can do well with many price points............

The deepest coins I have ever found were around 10 inches and they were the big coins......................and they were in relatively pristene environments.......had they been in trashy areas.........no way.

I stand by my original thread serious depth is over-rated.....

in detecting guys/gals .............. ;)

aloha
 

Ocean7

Bronze Member
Apr 15, 2004
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well I disagree and here's why -
if a coin sits at > 8" in the ground and your MD's limit is 7"
then you will never find any coin deeper than your detector's
limit. And as long as the coins are all within range of your
detector - that's fine! But some really good coins (both silver
and colonial coppers and spanish reales) are deeper than 8".

If you live in an area where these older coins would be never be found,
and it's a moot point - - then it really doesn't matter. Many terrific coins
are found under 7". And i should know.

You will always find the most coins with the detector used the
most field hours - that's a given.

I should add that where I detect is never a trash field of pulltabs
such as an old park or well used beach. these results would not
be obtained at such a spot IMO.

Finally you should buy what you can reasonably afford and
not go into hock for a MD that you may not ever get your
money's worth out of.
 

Mirage

Silver Member
Sep 16, 2005
3,718
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Cleveland, OH
It's an ego thing - it always is more impressive to make the story more colorful. "I had to dig 13 inches,could barely get a signal, cut through 2" roots and the 1700's coin was next to two nails!!!" ;D :D ;) Sounds better than "Down at 3 inches was this....".

It actually is part of what makes this hobby so fun. What challenge is it to find 3-4" coins???

Mirage
 

Michigan Badger

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Oct 12, 2005
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Northern, Michigan
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I agree. For most of us I still think the major thing is target separation with reasonable depth.

We've always had a certain entity that has claimed we're missing most of the really great stuff because our detectors don't go deep enough. I tell you, if and when the day ever comes when the average detector gets 20 inches on a buried dime, there will still be a group claiming we need 2 to 6 more inches. I don't know if it's an Obsessive Compulsive thing or what?

We have this almost paranoia floating about THer-dom today in regard to depth. Some are even going so far as to subtly insinuate that there’s this mysterious and elusive sea of mammon just 2 inches deeper than anyone can reach. Most discussion in regard to this highly questionable thesis are altogether too much like a coinshooter’s version of the old Abbot and Costello “Whose On First” routine.

Is depth important? Well of course it is! But it’s certainly not the only thing. Some of the worst detectors I’ve ever used where the deepest. They were so super sensitive that they bounced all over the place in high trash areas and forced me to dig almost every solid target. Did I find some great stuff? Sure I did. Digging everything has always been the most effective way of recovering buried items. And trust me, with those mega power machines you will make a lot of big holes. The really sad thing is, you may find fewer goodies simply because you may be wasting too much time hunting the non-productive areas.

All the top brand detectors are great machines and most probably get enough depth to find 95% of what’s out there worth digging. If anyone out there has just laid out hundreds of dollars for a machine, focus on research and concentration—forget the depth hysteria thing.
 

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johny mc.

Full Member
May 18, 2005
232
1
I agree that those incremental differences are important...if a coins at 9 inches and you detector only goes to 8 then you miss some nice stuff...your point is duly noted......and fits nicely into my entire pov.

also a lot of us know each other and I thought the very slight debate was educational and is really the only reason I habit this forum...to learn.....I learn by being wrong.....I know some people might get upset by the sharing of disagreeable information and if you feel that way I apologize......I don't think anything got out of hand and to be honest this is the kind of stuff people should see before they buy a detector. As long as it doesn't get personal and is simply someone sharing their opinion then I say touche.....some folks are more hard core in their beliefs about certain detectors then others....I use both white's and minelabs and like each for different reasons....my perspectives are based on the realities for me in the field. I think its important to hear different sides........there can be too much vanilla and not enough chocolate and strawberry if you know what I mean..
 

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