new to this!

[Brendan2007]

Hey everybody,

I am fairly new to this hobby. I bought a whites coinmaster gt a few months back, and ive been hunting the local fields/woods around my town. I haven't found anything spectacular, a few clads near my house...the majority of of my finds have been nails! I am discriminating iron&nails but they still show up. What am I doing wrong? Is it the detector settings or the places im searching? I sure would appreciate some input!

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

A Handbook of Civil War Bullets and Cartridges - Grab it through Amazon!

[Tnmountains]

First welcome to t-net. Have you tried laying some of the iron or nails out on the ground and sweep them and set the machine to discriminate them?. Then maybe sweep some silver,lead and copper or brass and you should be getting close at that point. I want to hear the iron here but only heavy solid pieces.
I am sure some of these guys are experts with that machine. I am not one of them though. Enjoy the site!

 

[bzbadger]

That machine is decent at discriminating so its a little odd that you can't notch those out. What setting are you hunting in? Buddy of mine uses one and my uncle as well and they both do very well.

Get your facts first, then distort them as you please-Mark Twain

 

[Brendan2007]

Thank you both for responding.

TN-I have tried that. It works like it should on the surface, blocking them out. But when I keep the disc on and then detect I will get a +85, ill dig it, and its a nail . I dont know why it does that.

Bz-I think this is a good machine. I know it has capabilities, I am not too privy with the technicalities of it yet though. In reference to settings, I use tone id with trac lock on, disc on nails and iron. Sensitivity slightly over half

 

[deteknix]

Welcome aboard! Hunter!
Coinmaster is good choice for starter.
Good luck at metal detection

 

[Dogtirednj]

I've found it's hard to completely notch out nails because of the various metals used to make them. I often get falsing silver signals only to dig up a rusty nail. But as I've held to a "dig everything" motto, I only pass over things I'm certain are iron.

 

[MonDak]

I know a lot about many things, some say I'm full of crap. Many rusty nails have a wrap around effect (positive, negative
electrons) that make a rusty nail mimic a good coin signal because MD's like roundness. You can't notch out one without
notching out the other. So dig them up and permanently delete them from the metal detecting environment, or wait a
couple of hundred years and mother nature will delete them for you.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

reply

Thank you both for responding.

TN-I have tried that. It works like it should on the surface, blocking them out. But when I keep the disc on and then detect I will get a +85, ill dig it, and its a nail . I dont know why it does that.

Bz-I think this is a good machine. I know it has capabilities, I am not too privy with the technicalities of it yet though. In reference to settings, I use tone id with trac lock on, disc on nails and iron. Sensitivity slightly over half

If you are able to perform an air test, where you eliminate (disc) out nails, then you should be getting the same results IN the ground as well, on the same type nails. Here's a thought: are the "nails" you're getting in the ground iron nails? Or some type of conductive metal nails? Because there are nails that are made out of things other than iron. For example, aluminum roofing nails.

 

[Brendan2007]

Tom,

I am almost positive these nails are iron. They are not rounded, they have a square like shaft and a square like head. Im thinking they were hand forged because I find so many different sizes. I know im in a decent area, I am three houses down from a house on the national historic registry. Maybe I need to do some more tests.

 

[Ism]

Those cut nails often give a good signal but they are a great sign you are in a good area for old coins and relics.
If the nail is positioned vertically in the ground, it will sound like a good target on most detectors.
If the nail is bent, it will sometimes give a good signal depending on its orientation in the ground.

 

[Brendan2007]

Ism,

How can I narrow my search area? Where do I want to look? Around the house or in the woods near it? Also I know the house was restored in 1930, which may explain a little of why im finding so many. The house was built in1703. also, I did a test run today with some nails and bottle caps and clads in my yard. Even when i disc the nails, when i sweep over them they pop up as a lower number under a copper coin/pull tab as opposed to a higher number as I previously stated.

 

[Ism]

If the ID is just jumping around giving you intermittently high readings, that's not so abnormal. Could just be the adjustments, sensitivity too high or ground balance.
If you have a factory set ground balance and your soil is highly mineralized, that could give you grief when the nails are in the ground but disc them properly after they are removed.
Is it only nails that give you grief or is there other small iron objects that ID near coins? If you have manual GB, you might try setting it just a little positive and see if there is an improvement.
I've dug a lot of cut nails I thought were good targets, but aside from vertically oriented nails, they almost always sound iffy. I figure the target is a nail, but my conscience won't let me ignore it and I have to dig them.

I would work areas around the house focusing on entry ways, walk ways, driveway and clothes line, and large trees and flower gardens around the foundation.
Hope this helps

 

[Brendan2007]

I don't know much about ground balance. I have traction lock? And its just a button I press. Sometimes I will get a good signal and it will just be junk! I dig everything I hear though, im not going to get discouraged. I know with patience I will find something. Thanks for all your info

 

[bzbadger]

Track lock is a button you push on of you are getting a lot of ground balance chatter. If it's off your machine has an auto ground balance which means its checks and then ground balances itself but they aren't really reliable because soil mineralization can change within feet. It does work for most part but I'd fond an area you are hunting that's free of any metal, swing a few times and then track lock it. You can always drop your sensitivity if you get some chatter. A good feature that machine has is beach mode which really cuts out the ground mineralization if you are at the beach or a nasty iron rich soil. I would discriminate the notches where the iron nails show up and maybe one notch above bit you said you're getting high number readings on the nails and you can't do that or risk losing silver etc. Try different angles as you swing and keep eye on the numbers, if they differ by several numbers as you swing its good chance its junk but if its within a couple fro few numbers I'd dig it. With an AT pro we have iron audio we can hit to hear that low growl of the iron nail or what we also use is the tone roll...a low high low sound which means junk most of time. I have faith you will figure it out and show some good finds
Also areas to hunt on that property, I'd say everywhere lol but I'd hit near steps, along side of foundation or porch and head out back,most people had places they would drop their trash etc that they didn't want seen.

Get your facts first, then distort them as you please-Mark Twain

 

[Brendan2007]

Bz

Thanks again. I had no idea thats how it worked lol. I did some solid research today in the library and found out more info on the house. It is definitely a gold mine waiting to happen. The property changed hands over20 times in 300 years. The surrounding areas were farm fields. I pulled up some old maps. About a 1/4 mile from there is some woods with some old stone walls. They run26 miles through the woods. At one point in the woods there is a sign erected, and THE myles Standish actually stood there on 1640. I have dug around that area and found a few shotgun shells, thats about it. They were about6 in underground. Do you think that I am missing stuff? Is the coinmaster gt good at detecting things past that ? I have the whole labor day weekend off. Ill be going hard these next three days

 

[Tnmountains]

Even the best machines will scream on some wet rusty iron and give high readings. Seems the rustier(sp?) and wetter it is the more it begs to be dug. I dig it and go ohh crud! I have an old tesoro conquistador that will flat blank out the iron and it recovers way fast in the sweep. Bit there are really great iron targets that need to be dug. I get a lot of cannister shot so I deal with the iron on my other machines. White users are loyal as are the others. Trick is learn what you have and then push it.

 

[bzbadger]

My honest opinion is the coin master gt is a great starter machine, it offers what higher priced machines have..however the coil is concentric(spider coil) and not a double d. I assume you know the difference,if not here it is quick...imagine sweeping a floor with a broom..concentric coils output goes into the ground like a cone so starts off big @ top of ground but goes to a point deeper. If you are trying to find deeper stuff and the deeper you go the less coverage the coil gives you because it comes to a point like a cone. See? You have to overlap a lot so u don't miss a target.. A DD coil is like a broom has a wide area that sweeps the ground and allows u to cover more area and goes deep too, plus it separates targets way better.
You have a good machine, I know they make a really nice small DD coil for your machine.no need to jump to a newer/better machine, maybe upgrade your coil but you started off decent and don't let anyone tell you different. I don't know where u live but that property you're speaking of would drive me nuts, I'd be out there every day.

Get your facts first, then distort them as you please-Mark Twain

 

[Brendan2007]

I haven't thought of that. I live in Massachusetts, 30 miles from the cape. Its2 a.m. and I cant even sleep I just wanna detect. It is driving me nuts especially with all this great information.

 

[Dogtirednj]

The gold ring I dug last month was on a property I've detected frequently. I find if I dig the trash each time I go, I often find good targets when I go back over it. The hundreds of pull tabs and crushed soda cans I've dug have masked lots of good targets I've dug since. And I love re-hitting it after a fresh rainfall. Don't be dismayed by the trash. Dig it, get it out of the way and hit it again from another angle!

 

[Brendan2007]

I finally gave up. I couldn't take it, I ordered an at pro. The coinmaster gt wasn't doing it for me. I was back in the fields today, saw a fellow hunter that has been around some of the sites ive been at before. He was with his son and a friend. I asked him some questions and he helped tweak my settings a bit. I asked if he had found anything. He told me he found a 1776 half penny, right where I had been digging the week before. I was so discouraged, but happy for him at the same time! He of course had the AT. I can't wait for mine to come.