Old house sites with tons of old nails, nails and more nails-what detector?

[makahaman]

Hi everyone, it is so nice getting all of the wonderful advice from everyone on this web site. I need help in getting a good metal detector for the land sites, they are mostly old ones from early 1900's to 1800's. These old house sites has tons of nails from the house because they were made of wood and tin. Any suggestions on a good easy to use metal detector would be much appreciated. I used to have a XLT and it worked alright I found a whole bunch of goodies with it. I hear that minelab is supposed to be top notched but how complicated is it to use compared to Whites? Help, Help, Help!! I need all of your wisdom with this matter, I also want to be able to change coils to find caches and possible privies. Thank very much!!

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

DR.ÖTEK Metal Detector, Waterproof Gold Detector, Pinpoint & Terrain Modes, Professional Metal Detector - Grab it through Amazon!

[muleskinner]

Minelab makes detectors that will null out the nails so you can ignore them. I have one, it will also go very deep. Let me tell you there is an acquired technique to detecting old sites. I'm finding that out as I go. You need to be able to read the site. Like where is the most likely place to find coins. Big trees and such are an indicator, but it gets more difficult past that.
There are some really good detectors out there, my recommendation is to find one with good discrimination and good depth, as you seem to prefer the same type of places that I do.
Feel free to share your knowledge with me, because I have several sites that I know I'm missing finds at.

 

[EasyMoney]

I'm a newby here. Been detecting since 1973 when I built my first two. Sorry to barge in, but I just couldn't resist.

Between my White's 6000 di Pro, Minelab Sovereign Elite Pro, Compass Scanner R&C, Compass XP Pro, Compass RM7, Compass RM 420, Tesoro Tejon, Tesoro Silver Sabre, Tesoro Golden Sabre, Fisher CZ-70, White's Surfmaster Pulse, my friend's White's MXT and the DFX's at White's main plant, I'd put them in this order of being able to cancel lots of nails while still finding goodies in and among all the mess of scrap and linear iron. And in this order;

1 Compass RM 420 (with my mods).
2 Compass XP Pro (goes deeper than the RM 420 in bad ground)
3 Compass Scanner R&C (my deepest detector of all times, at 17" air test on a nickel and 7" on a BB sized nugget)
4 Tesoro Golden Sabre
5 Tesoro Silver Sabre
6 Compass RM7
7 Fisher CZ-70 (note, I've only found only 4 nails with the CZ in the last 3+ years)
8 White's DFX
9 Tesoro Tejon
10 Minelab Sovereign Elite Pro
11 White's Surfmaster Pulse


*The Compass XP Pro is almost the very best of all because it also has an extremely tight window of notch, both selective AND automatic. And you can run without it too. The auto-retune is extremely fast. The only reason the RM 420 beats the XP Pro is because of my mods.

That Sovereign Elite Pro might as well be left at home when I go into a cluttered and littered park.

The MXT's I've used have lots of troubles with falsing and hotrocks, so there is little I can say about them otherwise. The Fisher 1236-x2 might be a good one too, or so I've seen, and heard from my friends, with it's blanking mode.

With my old Compass RM 420 that I bought used and repaired and modified the GB pot in it I can lay a piece of 4"X4"X1/2" steel plate on the ground, cancel it completely, put a nickel on top of it, and it gives me a very solid sound every time. I can and have easily hunted stonys with it too. Is there a Minelab that can do that? I'm curious because mine won't.

Hope I helped.

 

[makahaman]

Okay you are telling me some good information but alot of these detectors are older models and I need recommendations for the newer models that are available on the market. But you sound very knowledgable and I appreciate all of your help! Thanks and I hope to hear more recommendations. Aloha

 

[EasyMoney]

Yes, and as many people often say, the older ones often had better discrimination than the newer pulse ones or all-digitals.

I'm looking strongly at the White's M6. At the factory here at White's it ran very, very smoothly and it might be a real good cherry picker too. White's aren't my favorite brand , but that one might be one of their best, not as complicated as the DFX or MXT, etc, but better in some ways, especially with the smaller coils. It got good marks on Metaldetectorreviews.net. Lots of info in there.

BTW, usually the only Minelabs that I see around here are the ones I own. I've only seen 3 Garretts here in the last 2 years. Mostly I see White's and Fishers. I often wonder why. Maybe it's because of all the rotten high iron soil here and that it affects discrimination so much. In some of this soil here a Minelab has a devil of a time with pulltabs. Some can't be cancelled out at all.

Good luck

 

[erikk]

The Fisher F-75 has the fastest recovery of any detector I have used to date and I have used a bunch. The Explorers will null out on the iron and you will miss the coin unless you are running it in all metal which is very noisy. The F-75 will read the nail low tone and the coin high tone even if they are next to each other.

 

[Michigan Badger]

This is really not an easy question to answer. I've been at this hobby for over 40 years and I'm still digging nails.

I guess all I can say here is if you're missing MOST nails you're also missing SOME good targets.

I have dug targets my ID meter and ears said were iron but they turned out to be silver, gold, or copper. You can't always trust your ears and you only trust a meter when you can see what the coil is detecting.

Without writing a book here's what I do:

At remote sites with old trash (nails and tin) I dig everything. You really have to do this. All that junk just covers up the good targets.

To the opposite extreme...

At sites where I must greatly limit digging (mother-in-laws yard) I set the discrimination to corrupt the signals I get from the most common trash. If the most common trash is pulltabs I set the discrimination so pulltabs crackle. This will lose most gold and almost all Indian pennies (small old copper coins) but will still get silver coins and larger rings.

Personally I doubt there's any magic detector. I'm just learning the Minelab GT and probably will soon have the SE but I'm almost betting I'll end up finding pretty much the same story with them. Maybe greater depth, but the same basic scenario.

My, don't those bent nails at 8 inches deep sound great?

Badger

 

[Dave45]

hmm Ive had the sovereign elite for a couple of years now and have never dug a nail,maybe yours needs adjusted.

 

[Michigan Badger]

hmm Ive had the sovereign elite for a couple of years now and have never dug a nail,maybe yours needs adjusted.

I hope that's what I find with my GT. Maybe it's a Minelab thing? It sure isn't true of Tesoro.

 

[vic910]

I have a Sovereign Elite and I dig LOTS of nails!! LOL

vicki

 

[EasyMoney]

I think my Sov Elite Pro works the way it's supposed to, and it's a KILLER on Oregon beaches, smooooooth and runs like a new Lexus, but if scanned too fast it misses half of everything. My Tejon and my later model Compasses don't miss a thing, even if swung at 30 mph. The aftermarket 12.5 Excellerator coil works fine too, but I've gotten to where I just let the whole thing collect dust, mostly because I like my other detectors better. I may sell it soon. Right now it would make a real good boat anchor if I added a couple x-tra pounds to it..

It's probably a good detector for some people and in certain places, but it's not quite my cup o' tea. I never have found any nails with it, and I normally run it at right at the beginning of iron cancel, and the notch the same.

 

[makahaman]

Can anyone help me here!! I need more help and more suggestions as to what machine to get!! Today I dug so many nails that my back hurt!! I wish I could make them go away but those pesky nails are everywhere at this old house site, I found a 1890 Argentian penny and looked it up but was worth $90 but has a small hole in it. It was made from bronze. This site was a plantation in the 1800's and has so many nails it could make your head spin!! What do I do? Help me I am going crazy!! Maybe I need a smaller coil ect. More suggestions would really help me. Aloha

 

[bakergeol]

Easy money was correct in that those older 100Khz TR machines(Compass) are actually better than today's models in heavy iron trash. Here is a brief comment from Pa(Ca) who hunts heavily in iron sites. He uses an old 100Khz Compass to clean up around the trash after he uses his regular detector.


http://members5.boardhost.com/MetalDetecting/msg/1182116463.html


George

 

[jbow]

The first choice would be the F75, disc on 6, one tone, sens as high as possible.

Second choice, T2. disc on 21, one tone, sens as high as possible.

Third choice, Tejon with 5.75 HOT coil. Disc 1 on the "L" of "foil", disc 2 just where a nickel break's up. Brass buttons will hit slightly better than most nickels. Dig everything that sound's good.

Nothing work's the iron like the fast response T2/F75 but the Tejon with the small coil is close. I have not used one but I bet the Silver microMax with either the 4" or 5.75 coil will do a great job too.

I have worked a site like this for a couple of years. It's full of square nails and iron ore in the ground too... I have a SovereignGT and it is completely useless there, it just stay's in null.

Those three machines work in the iron like a champ!

J

 

[shootist]

I have to say Minelab Explorer.XS,2 or SE all are nearly identical. The only sites I hunt are old homesites,demos really trashy boarded up houses in the ghetto. I used several different detectors before the ML and they would false all the time in the trash especially on old rusty nails. I got the ML and started hunting in conductivity sounds and I was still digging some nails but only deeper rusty ones. After reading and testing I changed everything and started hunting in ferrous tones. Now there is no mistaking nails or deep rusty iron. People say it will null out on nails and you will miss targets nearby. The trick is to hunt with very little or no discrimination at all. People may cry and moan its too noisey or how can you stand it but you really do get used to it after a bit and when there is a coin with a nail nearby you will hear them both. When you start to get to know an Explorer you dont look at the display very much at all its all in the sounds. When your coil is over a coin it makes a very distinct sound,it may be broken up or mixed in with other sounds but the sound is always there.Also you can almost tell the shape of the object by the sound it makes,its hard to explain but people that have them know what I mean. Its really not that complicated to operate one but it does take time to learn the machine and you have to dedicate yourself to it if you really want to dig good stuff in trash filled soils. Its not perfect it is quite heavy and will make your elbow/shoulder sore after a couple of hours but over time you get used to it and they make a harness which I plan to acquire when I cant swing it anymore. They are wonderful machines but you have to be willing to put the time in on the machine. If you get one and dot like it you can sell it here or ebay for pretty much the same money you have in it and nothing is lost,it may not be the machine for you,plenty of people cant stand them. Whichever machine you decide to buy make sure its fun for you,thats the most important part.

 

[thompy]

i would say T-2 or F75, super fast target responce, excellant seperation, good discrimination also, dont need a small coil but the F75 has theirs comming out soon

 

[Mirage]

I have to say Minelab Explorer.XS,2 or SE all are nearly identical. The only sites I hunt are old homesites,demos really trashy boarded up houses in the ghetto. I used several different detectors before the ML and they would false all the time in the trash especially on old rusty nails. I got the ML and started hunting in conductivity sounds and I was still digging some nails but only deeper rusty ones. After reading and testing I changed everything and started hunting in ferrous tones. Now there is no mistaking nails or deep rusty iron. People say it will null out on nails and you will miss targets nearby. The trick is to hunt with very little or no discrimination at all. People may cry and moan its too noisey or how can you stand it but you really do get used to it after a bit and when there is a coin with a nail nearby you will hear them both. When you start to get to know an Explorer you don't look at the display very much at all its all in the sounds. When your coil is over a coin it makes a very distinct sound,it may be broken up or mixed in with other sounds but the sound is always there.Also you can almost tell the shape of the object by the sound it makes,its hard to explain but people that have them know what I mean. Its really not that complicated to operate one but it does take time to learn the machine and you have to dedicate yourself to it if you really want to dig good stuff in trash filled soils. Its not perfect it is quite heavy and will make your elbow/shoulder sore after a couple of hours but over time you get used to it and they make a harness which I plan to acquire when I cant swing it anymore. They are wonderful machines but you have to be willing to put the time in on the machine. If you get one and dot like it you can sell it here or ebay for pretty much the same money you have in it and nothing is lost,it may not be the machine for you,plenty of people cant stand them. Whichever machine you decide to buy make sure its fun for you,thats the most important part.

Ditto. Also Michigan Badger had some good comments.
Get an Explorer II or SE. Make sure you get a small coil too. I use an Explorer II.
I find that if I use a small coil, ferrous tones hunt in IM -16 or -15 and really go slow I can get good stuff amongst the nails. Now if there is a carpet of nails over the coins it's going to be impossible for any detector to find the deeper coins. Only solution is remove the nails/iron stuff.

The old homesites with lots of iron present a dilemma that we all face....limited time and too many targets. I think the Minelab's do a great job at identifying iron. From my experience, Tesoro's, White's and Fishers fall short in this area.

Bob

 

[ivan salis]

hes being listening to my late night chatroom "online class" type chats --how to get your machine to tell you whats in the ground or the "know your machines sounds" class--- he learned about how whites "broken" sound equals iron -- and how sen (power on /off) and disc can knobs cab be used to "knock" out or cancel iron -- part of the problem is he lives in haiwaii-- famous home of "hot rocks" that plus truck loads of nails on a hunt site can be real grief---its time eating and boring as hell to dig loads of iron nails ---esp if your willing to give up the iron relic type items in exchange for getting rid of the nails---- so I showed him how to cut out the iron for the most part while keeping in the gold and silver and copper by using his "ear" and listening to the sounds the machine is making to avoid the iron only sound and how to pick out the mixed iron nails over top of gold / silver or copper object sound dig the mixed signals skip the all iron it a very high % play you will lose very little to nothing and by not wasting time digging bum iron nails --your over all goodies found vs holes dug rate will increase------ hot rocks in haiwii are high mineral content rocks from the volcanos (so I guess they really were hot rocks once upon a time) -- hes getting wizer and learning alot -- just because you have a high dollar machine doesnot instantly make you a great metal detectorist ---any more that buying a high dollar race car makes you dale earnheart jr---or buying a high dollar musical item means you can now "play" music --- it a skill and like all skills takes time and training and practice to properly develop --- Ivan

 

[bakergeol]

Well if your problem besides nails is "hot rocks" perhaps a PI would be the solution. It would be interesting to hear from other detectorists who hunt land sites in Hawaii to see how much the volcanic rock "hot rock " problem is. Perhaps the solution is one of the new discriminating PIs that will be out in the near future. PIs don't have problems with "hot rocks" as VLFs do.

George

 

[ivan salis]

ah but most pi's are all metal --so the nails are still then a problem --the new disc Pi's are high dollar stuff --his machine can do the job just has to tweak it a bit ---he was running in factory "preset mode" --- his machine has a "black sand" switch like folks use on the beach --its great for high mineral areas helps with the nasty stuff -- plus you can by using the disc knob and by going easy with the power --tune hot rocks it out in most cases -- think I got him good to go -- can't wait for his report from the next hunt-- Ivan