Clad, Wheaties, & Shallow Silver: Not Finding Deep Silver with XT705!

[Zakurie84]

I am wondering if I am just unlucky, inexperienced, or a little of both. I have had my Xterra for a while now, and have been out a lot with it. I seem to find a ton of wheaties at houses, many have been over 6 inches deep. They have a distinct noise, repeatable tone, and the TID (which I don't really rely on) will jump around in the range you would expect it to on the deeper ones. I have found a few silver: rosies, washingtons, and most recently a barber quarter. All of these have been under 4 inches though. I have never dug a deep silver yet, and I am SURE I am walking over them. Yesterday I went to a house from 1870, and although there had been quite a bit of landscaping over the years, and really trashy, I still found 7 Wheaties. All were deep, no silver. Are there any videos of people finding deep silver with the XT705? What should I be listening/looking for? I know this thing can grab down deep! I just need to know what to listen/look for.

 

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[Longhair]

This isn't a new hobby, and over the last forty years a lot of places were cherry picked for silver, which is why you'll often find deep copper but little silver. It's also why you tend to find smaller silver rather than larger. That big stuff was easy to harvest, while ignoring smaller pieces and copper.
Unless you know who has lived there for the last 50yrs, and unless they can be positive that nobody has hunted it, you might be hunting in the wake of someone that knew their machine 30+yrs ago. And until you find some, you can't be positive that you're walking over them.

The 705 has proportional volume, so a distant target will sound basically the same as a shallow one, just not as loud. If it's a clean high tone and it's repeatable...dig it.

 

[Zakurie84]

That's good to know, I was getting concerned that maybe I was missing something on the detector! The last few houses i have hit have been on major roads, so that definitely fits the picture.

 

[Pointman]

I agree with Longhair, anything that is higher than iron and it repeatable from two directions at around 90 degrees, dig. I have surprised myself many times digging even low tones because they do this. Sometimes even dig the low tones, especially if they "don't seem right". I dug a gold ring next to iron by doing this. I could just hear something odd with the iron buzz.

 

[Mach1Pilot]

Which coil are you using to hunt coins? If you don't have them already, I'd suggest picking up a 10.5" DD 7.5 kHz coil or a 6" Coiltek 3 kHz "Digger"... they seem to be the best coils for the XTerra series if you are coin shooting.... The HF coils don't hit the deeper coins as well as these two.

 

[Zakurie84]

That's good to know! I have been looking at that 10.5 DD and wondering if that would make much of a difference. I frequently am running into places where soil mineralization is pretty severe, so in that regard I know it would help.

 

[Zakurie84]

As a continuation of this thread: Location seemed to be my problem. I started looking outside the box at places to hunt. Utah has been hit pretty hard, so you have to. Since my new approach to finding spots I have been finding silver on almost every hunt. If anyone is new to the 705, always remember to go slow, and adjust your sensitivity to your environment. I am picking up the 10.5' 7.5khz DD soon, and will update ya'll with my impressions.

 

[HighPlainsHunter]

Good to hear things are working out for you. Location is the key to success, besides knowing your instruments strong and weak points...

 

[relicmeister]

I gree with all the comments made here, and wil add that I recommend all metal or modifying one of the discrim programs to reject only +48 and maybe also
-8. You might miss coin signals in the cutoff of the iron discrim. Also watch your sweep speed.

 

[Bart@Big Boys Hobbies]

This isn't a new hobby, and over the last forty years a lot of places were cherry picked for silver, which is why you'll often find deep copper but little silver. It's also why you tend to find smaller silver rather than larger. That big stuff was easy to harvest, while ignoring smaller pieces and copper.
Unless you know who has lived there for the last 50yrs, and unless they can be positive that nobody has hunted it, you might be hunting in the wake of someone that knew their machine 30+yrs ago. And until you find some, you can't be positive that you're walking over them.

The 705 has proportional volume, so a distant target will sound basically the same as a shallow one, just not as loud. If it's a clean high tone and it's repeatable...dig it.

Good post as well as location... location... location. If your hitting the clad the silver will be found as well if it is there.

 

[Zakurie84]

I went back to a house that I hit up with my Ace 250, and went over it with the Xterra. I opened up one of disrcim patterns to all metal. I was able to pull out a handful of deeper wheatbacks, and 2 silvers out of just one of the houses! Even just yesterday, I asked at a house and the lady said it had already been hit by 3 detectorists since she had been there. The first signal I dug was a '42 merc! I really think the 10.5 7.5Khz DD, taking things a little slower, and not being afraid to dig those slightly 'iffy' signals has really helped!