Conduct vs Ferrous am I missing something

[John Deere Digger]

I started with factory presets today and lowered the threshold to where I could just here it, lowered iron mask to 28 and lowered gain to 6. I have read that conduct is better than ferrous around aluminum and left it on that setting. problem is all the sounds sounded the same, only the digital numbers changed on the screen to let me know if I had a good target. Is this normal or should I be able to here changes in tones just like I did the other day when I tried ferrous. Thanks for the help in advance.
JDD

 

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[hollowpointred]

check and make sure you arent in const instead. in const everything will sound the same. when hunting in iron mask i usually use ferrous tones since iron will then ring in as a low tone and gold and silver as a higher tone. the only thing i dont like about this setup is that aluminum bits (pull tabs) will sound like good targets as well. when im hunting in a discrim mode i use conduct tones so that gold and pull tabs will sound lower than silver most of the time. at any rate, make sure you are not using const by mistake.

 

[John Deere Digger]

Thanks Hollowpointred, that makes sence. I did a little more testing today, and I guess I like ferrous sounds better, you can really here the difference between iron and coins. Conduct is better at seperating out aluminum, but the iron tones are now high if you don't discriminate them out. Some of the sites I hunt have either alot of iron or alot of aluminum I guess I need to switch back and forth or just learn one and stick with it. I need to experiment alot more. Would I lose depth if I used Iron mask at factory settings, thus eliminating the iron, and used conduct sounds.
JDD

 

[hollowpointred]

Thanks Hollowpointred, that makes sence. I did a little more testing today, and I guess I like ferrous sounds better, you can really here the difference between iron and coins. Conduct is better at seperating out aluminum, but the iron tones are now high if you don't discriminate them out. Some of the sites I hunt have either alot of iron or alot of aluminum I guess I need to switch back and forth or just learn one and stick with it. I need to experiment alot more. Would I lose depth if I used Iron mask at factory settings, thus eliminating the iron, and used conduct sounds.
JDD

i would switch back and fourth between ferrous and conduct when the conditions call for it. (one of the benefits of having such features!). as far as the depth thing, i dont know for sure, but i have my opinions. in my opinion, the more discrim you use, either a higher iron mask setting or more items discrimed out, will result in less depth. as a general rule, i usually hunt with the smallest amount of discrim as i can get away with.

 

[dewcon4414]

Anytime your coil NULLS from a disc target you loose a lot of sensitivity which means a loose of depth. The induced recovery is less when you get a tone than a null. Conductive tones will react to SIZE of objects which causes iron to give a positive tone... i prefer Ferrous sounds, but its a matter of preferrance.

 

[SgtSki in MI]

I dont have an SE, I'm still swinging an Explorer XS. I've been using my Explorer since 2002 and I prefer conductive tones because the nickels get a lower tone. I also am running almost wide-open in Iron Mask -12 to -14. I've learned not to rely so much on the display while hunting except as a reference only. A lot of times you can see the crosshairs bouncing around the top with a high tone, but with time I found that while the graphics display was the same between a nail and deep / semi masked / on-edge silver, there would be a distincly cleaner, tone for the silver. Kind of a "jingly" sound for lack of a better word. But that's how I do it, Iron Mask -12 to -14 and conductive tones. I don't think I've used ferrous tones since my first month with the machine. I also dug a LOT of nails and small iron before learning this. It takes a lot of time to get your ears "tuned" to the difference between the "good" high tone and the "junk" high tone. Another trick that goes along with this that I learned from the "Explorer Gods" back in the early days of the XS, is to circle around the target and cross the target at different angles. If you get a good solid repeating signal, then DIG IT!!! If it nulls or doesn't repeat with a consistent tone then it's probably junk (or partially masked silver, sometimes you just have to dig it & find out)

Anyway, I hope some of this was of help.

HH,
SgtSki

 

[John Deere Digger]

Thanks Sgtski. I was out for a little bit today. First day the weather was into the 40's for several weeks alot of snow and ice before this. I tested some silver coins in my yard which is an old house site infested with iron. The silver does have just a bit of different tone than the iron. I was running iron mask wide open, I'll have to try your advice and bump the iron mask to 12 or 14. Maybe by the weekend it's snowing again.
JDD