Hi everyone

[sammerguy]

Hello everyone here at TN! New member here but i have been collecting "treasure" for a while now. Just recently I decided to look more into the whole MD hobby because of my somewhat better than average luck regarding the finding of coins and other valuables. All of the items I have found have either been found while thrifting,walking or just sorting change, almost never intentional. I hope to acquire a MD soon and do some searching when the weather gets more reasonable. I owned one a few years back that I got from "the shack" but it was really bad, no way to tell the difference between tabs and coins, just metal was there or not there(sometimes nothing at all even with a signal). I got rid of it shortly after purchasing it. I realize that it takes some time to learn your detector, but this thing was nothing but disappointment. So now I have some questions to ask about detectors.
1>Do the MDs that claim to differentiate between different metal types actually work? I'm OK with digging trash, but would like to be able to have a better idea of what MIGHT be there.
2>Is there a decent beginners MD in the 150-200$ range, or will any low price detector just show the presence of a metal object and not help me decide if the chances are good that it is an old item/coin? For instance, can it let me know with some reasonable accuracy if it is Aluminum,Iron,Copper etc.? Im not looking for the mother lode, I'm happy with old nails and bottles
Thanks in advance!
I have attached pics of some of my favorite items that have been found.

 

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[DigginThePast]

Welcome to T-Net sammerguy.




I re-sized your pics for you, this is how I do it - It really is quick once you do a couple and requires no downloads for most computers. Practice doing a few and you'll be able to re-size a photo in about 30 seconds. :icon_thumright"
________________________________________________________________

-Open the program "Paint".

-Then click "File" and then "Open". This will bring up the folders/files on your computer.

-Select the file you wish to work with.

-With the file/image open, click on "Image". This will open a drop down menu.

-From the drop down menu, click "Stretch/Skew". This will open another box.

-In this box you will see "Stretch" with options for "Horizontal" and "Vertical". The %'s for these will be at 100.

-Change the value from 100 to your new percentage (either shrinking or enlarging, though enlarging will cause some loss of quality) and click OK.

-Your picture will be re-sized. Save the newly sized photo as a new file so as to retain your original.

 

[sammerguy]

Thanks for doin that! I will make sure to change the size before i post pics from now on.

 

[Sandman]

"1>Do the MDs that claim to differentiate between different metal types actually work? I'm OK with digging trash, but would like to be able to have a better idea of what MIGHT be there.
2>Is there a decent beginners MD in the 150-200$ range, or will any low price detector just show the presence of a metal object and not help me decide if the chances are good that it is an old item/coin? For instance, can it let me know with some reasonable accuracy if it is Aluminum,Iron,Copper etc.? Im not looking for the mother lode, I'm happy with old nails and bottles"

1..This is a simple NO. The higher level detectors are advertised as telling you if you can dig a dime or what ever but all they do is show you how conductive the item is. There are many targets that have the near same conductivity and there is NO detector that is accurate in this. What it can do is show you that it could be, say a dime, but it could be any other metal. They may be better at telling you the depth.

2..Most beginner entry level detectors are simple that beep when the coil gets over metal. Most have a decent disc circuit that doesn't beep on small iron but still will on larger pieces because of the conductivity. All detectors for instance you can knock out pull tabs, but this also gives no sound on most gold rings. The advantage of the higher ones that have a screen is you can pinpoint well and only dig like quarters. But you will also miss some and could also dig some screw caps.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

to expand on what sandman is saying: detectors do not tell you the type of metal (despite how the advertisements may sound). They can only tell you the conductivity of an item. And this is highly dependant on the size of the item. So an entire aluminum can, for instance, may read "quarter" or "half". Yet if you snipped out a fingernail size piece of that same can and waved it in front of your coil (or just wave the pulltab portion), it reads much lower (down at tab or nickel or whatever). But notice that in each case, the metal being waved never changed, right? It's still aluminum in both cases. Just different sizes. Thus size plays into it.

However, since coins are uniformly sized, and you can also tell size a lot of the time by experience, the TID will be useful in determing pass or dig. For example: Although the can may read "quarter", yet your ears will tell you it's much to big to be a quarter, and so forth, and so on.

And unfortunately various metals also SHARE the same conductivities, size-per-size. Aluminum and gold, for example, share the same conductivity. So a tab, and a gold ring, can sound exactly alike. Oh sure, each gold ring will sound different from each tab (if you get them on micro-scales, or bar graphs, etc....). But you have to remember, that so TOO does each gold ring sound different from each other too So there is really no way to tell aluminum from gold. All you can tell is various points on conductive scales, and combine that with your knowledge of your site, and your ears, and perhaps "play the odds" a bit.

 

[sammerguy]

Sandman & Tom, thats all I needed to hear really. If it is practice that it takes than i can do that, I guess im tryin to get an idea of what it is I need.

 

[Woodland Detectors]

Now that's strange. I swear I posted a comment on this earlier.

 

[Keppy]

Now that's strange. I swear I posted a comment on this earlier.

Could be you thought you did and posted it somewere else ? I have done that before.......

 

[sammerguy]

Thanks everyone! After reading what has been posted I think I decided on the ace 250. I realize that what I need is not to tell me the metal type but the depth. I dont care what it is so long as its old. The metal discrimination is not that important. I am lookin for old things in general. So long as it will give me fairly accurate depth reading I believe that I will be able to disregard the newer things. Honestly, if I dont have to dig everything that beeps I will be happy.

Any good tips on some kind of average depth of soil per decade? For instance, 6"=X years...

I will not be able to start searching for a few months yet so I've been doing research into my hometown and the locations of buildings and mills that are no longer there. My grandfathers farm seems really promising as I have located the house that was originally there prior to 1880(it was in a picture at the library), and he assures me that no one has use an MD there since at least 1970 when he bought it. So maybe, just maybe Ill find something old and cool.