Cortez consortium, frequency responses

[gold fish]

First off - love my cortez, but in learning, many times other peoples experience will speed up the curve. So I am hoping to start some kind of consensus forum on what kind of frequencies these machines give on different signals. For example, what are poeple reading on bullets?? Does anyone notice a difference in the signal between a silver half and a silver dime?? Stuff like that. A slightly more refined forum, for people who know what they are doing and don't have a lot of experience to back it up yet. Any input is good input, I'd like to keep questions to a minimum, and just get a good long string of answers to the FAQ's from people that actually use the machines.

I have a few quick questions regarding frequencies, I understand that i can run anything under the coil and check, but I have noticed some discrepancies between those readings and an actual target in the ground(namely pennies/nickels/pulltabs). First and foremost where does gold usually come in?? My Wedding ring reads 12-18.

Secondly, I am digging in areas with A LOT of iron signals, I have noticed that when I sweep "near" iron, I get a different reading(usually silver/copper). Is this a typical response from a cortez, or should I start digging more of these signals?? I usually dig if there is any question, but the returns aren't too good. Sometimes, I hit a coin, while the hole still beeps iron, if I dig deeper, sometimes I do hit iron. There have been times when I have dug down over 24" and am still getting a silver beep tho'. I usually figure that is just a "deep" iron signal.

Lastly, and this is really more of a comment, I have noticed that most of my deeper zinc penny readings are usually corroded wheats or IHs. I skip over a lot of surface zinc hits, because zinc gets ugly fast here(I have thrown out about 25 cents worth). If I get a shallow silver/copper hit, I always investigate tho'.

I guess I am basically looking for someone to either confirm my suspicions, or tell me I'm way off and probably passing up morgans or something. I am kinda new to this, but I have alot of virgin territory in my area, and I don't want to be missing things. I appreciate any and all feedback, thanx in advance.

 

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[Gribnitz]

Re: cortez technical question

Gold comes in all over the TID range. It depends on how big of a target it is, how pure the gold is and what other alloys are mixed in with the gold. Little. thin rings come in low on the TID scale, thicker rings register higher numbers. Gold generally registers in the foil through pulltab readings, with most in the nickel range. You have to dig LOTS of trash to find gold.

 

[Sandman]

Re: cortez technical question

Gribnitz is right on about the readings for gold. It can read anywhere.

The responce you get on the iron with the Cortez can vary depending on the ground conditions, your ground balance, sensitivity and gain set in the detector. You will notice better performance when you turn down the sensitivity some more. You may not lose any depth at all as it seems your area has more iron in the ground than other areas, an I am not talking about iron trash.

Don't rely on the meter so much also and the finds will improve.

HH,
Sandman

 

[gold fish]

Re: cortez technical question

Thanx for the advice guys, the only problem with not watching my meter is that I'm using a single tone machine. Granted I need to start digging some of this iron "junk" out of my way anyhow.

 

[stoney56]

Re: cortez technical question

Have you tried using the Sum mode to check out some of those signals?
Pasted from a Cortez site.

"The Sum mode is another feature to help identify targets. While the detector is in either the Discriminate or All Metal mode, the display shows the target information from the entire sweep of the coil. Each time the coil passes over the target the microprocessor generates a new target ID reading. While this is nice for general searching, it can be confusing while pinpointing. This is where the Sum mode becomes useful. Pushing the springloaded switch into the Sum mode causes the detector to start a multi-tone ID and averages all of the coil passes over the target. The tone ID has nine different tones and relates directly to the bar graph segments. The higher up on the graph the target is, the higher the pitch of the audio signal. Averaging the coil passes over the target gives the detectorist the ability to get rid of most of the signal noise that prevents making an accurate target identification. Here's how it works: when the detectorist gets a target signal that he wishes to check out, he pushes and holds the Mode switch in the Sum position. Shortening his coil sweep to only a two or four inch sweep he passes the coil over the target three to seven times. The short multiple sweeps give the microprocessor the chance to sum the passes and average them. During the sweeps the audio ID will start at the lowest signal and will get progressively higher in pitch until there is no more change. When this happens the detector is giving the most accurate ID possible. Then the user can decide if he wants to dig or ignore the target."

Of course the old saying comes into play best:
When in doubt, check it out.

 

[gold fish]

Re: cortez technical question

I've tried the "sum" mode and for anyone using a cortez, I don't recommend believing it. Like I was saying about the MD reading the edges of iron as silver, well, twice when I have tried "summing" the target, I've gotten an iron reading and dug anyway. They both turned out to be pennies. Sometimes it's right on, but other times......um........not so much. I guess it goes that way with all disc. detectors tho', that's what I hear anyway, but if any machine were 100% all those pulltabs would feel so lonely and useless. I guess I'm kinda hoping to get an advice thread started to get some collective info on cortez frequency response outta this too.

 

[gold fish]

GAH, it's almost spring !!!

 

[jocap]

gold fish, Please pardon me saying but it seems to me that you may be a bit impatient and really don't want to do alot of unnecessary digging. With ANY new detector, the best way of learning is to dig, dig and dig some more. Read the instruction manual not once, not twice but as many times as possible until you know the capabilities of the detector by heart ( without referring back to the manual).

Understand that NO TID detector will ever be right all of the time. There are too many field variables that can effect the readings. Ground mineralization, a quality coin up against a rusty iron part, a coin on edge etc. all these conditions would make any coin read as something they aren't. Once again digging and digging some more is the only way to learn the finer points of your new detector.

With your Cortes you have many readings that when put together can help you with a very high amount of certainty, tell you the item you are about to dig. You have multiple display readings, ( bar graph, word reading, depth reading, Id number ), you also have a fully segmented discrimination knob with separate "notch discrimination" ( to knock out pull tabs ). As mentioned already the Cortes also has a "Sum" feature with a 9 tone audio Id that will average your passes for even more accuracy in Iding your target. All combined this is a Huge amount of identification at your disposal.

A couple of other notes, have you ever tried making a small test garden? If not, that can go a long way in helping you improve Iding of targets.

You also mentioned that you "thrown out" clad coins because they were "ugly". I have been detecting many years and have found too many corroded zincs to count. I have never thrown out any and have always been able to get face value for each. They can be easily slipped in with other clean clads when put into rolls or sent back to the mint.

Give the suggestions mentioned here a chance and see how things go. I think you will be better off for it.

HH

 

[gold fish]

No offense taken,jocap, I just think it would be useful, especially to newbies, to have some sort of source by which they can begin to gague TID response. I agree, the only way to truly tell what it is, is to see what it is. But getting a bunch of cortez users(I say cortez, 'cuz those DFX users aren't smart enough to figure it out anyway :P) together as a resource on what they experience in the field could be valuable.

Like I said, I do see your point, these are my first two, and were about 9 points away from a pulltab -

 

[Hoosier Kingfisher]

Diggit,diggit, diggit

 

[jocap]

Way to go gold fish, those 2 are dandies! See, already you're getting the hang of it.

 

[Wasabi]

Well I appreciate all of you sharing on the Cortes, I am thinking of buying one. I have a Tesoro Golden UMax that has done really great at finding the good stuff and am seriously looking at the Cortes or the new Fisher F75. I hear it really cuts through the trash (F75) that is.
I will keep looking at these post to learn more before making my decision in the next couple of weeks.

Gold Fish how do your Cortes detector now that you have had a chance to get more familiar with it?

Thanks again for everyone's honest opinions and experiences.