Feeling Buffaloed

[bigrig40]

Hi Yall,
Am I the only one who has trouble finding buffalo nickles?I find plenty of newer nickles,a few war nickles and even 5 V nickles but I have yet to find a buffalo.Knorrski found one.I love finding The Vs but would love to find a few of the beasts.I get a charge out of findings nickles sometimes more than quarters because they are harder to detect.

bigrig

 

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[True_Metal]

I have found only one but know i have missed others from being lazy and only digging the sweet silver signals. Haven't found any V's or other nickel types, so you are making some nice finds. 8)

 

[Monty]

I have trouble finding nickels period! They have the same tone and range on a numerical scale as pull tabs on my machine. I dug up 13 pull tabs yesteday and not one nickel!

 

[lonewolfe]

Buffs are hard ones to find. I've found maybe 15 or so in 20 yrs. V nickels even less. Jefferson nickels, can't count how many I've found, 100s & 100s easily and probably 1000s.. Some machines are better at being correct on nickels. Garrett GTA and GTAx 1000s and the 1250, 1350, GTI 1500, and 2500 are good at identifying nickels. They read in the pull tab range but stick more under the nickel notch and sound different than pull tabs (much more consistant and solid).. I'm sure other makers machines have a way of being more consistent. My cz20 just sounds off in a strong/solid mid tone, my MXT I haven't figured out enough yet to be certain what nickels read consistently, and my mine-lab is similar to the cz- it sounds off in a higher mid tone pitch.

 

[slow sweeper]

? ? ?I'm still using an old classic III and it does very good on nickels. It has no VDI so I rely strictly on audio. On my machine I keep the disc. setting just below factory ring preset and after I get a good signal I slowly turn up the disc. If the signal stops abruptly before I get to the coin preset 90% of the time its a good target. Nickel or ring. If it slowly breaks up, getting worse and worse as I turn up the disc. it's a pull tab.

 

[michinkae]

unless you have a detector like the Whites DFX, XLT, or MXT youwill most likely pass over a lot of nickels. This is because you are probably passing over every signal that could be a pull tab. All nickels give off a heavy signal. If you don't have a signagraph like the one built into the Whites XLT and DFX you will have a harder time determining the identity of a nickel from a pulltab. Also, remember that depth is a factor in determining the difference between a pulltab and a nickel, the deeper the target the more likely it will be to be a nickel. the more shallow the more likely a pulltab. People don't count on their depth indicators enough for determining the what a target is, they are too preoccupied with letting the detector determine through icons and beeps. My advice for finding more nickels is this, DIG EVERYTHING. USE MINIMAL DISCRIMINATION. If there wasn't a building on the site why use iron disc, if you can get away with it use no DISC at all. work that detector to its max.

 

[slow sweeper]

Well michinkae I agree with you about the depth factor but STRONGLY disagree about you needing a top of the line Whites. Anyone with almost any detector can learn to find nickels. It just takes getting to know what your detector is telling you. You're also correct that people probably don't rely on the depth of the target for better identification. But I'll also add that too many people probably rely on their VDI too much. It wouldn't surprise me at all to find out that people with no visual ID meter, like me, find more nickels than people with all the bells and whistles.

 

[bigrig40]

i guess it depends on how much you want to dig and how good your instincts are.my first detector was a pioneer505 and found 3 and i think i just saw them on the ground,with my MXT i have found over 700 in less than a year.

bigrig

 

[lonewolfe]

I find a lot of nickels with my cz20 - it has no 'bells and whistles' whatsoever, no ID meter, no depth gauge, no vdi, no nothing - 'pure sound' only! I love it too. One of the best machines I've ever owned!

 

[Lowbatts]

Buffalo nickel finds do have me wondering. I've dug a lot of them. In my metered CZ's (CZ5 &CZ7) all but three have come up as foil if they were deeper than 2 inches. Three that rang up in nickel were the best in detail with very little wear even though two were pretty rusty looking. They were also the deepest buffs I've dug, at the 8+ inch mark. So why would they id correctly deep but not shallow? No idea whatsoever. Dug them in almost every medium except salt water or black sand and have always noted htis peculiarity.

A recent '63 Jeff I dug in a nearby park was the first Jeff I've dug that rang in as foil and it was only an inch deep but had numerous other trash items around it. I've only dug a couple "war nickels" sometime back but I think they came up nickel on the meter. The V nicks I've dug all came up as nickel on the CZ meters, digital and analog. If the meter indicates foil you've got to dig it unless you can determine it's trash, gold comes in there also.

 

[lonewolfe]

I believe when you get to know your machine (no matter what it is) you can tell the difference in "sound" on nickels and other coins against trash/etc. (I know I can). I can hear the difference in a new penny (zinc) compared to an old copper penny. I can tell with almost 100% accuracy the difference between pull-tabs and nickels just by the sound of them. Nickels have a strong even consistent solid sound while pull-tabs will have a higher, broken up sound. Zinc pennies are the same way, they have a broken sound and are a higher pitch, Quarters are solid, loud, even, strong and consintent (as is any silver coin) and dimes are the same as quarters but, the length of the signal is shorter?

Takes many a yrs to get to know/discern the difference in sounds in this manner. And although I'm not, and it's not 100% accurate (as nothing about metal detecting is, including the machine itself) -? it's dam close! When I dig a 'nickel sounding signal' - 8 out of 10xs - it's a nickel! I pass over zinc pennies and leave them for others! I have dug 1000s of them and with an accuracy rate in the 99% range, I am confident in doing so! I do dig the 'copper' sounding pennies (especially when) I'm hunting an old site.

It all boils down to "time, practice in the field and experience" with your machine/s.

Don't get me wrong though, I have seen newbies out detect pros before and make some good finds, more finds, etc. (but on a consistent basis?) not even close!

One example,

I took my friend Jeff (not you moderator jeff!) to a beach on an old lake back in the woods off the beaten path, and in 10 minutes, he found a 1921 Morgan dollar in 3 inches of sand on the beach. When all was said and done, he came away with the Morgan, 2 silver washingtons, some wheat's and a bunch of newer clad junk, and all I found was 1 silver Roosevelt, and some clad.

Moral of the story!?

Since all he has for a detector is a GTAx 1000 and had to work the next day,

I took my Fisher CZ20 out there the next day and got in the lake (because I knew when he found that Morgan, that the lake had never been detected) and I cleaned up!!!? ? ?Gold rings, silver rings, necklace's, pendants, medals, wheat pennies, silver coins from the 1800s/1900s and 100s of other coins & cool items!

Needless to say, when I showed him all the finds I made, he about hit the roof!

Still can't convince him to UN marry that GTA and get a good water machine though (and he's NEVER out done me since that 1st day together, which was like his 3rd time ever metal detecting) and that was 4 yrs ago! lol?

 

[bigrig40]

nice info,thanks for sharin

bigrig

 

[slow sweeper]

Lonewolf, I totally agree with you. No matter what type of detector you own you have to use it enough to know what it's telling you. Even the most expensive detector out there is not an x-ray machine. And I agree with bigrig it depends on how much digging your willing to do. I've dug plenty of trash over the years. ?But if you never dig ANY trash you're leaving some goodies behind. Especially if you're just getting started in this fabulous pastime. Over time you dig less trash but it doesn't happen overnight.
? ? Obviously an e-series Whites is a better detector than the cheapest Radio Shack detector. But for close to a thousand bucks it better be! But I still say you don't need the most expensive models out there to find nickels.

 

[nick1878]

I have only found 3 buffaloes. I have found alot more 'v' nickels and shield nickels than buffaloes. Dot know what the deal is. The sites are old enough and used enough ??

 

[Lowbatts]

Hey Lonewolfe, found a couple buffs with the CZ20 as well they came up mid tone. But yep, you can tell the difference in finds even with only a few target categories as opposed to a numeric VDI display. With my metered CZ however the pulltabs sound much clearer than nickels do. Dimes give the single clearest sound in the high coin category with mem cents next, copper vs. zinc is pretty easy to determine.

Hey Nick, if you're discing out trash and foil you will miss buffs.

 

[nick1878]

Hey Lowbatts, I use the XLT and accept +95 - -30 I only discrimate in my head and based on experience and the area. Parks I disc more. Other areas I TRY to dig everything. I like removing trash because it is not a waste of time it often opens a window to the good stuff.

 

[Lowbatts]

Hey Nick sounds like you're just bumping up against the probability of nickel drops then. Being the least likely coin to be in someone's pocket, it's also the least likely to drop.