First backyard expedition brings new questions

[Bucket]

Hello again!

As I stated in the previous post I am brand new to detecting. I couldn't resist any longer and last night I spent 3 hours in my backyard testing out my new MD.

My first find was a lid to a chewing tobacco can.
Second find and first coin was a 1997 Dime, third a 1995 quarter.
My final find, which took me about 20 minutes to recover, was a still cylinder shaped can of Storm (soft drink) full of dirt, from about 8 inches down.

So nothing too exciting but I had a blast and learned a lot about my machine.

I did come up with a few questions though;

1) I have read several posts which state something to the fact that different types of soil will produce different depth and detection results, unfortunately they don't specify how. My soil is what a farmer would call "Black Gold", it reminds me of potting soil, a very rich black soft dirt. How does that effect a MD? How do other types of soil affect MD's?
I was hoping that someone could point me in the right direction (website, book, general principle) of how soil type affects MD's.

2) The two coins I found were discolored/corroded to the point they are now a brown color. They are under 15 years old, is that common for clad or is that due to the conditions they are buried in?

Thanks for any info/help/insight you can provide!

Bucket

 

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[tmanfromtexas]

What kind of detector are you using? Does it have a ground balance? The dirt you are talking about should be pretty tame unless it was used for alot of farming, in which case it might be a little hot due to fertilizers and such.

The areas I hunt in NWI are mostly neutral except for certain areas in Gary that have either a slag fill or imo more mineralization due to the steel mill's pollution which settled on and then in the ground over the last 100 years. On my etrac in some areas the sens drops down to 13-15. SMAN...

 

[Bucket]

I am using a BH QD II, (I have noticed in various forums that this brand is seen as less than desirable) which I understand is auto-ground balancing.

I believe the land was used for farming up to about 20-25 years ago. I am not sure what you mean by it could be "hot", does that mean you loose depth due to a drop in sensitivity?

It has been hard trying to find a MD basics guide (i.e. how soil affects MD's packed/loose dry/wet, swing speed, how/why to set sensitivity etc...) so I appreciate any help. I am guessing that most of my answers will be revealed through pratice and observation but I would like to have a basic understanding or baseline to start from.

Thanks again,
Bucket

 

[tmanfromtexas]

Highly mineralized ground is what I consider hot. It does affect the ability for the unit to get good returns from the ground imo. I hunted an 1870s school in east Texas last year that on my etrac the autosensitivity went to 6. It usually runs around 19. Guess what? I got one wheat penny at 4 inches and it was an iffy signal. You cant do anything about the ground, all you can do is dig the iffy signals, especially if they are deep. SMAN...

 

[wingmaster]

I don't think that unit has ground trac I think it has a preset ground setting and when the soil is moist you should get better depth. If you detect a place when the ground is real dry try going back after you get some good rain fall. That color is common for clad, zinc pennies will have the edges ate off and holes in them after a few years in the ground. You probably wont find anything left when they get the age of the IH's.

 

[ivan salis]

minerals in the ground are the main issue * -- high mineral content will often read as "metal"-- due to "conductivity issues"-- detectors use conductivity to tell metal from soil . amd one metal typefrom another as well-- since metals are generally speaking much more conductive than soil is --the detector has a electric feild under the coil --as it passes over / by metal the conductive metals effect the feild which the metal detector "notices"--- the closer to the metal item in the ground the more it effects the feild -- beep beep BEEP --THATS HOW WE PIN POINT the exact location

metal detectors are highly sensitive however and high mineral content soils make it see a "wall" of metal -- freaking out the machine -- to counter that once must tone down the machines sensitivity a bit so it can tell mineral rich soil from metal --this can be done 2 ways --if ones machine has a user set "ground balance" ability you "ground balance" it --if however one has a "pre set" ground balance , one must the lower the sensitivity level to the point where it no longer picks up the background minerals in the soil --this often can be done in all but the worst soils --but often at a slight cost of depth

remember you can only "push" as much signal into the ground as the soil conditions will allow --many folks seeking to get a lot of depth try to push too much signal --running "overly hot" which often makes a machine chatter or give worse rather than better proformace.