First hunt in the wild...suggestions?

[met422]

First hunt in the 'wild'...suggestions?

Hi all,

I am new to detecting (long time rockhounder), and after two days of detecting around my property, I went out in the 'wilds' of the Verde Valley in Arizona. I have the Minelab Xterra 705 Gold pack. I have dug many holes in my yard and really felt I was starting to get a feeling for things. I went to a seasonal creek, Cherry Creek, about a mile below claims on the Prescott National Forest. I left the manual at home on accident. I was finding good targets, mostly old square nails, bullets, and a lot of shell casings. I found a lot of beautiful green quartz and greenish red granite laying on the ground, my pockets were full on the hike back! I went slow in prospector mode and really took my time on each target. I could not figure out how to get out of beach mode while in the field, but got it out when I got home and re-read the manual.

I am sure I will figure a lot of stuff out with trial and error, but my main questions that I would like some suggestions on are:

1) Why would my targets ID as -8 and 48 at the same time?

2) Why was I not locating anything in the 0-30 range (this may qualify as a stupid question)? I covered a lot of ground and I just think I would have found something other than just Iron?

I had a heck of a good time, and a good old Arizona winter sunburn to go along with it. Any suggestions from your experience would really help.

Thanks!

Matt

 

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[SusanMN]

Sorry no one posted a response. I have an Xterra but had to go back to my booklet to answer some of your questions.

if you are hunting in prospector mode, what shows on the screen is your iron mask setting, as you don't get target IDs on the screen in that mode. I don't usually use this mode, just all metal and #1 discrimination for most hunts.

If you are in the Jewelry and Beach mode you will sometimes get fluctuations in target ID numbers, but not over the whole range of target ID numbers, and not much comes in at 48. But it's possible you had a good target and iron in the same hole.

I'd try posting your question on the Minelab board and I'm sure you'll get some other Xterra users response

 

[pippinwhitepaws]

you drove from Cornville to cherry for colored rocks?

lol...I found a placer site along the verde...across from the diversion dam/pecks lake...
contact me if you wish to run that thing around inside the dig...interesting site, on the wrong side of the river for prospecting...
yet some one dug a hole large enough for a pickup truck

I know nothing about the detector..lots about Arizona...I am in Centerville.

 

[rcb187]

what happend to pippinwhitepaws? Donald Peterson? I see that he was banned..

 

[A2coins]

Welcome to tnet there are also forums here for Az and for your detector specific brand good luck

 

[rcb187]

Welcome to tnet there are also forums here for Az and for your detector specific brand good luck

tommy the op and this post is from 2014 i was just curious about pippen.. he seems to have been banned..