Apparently at one of the houses I am metal detecting at at the moment, someone was careless with the nailgun, shooting it all over in the yard when the house was last being worked on (and they were fired for it), plus with nails falling out of equipment, trash, etc. I'm not too surprised I'm finding nails there (even if most of them were picked up with a magnet). I'm wondering if I'm missing some objects that might be deeper, though. It's more difficult to get a consistent signal on some of the deeper objects I have noticed. Sometimes I'll try and dig for an object but I can't find anything with my pinpointer where I dig, so it makes me wonder if either I'm not digging deep enough or maybe I need a detector with a smaller coil.
I've been looking into the Equniox; I'm trying to decide if there's enough of a difference that I should be considering the 800 over the 600, especially if I'm primarily out hunting for coinage.
I've been into metal detecting since at least the early 2010s, but wasn't in a position to enjoy it as much as I can now. I've been searching around old farmhouses with a history of structures existing on the property as far back as 1861 according to the plat maps I've been able to find for my area (even if the house that is standing currently is a lot newer). I did also search part of a property where there used to be an old schoolhouse, but I only found iron/aluminum/porcelain junk. All of the spots I have detected on are private property and haven't had anyone detecting on the property until I have detected it, as far as I know. Sounds like a good idea as far as testing what I can find at different depths; I did a test long ago with several different coinage types, but I didn't test for depth nor do I remember how the different items detected. I plan on also searching a property that used to have a railway depot on the grounds, especially since it seems like there was a lot of activity around the property at that time when the railway was in operation.
Hopefully my perseverance through the trash will pay off on the properties I am searching! I can't remember how much time I have put into this machine; I've had it for a while, but didn't get around to really using it a lot until recently. I have a pinpointer to aid in my search.
I guess there's a few things that stan out in the replies-queries.
I have found that the amount of coinage found at a homestead site can really be from 0-30 coins. Now usually they fall into the range of 0-5 for coinage.
Example one year I went to 8 different homestead permissions, just cellar holes, nobody had detected them yet. Lots of signals, usual finds one would make at most sites, lots of little targets so I knew I was detecting ok.
The only thing absent was a coin, buttons yes, no coins.
Frustrating as I put in now 40-50 hrs total of swinging the coil at these permissions. Then I started to think why, why, why an the best I could come up with the sites were all Quaker's an maybe the coinage wasn't plenty an the purse strings were tight.
I went to another totally different area-and the coinage started up again (the 1-2-3 coins per site)
Many times farmland (fields) that have plowed buries the finds deeper, and even with time and soil conditions can make a huge difference for detection.
Site 1: Sandy/loamy soils the finds are 1"-6" deep, easy to hear.
Site 2: Heavy clay soils and the finds are 4"-10" deep, the soil/depth are getting to the limitations of machine.
One has to remember that if a public space the spot has had 50 yrs to be detected out-the parks we hit as a family in the 70's took the cream of most of the early coinage (limitations of the machines)
I have always maintained that one really/seriously need a 1000hrs on a machine before they truly know what that machine is doing. When a 50hr reference pops up that is a 5 day hunt-one might think they know what is going on but it's a minimum really.
It can be frustrating trying to dig a single coin out of a site that has limitations already set. Little money to begin with, folks very careful with money, already detected, soils, machine. Even if a coil is swung to fast the processor capability can miss a coin often. So I often like seeing the everything that is dug, are the recoveries all larger items? That is a great indication of the coil moving fast, not picking up smaller items, or if it does the operator doesn't recognize the little chap as being a noble target.
I guess the best advice is slow down the swinging and maybe things will start to pop up.
Just a few suggestions-I think if you went the route of the 600/800 machine it really might also help in the separation of iron/non ferrous targets.
) and the amount of trash/iron/garbage has made me think "like this sucks-spend all this $$$ and I'm digging crap" 
