Digger 27, thanks for the wealth of info! It won't go to waste!
I live in southern West Virginia and from what I can gather so far the soil should be highly mineralized. The reason the Indian Head surprised me was because I got a good "solid" signal and it turned out to be between 6 1/2" to 7" deep. That's a couple inches deeper then any other coins I have found but yet the signal was so solid. The second Indian head I found was approx. 10' from it at about 4".
I've found a couple nickels, both coming in at the L in foil very crisp with no chatter above the L in foil. It has been on rare occasion that I have actually turned the discrimination down that far though because the places I have hunted are very trashy.
Nickels are also weird, I have found a ton at that nickel mark but a surprisingly high amount above and below that mark in both good and bad soil shallow and deep.
These are not the only targets that behave strangely...you might be surprised on what else does too.
It is good that you like to learn...here are few more things you might want to know.
Everybody is different, everybody enjoys the hobby in different ways and everyone has different thresholds for digging trash.
Whatever way you want to do this is perfectly fine and it is important to enjoy the hobby and not get frustrated especially when you are new and learning the ropes.
As we progress, gain skills and get better we usually change our thinking in order to find more and more while still enjoying ourselves and keeping any frustration at bay.
Keep doing what you are doing but consider this, there are ways you can hunt in very trash areas with any detectors, including Tesoros, and avoid lots of the trash while still having a pretty high percentage chance of finding good targets, sometimes great targets.
This takes some skill and knowledge and I am not saying any method you use is going to be 100% successful and you won't miss anything great, especially comparing them against the dig every blasted signal you come across way which many do, but that is not my way to do this anymore and over the years I have drawn my line in the sand about how much trash I am willing to dig and learned ways to avoid digging about 80-85% of the trash I come across while still bringing home a huge amount of the good stuff, more than enough to keep me happy and satisfied.
I learned to do this with both screen units and both my Tesoros.
Again not saying I don't miss anything using my high percentage methods but you might not believe how shockingly successful I have been doing it this way.
It is a learned process that I came to understand after swinging detectors for many, many hours but many others have done the same by either figuring out these things for themselves or by learning from others and it does seem to work for many.
http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/t...r-27-s-method-thumbing-disc-knob-up-down.html
When I was pretty new with my Vaq I had read that most gold comes in at tabs or nickels so for a long time I hunted happily with that disc knob not much lower than that 5¢ Mark confident I would find most gold I came across.
Then one day I read a post from a hunter that stated the very best thing he ever found came in at foil and that affected me deeply...I started lowering that disc knob after that and continued to do that hunt after hunt and did that with my Compadre too.
This also became important when using detectors with screens but as you know the lower you go with discrimination the more targets you will get and in the foil area tons...and most of them are going to be trash.
Most, but most all.
I hunt sites with extreme amounts of trash most of the time, always have, so if I was going to do it in sites like that it was paramount I learn ways to do it successfully and still keep my sanity and avoid frustration and expending a large amount of time and energy digging garbage which I was not willing to do anymore.
After lowering that disc down and learning new skills to deal with all this my volume of great finds surprisingly soared and I still do it that same way even today.
Let me show you a few foil signals I have dug over the years.
One thing that you should know that not all silver comes in higher especially chains.
I told you those things are strange acting due to something regarding physics called eddy currents and those links that most are made from and how detectors perceive these things hiding in the dirt.
Links in chains, broken and open rings and sometimes crushed rings will diffuse the return signal and come in lower than normal plus affect the depth we can see them sometimes, this diffusion can and will confuse our detectors and then us in return.
Here is a display of just a few of my silver chains I have found and where they came in.
Even the thickest didn't come in higher than zinc, all the others were lower with several into foil.
Now let's talk about gold, my favorite target to dig of all.
Did you know that white gold is an alloy of gold and different metals...sometimes silver but sometimes it could be nickel which will lower that signal significantly.
Here is a channel white gold ring that is two sizes larger than another one I dug that was yellow gold on the right.
The yellow gold ring came in at nickel but the larger white gold ring was was lower in foil...exactly the same place as a condiment package or those round foil freshness seals that seem to be everywhere.
Here are a few more gold rings I have dug...every one of them was a foil signal.
One of them, that little heart one, was dug next to a basketball court which is a site where over time I usually do eventually dig most signals I can due to severe masking problems and the high possibility of jewelry at those sites.
Most of the rest were dug at other extremely trashy sites where I was using my high percentage avoiding most trash method or variations of that method.
Again not saying you should change what you are doing if you are enjoying the way you are hunting now...not at all.
What I am saying keep learning but keep your mind open to the possibilities of eventually turning down that disc little by little and learning techniques and methods to keep your interest high, your treasure pouch full and your trash bag fairly empty.
There is a world of great targets that come in below nickel into foil and even iron that are not iron...so why limit yourself?
It is possible to do these things if you want to learn and try sometime in the future, for now just go at your own pace and just keep swinging and learning and just concentrate on enjoying yourself.
That is the goal of this hobby no matter what you find.
|Also liked and heard you mention this before recalling that famous signal sounds to the Tesoro you are using and what treasure has brought you. Practice makes perfect! If you don't mind me asking what headphones do you use with your Vaq and Compadre?
