How important is depth???

[Sandigger2]

My oldest coin find is my avatar (1904 O) big silver found at approx 2-3 inches under a porch that was being replaced on a1920's Craftsman. I mostly beach hunt where depth is
everything, one of the reasons I have a pulse machine for after storms and when the depositors are not contributing.

 

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[Boatlode]

I don't think depth is as important as people think. I bet there are more good finds made from 7 inches and shallower than there is from deeper than 7 inches.

That stands to reason, but only because most people are not using deep machines (i.e. there are a lot more Garretts out there than PI machines).

 

[McKinney_5900]

Maybe this relates to depth-worry...I had a 10" Whites coil go bad for theV3i for running 3 frequencies. I was used to cranking it up a bit in gain and sensitivity for hunting a local park that is full of history, and produced lots of good silver finds over time even though it was really overly pounded...enough so that I nver run into hunters of recent or noticed digs for a long time.

Anyway, back to the limp coil. I think it was maybe the first time I took the sick coil there and this time I decided detune way down in gain to 4 instead of 10. I hit a signal not 40' from the car, first signal of the day, and pulled a Mercury dime, and a common nickel a foot away. OK, it's just luck I said(and it is probably.) The rest of the short hunt gave very little.

I returned the next day since it's so close to my house with the same setup, and walked directly across a stream to start. Bang, first dig again, another merc. Both mercs were maybe 3 inches down. Trust me, this park's seen many coils swung over both of these particular regions of the park over time.

I think it was likely that I was putting in anough extra energy when the 10" coil when it was "good" and passed the quality tests that I was just maybe running hot enough to let a possible 9-10" treasure not slip by, that I swamped the good shallow. There was still a lot of pure luck. A lot of better detectorists have worked that area over the 4 years I've been there, and God knows how many have worked this medium sized park since metal detectors have been made. Most of the hunters I personally know now basically think things there have to be deep now.

Detuning that sick D2 coil really low those days ended up satisfying. Depth could be overrated IMO. martin

 

[lookindown]

That stands to reason, but only because most people are not using deep machines (i.e. there are a lot more Garretts out there than PI machines).

I think there is just more 7 inches and less than there is deeper than 7 inches. Of course there are some sites with the good old targets being deep but in general, overall the most good finds lie at 7 inches or less...just my theory.

 

[lookindown]

7 inches is deeper than a lot of people think...The Garrett pro pointer is 7 inches long...some people think they dug a 9 or 10 inch target when it was really only 6 or 7.

 

[LuckyLarry]

Depth overall is an important issue, but I did find an 1855 Canadian cent with just a slight brownish-colored film over it under a high school tree one day. However, in my excitement, the earth literally and physically trembled and I fell sideways, and although I wondered if the excitement was too much for me, I heard later on my car radio that I had just gone through a mild earthquake. This is not a joke, and the coin had less than a paint job of dust on it too..

 

[Pmowry]

My last four big finds have all been in the first four inches they are coins dated 1774, 1814, 1913 and the third I can't see the date but based on the coin and the King on it points to 1717-1778. To me depth has not kept me from making some good finds, but it is kinda like being greedy for money...I just want more

 

[OWK]

I have found 80's coins at 6" and then a 40's silver coin just feet away at 3 or 4 inches........explain that

Happened to me yesterday.

1941 Wheat at six inches. Followed by a 1970 Memorial at 9 inches, Followed by a 1953 Washington Quarter at 4 inches.

All in a 3 foot circle at a "worked out" school built in 1964.

I'm beginning to think copper pennies sink deeper than clad dimes and quarters. Maybe it's a density vs. surface area thing.

 

[OBN]

Knowing the Target History of the area is more important, And the patterns of your finds, what the detector is capable of and how to use it to it's best.

 

[Roger Mn.]

Most of the old coins I dug were 8 inches or less including scraping leaves away with my foot to see a 1900 half dollar on top of the ground. One mercury dime at 10 inches. Most coins were found with a Whites DFX. I went over the same areas with the Minlab E-Trac and only 4 Indian head cents and two wheat cents all at 14 inches and 1 Indian head sent at 12 inches deep. I know the three places I found these coins in were bull dosed at one time and dirt fill at one park.
I don't care to dig that deep and none of those coins were in very good shape.

Now what I'm going to tell you might seem strange.
Some areas I detect in the threshold go's blank. These are areas were many other detectors have been over including the DFX . The medium across the street I detected many times with the DFX and didn't find a coin. I went over it with the E-Trac and nothing. I lowered the sensitivity to 8 and started finding silver coins ,wheat's and buffalo nickels. An other place the E-Trac would go blank was in Oronoco. This area might have been a back yard dump site. I turn the sensitivity down and ran the coil about 4 inches above the ground an dug a half dollar and a mercury dime.
Just a few weeks ago I was at the park were I got some silver dimes and a big area the detector threshold blanks out on. I turned it down to 18 and was going over a place I had detected before with the DFX. I get a good tone and the numbers weren't what a half dollar should be and about 4 inches down I see a 1942 Walking Liberty Half Dollar. Now get this,I rechecked the hole and nothing so I laid the half dollar on the ground next to the hole and swept the coil over the half and nothing not even a peep. Whats in the ground there that causes the detectors to blank out ?
I know this park has been gone over by other detectors.
I think that I've found around 30 coins now in ground that blanks out detectors just by turning down the sensitivity. I though about getting a White TDI just to see If I have missed anything but it too might just blank out over these areas of bad ground.
If your detector gets 8 inches on a dime or wheat cent than that's all you need for park detecting. Beaches you need a better and deeper detector.

 

[lookindown]

Most of the old coins I dug were 8 inches or less including scraping leaves away with my foot to see a 1900 half dollar on top of the ground. One mercury dime at 10 inches. Most coins were found with a Whites DFX. I went over the same areas with the Minlab E-Trac and only 4 Indian head cents and two wheat cents all at 14 inches and 1 Indian head sent at 12 inches deep. I know the three places I found these coins in were bull dosed at one time and dirt fill at one park.
I don't care to dig that deep and none of those coins were in very good shape.

Now what I'm going to tell you might seem strange.
Some areas I detect in the threshold go's blank. These are areas were many other detectors have been over including the DFX . The medium across the street I detected many times with the DFX and didn't find a coin. I went over it with the E-Trac and nothing. I lowered the sensitivity to 8 and started finding silver coins ,wheat's and buffalo nickels. An other place the E-Trac would go blank was in Oronoco. This area might have been a back yard dump site. I turn the sensitivity down and ran the coil about 4 inches above the ground an dug a half dollar and a mercury dime.
Just a few weeks ago I was at the park were I got some silver dimes and a big area the detector threshold blanks out on. I turned it down to 18 and was going over a place I had detected before with the DFX. I get a good tone and the numbers weren't what a half dollar should be and about 4 inches down I see a 1942 Walking Liberty Half Dollar. Now get this,I rechecked the hole and nothing so I laid the half dollar on the ground next to the hole and swept the coil over the half and nothing not even a peep. Whats in the ground there that causes the detectors to blank out ?
I know this park has been gone over by other detectors.
I think that I've found around 30 coins now in ground that blanks out detectors just by turning down the sensitivity. I though about getting a White TDI just to see If I have missed anything but it too might just blank out over these areas of bad ground.
If your detector gets 8 inches on a dime or wheat cent than that's all you need for park detecting. Beaches you need a better and deeper detector.

View attachment 1054127

I discovered that low sensitivity trick in one of my first hunts soon after I started this hobby. I was using an Ace 250 and thought I had a small lot cleaned of coins. I dropped my sensitivity to about half of what I had been running it at. I started digging coins and tokens that I couldn't hear before because all the iron was nulling it out. Now I always give every site a run with low sensitivity before I quit. Sometimes I find an extra target or two, sometimes I don't.

 

[lookindown]

My last four big finds have all been in the first four inches they are coins dated 1774, 1814, 1913 and the third I can't see the date but based on the coin and the King on it points to 1717-1778. To me depth has not kept me from making some good finds, but it is kinda like being greedy for money...I just want more

Yeah, there is no disadvantage in having the deepest machine possible. Confidence in your machine is important and you don't want to feel like your missing targets.

 

[prospexican]

well for treasure hunters depth is very important, for coin hunters depth is not important, because when a machine goes deeper it does miss some surface targets.

 

[OBN]

well for treasure hunters depth is very important, for coin hunters depth is not important, because when a machine goes deeper it does miss some surface targets.

Being a water hunter I consider myself a treasure hunter and only find depth as something I need in some locations. Most Coins are useless to me where I hunt unless they are gold. I guess another factor is where your hunting and what your hunting for....

 

[Boatlode]

At the beach, heavy items sink very quickly into the wet sand. You only have a limited window of opportunity to find them before they sink out of range. A deeper machine expands that window of opportunity.

 

[LuckyLarry]

Actually Roger there is (probably) an easy answer for your problem. Most people overuse the sensitivity control. it does not give us increased depth, and in fact it can make us lose depth. Here is why: The sensitivity adjustment is designed so that we can detect smaller than normal items, or deeper and much larger targets like shredded rusted steel beds, etc. If we turn the sens up too high, it reads all the smaller or deeper junk items better, and because of that we get ground cancellation (nulling) instead, and this can and does mask targets and make it seem like there is nothing there (the nulling), and especially if there are a lot of deeper things that are already masking our ground cancel control (ground balance control is just a rough form of discrimination). This is especially true with Fisher and Teknetics which run all-out steam locomotive power out the receiver end. Almost everybody overuses the sensitivity control, including me. I'll send you an article from a constituent of Minelab explaining this ordeal, it's an easy read, even for me
www.metaldetectingworld.com/metal_detector_sensitivity_depth.shtml