How would you hunt an iron, trash infested, but good relic/coin lot site?

[Happa54]

Hey everyone

For the past year or so, I’ve been pounding a site where there used to be a dozen homes or more that date back to the early 1900’s and demolished in the early 1950’s.

This site has every household item you can think under the soil…ie; kitchens drains, old appliance parts, nails, screws, iron, slag, can slaw, tin, aluminum, etc, etc. It is overwhelming in some areas.

I started off on this site with my Safari and got a couple of silver and wheats here and there amongst the trash. But since using my Nox 600, I’ve dug a couple of V’s, IHP’s, Walker half, SLQ, Mercs, Rosies, Wheats, Rings, assorted old jewelry, various cool old tokens, various relics, etc. The other day dug a 1903 Mexican Silver 5 Cent. It’s just endless what I’m finding here. Well, you know the drill.

You can imagine how much trash I’ve dug based on my finds. I typically hunt this site in either Park 1 or 2. Sens can be anywhere from 16 — 23 depending on which area of the site I am hunting. I run all metal in 50 tones, 0 IB. I don’t use the field modes and I can’t answer as to why….just never really got into it.

IMO, I’ll probably be hunting this site on & off for the next couple of years. I believe I’m still missing a lot of good targets due to heavy masking.

How would you hunt this site with your Nox? Would you use a bit of IB, possibly one of the Field Modes, change to 5 tones, etc?

 

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[smokeythecat]

There is no quick answer. You're going to have to dig the bad stuff, then you'll find more of the good targets. I have had this happen on one of my Civil War sites. NOW we're getting some really good stuff, but had to get the trash out of the way first.

 

[Toecutter]

I would use park1 listen for high tones, if i can get the high tone to repeat in 2 different directions then I dig, i only dig 20s on up in heavy trash like pull tabs and bottle caps, I would also try to use park 2 with 5 tone...

 

[vferrari]

Do exactly what you are doing, sounds like you are doing great. I have found Field 2 to be less audibly harsh than Park 2 so you can give that a go as an alternative. If you are running IB 0 and default recovery speeds, not much else you can do re masking besides maxing out on recovery speed (the 600 limits you to a certain extent in this regard vs. the 800) and getting a 6” coil.

 

[Godownswingin]

I have recently started notching out 39 and 40 in my trashy sites to avoid constant iron falsing and I am liking the results so far. Still the odd rusty nail but I am wasting a lot less time digging square nails and bent nails.

 

[eman1000]

If I felt like it was worth the time. I would set my Sens low (just enough to hit a quarter at 4 or 5 inches) and hunt the site and dig everything. The increase the sens a little bit each time I hunted the site and follow a grid pattern from diff, directions.
The general idea being that you are removing shallow trash that is masking the deeper better signals if they exist. Rarely do I have a site that I have had the luxury of time and finds to justify this method but I have a clad sweet spot I hunt weekly that now I pretty much only find fresh droppings at.

Frustrating but with the Nox (if you can get the 6" coil the better) you will want to shorten your sweep to 6-12" for the best target separation.

Sounds like an awesome site though! HH

 

[Happa54]

Thanks for your input everyone.

I have pretty much worked through all of your suggestions at one time or another at this site.

The more I hunt this place, the better I get with my Nox 600. This place has it all. A person can cut their teeth in this business here pretty quick.

I went back today to catch the last 2 hours of sunlight. This time I hunted in Field 2 mode....wherein it's usually Park 1.

I hunted an area on this site that I haven't paid much attention to. Glad I did. Every time I start working a different area, I get a thing or two which tells me that I will be working this site for some time into the future.

For my short hunt I ended up with a crusty merc, a few wheats, a couple of tokens, some iron stuff, a piece of a '49 license plate, belt buckle, metal toy car, Avon cosmetic case and an assortment of clad. All these were hidden in a pretty small area since I move real slow and methodically.

I'm becoming less selective with my signals nowadays because you just don't know what you're passing up if you don't dig. But still, I'm not digging every target....not yet, at least.

My settings tonight;

Field 2
Sens 20
GB 8
Multi
50 tones
0 disc
0 IB

 

[CASPER-2]

i have found mny goodies with or under nad next to trash that others missed
my motto - to get it all ...you got to dig it all
I hunt 99% of the time in all metal and that is what i try to do
especially if its a spot that frequently produces good stuff and its a spot you
enjoy hitting and its a spot that is near by
its understandable if you try and cherry pick a spot that you may not go back to
and is not near by ...then do what you gotta do

 

[eman1000]

GB8 is pretty good soil. I would make a quick pass with Sens at somewhere between 12-15 just to verify there isn't a good shallow target masked by a deeper iron target.

 

[Happa54]

GB8 is pretty good soil. I would make a quick pass with Sens at somewhere between 12-15 just to verify there isn't a good shallow target masked by a deeper iron target.

This is an interesting strategy, for me. So what Eman is saying here is.... "At a lower sens, I will hear the shallower targets without the deep ones drowning them out?" This place is covered in large deep iron, tin and aluminum, among other things.

Am I correct in what he is saying here?

Thank you

 

[1942 merc]

Park 1
5 tone
Target speed 6
all metal
Sensitivity 20
six inch coil
Sounds like you do not have to worry about killing any grass so dig everything .If trash is really bad bump to 7 TS .

 

[CarsonChris]

I would use a 6” coil to hunt this site. I am amazed at how much stuff I can find in trash and nail beds with it. It absolutely hammers coins.

 

[vferrari]

This is an interesting strategy, for me. So what Eman is saying here is.... "At a lower sens, I will hear the shallower targets without the deep ones drowning them out?" This place is covered in large deep iron, tin and aluminum, among other things.

Am I correct in what he is saying here?

Thank you

Lowering sensitivity in thick iron situations, also known as "sifting" is a technique I have often recommended to users with fast detectors such as the Equinox and Deus dealing with thick iron situations. Lowering sensitivity helps to keep the iron from overwhelming the detector. Even though depth is sacrificed to an extent, the objective is to light up the shallower unrecovered keeper non-ferrous targets that have been masked by the iron. It is fairly effective in iron, especially when using two-tone setups (ferrous/non-ferrous) in either all metal or with iron discriminated out. Because of this, the sifting tecnique is a little less effective in modern non-ferrous trash. Using a small coil also helps because there are less targets under the coil at any given time and less reduction in sensitivity is needed to achieve the desired performance. It goes against the grain, is counterintuitive, and requires situation specific expetimentation, so it is hard for users to buy into it. YMMV. HTH.

 

[Juiceman]

Going on my second season/year with the 800 and I have started experimenting with lower sens settings. I am liking the results so far, I have not found anything of real value yet this year but I am finding more small close to surface chains and pendants. I can see how that can work in iron infested areas, great info here.

 

[smokeythecat]

You really will have to dig it all, or most of it. Big icky targets will and can mask smaller good items. Doesn't matter which machine you have. Case in point I was cleaning out Civil War iron ration can pieces from around big trees and the one "ration can" was a Civil War breastplate 2" deep.

 

[Happa54]

You really will have to dig it all, or most of it. Big icky targets will and can mask smaller good items. Doesn't matter which machine you have. Case in point I was cleaning out Civil War iron ration can pieces from around big trees and the one "ration can" was a Civil War breastplate 2" deep.

Good point here. "Big targets will and can mask smaller good targets". My site is approx 30 + acres and there is a ton of stuff in it. I've pulled out huge chunks of iron, tin, aluminum and slag that I'm sure is masking high conductive coins. Where does the slag come from? I'll have to take some pics of it next time I'm out there.

 

[CarsonChris]

In the night when nobody can see me climb the fence!