Hunting a harvested soybean field.

[KREQ600]

As a new poster, I know this topic has probably been posted before but, I think I read somewhere there is supposed to be a different way one would hunt a recently harvested field compared to a field that has not been. Got a chance to hunt one today looking for Civil War items. Unfortunately, nothing found today because of what my detector was experiencing. I did find some modern pistol brass and a few remnants of soft drink cans when my detector was running quite.
Was hunting with an Equinox 600. Did a factory preset. Hunted mostly in Field 2. Noise canceled. Ground balanced. Came up mid 40-60's with an occasional 70's!!! GB and noise cancelled a lot due to the almost constant "chatter" that I was getting. There was a power line in the area but, I noise canceled regularly just to be sure I was not picking up EMI. No cell towers close by. Cell phone off. Tried GB at 0 too but still chattered. 5 tones. Recovery speed 2. FE2 set to 1. It has some stubble leftover from the soybean harvest less than a week ago. Stubble is less than 4 inches. Field is not plowed. It is relatively smooth. It is, however, rutted up from the combines. It was extremely wet with lots of standing water in places after a big rain yesterday. When the detector was not chattering and would go "quite" for a time, I noticed that when I would hit a piece of stubble sticking up from the wet ground, I would sometimes get a false signal. Would then go slow and scan deliberately but could not duplicate the potential signal I would get. When it was chattering, it would appear there were targets of all types, ferrous and non ferrous, at great depths of more than 8 inches. When going slow and deliberate to check signals, the signals would disappear. Tried all modes such as Park 1, 2 and Field 1 with basically factory presets after Noise cancel, and GB. Only changed settings for Park 2. So, is there a special way to hunt a field under these conditions? Too much info or not enough to give a somewhat educated answer?? LOL

 

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[1KBlueTuber]

What was your sensitivity set at? See if you get same results at home outside. Sounding like a bad coil but I’d try duplicating the problem in a different area.

 

[Rookster]

Try turning down the sens. I don’t live far from you as a Raven flys and our ground is
Very mild here. I don’t own the EQ 600 but usually I can run lower sens. on my machines
and do pretty well. Good luck

 

[Donut]

Also I’d try raising the Iron Bias if the ground is mineralized.
also could have been an old building there.

Doug

 

[KREQ600]

Thanks for all the suggestions!!! Had sensitivity at 20. Lowered to 16 and 18 and still chatty. Tried IB at 1 through 3. Tried both FE2 and regular IB settings..... Still chatty. Tried multiple different settings over the 3 hours I was at this site to try to quite down the detector. As far as GB goes, tried auto ground balancing and it consistently ran high on GB numbers. Even tried Auto GB tracking, still chatty. Have good results everywhere else with the settings I used today. Used it last weekend and found lots of coins at a favored site. All rang up correct VID and correct as far as tones go as to what coins they ID'ed at. Got to believe the extremely wet ground had something to do with my issue. Ground was completely saturated and very muddy. Had at least 1 1/2 to 2 inches of rain on this field. Definitely no old building around for sure. Was a very large open field.

 

[Donut]

There are times that I have to go down to single frequency 10kHz and that dose help when I’m having chatter.

Doug

 

[KREQ600]

Thanks Donut for the advice. Of all the things I tried, changing to single frequency like 10kHz did not come to mind for some reason. I even tried the Beach settings since the field was so wet and muddy. Guess I was just getting frustrated by the way the detector was performing and that I was not finding anything in this field that should have produced something. Oh well, got permission to hunt this field as much as I want so I will hunt again.
Which leads me back to my question concerning if there would be a different approach in hunting plowed/harvested agricultural type fields vs a grassy pasture type field?

 

[Donut]

Plowed and not plowed fields theirs no difference, it’s just ground.
was all the places you tried on that field causing chatter. Is it a possibility that in the past it was hunted and it may have a lot of buckshot. Burned charcoal. Dose the chatter stop if the coil is not moving area.
When you did the noise canceling did you have it off the ground.
One I’d the main reasons the equinox 600 and 800 are finding more stuff than other detectors is it has a stronger signal and a better processor so at times you have to lower the sensitivity if the ground has heavy minerals in it and there are places that just can’t be detected. I have seen places in northern Michigan UP near copper mines.
try lowering the sensitivity with a coin and see how low you can go and still be able to detect it.
There are just times you have to de-tune it when there is interference.
All this is just my opinion and by no means I’m mot an expert.
let us know.
Also if the ground is highly mineralized you may have to manually ground balance it above the default settings of. zero , read the note in the manual page 40 at the end of the instructions. Find a clear area.

One question. “Are you using Wi-Fi earpiece.”
Doug

 

[dirtlooter]

also the smaller bird shot can be picked up by the Nox and there can be a lot of that everywhere from bird and rabbit hunting. 22 brass and bullets can drive you nuts too. so many variables from site to site and sometimes it is a matter of figuring out the correct method of attack for each one. I have the 600 and so am limited somewhat compared to the 800 in terms of the "fine tuning" of a site but not enough to bother me. But I can easily see where some rely on being able to fine tune their machine per site.

 

[1KBlueTuber]

My second guess is that you’re carrying your cell phone and the data pushes and retrieval’s are interfering with the detector? My buddy has that problem with his Nox and Verizon’s service.

 

[vferrari]

My second guess is that you’re carrying your cell phone and the data pushes and retrieval’s are interfering with the detector? My buddy has that problem with his Nox and Verizon’s service.

Well he explicitly said in his post he had cell phone off, so it's unlikely that is the problem.

As far as pastures vs. harvested, planted, ploughed, or disked fields, should make no difference on your setup.

Anyway, here are some tips on how deal with various types of noise - chatter/EMI, ground noise chatter, and falsing:

Make sure you are properly differentiating between EMI/noise, ground noise, and ferrous falsing.

If you are getting constant chatter with the coil stationary and lifted off the ground (e.g., at waist height or higher) and you can make it go away by lowering sensitivity - that is likely EMI. You can try doing an auto noise cancel but unless the noise source is constant and at specific frequencies like crackling power lines or florescent lighting or another nearby Equinox then noise cancel may not be very effective, especially if the source is intermittent. If auto noise cancel is ineffective, you can try manually selecting the quietest channel using manual noise cancel (see your manual on how to do this, manual noise cancel is only available on the 800). Stronger Broad band noise and/oir intermittent noise is harder to deal with and noise cancel is usually minimally effective. These sources include your cell phone (keep it off, in airplane mode, and/or away from the control head of the detector), wifi, walkie talkies, microwaves, invisible dog fences, etc. In that case you need to lower sensitivity. If you feel you have to lower sensitivity TOO MUCH to make the chatter stop, then try switching modes to see if another mode is less sensitive to the noise. If that fails, then try switching to single frequency to see if you can find one of the 5 frequencies (Park and Field modes) to be less sensitive to the noise (or 20 or 40 khz in Gold Mode). You would be surprised at how much depth you can get even at sensitivities less than 15.

Ground noise shows up as chatty iron signals in the range of -9 to -7 VDI while swinging over the ground in all metal. If you are experiencing that, you should ground balance the detector.

Also, as a reminder, noise cancel and ground balance settings are mode specific. For example, if you Noise cancel and GB in Park 1 and subsequently shift to another mode like Park 2, you have to noise cancel and ground balance for that mode too and also for single frequency.

Falsing results when the detector gets fooled by ferrous or mixed ferrous targets and sounds off with high tones. This usually happens with large iron, especially large round iron and with small bent square nails or square nail heads. Iron bias, especially the new F2 setting can help with this. The only drawback to using iron bias is that if you set it too high, it can mask actual non-ferrous targets in the proximity of iron. I have found that setting F2 around 4 to 6 is pretty effective and a good tradeoff setting against masking. The old FE iron bias setting seemed to be less effective (I usually left it at 0). Not only is the new F2 filter more effective, it also seems to target iron better with less masking than the FE filter as long as you keep it between 4 and 6 (for the 800). I have found that if you run F2 less than 3 or so (800), things get more "falsy". If iron is really thick, a way to combat the "iron overload" is to lower sensitivity. You will limit depth but some of the shallower non-ferrous keeper targets may pop out of the ferrous muck that way (the term I like to use for this technique is called "sifting"). Highly recommend you install the latest firmware update with the new F2 iron bias setting.

Not sure if these apply to your situation but thought I would mention them, I know some of these have been previously covered above but wanted to make sure I covered the bases.

HTH

 

[1KBlueTuber]

Well he explicitly said in his post he had cell phone off, so it's unlikely that is the problem.

As far as pastures vs. harvested, planted, ploughed, or disked fields, should make no difference on your setup.

Anyway, here are some tips on how deal with various types of noise - chatter/EMI, ground noise chatter, and falsing:

Make sure you are properly differentiating between EMI/noise, ground noise, and ferrous falsing.

If you are getting constant chatter with the coil stationary and lifted off the ground (e.g., at waist height or higher) and you can make it go away by lowering sensitivity - that is likely EMI. You can try doing an auto noise cancel but unless the noise source is constant and at specific frequencies like crackling power lines or florescent lighting or another nearby Equinox then noise cancel may not be very effective, especially if the source is intermittent. If auto noise cancel is ineffective, you can try manually selecting the quietest channel using manual noise cancel (see your manual on how to do this, manual noise cancel is only available on the 800). Stronger Broad band noise and/oir intermittent noise is harder to deal with and noise cancel is usually minimally effective. These sources include your cell phone (keep it off, in airplane mode, and/or away from the control head of the detector), wifi, walkie talkies, microwaves, invisible dog fences, etc. In that case you need to lower sensitivity. If you feel you have to lower sensitivity TOO MUCH to make the chatter stop, then try switching modes to see if another mode is less sensitive to the noise. If that fails, then try switching to single frequency to see if you can find one of the 5 frequencies (Park and Field modes) to be less sensitive to the noise (or 20 or 40 khz in Gold Mode). You would be surprised at how much depth you can get even at sensitivities less than 15.

Ground noise shows up as chatty iron signals in the range of -9 to -7 VDI while swinging over the ground in all metal. If you are experiencing that, you should ground balance the detector.

Also, as a reminder, noise cancel and ground balance settings are mode specific. For example, if you Noise cancel and GB in Park 1 and subsequently shift to another mode like Park 2, you have to noise cancel and ground balance for that mode too and also for single frequency.

Falsing results when the detector gets fooled by ferrous or mixed ferrous targets and sounds off with high tones. This usually happens with large iron, especially large round iron and with small bent square nails or square nail heads. Iron bias, especially the new F2 setting can help with this. The only drawback to using iron bias is that if you set it too high, it can mask actual non-ferrous targets in the proximity of iron. I have found that setting F2 around 4 to 6 is pretty effective and a good tradeoff setting against masking. The old FE iron bias setting seemed to be less effective (I usually left it at 0). Not only is the new F2 filter more effective, it also seems to target iron better with less masking than the FE filter as long as you keep it between 4 and 6 (for the 800). I have found that if you run F2 less than 3 or so (800), things get more "falsy". If iron is really thick, a way to combat the "iron overload" is to lower sensitivity. You will limit depth but some of the shallower non-ferrous keeper targets may pop out of the ferrous muck that way (the term I like to use for this technique is called "sifting"). Highly recommend you install the latest firmware update with the new F2 iron bias setting.

Not sure if these apply to your situation but thought I would mention them, I know some of these have been previously covered above but wanted to make sure I covered the bases.

HTH

My bad! Didn’t remember reading that in initial post

 

[KREQ600]

Guys, thanks for all the information that you are supplying!!! I appreciate it very much!! Thanks vferrari for your very in depth reply. You answers to other posts and posters are always so helpful.
Another poster suggested using single freq. to see if that will eliminate the chatter. I did not do that but should have. I may be using the wrong terminology to describe chatty but I was getting very faint tones and VDIthat ranged from 6 to 8 and below and was occasionally getting a VDI of over 8 inches almost constantly. I GB constantly. I noise canceled regularly. I even did a factory preset while in the field. Then experimented with the different modes. I spent alot of time changing setting predominately in the Field 2 mode. This particular field is near where a battle took place and where Union troops camped. The field has been hunted before as I found out. So, I was looking for minnie balls, remnants of cannon balls or anything that may have been dropped by the soldiers. So, this field is really old and it is entirely possible I was picking up targets that were very small or had over the years been buried deeper due to the agricultural nature of it. I will use all of the suggestions that all of you provided and will rehunt this field again soon, I hope. It was so wet and muddy that when i would dig on a target, it was nothing but mud. Had a hard time even walking around in the muck!!!

 

[vferrari]

My bad! Didn’t remember reading that in initial post

It was worth mentioning though, just in case, it's the first thing I ask about if someone is complaining about chatter.

 

[cudamark]

Another setting you can play with that I have found will affect "chatter" is the recovery speed setting. Try both ends of the spectrum and see if one of them will help. Adjust your swing speed accordingly.

 

[MikeRo]

Just an idea, try removing the coil cover. Clean the exposed coil & the inside of the cover. You wont believe how much dirt, etc collects in there. HighVDI told me about this. I now do it every few hunts and it has cured the chattiness. Worth a try

 

[KREQ600]

Thanks cudamark and MikeRo for the follow up suggestions. Cudamark, I did adjust the recovery speed several times to see what effect it would have. Could not really tell any discernible difference as to how the detector was behaving. MikeRo, I clean out the coil cover on a regular basis. I have noticed that it does get some debris in it, especially after a dusty field hunt or after searching in relatively tall wet grass. The day I hunted, was the first time I was in a field that was so wet and muddy. I definitely took the cover off and cleaned it and the coil too after this muddy hunt!!
I went out earlier today for a bit and looked around in a neighbors pasture where an old barn once stood. Ran in Field 2 and duplicated the settings I was basically using when I was having all the issues. It ran as quite as a church mouse, until I hit on targets. So, not sure what may have been the issue(s) but, looking forward to re-hunting this field when it dries up some and see what happens.

 

[Iron Buzz]

I rarely have an issue with chatter on the Nox (at least compared to my Deus!) but I do in my own yard for some reason. One thing I have done that I *think* *seems* to help (notice the caveats) is to bring my sensitivity all the way up before doing the noise cancel, then bringing it back to a realistic level for detecting.

 

[KREQ600]

Iron Buzz, thanks for this great suggestion!! I will definitely give this a try next time!!! One thing I have read, is that the conductivity of iron increases in wet grounds. This field was definitely wet!! Could be I was picking up very small pieces of iron that had been deposited over the years by farming. It could also be some small pieces of cannon shrapnel since there was artillery fired during this battle at this site. I am most definitely going back to this field again as soon as it dries up and conditions become more favorable to hunt.