looking for a little advice for a whites eagle spectrum

[Older The Better]

I know mines a bit dated but I feel like I got a deal picking it up at auction for $80 with rechargeable battery and 3 coils, really 2 the 3rd doesn't have the right connections I found the blue max 800 finds all kinds of things the other standard one misses even though its smaller so that's what ive been using so to the question

I stumbled on a campsite in the woods where I found flat buttons and a piece of a flint lock pistol, the only reason I found it was I dug a few hits that my metal detector ignored one of which was the lock plate from a pistol. I have it set to relic which to my understanding should really accept everything but nails and wire so I'm not sure why it ignored fairly significant targets

also id like to go back and hunt it this weekend and I wanted to know if anybody had any tweaks to the settings so I could maximize depth, generally I don't pick up anything beyond a few inches unless its large like a hubcap or iron pipe and the few hits it did find at this spot seemed to be deeper and with the objects dating to the early 1800's I suspect there may be more buried deeper.

 

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[Older The Better]

... The Site is on top of a bluff far from any known houses or dumps so there is next to no trash in the area my detector usually just hums, that's why I dug even when it was ignoring the signal the soil is fairly thick for the edge of sandstone bluffs prob 2 feet or so to bedrock... I think that's important to the settings

 

[Tom_in_CA]

.... lock plate from a pistol......

What type metal was that made out of ? If it is iron, then the detector was doing its job to reject it. Try air testing the object now that it's out of the ground. If it now ACCEPTS it, then it was probably nothing more than being near iron (so you got masking). Or that it was beyond the depth range of the disc. ability. Or that you needed to have momentarily sped up the speed of your swing speed over suspect targets. Since the eagle spectrum is a faster swing speed machine to get proper TID.

I don't remember what the default disc. settings are on the Eagle Spectrum "relic" mode. It's been 15+ yrs. since I last used those machines. Any machine's "relic" mode, should, as you say, should only reject iron. And accept all conductive targets (even down to foil) . You can manually go in and study your default disc. setting in that mode. I recommend manually altering them to ACCEPT down to negative 20 (ie.; -20). That's still high enough to reject individual nails and small iron. And accept everything up to positive 94 . Rejecting only 95 on the top end, which is hot rocks.

 

[cudamark]

That sounds about right. It's been a while since I swung one also, but, they're still a good machine. Just a bit lacking in depth compared to some of the modern models. If I remember correctly, the factory programs start in sensitivity level 4. Bumping it up to 7 adds significant depth, assuming the ground conditions will let you. Too high and it will start to give you false signals. Run it as high as you can without that happening. If you're after ferrous relics, do what Tom mentioned and add some negative numbers. Otherwise I would just use the positive ones.

 

[Older The Better]

Cool thanks 24 hours of thunderstorms robbed me of my Saturday but I hope to get out there today and use your tips

 

[1KBlueTuber]

Your spectrum should go much deeper than a few inches when ground balanced correctly for the soil conditions. I was digging large cents buttons and silver at 7" inches last fall with the XLT and the 9.5 coil. You may want to try the beach/jewelry mode, then coin/jewelry mode over the same areas. Crank up your AC sensitivity as high as you can while maintaining a nice steady threshold tone. I also recommend using modulation which will give a softer tone on deep targets. Lots of deep targets can be found using pinpoint trigger. If you get a signal that gives a short null as if iron, try to pinpoint it. If it washes out, likely iron if it rises in volume Dig It. VCO comes in handy for this method. Spectrums are still great machines. Good Luck and let us know how it went.

 

[Older The Better]

 

[Older The Better]

Ill Have To play with the settings some more I turned up the sensitivity and it lead to many holes where I just couldn't find the object, I would move it around but each time I waved a handful of dirt over the head It would be silent then I would swing over the pile I just checked and get a hit, sometimes I would stop getting hits altogether, I'm guessing I was picking up tiny scraps but I'm not too upset since I also came away with a bullet mold possibly for a pistol which matches up with the lockplate to the flintlock pistol I found and I also found a roundball that fit the mold, also wondering if the ring is a gun part maybe a band for the barrel or a rod, the arrow seems to me to be a trade arrow but I'm tempering my excitement on that one until I can find more to confirm that over being a piece of a weather vane or a decorative something or other.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

I love the bullet mold. Evokes the wild wild west imagery.

 

[Muddyhandz]

Looking at the relics you've found at that Native camp, you REALLY need a detector that has a true all-metal capability but unfortunately the Eagle does not.
Years ago when my buddy's 6000 Di died, he had to use the Eagle as a back-up at sites like yours but ended up frustrated as there is NO all-metal setting.
It cherry-picked a few round things like flat buttons but is not good for relic hunting.
I have a lot of other stories about it but do not want to appear like I'm bashing your detector.
After all, it has found you some cool things thus far!
Happy Hunting.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Looking at the relics you've found at that Native camp, you REALLY need a detector that has a true all-metal capability but unfortunately the Eagle does not.
.....

Huh ?? The Eagle series @ Whites has menu option controls that will turn it to "all-metal", if someone so-desired.

Or even a cross-over mode, where you hear the iron (or whatever you've chosen to reject) as one tone (the low growl when put in VCO), and the accepted targets (conductive) in the higher tones. This is a good mode for someone wishing to also dig iron relics. Because he can elect to pass small individual nails, while electing to dig larger iron (potential relics).

I would not see the need to strip mine out all the individual nails. But .... I suppose some CW hunters (for example) have gotten so desperate to find a few more targets in their old stomping grounds, that they're resorted to this. So that, for example, if that single nail masked a deeper coin or button. But .... I can think of land sites where resorting to strip-mining might be a recipe for going psycho

 

[CASPER-2]

I get targets at a foot with my XLT all the time - you just got to slow down and lower the discrim.

Your spectrum should go much deeper than a few inches when ground balanced correctly for the soil conditions. I was digging large cents buttons and silver at 7" inches last fall with the XLT and the 9.5 coil. You may want to try the beach/jewelry mode, then coin/jewelry mode over the same areas. Crank up your AC sensitivity as high as you can while maintaining a nice steady threshold tone. I also recommend using modulation which will give a softer tone on deep targets. Lots of deep targets can be found using pinpoint trigger. If you get a signal that gives a short null as if iron, try to pinpoint it. If it washes out, likely iron if it rises in volume Dig It. VCO comes in handy for this method. Spectrums are still great machines. Good Luck and let us know how it went.

 

[junkhunt]

I know mines a bit dated but I feel like I got a deal picking it up at auction for $80 with rechargeable battery and 3 coils, really 2 the 3rd doesn't have the right connections I found the blue max 800 finds all kinds of things the other standard one misses even though its smaller so that's what ive been using so to the question

I stumbled on a campsite in the woods where I found flat buttons and a piece of a flint lock pistol, the only reason I found it was I dug a few hits that my metal detector ignored one of which was the lock plate from a pistol. I have it set to relic which to my understanding should really accept everything but nails and wire so I'm not sure why it ignored fairly significant targets

also id like to go back and hunt it this weekend and I wanted to know if anybody had any tweaks to the settings so I could maximize depth, generally I don't pick up anything beyond a few inches unless its large like a hubcap or iron pipe and the few hits it did find at this spot seemed to be deeper and with the objects dating to the early 1800's I suspect there may be more buried deeper.

The whites eagle spectrum is a great unit. I have one bought new about 1995 and still working like the day I took it out of the box. At $80 is a bargain by it's self. You could spend much more on a new unit and wouldn't be any better.

Enjoy.

 

[junkhunt]

There is Operators Manual For Whites Eagle listed on E Bay right now.

 

[cudamark]

Looking at the relics you've found at that Native camp, you REALLY need a detector that has a true all-metal capability but unfortunately the Eagle does not.
Years ago when my buddy's 6000 Di died, he had to use the Eagle as a back-up at sites like yours but ended up frustrated as there is NO all-metal setting.
It cherry-picked a few round things like flat buttons but is not good for relic hunting.
I have a lot of other stories about it but do not want to appear like I'm bashing your detector.
After all, it has found you some cool things thus far!
Happy Hunting.

Just like Tom, I was scratching my head on that one too. Even it's predecessor the Eagle 2 SL 90, (which I have thousands of hours on) has full notch discrimination where you could accept or reject any one or group of numbers from -95 to +95.