Minelab Vs. DFX Real World

[Kas]

I will agree that you may be able to find bigger objects at depth with a 12" coil. I don't think you'll find coins at 16", even with a 12" coil. But for relics of some size I'd say it may be so.

 

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[MonkeyBoy]

I will agree that you may be able to find bigger objects at depth with a 12" coil. I don't think you'll find coins at 16", even with a 12" coil. But for relics of some size I'd say it may be so.

Good enough.. I never said anything about coins.. that started from someone else... so it was never part of the equation... and I read"that you maybe able" to find bigger objects... as YOU DO find... ;-) since that has been stated clearly.. and validated by enough people...
SO.. all that is left is to shoot some video!!! and we are good to go....

boy.. I wish I had never started this topic.. should have just bough an SE and done it myself.. next time!!

MonkeyBoy

 

[Digger]

If any Minelab Exp II or SE owner ever makes it to Dodge City Kansas I've got the perfect place for putting it to the test.

Our city park sits along side the Arkansas River which had a history of flooding every 20-30 years. Each flood deposited any where for 3-6" of mud making date layers. I've been over this park may times with my DFX and have pretty much cleaned out anything above 7". I still dig lots of coins down to 10" and even detect some down to 12", but I won't dig below 10" from fear of permanently damaging the grass.

Most of the coins I dig from 8-10" are iffy at best on my DFX. I'd like to see if the ML's can ID them better. This park has been in use as a park since 1883, so there is more older coins left than has been recovered. Some areas, like near the band shell, I've dug coins from the 1800's at only 7-8" while other areas I dig 8-9" just to get coins from the 1940's.

I'm still debating on buying my own SE just to test it myself, but I'm just not convinced that the SE would live up to the hype. Also, since I've set my limit at 10" and my DFX does that fine, would the SE find more targets within that 10" limit that my DFX missed? If not it would only be an expensive disappointment.

Technically the SE has what it would take to out perform the DFX, but thats not what I'm hearing from the field. I have no doubt the SE goes deeper, by how much has yet to be shown, but since my DFX goes as deep as I plan to dig, the SE would need to be really good at finding stuff above 10" my DFX missed.

 

[Kas]

The reason you may find deeper clad is the sink rate of the ground. Nice loamy soil will allow coins to sink faster than a coin dropped on packed down earth or roadway.

Know your dirt.

 

[Digger]

The reason you may find deeper clad is the sink rate of the ground. Nice loamy soil will allow coins to sink faster than a coin dropped on packed down earth or roadway.

That and working of the soil such as rototiller.

We are hunting a site right now, an old school playground, where I have found clad at 5" and a 1943 mercury dime virtually on top the ground.

 

[DFX-SE Gregg]

The reason you may find deeper clad is the sink rate of the ground. Nice loamy soil will allow coins to sink faster than a coin dropped on packed down earth or roadway.

That and working of the soil such as rototiller.

We are hunting a site right now, an old school playground, where I have found clad at 5" and a 1943 mercury dime virtually on top the ground.

Digger you may become the master of videos...but you will have to include the animals again...the first time I watched the video I completely ignored what you were doing and was just looking at the dog on the couch and under the table...it was fun convincing my wife it was a baby bear on the couch..oh and an owl under the table!

 

[RaptorSE]

Hey Monkeyboy, let us know if you are planning on doing a "video" proof session for
airtests anytime soon.

I saw you said you were planning to, but if not anytime soon, I will attempt it !!

Ive heard all me can stands, and me cant stands no more !

My only question is, after videos are shown, proving at least air testing (of all things ).... then
what ? Absolutely nothing, most likely.

 

[MonkeyBoy]

Hey Monkeyboy, let us know if you are planning on doing a "video" proof session for
airtests anytime soon.

I saw you said you were planning to, but if not anytime soon, I will attempt it !!

Ive heard all me can stands, and me cant stands no more !

My only question is, after videos are shown, proving at least air testing (of all things ).... then
what ? Absolutely nothing, most likely.

Raptor686,

I am going to.. but you should too!! The more the better! My problem is time and equipment, I lost the freaking SD card for one of my cameras that shoots MPEG-4.. I'm not setup to dump video off my sony handycam anymore and the only other option I have would be shooting it in infrared.. sooo.. I'm trying to bum a camera from a friend.. of I'll have to wait till I get a new SD card this week..

soo... shoot away!!!

MonkeyBoy

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Now this could be fun, but we ought to be consistant.

How about we set up a similar test "bench" for all. I am looking at an empty copier paper box and it has an open area 17.5" deep and 8.5" wide. If we all rest/affix our coils on one end and draw 1" increments of where the coins are "waved" (we'll assume fairness) then we have at least a slight standard. We can secure the detector and concentrate on the coin manipulation. Being REALLY efficient we could all cut slots in the box and tape the coins to cardboard to guarantee they moved in a true parallel plane to the coil face and there was no "bias" in ooching them closer to the coil as they moved. I'm not convinced air tests are worth the medium they are conducted in but at least it's one relative comparison. If a coin is in the air I can see it and don't need a metal detector.

May be a while 'till I get mine worked up. Inside is no good for all the interference and outside is still too d#med cold.

 

[RaptorSE]

I hear that Charlie, I just went outside , pondering a test of video, but its too cold and windy.

I second the motion mentioned earlier - I want to see video of DFXGregg's DFX getting only
6 or so inches in air test. Show your settings on video ! I have a 100.00 Bounty Hunter in
the closet that can do better than that.

On a side note - Maybe someone can answer this for me. I have done airtests before, with a coin
laying flat on a concrete sidewalk surface, with no other metal targets in the area. I balanced to
the ground on the concrete, and airbalanced, and did tests. Is this form of testing a valid airtest ?
I can get amazing distances this way, and I sweep the detecter just like I was using it over a target.

Just curious. It helped me simulate actual sweeping, while the coin stays still and flat. Doing this with Tone ID off, I can get repeating tones on dimes at 11-12"

I like the Paper box idea too. Ill try a setup like that when I get the chance.

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

I've been giving this more thought (a dangerous practice, I know).

How about the detector on a bench/board/whatever, coil perpendicular at 0" line, and a coin flip or just taped to a string to swing as a pendulum with a scale below. That way, one person can set the coin swinging and then get back to photogtaph the results on the VDI. Or run as a film and set the camera then swing the coin.

I guess that wouldn't work as the coin would inevitably spin and start to swing in an ellipse closer on one side farther from the coil on the other unless you hit in on the first few passes.

Hmmm. A three ft. coin pendulum (like a dowel with a slot in the lower end for the coin and a nail at the top for the pivot) and move the detector back as the dowel swings along a fixed plane until it no longer reads solid? I like this one. Once you set the coin going you can stay at the detector display and see the results as you bacy up the coil.

I don't have a DFX but I'm game to put my F-75 results up.

 

[Digger]

I think the video evidence would be great to see, but I don't see that we need to get to complicated. We should all be able to clearly see the difference between 6" and 10" even on a poor video.

What I'd be interested in seeing is how well some other detectors stack up in an air test video. Personally, other than relic hunting and possibility beach hunting, anything over 10" deep stays put for me anyway.

So lets see some videos!

 

[SamN]

I've dug beer cans down 13". Loud and clear. Decrim-says .25cent @8". New DFX owner.

 

[DFX-SE Gregg]

I've dug beer cans down 13". Loud and clear. Decrim-says .25cent @8". New DFX owner.

A trick that usually works well with the dfx... if you are mainly coin shooting...not relic hunting or in a place relics would be found... The beer/pop can always reads as a quarter for me...try raising your coil several inches from the ground if the signal remains oddly strong at that quarter reading it is usually going to be a beer/pop can...good luck with your new machine!

 

[DFX-SE Gregg]

I hear that Charlie, I just went outside , pondering a test of video, but its too cold and windy.

I second the motion mentioned earlier - I want to see video of DFXGregg's DFX getting only
6 or so inches in air test. Show your settings on video ! I have a 100.00 Bounty Hunter in
the closet that can do better than that.

On a side note - Maybe someone can answer this for me. I have done airtests before, with a coin
laying flat on a concrete sidewalk surface, with no other metal targets in the area. I balanced to
the ground on the concrete, and airbalanced, and did tests. Is this form of testing a valid airtest ?
I can get amazing distances this way, and I sweep the detecter just like I was using it over a target.

Just curious. It helped me simulate actual sweeping, while the coin stays still and flat. Doing this with Tone ID off, I can get repeating tones on dimes at 11-12"

I like the Paper box idea too. Ill try a setup like that when I get the chance.

My dfx air tests out at 8 inches...do not thing you need a video for that....

 

[Monty]

Man this is intense! I believe in the halo effect 100%. I don't know how many times I have got a good solid silver signal and when I dug it, it turned out to be a rusty nail. And I could see the soil around the nail had turned a rusty red color. And I have once...repeat , once dug a silver dime at 9" with my ACE 250 and the standard coil. Now , I am not about to go claiming my little ACE will consistently pick up coins at 9" but I am sure that if the conditions are just right about any decent detector can pick up good targets at that depth. I planted some coins at 9" in my coin garden and couldn't pick them up with any of my equipment. Then one day I was messing around with the ACE and put on a larger coil and I'll be darn if I didn't find all those coins. I can't explain it, it just happened. So, Whites DFX or Minelab? Six of one , a half dozen of another just whatever suits your style of hunting best. Monty

 

[MonkeyBoy]

I've dug beer cans down 13". Loud and clear. Decrim-says .25cent @8". New DFX owner.

A trick that usually works well with the dfx... if you are mainly coin shooting...not relic hunting or in a place relics would be found... The beer/pop can always reads as a quarter for me...try raising your coil several inches from the ground if the signal remains oddly strong at that quarter reading it is usually going to be a beer/pop can...good luck with your new machine!

Hold the phone... are you saying that you have had signals DEEPER then 8" or 9" with a DFX? I assume this advice you offer is from your hunting with a DFX.. Just how deep have you dug a beer can? Was it over 9"?

 

[Kas]

Again we're back to the size issue. Bury a manhole cover at two feet and I bet it'll come in loud and clear with a DFX or ML.

The larger the object the deeper it will be detected.

Coins are small, civil war cannon balls are big.

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Again we're back to the size issue. Bury a manhole cover at two feet and I bet it'll come in loud and clear with a DFX or ML.

The larger the object the deeper it will be detected.

Coins are small, civil war cannon balls are big.

I hit a 10" aluminum pie tin at about two feet that I figure had been backfilled into some levelling soil beside an old garden plot. I do believe that's the deepest thing I ever dug! (Good high reading on the VDI, too. "Gonna be a Mason jar of silver!" Not.)

I also know the ball-field lights at the local town park have the wiring buried more than two feet deep between the lightpoles (below our frost line). I can find them EVERY TIME when I work across the outfield.

 

[MonkeyBoy]

Again we're back to the size issue. Bury a manhole cover at two feet and I bet it'll come in loud and clear with a DFX or ML.

The larger the object the deeper it will be detected.

Coins are small, civil war cannon balls are big.

Well.. size does matter... ;-)

Isn't that what we have been talking about all along?? I mean.. that is what I have been saying.. other then being questioned has to how I could possibly know a target was at 16" if the depth reading of the DFX only goes to 13.5".. this is EXACTLY what I have been saying!!! ..and no.. not talking a 1 Gal Paint Can or manhole cover.. we are talking about a couple ounces of lead.. at 14" to 16".. with a 12" coil.. as stated in the opening post.. Not sure what I expected... looking for real world "use cases" here but seems to be more doubt and sarcasm.. I never said boo about coins at all.. at any depth.. that was not the subject of this topic at all.. others brought that to the table.. I go for relics.. the piles of large cents.. IHs.. reales.. etc.. are just "bonus items" too me.. ;-) Then again..there was that 3 cent silver I dug at 23" once... hahahahah ;-) Soo... in the end.. we have:

relics, even with poo-poo VDI readings and broken sounds CAN and ARE dug deep.. with the right conditions REALLY deep..
coins, with the same conditions.. are dug deep..
BUT..

consistent sounding coins with good VDI numbers are usually at the 10" mark or less ..

I'll agree with all of that.. at the end of the day.. all I wanted to know was if anybody was digging deeper relics with a SE then a DFX..

MonkeyBoy