Need some direction with the Whites V3i

Gebular · Feb 22, 2013

Need some direction with the White's V3i

Hi everyone. I've been a member here for a while just mostly a reader.
I bought a v3i in the fall and just moved into a 107 year old homestead on 5 acres with 5 outbuildings including the original outhouse.
It's been in my fiances family since the day it was built and I know it's never been hunted before.
I've read countless threads and tried tons of different settings on my v3i. I'm on the west coast of Washington State in the soggiest
area of the state called "Grays Harbor".
I'm wondering if the wet soft ground here has something to do with me not finding anything? I mean, this place is old and has a ton of history.
It was once a strawberry farm with Japanese immigrant workers.
It's frustrating because I was sure I'd find SOMETHING. But haven't found anything besides pennies from the 1970's about 2-3 inches down and a lot of junk.
Any suggestions? I'm using the stock D2 coil and my settings right now are as follows-
Disc-90
5Hz Band Pass Filter
Modulation = OFF
Rx Gain-10
3 Frequency Mode
And I'm using a nice slow 3 second swing or so.
I really appreciate any ideas or direction anyone may have for me.

Twinkletoes · Feb 22, 2013

I'm a Whites guy but I don't know anything about the V3i. With that said, you should be finding "good stuff" with the preset coin settings. I am sure they a sufficiently good for you to recover 80% of whatever's there.
Keep in mind that 75% of the good targets will be on only 25% of the property. I just finished an old homesite. The first time I went there I spent 2 hours and found 3 coins. Luckily, one was a wheat penny because that encouraged me to press on. Turns out that my initial assessment of the property was wrong. But by working the areas where I did find coins I was able to collect over 150 of them, mostly clustered in 4 separate areas a few hundred feet square. Good luck with your property, it sounds great! H Digs

McKinney_5900 · Feb 22, 2013

What coil are you using?

Gebular · Feb 22, 2013

Thanks Twinkle for the words of encouragement. There is a lot of area here! I've been focusing on what I think should be the best areas but I suppose I could re-assess it and try something else.
And to McKinney- I'm using the factory D2 coil.

Digging Deeper · Feb 23, 2013

How trashy is the property? I have been working a site with the D2, then when I get an area with a lot of hits I like to put the 5.3 coil on. It isn't as deep but I have better luck pulling coins with it. It also seems to slow me down and I think I am more meticulous with the small coil. I don't know, I've been using the V3I for a couple of months and think it has been good to me. I agree with Frank's post above. What mode are you searching in. I like coin and jewelry, but I am trying multi pro more now, it sure is noisier but I am picking up things I missed in coin/jewelry mode. Good luck

a day without pull tabs is like a day without sunshine.

Frankn · Feb 23, 2013

On the next V3 version, Whites switched back to concentric coils because of so many complaints about pinpointing with the DD. Frank

I heard they also switched some of the older V3 versions free.

Mortamus · Feb 23, 2013

Indeed You have the wrong coil on
Use the 6x10 and the 4x6
Go slow use the C&J program
You can run the 4x6 hot 8-)

Gebular · Feb 23, 2013

Thanks everyone. I've been considering the 6x10 because I read a lot of good things about it. That just kind of confirms it for me.
So does anyone think that the soil here could be too soft to find anything old? Is it possible the coins could have sunken too far
for me to pick them up?

Mortamus · Feb 23, 2013

Gebular said:
Thanks everyone. I've been considering the 6x10 because I read a lot of good things about it. That just kind of confirms it for me.
So does anyone think that the soil here could be too soft to find anything old? Is it possible the coins could have sunken too far
for me to pick them up?

No
Ground balance is so important
Also you need to get on the Whites forums and research research research
And get out and play with it....

RobRieman · Feb 25, 2013

Bury several coins and tabs and junk in your yard and learn the detector. The V3i is a sweet machine. You will learn what each of the settings will do for you in your own test garden and how deep it will go. Then you just have to adjust for poor soil or EMI if you run into it in the field.

U.K. Brian · Feb 28, 2013

If you follow the instructions you can't get the ground balance wrong. The inbuilt programmes are fairly poor though and I would not use either Coin or Coin and Jewelry as there's to much trash rejection. With your present settings or just using Preset programmes the scan from the coil will be so tight that you will need to sweep dead over the centre of any deeper target.
You should also consider the ground conditions that the G.B. control can't deal with successfully ie wet farmland that has been highly fertilised in the past. Try "Salt Compensate". Also accept down into ferrous perhaps to -20 so that your accepting from minus 20 to plus 95. Try increasing the Band Pass to 10 or 12.5 Hz (5 Hz is for very low ground minerals !).

The V3i is still sold with the 10" DD as its stock coil. It pinpoints fine (they advertise it as one of the best pinpointing DD coils). There were problems with the original V3 DD's but if you have a true V3i, not an upgraded model, then you should be O.K.

Gebular · Mar 2, 2013

Hi all. Just an update. I buried a silver quarter at exactly 6" in my yard and wasn't able to pick it up in any of the stock programs or any of my custom ones. I immediately knew I
had a problem. I read a lot of threads and read about the hard reset. There was mixed opinions on it and a lot of people say it worked for them while a lot said it doesn't do anything on the v3i.
With nothing to lose, I went ahead and tried it and was instantly able to air test at 12+". The next day I went out and the quarter I buried sounds off like music
I have since had a couple hours hunting and found 3 wheat pennies. I'm just getting started but whatever the hard reset did, it worked. Just wanted to let you all know and thank you
for all of your help!