Newbie Question for DFX Users that Relic Hunt

[sniper-medic]

Not sure if this is the correct forum , but here goes. I bought a DFX a few months ago and am getting acquaineted with using it. I have gotten permission to detect a farmers field where supposedly during the civil war, a regiment (Infantry or Cavlary) had camped for awhile. The ground right now has been plowed for the fall and I went out there last week for the first time. I used the pre-programmed mode for relic thinking that would be the best. After an hour of nothing but Whats-It's and square nails, I gave up. Anyone have any suggestions or guidelines about relic hunting, what signals to dog or not to dig.....Thanks a bunch !


Randy

 

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[ResearchandRecovery]

Not sure if this is the correct forum , but here goes. I bought a DFX a few months ago and am getting acquaineted with using it. I have gotten permission to detect a farmers field where supposedly during the civil war, a regiment (Infantry or Cavlary) had camped for awhile. The ground right now has been plowed for the fall and I went out there last week for the first time. I used the pre-programmed mode for relic thinking that would be the best. After an hour of nothing but Whats-It's and square nails, I gave up. Anyone have any suggestions or guidelines about relic hunting, what signals to dog or not to dig.....Thanks a bunch !


Randy

If you're relic hunting, it's best to dig everything in my opinion. But, with the ground being farmland(plowed) it runs the chance of any targets being DEEP!

Try tweaking the preset Relic Program. Try turning up the AC Sens or the Pre Amp Gain a notch or two, just to where the machine is on the edge of it becoming unstable.

-Ian

 

[BuckleBoy]

Another tip...

Since the ground has just been turned, items can read a little funky. Dig everything. And hit the area when the ground is wet.

Also: Do the research behind WHO was supposed to have been there. There are often a lot of rumors floating about in rural areas. With research on your side, you may find out whether there was even a site there in the first place, and if there was, you'll certainly be able to locate the site more quickly. Do you know how a Civil War camp was laid out? Do you know the differences between a Cavalry camp and an Infantry camp? Do you know how long they camped there? If they were there for a week, you're looking in the wrong spot if you didn't find any lead. If they were there only a night, you might have to fine-tune your search area. In other words, if you don't do this research, you might end up empty-handed.

-Buckleboy

 

[brnn53]

if you're finding square nails then that is a good sign. Most camp provisions, etc. were in wooden boxes held together with those nails. Hunt slow and use a smaller coil if iron (nails) is in a large quanity.
Mike

 

[gmstreet]

When your in the relic program, the detector is operating in mixed mode (discriminate-[coil moving] and all metal-[coil not moving]). Discriminate mode is your higher pitch sounds, telling you it's most likely a nonferrous object. The all metal mode is the same as if you pulled the trigger and were pinpointing an object. When I'm operating in this mode I like to turn on the tone ID. This helps me identify better targets from the nails, because the really high pitched tones are normally goods targets. I find Minie Balls usually register between 80 and 92 on the VDI. It gets pretty noisy running in mixed mode with tone ID on. If it gets to bad you could turn off mixed mode, but the whole point of the all metal mode being on as well is to sound off on the iron targets. When your relic hunting you want to dig the iron targets (gun parts, cannon balls, tools, horseshoes ect..) Dig everything. I also turn up the AC sens. and preamp gain.

Good Luck,

Greg