Using all metal mode on your detector?

[Monty]

I asked a question about the all metal mode on my BH Land Ranger a while back and got some answers but not really to my satisfaction. The "Ask a Pro"section on the BH website said to ask the technical people. Seems like most just don't know what the all metal mode is for and what it's good for. It has its shortcomings to be sure. First when in all metal mode the other indicatirs on mh machine stop working, IE: depth, range and metal grid criteria. So, you're just digging in the blind and it would be really easy tor the signal to be masked. I have learned from playing and experimenting with my machine that the all metal mode will indeed pick up all metals! I got so many signals from it in just one small area I became thoroughly confused in short order. The tone strengtkh seems to be proportionate to the size of the object. The tones sound just the same but only louder with a large object such as a smashed beer can. Benefits are that kyou won't miss anything. Every metalic objectwill emit a tone. I made six digs and found a smashed beer canand five nails, all very near the surface. I did not go back and rerun the sig site to see if something was deeper although I should have. I had a couple of dry holes but on going back over them with the preset modes I foundthe depth was off the scale, the signal was considerably weaker and was in the pull tab range. I did not have the right equipment to dig down over a foot. So, it looks like to me that if you wanted to use the all meal features you would have to spend an inordinate amount of time, very carefully grid the property and be prepared to do some heavy duty earth moving. Also, I think you woudl probably find that elusive silver if it were present. I don't know if I am prepared to dig a 2'hole for a silver dime.

 

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[1320]

I'm with you on a lot of these issues. Oh the advertising about a machine that will pull a dime from 12 inches....heck, where I live, you don't wanna dig 12 inches. Not to mention, clay keeps the coins from falling much farther than 6 inces.

All metal mode works for me when searching woods, big open fields or other areas that are nearly trash free. I use it when I'm "blind" searching. When I narrow an area down, I switch back over to disc mode. All metal on my machine is "no motion" which I like when I get tired of swinging. All metal has but a few advantages. I think for the most part, all metal remains as just another item to add to the list when advertising. Seems like the manufacturers compete with each other on how many bullet points they can list on each machine.

If you hunt in all metal mode in the areas I hunt, better bring a back hoe and/or bull dozer.

 

[Monty]

I got interested in md back in the 60's when my dad had a cheap radio shack detector. It was an all metal unit as I recall, no icons, guages, etc, you just dug noise. It's kinda' a retro thing as I see it.

 

[Jim Cal]

Jimmileo, I usually use some amount of discirimination since almost every site these days seems to be littered with trash targets. I do however sometimes get to hunt a site that is pristine and hasn't been junked up. In these cases I want to dig everything. Or if you are relic hunting, whether for old farm items or civil war relics, you would not want to use any discrimination since many of the valuable buttons and other objects would be discriminated out. This is a really hard question to answer adequately because there are so many variables but the older the site and/or the cleaner the site you probably want to consider the all metal mode. One of the reasons I like hunting really old houses that are still occupied and have been kept very nice is because the folks living there were not out throwing pull tabs and pop tops all over the place and it allows me to hunt with little or no discrimination and find old silver coins, jewelry, and misc. objects. Good luck! Jim Cal

 

[treasurekidd]

I have a Garrett ACE250 which I use primarily in parks, ball fields and schools for coin shooting. I use it mostly in coin mode, which does a great job of finding coins and NOT finding trash. This weekend however, I am going to be searching some woods on my friends property that was a colonial era farm from the late 1600s to the early or mid 1800s, and I plan on hunting in all metal mode and digging everything, at least to start. I may switch over to custom mode and discriminate out everything in the nickel/aluminum range if we start finding lots of trash, but seeing as how the site is so old, and has been wooded for the last 150 years or so, we don;t expect to find much aluminum. So I guess its a tradeoff and depends mainly on what you think you will find at any given site. Colonial era farms, all metal and dig everythng. An elementary school yard, discriminate the trash and find the coins!!

 

[stoney56]

All I can say is that all metal mode has it's uses but in some areas, but you may waht to refrain as by the time you get done, it may look like a roto-tiller had come through.

 

[Monty]

In my limited experience I have found that to operate in all metal mode it is very important to plot out my search area into very small sections and go at it one section at a time. My detector has the ability to discriminate out iron in four different modes and I found that if I discriminate the first two I don't have to dig a foot to find just a darn nail.

 

[Monty]

Since making the original post I have gained a considerable bit of knowledge in using my detector. I can use the all meal "smart mode" on my BH Land Ranger to pinpoint although it will falsly identify a target if a larger masking target is nearby. The all metal mode is also very desirable when seeking artifacts as they may be made of iron or steel and not just non-magnetic or precious metals. I also have used it to seperate out a single target when I am getting a couple of dissimilar tones on a site in close proximity. Does this make sense? It's not a mode I use a lot but it does have it's uses. Thanks for the input from all.

 

[Floater]

Jimmelo Your last post was the correct use of all metal mode. besides what has already been stated about hunting relics.I disagree with Minelab about it becoming obsolete though because if you think about it this is the bases for the metal detector and then discrimination works itself from this point.In other words it is still always present in the circuitry as we know it. Wether a switch is there or not to set the function is neither here nor there.I, like minelab1000 use the Excalibur and in the really trashy areas I use a lot of disc. but once I have cleaned an area of junk and good stuff I go back with no disc all metal and dig it all. Sometimes i get lucky sometimes just trash but I know when im done that I have probably pentrated the soil a good 12 -18 inches and found 90% or better of whats there. I guess the final thing is that I use my all metal mode or no disc all the time for these uses so to me I wouldn't have a machine w/out it.HH

 

[Born2Dtect]

Whites IDX Pro manual says to use all metal mode when pinpointing or when looking for all types of metal especially iron/ steel items.
I have found in practical situations that the pinpointing is not always better nor is hunting in the all metal mode practical as I get a lot of readings. I don,t use it much but, it may be OK for some pinpointing and for use in a fields that are clear of trash. Sometimes I try it when I have gone a while without any sounds. But not very often.

Ed Donovan