What detector is the best performer in old iron infested sites?

[relic lover]

OK here is the deal, I hunt only pre-1900 cellar holes with my beloved Ace 250 and full complement of coils. All of my sites have iron thick areas that have good potential for coins but I am not finding any in iron not even with my sniper coil. Is there a detector that blows the ace out of the water in these areas that would make my old sites new again? I will keep my ace even if I upgrade. (PS I don't have time to dig all the iron as I am a weekend warrior who has time for only short hunts. AKA Cherry picker)

 

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[Tom_in_CA]

Yes, the Ace 250, from what I've seen, would be a poor performer in iron-riddled sites. It's not good at target averaging & separation, IMHO. A better machine would be any of a variety of 2-filter machines, especially of the Tesoro lineup: Sabre, Bandido, Shadow X2, etc.... Also Whites Classic's would work. When you set these to *just* knock out small iron, they will indeed get a conductive hit on a coin under, or with, a nail or two at a time. They are weak on larger iron (cast-iron, RR-spike sized stuff, etc...) but you can guess around with the tones if you want, and pass those if need be.

And if things get really bad (4 or 5 nails covering each coin), reach for an old Compass 77b. However, they are a bear to keep balanced, and don't go as deep.

 

[thompy]

i think the fisher f-75-70-f-5 and teknetics T-2 are the fastest for target recovery speed, they can sound like a machine gun swinging over nail infested sites, the processor just responds no thinking

 

[pro778]

I used an Ace250 for a long time and love it. I've made some great finds with it. I hunt mostly old sites loaded with nails and iron. I have the full set of coils also. In my hands I think it can hunt with almost any detector out there. So when I upgraded I went to the E-Trac. I've made some great finds, with the E-Trac, on sites we've hunted hard. It will pull more out. But when your talking about old coins and relics, I think it's worth it. Are you going to pull 10 times the stuff you find with the ACE, no way, but it will find more then the Ace. I think it's the best detector out there now. It's hard to use at nail infested sites. I've had it for nine months and am just really starting to learn it and I use it at least 20 hours a week.

 

[savant365]

What I do if I just want to cherry pick for silver coins is notch out everthing below the 10 cent icon and set my sensitivity on 6 or even 7 notches. It will still pick up pre '82 pennies and it will sing out good and strong on silver.

 

[LuckyLarry]

Tom is right on target, but I would opt for the Compass CoinScanner Pro over the 77b. Mostly because the newer circuitry provides greater depth.

LL

 

[gary in idaho]

The Compass 77-B is hard to beat if there is a lot of iron nails or small iron trash.

 

[Treasure finder]

Those older Compass detectors such as the 94B and the 77B were running at 100 Khz and that
is why they tended to ignore nails and other iron trash. The newer Compass's such as the
Scanner Series, (Coin Scanner, Gold Scanner etc.) were running at 13.77 Khz and could easily
pick up iron in all metal and easily discriminate it in Discriminate, but I believe the see through
ability in the older TRs such as the 94 and 77 (I believer there was a 99 also) was the best
and they had real good depth, but you did have to hold them at a constant height above the
ground. Lower frequencies such as 1.875 Khz in the old Whites GEB's or 4.5 Khz in the Fisher
440 series were much better at picking up iron and so they made better relic detectors. So
operating frequency is the key.
Good luck,
Rich

 

[extractor]

What I do if I just want to cherry pick for silver coins is notch out everthing below the 10 cent icon and set my sensitivity on 6 or even 7 notches. It will still pick up pre '82 pennies and it will sing out good and strong on silver.

Good tip! Thanks I'll give it a try.

 

[Goes4ever]

ever since I switched coils on my minelab x-70 to the 3khz coil, my silver and copper coin count has doubled, and I hunt old homes 90% of the time, if you swing slow and listen you will pull them coins out along all the iron. I think the 3khz is the real key to my silver finds doubling, it gets more depth on coins for sure

 

[Sandman]

Because the older Compass detectors are hard to find, I would think a Sov GT would fit the ticket.