NEW ARTICLE ON HOME-PAGE

I've written a new article.......and it is now posted on the home web-page ..... titled: "When ADJUSTABLE iron discrimination is paramount".

I thought when I got my college degree............homework was a thing of the past............lol

Thanks Tom

Very timely article for me Tom. I'm hitting a very iron rich site dating back to the 1600's tommorow and I will definitely test it out. We've found some nice confederate relics in this site in the past but you cannot swing in the relic rich areas without multiple iron readings. Original Virginia Tobacco plantation and apparently a confederate calvary Militia hangout near the Rappahanock River. We've dug NC state buttons and a 1820's style militia silver plated breast plate. Maybe with your hard work and advice I'll hit the mother load in this very difficult to hunt ground with 360 years of agricultural iron inudating every swing step.

But Professor Dankowski, I just finished watching your DVD a few days ago, and now this? This better not be on the final exam or I am dropping this course.


JK

There's a silver-lining in the cloudy dirt......if you stay the course.

If it were TOO easy.............................x...x...x...x...x...

I can't speak for you guys, but learning more about iron and detecting has improved my detecting TREMENDOUSLY , and has opened my eyes to things I did not know existed !!.....Toms Masking article is one of the best articles I have EVER read on masking issues of iron .......Keep em comin Tom !!......Thanks, Jim

Thanks for the very helpful article!

Hi Tom.
I read your article and agree with you on the site specific adjustments ....... Something I have noticed with various machines and how they handle iron in the area's where I hunt .....Again this is machine specific ......A lot of the readings , ( OR NON READINGS ) depends on how the iron lays near the good targets ......Side by side , a lot of dtectors will read each target individually .......What DOES change in a MAJOR way is if the nail is above the good target , or below the good target ..... Another major difference is whether or not the nail is touching the good target or not ....... and then sometimes depending on how your discrimination is set , you might not even hear the target at all !!!......Complete masking !!!..... I've witnessed this before , and it is machine specific ......My partner hit a target that was a Silver Barber dime that read loud and proud and even ID's well with his ETrac .......My Sovereign could not even hit it !!....I tried for 20 minutes trying to hit that target form EVERY direction and every speed, and every machine adjustment , and just could not hit it ..... Which brings me to one of the statements that you made in one of your articles .....How can you find a target if you can't even hear it !! .....( don't hold to this word for word ) .....For all of the above reasons , if I am either getting a strange tone, or a strange ID # on ANY machine that I use , I will dig the target !!....You just never know !!..... Jim



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/15/2011 02:09PM by synthnut.

All that iron and then add water. Real ugly.
Thanks Tom D

Hello everyone, I am new to metal detecting and I was looking for help on deciding on a new metal detector all I have ever done so far is coin hunting at the football field where I work. I work maintenance for a school district. I was looking at Tesoro Lobo Supertrac or the Whites MXT, also do any of y'all know anything about the XP Deus. Thanks for any help you can give me. Oh yea the detector I have know is the Cibola.

A good used (so as to save some money) CZ-3D will serve you well. It is a good coin, jewelry, cache and relic hunter.....as long as there is not excessive amounts of nails ... in your primary hunting sites.

Thanks Tom,

3 indians, 1 <1853> seated liberty 1/4, 3 military flat buttons, 3 civilian flats,2 .45 cal pistol balls,rosette, complete harmonia w/alot of wood,1880's center fire cart., misc. brass and lead.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/17/2011 05:10AM by jamt225.

if ANY of you are having a hard time opening the high resolution photos in this newest article........just holler.

Good read and info Tom......

Thanks

Keith

You are welcome.

I do wish for more folks to read this specific article.................or..............at minimum....................look at the objects in the photos. There is a lot of 'unsuspecting' educational data in those photos.........by no accident!

Exceptional article Tom! As always!!! Thanks!!!

Tom,
After reading the article and thinking about the implications of the photos it occurs to me that the finer iron adjustments on the AT Pro may help me at a few of my nail pits. I am
on my second one but haven't been able to get out much because of the ice and snow. If decaying iron can adhere to silver I can see how much it can affect target with copper and its alloys. Depending on the other minerals in the soil besides iron, the oxidation of the alloys must help the surrounding iron to attach or affect the target. With so much decaying iron at some of these sites is the best we can do is ground balance to a " relatively clean area", tune to the best frequency and adjust iron discrimination to a minimum and dig all target that exceed the iron discrimination level? Or is there any tweaking that can be done with our ground balance?

Thanks for the thought provoking info,

Dalpal

I performed this exact type of testing about 13 years ago. One area posed rusted nails. Another area posed virtually no 'solid' iron; rather, a infinite supply of tiny rust flakes. In both cases....... I tried to "Grnd Bal" out the iron.....then the....... rust flakes. NO JOY. I tried to perform this with the most modern (and technologically advanced) units of current time.......and still............no joy. I could change the way iron would 'false'.......and I could change the 'sensitivity' to both types of iron via the Grnd Bal adjustment.....BUT........masking was (and still) remains completely unaltered. Mother nature (physics principles) regarding electromagnetic energy eminating (from the coil) ........ will still be attenuated the exact same amount.....regardless of any control-box setting(s).

When a nail becomes 'fused' to a coin............this is MUCH preferred over a nail in extreme close proximity to a coin. When the combo is 'fused' as 'one'....(electrically connected).......you WILL ascertain a cumulative composite of the entire mass. When there is any form of distancing/separation between the two..... the mass (and sharp ends) of the nail will dominate a iron ID; subsequently, the good target remains masked......and.............undug. No joy.

There still lies the misnomer IRT the definition of "Iron Discrimination". Folks still think that when iron is Disc'd out.........you no longer hear the iron, the detector also.... no longer sees the iron........and now......the detector only sees all of the non-ferrous targets,,,AND,,,,iron no longer 'masks' the non-ferrous targets. This is FAR from the truth. With current technology...AND rules of physics.....iron will ALWAYS IRREFUTABLY mask targets.

Tom

I'm really beginning to form a love/hate relationship with iron because of you guys. It's good there are still good readings in the ground because of it. But now that I know what I'm missing because of iron it's really frustrating. Ignorance is bliss.

From past post and experience I am assuming the smaller coil is the best for these high iron sites except for loss of depth. Is this correct or am I still confused?

1. Small coil

2. Dry ground conditions

3. Dig all erratic readings

Are these proper conclusions?

I used to find many good readings (in less time) in trashy iron sites with my Tesoro Golden umax by maxing out discrimination and just digging good strong readings. I've noticed I find more smaller non-ferrous readings with the LTD and the many tuning adjustments, but I wonder if use of both machines in a high iron site might yield more VALUABLE finds, versus just the LTD and over anylyzing every small target withthe extreme sensitivity of and processing of the LTD. Cherry pic the good readings so to speak then go look for the needles in a hay stack. I don't really have any scientific experiment head to head I can present just a gut feeling. Another part (for me) of finding more good stuff is doing it in less time.

Appreciate your thoughts.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/20/2011 08:52PM by jamt225.

You are correct on all three counts.

........IF the area you hunt is a high-producing area........but is heavily littered with iron.......you may wish to experiment with less-than-textbook-perfect cherry-picking signals. If the area has TOO much modern trash...... your intent will soon 'alter'.