My Darn Test Garden

Well, I finally have a test garden and I can't believe I never had one before. Many thanks to Tom for helping me see the importance of one. I love being able to practice with my F70 and see the differences between settings and coils. My 8" silver dime, however, is a heartbreaker. I have long suspected my max depth here in Illinois was around the 8" mark because of my lack of deeper finds. I can get a great audio hit on the 8" dime with a few of the settings but the ID is consistently in the iron range. Usually "10" or less and there is just no way in real world hunting that I would ever dig something like. Most site just have far to much trash to make it worth while. There does seem to be a distinct audio to it in the 1F setting but for trashy parks, fairgrounds and yard I don't know if I will be able to make the correct call by sound alone.

LGC did you clean your test garden before planting coins.
If its new the coins might need to sit there for a bit.
At least you know what your up against.

A 'sanitized' test-garden is paramount. NO tiny flecks of (undetectable) rust allowed.
Around the Chicago area......I know what you are saying to be correspondingly/exactly true. At approx 8" (or deeper)......targets will ID as 'iron'. If you have the opportunity to try a Explorer/E-Trac..........see if you have differing results. Do NOT take anyone elses word for it; rather, try it for your self......and on the exact same target. (That's one of the blessings of a standardized test-garden).

Which coil are you using on the F70? What is the ground phase reading in your test garden and how many bars are showing on the FE3O4 meter? I find the 11" DD will ID targets a bit deeper before they drop down to iron.

Tommy C.
(southernexplorer)
Deus - Etrac - GPX 5000

I think Tom's suggestion of trying an Explorer or E-Trac on you 8" dime is spot on.I believe it will be a real eye opener so to speak.The reason I say this is that our soil in southern MO is quite similar to your soil and conditions.The mentioned machines will ID a silver dime solid at 8" and most times sound is unmistakable at 9".

I use the 11"DD coil on the F70 almost exclusively. My test garden soil GB's at 55 and I have zero bars on the dirt graph. Occasionally I have hunted with someone who claims to excel with his Etrac. Next time I run into him I will try to talk him into trying my test garden. I am in the southern part of Illinois.