F75SE and All Metal mode

Yesterday morning, me and an old school Civil War relic hunter (he has worn out a Fisher 1266 and 1270, but not literally) took our identical F75SE's on a hunt that took us to a large stretch of woods at connects to Shiloh Park. We both have written permission to hunt this property. Since there was no metal in the ground, other than the occasional 22 bullet (one was at 8 inches approx!) and old shotgun hulls, I decided to do something that I have never done at any site. And that is to hunt in All Metal Mode. I used -2 Threshold and a +2 tone and manually ground balanced. But before doing all of that on the right side of the control panel, I placed the unit in Boost Process.
After getting my settings right, or what I thought was right, I manually ground balanced until I was getting an even tone going both ways while raising and lowering the coil. This unit is surprisingly sensitive to targets (and non targets) when in this mode! I noticed that when walking and using my shovel as a walking stick. Everytime the shovel was in front of me, or even beside me in mid-stride, the unit would pick it up. And, of course, I would think that it detected something in the ground and I would spend a moment circling the spot until I realized that the F75 was picking up my shovel AND my snake boots (I assume that the arch is metal). But it took me a while to realize what was happening so I spent alot of time focusing on pieces of ground hwere the detector signaled metal and I would circle and swing and switch to DISC mode etc etc. Well, I finally got that sorted out and extended the unit's rod to the max where I could keep the coil further out in front. But the all metal mode didn't let me down. One of the Minie bullets was just out of range of the DISC mode in 2 tone, but in all metal mode, it would sound off clearly. The bullet was probably around 8 inches into the dirt after the leaf litter was scraped away. the ground there is yellow/red and seemed to be very mineralized.
This was my first chance to get to use the All Metal Mode, but certainly will not be my last. I guess that I had it stuck in my head that All Metal was just too difficult to sort out in my head, when actually, with good settings, it is actually easier on the ears than listening to all of that chirping and falsing coming from the DISC mode. I had the sensitivity at 99. I was about 50 yards from a power-line.
Anyway, I came away with a few finds. My partner found a 36 cal pistol bullet but is warming up to the F75SE.



According to a couple of other detectorists, the button in the pic is possibly a Kepi cuff button, which will be my first one of those, and a nice addition to my growing collection of CW artifacts from my area. Just knowing, when pulling a bullet from the gound, that I might very well be the first person touching that bullet since the soldier was holding it, and trying to get it started in the muzzle, in the heat of battle, is just amazing.
And a special word of thanks to my hunting partner for taking me with him to one of his sites. He's a great guy to hunt with and, until we ran out of bottled water, we had a blast! Just sitting on a fallen log, talking, being glad that we could hunt and enjoy the cool morning. Thanks for looking.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 08/20/2012 06:57PM by Kevin B.

Great finds Kevin.
Keith will know for sure, I don't see how something that deep, in that area, couldn't be C.W. era, especially how old it is.
I'm betting it is.

Very nice finds Kevin. I always use motion all metal when hunting in woods or fields, boost process, 0 theshold, 0 tone pitch, 90 or less sens depending on ground mineralization. If I get into a "carpet of nails" I may switch to disc mode, 7 disc, 2 tone, 80 sens, bp....seems to work pretty well for me anyway. The 5" DD is the way to go if you know the spot is full of trash and nails. Seems funny to hear the 1266 and 1270 called "old school", I started relic hunting in 1978 with a Fisher VLF 441, no disc at all, dug a lot of deep nails and a lot nice relics back then. Happy Hunting!

Barry

I commend you for hunting in all metal , it is deep and when you find those round signals dig em, that how i dug with the GT & Wot coil to get the best depth ,

Thanks for the replies gentlemen!!!!! I appreciate them. My "old school" friend, Gary, is thrilled with the F75SE in all metal. He came to the house the other evening and asked me: "I kept seeing you push the knob on the left, the one that I thought that you could only turn". You F75 guys know that he was referring to the knob on the left of the face plate, under the screen, that we use to change values up or down when we have clicked on Disc, Process, Sensitivity, ect ect. It is also used in manual Ground balance to go up or down as needed. I know that y'all already know this, but he was wondering why (he thought) that I kept adjusting , when in reality, I was switching between DISC Mode and All Metal Mode. I would switch to Disc Mode when I hit a good target in All Metal Mode and see what kind of reading it was giving me, if any (if it was too deep in that bad ground).
One thing I have noticed on the F75SE....that knob is easy to push all the way down to where you cannot click it.....I mean... it gets pushed all the way down to where it touches the face plate from repeated clickings, or by pushing too hard. Then, there is no room left for it to be pushed down to activate the adjustment phase. (I am trying to word this properly, I promise...lol). Have any of you F75SE guys noticed this about the left knob: that it can be pushed too far in and then you're not able to click it anymore until you grab it and pull it out about 2 millimeters. Then it will work again. I have been trying to think of a stiff, yet spongy material that I can cut a washer out of that I can put under the knob to keep it from pushing in too far.
But all that stuff aside......I appreciate y'all's nice comments. We had a ton of fun that day and will go back as soon as we see a little rainfall or cooler weather or both.