F75 and Virginia Hot Dirt - Advice Requested

I've got the opportunity to hunt a couple of days in Virginia next month, and I understand most of the places we will be hunting is in the famous Virginia hot dirt. I have two metal detectors, the F-75 camo model with boost, and the F-19. I understand these are not the first detectors of choice, but my pocketbook simply does not make buying a detector for a couple of days of relic hunting an option. So, I'll do the best I can with what I have. I'd appreciate any advice any of you are willing to offer about techniques and tips for using either detector in hot dirt. Thank you in advance!

I used the F-19 quite a bit at DIV last week, and it did well. Hunted in all metal, sometimes ground balancing every few feet. You'll quickly learn what's a good signal and what's not. If it doesn't show on the speedometer, dig it for sure, because it's deep. If the signal moves on you when you pinpoint it, it's iron. Nails make a different sound than good targets. You'll figure that out in just a few targets.

You will only be able to hack it with the F75 if you run it with boost mode OFF and in motion all metal mode. You will still have to ground balance every few feet and if you are talking ground like in Culpeper, VA, you will also encounter hotrocks that will give sort of a "boing" sound on the F75. You wont be able to trust your ID at all. I dug close to 100 drop minies with mine and a breast plate, and approx 50 buttons on my first trip up there back in 2009 or so. I had the regular F75 and ran it in all metal mode....and nearly every thing I dug, read as iron in the ground...including the breast plate. A good tip is when hunting, when you get a signal...circle the target by going 90 degrees to it and sweeping it. If it ever gives a rapid double beep....it's probably a nail. That will help you eliminate some of those; other wise, prepare to dig a lot of holes. Pulse machines work so much better in that soil; to the point that they aren't even in the same ball park.

A couple years ago I went up there with my GPX as primary unit, and the F19 as a unit to hunt the very heavy iron laden sites. I only had the stock coil with the F19...and I would really like to have seen what it could have done with a different coil on it. I didn't get much depth out of the F19 there with the stock coil. I did dig a few relics out of the iron though but nothing seemed like it was more than a few inches deep when I did it...and everything I had dug around those things had been deeper. So I FIGURE I walked over stuff that was just out of reach of the stock coil on the F19.

Shenandoah Digger and Daniel TN, thank you both for the advice. It gives me a solid starting point, and is much appreciated. Will post after the hunt and let you know how it went