ON THE HORIZON = MDT-8000

For those of whom own/have a MDT...…. you may want to know the following data:
I had a fairly stunning day at the beach (wet-slope) today. In a nutshell...…. I found two gold rings. One man's wedding band (10K). One woman's wedding band(14K). (About 70-yards apart from each other). 12Khz, Black Sand 'off'.....all day today. Sens '9' & Thresh '0'. Both rings were beyond 14" deep. On each ring...… I could drop Sens to '8' and still detect either ring. With Sens '7'..... I would have (probably) missed these rings...… in the wild. BUT (what you need to know is)….. when I increased Thresh to (-1)….. both rings were undetectable.
SEVERAL more targets on the beach today...… presented the exact same resultant.

I'm not sure if I was hunting behind someone today...…. as ……. I did not see any other detectorist. OR...….. because nearly all targets were deep.,.,.,.,., as if to be residing on somewhat of a 'shelf' at approx. 15" deep.

In any regard...…………….. this very distinct multi-repeatable phenomenon is worthy of mention (and documenting).

That’s deeeeep!
It’s 15 above right now, where I’m at, must be nice!
Congrats

With these HIGH and VERY LOW tides we are getting a lot of mounds of sand..... where most of the targets are DEEP. In the water...... just NADA YET.... but if these big waves and North winds keep the long shore drift going South things will move. Its starting to cut some beaches a trough near shore. It took about 3' off a local beach and one of the guys was amazed how few targets were down there. I said wait until it pushes that sand back in ..... CORRELATED. It kind of did that yesterday....... made it a long slope now. There is a lot of changes on the beaches right now..... daily. More so than other times of the year. Great info Tom especially about the Threshold. I prefer to hear a few more pops from the surface mineral...... and NOT miss a deep target.... they are just so obvious in AM. This machine will surprise you as well on a deep target ....... they sure sound closer to the surface than they are. Dead center in the hole and you are still digging lol.

I assume you were using AM Tom? I hunt the same way...... HOT even in the dry sand. In the dry sand i normally can turn OFF the salt setting and run in either 12 or 18khz. Tell you what i dont get as much thou.......when running N to S.... most machines will false a lot crossing those lines of black sand especially on a slopped area.

Well its like 48 this AM......high 69 today. Sweat shirt weather with 20+ MPH winds... lol.

Tom, you did not mention if you checked in any other frequencies? I hunt a lot in 18 kHz thinking I have a better shot at a chain. I also run in AM threshold 0 sensitivity 9. I also run in 9 kHz a lot also. Never run 12 or 6.4.You also did not mention TID. Was it a solid non ferrous + or ferrous - number? Thanks should you have time to answer.

Good hunt and info Tom! I've been so tuned into both 6.4 and 9 kHz I rarely try 12 but with these really good winter morning lows I'll have to give 12kHz a try again. Curious what is your salt setting is at 12KHz if you don't mind me asking.

Cliff

VERY short on time...….but:

All-Metal Mode.
No target did a ID "lock-on"; yet/but...… most numbers were non-ferrous. Some 'burps' of ferrous...….. which is a perfect indicator/tell-tale of a threshold-deep target.
I never deviated from 12Khz.
Salt Balance = 30 (Usually it's '29' for 12Khz...….. but was '30' all day yesterday).
I could see I was in a long trough/cut.
NOTHING (no targets) were found shallow. All targets were deep or extremely deep. (((Makes me wonder: how many targets were even deeper.....and out-of-range))).

Thanks Tom!

I've noticed the deep targets mainly hitting non ferrous numbers (occasionally spurious ferrous numbers) also as a sign of a deeper non-ferrous target. Good to have verification of what I've seen out there.

Cliff

Now im curious about the digital reading at that depth. What ive found is JUNK tends to upscale....... ie a pull tab is normally a 6..... it might jump to a +20ish. Gold not so much. Soi do look carefully at the digits once i find a target. Most of those junk targets OR iron give me that same upscale numbers..... either positive or Neg thrown in there in the 20 range. Yet gold rings seem to maintain they lower digit reading. Ie..... it might give me a digital reading with a lot of jumpy neg but that occasional +5ish. Otherwise most turn out to be iron. Ive gotten nickels like that as well.

I normally dont change my salt setting a lot...... just because you mentioned a GB adjustment might have a less affect on smaller gold. I normally can run 27 in 12khz...... except it can get a bit more chatty at the waters edge going over the coil..... then i make a decission ...... adjust the SB or go to 9khz. In the salt water it seems to me, especially the deeper you go, making much of an adjustment to the higher freqs is about like running 9khz anyway..... theres not a lot if any depth difference. Also knee deep or higher on found targets i seem to get a much better/louder tone. In the wet or damp....... 12 or 18kzh can gain you about an inch and a half on my sand.... if you listen. As far as digits...... run any machine as HOT as you can..... tell me what happens to those digits..... especially on a single digit screen?

I'm scared I am using the TID to my disadvantage. As I said I run 0 threshold 9 sensitivity 18 kHz salt 30 black sand off. All my gold targets have always shown a + TID but depending on depth and other factors jumpy at times but always +. That being said ( here might be my downfall ) I rarely now dig any - TID numbers jumpy or not. I find myself after " listening " to the target looking for the negative or positive symbol and baseing dig or not dig on that.. With that being said, maybe the reason all my gold has shown + even if jumpy is because I have trained myself not to dig the negative symbol. Am I making a huge mistake that deep gold may show up as - ferrous number?

MOST every machine can show deep targets as a Neg digit. The Nox will show a nickel at about 10" as a neg target. But the MDT seems to give us a bit more of a hint that it could be something other than iron. At 12" the MDT still gives us mostly +5 or 6. Another reason when someone tells you they dig everything.... they really arent.... they pick and choose on those weak numbers if they have a screen. You should get in the water with the screen under.... try that on a deep target lol. Iron in that situation that isnt deep will NULL in disc with it set at 28.... or give a much slower HIGH ping. Those i take a little sand off and check.... never know. I do like NOT loosing the target in the hole like i will with the Nox.

Tom....... did you see the swell chart for Sun - Tues? Man Monday in the gulf....... 34mph winds out of the NNW swells same direction..... 8' waves ..... thats got to move some beach sand...... or REMOVE some beach period. Depending where our sand bars are ...... we could get some nice near shore cuts.

I don't think I have dug a ring over 12" deep unless in the water because I can't judge depth well chest deep. What I do know and bardley anyone believes me except my hunting partner, I have dug several nickels at 17 and 18 inches without cave ins in damp and wet sand all showing the + positive symbol but jumpy. I use a DiAblo sand scoop that is 12" and these nickels were.1 1/2 scoop lengths deep. They all were in 9 kHz . This has happened a half dozen times in 9 months. I guess I will start digging some jumpy - negate symbols.and see the results.

I am going to move some things and buy a MDT again. If any of you guys reading might have one for sale, give me a shout. Otherwise I will just buy a new one.

Ha ha get your money out I’m not letting go of mine.

I’ve found also like Tom said when this first came out .....coil control makes a difference. Running hot it can be picky as to what digit you get based on location on the coil... it can change if you are moving the fast... it can catch a number coming off the coil. I do kind of a very slow wiggle.

I would have already had another but I have been on the fence about the waterproofing. I still wont be comfortable taking it into the water. 30 minutes isn't long enough for my comfort zone. I have a camera drone and it has about a 20-30 min flight time on a battery and that 30 mins goes FAST. It seems like I just get it up in the air and take a few photos and it's time to come back and land with the battery warning beeps going off. When I was at Laguna beach this fall, I set out hunting what seemed to me to just be a couple hours. It ended up being nearly 8 hours.

That 30 min is in deeper water I believe. I think at waist deep where it box is just under it’s good for say 5 hours.... maybe Tom will chime in here.

Now today...…. on 12Khz...…….. Salt Balance was right back on '27'...… the very original Salt Balance that I have experienced for the first 18-months of salt beach hunting. The past few weeks were '29'...… and yesterday was '30'. (Grnd Bal still remains at 600).

Carolina...….. I have found that gold is even less likely to "false-to-iron" when it is at threshold depth; BUT...…. it still may show a few bounces into the iron ID range. . . . . so...…… beware! Zinc Cents are my worst offenders ….. as far as ID 'bounce' is concerned.....,,,,,,, especially at depth. Corroded Zinc Cents will present the greatest 'ID bounce' into the iron range; yet, there's still more non-ferrous ID's...…... than (compared to): ….. bounces into the iron ID range. I too..... have dug Nickels in the 17" to 18" range. . . . . . . . . yet, somewhat inconsistently; hence, my hesitation to report it. So far...…. it seems to me..... it is most likely to occur when I am near the waters edge. (My AquaStar-II will -not quite- do this).

Dew...…… Dimitar REALLY pushes "30-minutes" with that IP68 rating...…. which is indeed with the control box at 5-feet deep. So far...….. I have hunted (for many consecutive hours) in the water..... at nearly neck-deep levels...…. with the control head submerged continuously...… at about 2-feet deep.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,. and have zero problems. (((You must be a diver..... in order for the control head to be 5-feet deep))).

Daniel TN...… I'm still really curious as to 'how well' the MDT will do inland...…. in your bad dirt (just shy of Culpeper dirt mineralization levels)….. with some skillset. (((There's a (large) reason 'why'))). The two additional 'tools' on the MDT (((the Black Sand & Salt Balance))) are there for a reason! I just wished I knew the EXACT settings for the MDT in your EXACT dirt conditions...……….. so as to 'save you the time'...….. and you could be at peak-performance ….. instantly. Because: Without the correct combination …… the MDT will simply be a 'average' detector. These two features...….(that no other modern detector has)……in concert with proper Grnd Balance...……. is the very 'key' to unlocking doors. . . . . . . that no other detector can. (Except for GPX Pulse Induction).

NASA-Tom Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> For those of whom own/have a MDT...…. you may want
> to know the following data:
> I had a fairly stunning day at the beach (wet-slop
> e) today. In a nutshell...…. I found two gold ring
> s. One man's wedding band (10K). One woman's weddi
> ng band(14K). (About 70-yards apart from each othe
> r). 12Khz, Black Sand 'off'.....all day today. Sen
> s '9' & Thresh '0'. Both rings were beyond 14" dee
> p. On each ring...… I could drop Sens to '8' and s
> till detect either ring. With Sens '7'..... I woul
> d have (probably) missed these rings...… in the wi
> ld. BUT (what you need to know is)….. when I incr
> eased Thresh to (-1)….. both rings were undetectab

Outstanding Tom, definitely a stunning day scoring 2 pieces of gold with the MDT.

My buddy and I each have the Tarsacci, we’re going to get more involved with deep turf park hunting with our MDT units. I’ve had some success with mine earlier in the year, My buddy Denny is starting off with good results. Hopefully, We get dialed in with park hunting as we have in relic hunts. Whole new ball game using an MDT for deep park silver, we’ll keep the forum posted.

I’m using 18khz for deep turf, from a park test bed 1/2 dimes hit stronger with 18khz. I know sounds crazy, but honestly the MDT is still deep using 18khz. Plus, after gold coins from this particular Courthouse park 18khz will help on the smaller gold coins. Matter of time, one of us will eventually get a deep gold coin from this particular park.

Congratulations Tom with your two recent pieces of gold!

Paul

NASA Tom -- I am curious as well. I had a super heavy work load at the time I had the MDT and could not find the time to get out with it. I had one really good hunt at a Civil War camp with it in some very bad ground. My Equinox and Deus I had at the time, could not detect a dropped minie ball in this field no more than 4-5 inches deep without reporting it as iron. This is kind of unusual for the Equinox as in most areas of bad ground, I can get good signals down to 8 inches..and more depth in better ground. I could get them with the GPX but this particular field also has a lot of debris from a huge tornado that hit the area 7 years or so ago so the pulse machine was not the most ideal machine in the world. I came in there with the MDT and done extremely well on the bullets. In fact, that was the last time I got to go Civil War relic hunting at all. I'm trying to decide which machine I need to part with in order to reclaim some funds for a new MDT.

Regarding leakage in the MDT, I had 1 incident during the summer. Somehow water got in through the battery compartment, it wasn’t much maybe a ounce. Weird thing is I never had it submerged that day, just dropped it in the water as I was getting out of a boat unloading my gear. Discovered this when it wasn’t turning on, and the battery was damp. Made sure all the water was out then used the blow dryer to dry it out, works perfect. Only thing I can figure is the cap wasn’t tightened enough or the black O-ring wasn’t seated properly.

Generally I used the MDT for land and was quite VERY impressed w it’s sensitivity to low conductors. The 3gram 18kt earring I found was easily picked up and read 05 on VDI in the dirt.

Aaron

Ok Daniel. I must (now) ask you the obvious question: If the MDT far out-trumped the EQX (and other detectors)……. then 'why' did you get rid of that specific detector???

(((and did you try Beach Mode-2 with EQX in your bullet field?)))



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/21/2019 02:34AM by NASA-Tom.

Nasa Tom - If you will recall, I ended up selling all my detectors...Equinox, Deus, GPX, and MDT. Working 8 days a week, I just figured someone else could be enjoying them cause I sure wasn't using them. That particular site was the only site other than my fired bullet place that I got to take the Tarsacci to, so I really didn't get to see what it is or isn't capable of. I have since traded and bought a detector or two here and there. I spend more time in the water hunting for jewelry than I do Civil War relics these days. I've been slow at regaining a MDT for 2 reasons honestly. #1 was the cost. I tend to like to buy used detectors instead of new ones. The cost of a new one is a bit steep and used ones don't come up for sale on the forums either, so used ones are hard to come by. #2 was the waterproofing rating that now has been clarified in the above posts. I was thinking the machine could only be submerged for 30 mins at a time so it had me on the fence. I usually only hunt out to shoulder deep so by the explanation above, I should be good for more than 30 mins. Had I knew that a few months ago, I wouldn't have bought the CTX for water hunting for sure.

Daniel, I sent a PM last night about selling my MDT.

Id kind of like to see one put on Ebay which would give it a bit more exposure. I tell you ... i rarely use any other detector now. Ive sold 2 Xcals and my CTX. Down to 1 Xcal, Nox, and my MDT. I have to admit i messed up once when changing the black O ring and got a little salt water in mine..... BUT the inside is CF and those battery connectors being used must be good stuff. I just rinsed it out ..... blew it out and thats been a good 6 mos. ago .... with NO signs id did it. I really like the inexpensive battery set up..... 5000s lith that last a long time and can be replaced for about $6. No handle to remove and figure out or expensive battery like the CTX and even the Xcal will cost ya. Compared to any other salt water machines...... except the uniquely cheaper Nox the machines price isnt bad for what it does especially for beach hunting. Lets face it the Nox price and warranty had to be a way to grab a huge part of the market..... and it seems to be working. It stopped most sales for a good bit there. Im not one of the guys who bought one and wants to keep it a secret. I like the machine and would like to see more out of Demitar.

Id kind of like to see one put on Ebay which would give it a bit more exposure. I tell you ... i rarely use any other detector now. Ive sold 2 Xcals and my CTX. Down to 1 Xcal, Nox, and my MDT. I have to admit i messed up once when changing the black O ring and got a little salt water in mine..... BUT the inside is CF and those battery connectors being used must be good stuff. I just rinsed it out ..... blew it out and thats been a good 6 mos. ago .... with NO signs id did it. I really like the inexpensive battery set up..... 5000s lith that last a long time and can be replaced for about $6. No handle to remove and figure out or expensive battery like the CTX and even the Xcal will cost ya. Compared to any other salt water machines...... except the uniquely cheaper Nox the machines price isnt bad for what it does especially for beach hunting. Lets face it the Nox price and warranty had to be a way to grab a huge part of the market..... and it seems to be working. It stopped most sales for a good bit there. Im not one of the guys who bought one and wants to keep it a secret. I like the machine and would like to see more out of Demitar. Right now people have to go looking for this machine..... id like to see that change so he can develop this even further.

Funny you should mention eBay, I just checked last night (and past sales) and periodically check to see if any used TARSACCI’s are on there...no dice!

Ive tried to post some on several forums and FB pages and answer questions especially it the subject comes up. I check Ebay every now and then as well. You are right no ones letting go of them. Like Tom said a couple of inches now days over the best of the best is pretty significant. Its much like the AquaSound some used or have here in Fl..... basicly a Nautilus in a box. Here in Fl it has killer depth and also salt water balances....... the big difference is ..... black sand, if it hit that it was done. Depth dropped off fast. How many have ever heard of this machine? I talked to the guy who ended up with Nautilus equipment...... he had no idea it existed. BUT......unlike the MDT the AquaSound was only good here in FL.. Plus it was old school heavy. Because i used to have 2 AquaSounds ...... the MDT was a must have for me..... and ive not been disappointed.

Let me add something. I was just looking at the number of gold items over the past 2 years. If my figures are right i gained about 4% more gold switching to the Nox over the CTX and Xcal. This year ive almost exclusively hunted with the MDT and got another increase of about 7%. Not bad considering no matter what ive tired this month ive only found 1 gold item. Ive went behind my MDT with the other two machines this month a few times ...... but i found even less.

Heres the kind of stuff ive been finding. Got this beauty Friday...... im getting quit a collection of these GOLD COLORED rings. But .... no markings, light in weight, and a bit off color is the first tell when you get it back to the car. Earth magnet and file does the rest. Who loves SS gold???





Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 12/22/2019 01:42PM by dewcon4414.

Cc - Message replied. I will take it.

Daniel...…. my brain can hardly wrap around the fact that you would sell ALL of your detectors! I guess I thought you kept one or two of them..... as a: 'just in case'. Yes...… the MDT is good for only 30-minutes in the water......AT 5-FEET DEEP! (and that's the control box).

As far as cost goes..... (for the MDT)……. it is VERY inexpensive for the amount of time/labor/effort/manpower/engineering that has gone into it. (18 consecutive years). But...….. what is MOST important to us detectorists is: It is dirt-cheap.... considering the extra few INCHES it gets over other dedicated wet-salt beach detectors. You guys know that I scream for a few TENTHS of an inch. Soooooooo…….. a few INCHES has really opened up new doors. To look at things in a different perspective...…. it is the MDT and Gold Bug-2 that have paid for them selves ….in the shortest amount of time!

Dew...….. there is a standard-protocol metal detectorist stigma that has been going on (since metal detector inception)…… whereby; detectorists are tight-lipped about their secret-weapon. This kills the design engineer, , , kills future technological advancements; yet, really helps the detectorist have/keep the 'trump-card continued secret success' in his local hunting-site world. I was (somewhat) this way.... some 20 years ago.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,. until I realized (via epiphany) that... THIS stifles technological advancement of humankind. So, I jumped onboard with Fisher...… and advanced the hobby at a faster rate. Now...….. having the ability to work with other Mfr's (the ones that value my input)…… collectively...…… has 10X accelerated the speed of technological advancement(s). What's crazy is...…. each individual Mfr has DIFFERENT strengths; subsequently, giving me and ALL Mfr's...… the added advantage of focusing on their strengths with a even larger pool of data to select-and-launch from.
All of this...………….. without infringing upon NDA's...……. and even if NDA's are NOT imposed.
I'm in it...….. for a more rapid advancement of ALL HUMANKIND!!!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/22/2019 04:18AM by NASA-Tom.

dewcon4414 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Ive tried to post some on several forums and FB pa
> ges and answer questions especially it the subject
> comes up. I check Ebay every now and then as we
> ll. You are right no ones letting go of them.
> Like Tom said a couple of inches now days over the
> best of the best is pretty significant. Its much
> like the AquaSound some used or have here in Fl...
> .. basicly a Nautilus in a box. Here in Fl it has
> killer depth and also salt water balances....... t
> he big difference is ..... black sand, if it hit t
> hat it was done. Depth dropped off fast. How man
> y have ever heard of this machine? I talked to t
> he guy who ended up with Nautilus equipment......
> he had no idea it existed. BUT......unlike the MD
> T the AquaSound was only good here in FL.. Plus i
> t was old school heavy. Because i used to have 2
> AquaSounds ...... the MDT was a must have for me..
> ... and ive not been disappointed.

Hey Dew... I also had an Aquasound. It worked great in FL. but was told after I bought it that it wasn't even too good on the treasure coast. Never did try it over there. I took it to NY in the Adirondack Mountains and it was useless. Could not ground balance in any form. So only used it in FL. What made me sell it was the enormous cost of repair.