Kinda impressed by the Tarsacci (long read)

I have a certain beach that I made mention of a while back, that I wish I would have gotten a chance to take the Tarsacci to.

BACKGROUND: The ground at this beach is sort of a bedrock/shoal material with some sand on top. There is actually 3 distinct ground changes on this beach...one is the exposed bedrock area...then it transitions into the busted bedrock/shoal/sand area. Then it hits an area of sand/clay...with the clay being dissolved bedrock. It has ALWAYS reeked havoc on metal detectors. As an example, the CTX 3030 wants to run a suggested sensitivity of 6 there. Yes. 6. Single digit number, and even with just a small disc pattern such as the "extensive nail" program, it will almost continuously null. Some machines here were just practically useless. The MXT comes to mind, and the MX Sport was not so great either. They would false really bad there...same with the AT Pro, Multi Kruzer and Anfibio. This has just been a tough beach to hunt because of that. The Equinox is very chattery there as well, but once you understand the 3 divisions of the beach as noted above, you can kinda ground balance in each one of them and it will stay stable until you start getting into the transitions of the ground.

Okay...so despite this, I thought I had it pretty well figured out and had the CTX and Nox that could handle it...I could at least find stuff there with them. In 2019, I didn't get to hunt it as much as I did in 2018. I did make a few trips there and water hunted. The last two times there was after Labor day when the beach closes down for swimmers...and I found some pennies. That was it. I had the beach to myself and hunted to my hearts content and left satisfied I had got all the recent drops for the season.

Fast forward to 1-10-2020. I had originally went fishing at the lake and noticed the water levels were down...which is unusual because this is not a TVA lake and they don't do the winter draw downs. In fact, there are these orange floating balls that mark the swim area...these balls are normally in about 6 feet of water. When water hunting, I usually can get just to them and that's as far out as I can reach. Yesterday, the balls were sitting on the ground just at the waters edge. So needless to say, I was glad I had a metal detector in the truck. Plans changed and I was on the beach swinging.

I do not like the DISC mode on the Tarsacci. The tones are too short and soft for my liking. My preference for it would be more like the tone length of the All metal mode or mixed mode sound on the machine. So I opted for mixed mode. Threshold -1 was a little jumpy for me, so I bumped it back a little and settled on -3 when it was all said and done. Sensitivity, I had to bump back to around 6. I did play with black sand on/off and frequencies too...ultimately settled on black sand OFF and 12 khz. Now don't get me wrong...the machine was NOT quiet by any means. I got bombarded in mixed mode by tones coming in on the all metal side in certain places on the beach. But I found this must have been related to the ground balance, because I could do a GB and the machine smooth out.

With that said, I could not believe the number of signals I located....non ferrous GOOD signals. No brainer signals. And if you note the coloration of the coins...you will see most of them had been there a while. MEANING...I had missed them with the CTX, Equinox, and a whole slough of others. I could see missing a few...I mean it's hard to run perfect patterns when you are in water and can't see the bottom. Most of these came from the area that would have been in about 4-5 feet of water, so that also rules out me being able to say that I just couldn't get out deep enough. When I got home and emptied my pouch, I just said WOW. When I hunt with the Equinox and other machines, I dig everything that isn't iron, so I'm not cherry picking. This beach was wiped clean of non ferrous signals to the CTX and Equinox on the last two trips this past fall. Here are some photos of the beach...and of the ground so you can get an idea of what I'm calling bedrock and shoal. This is nothing like the red clay I have where I civil war hunt. I have about 6 other beaches I need to take the machine to now. Also, I can't help but show off a recent catch with the beach in the background.

20200110_104200 by Daniel Teague, on Flickr

20200110_104151 by Daniel Teague, on Flickr

20200110_110147 by Daniel Teague, on Flickr

20200110_150702 by Daniel Teague, on Flickr

VideoCapture_20191230-200858 by Daniel Teague, on Flickr

Wow, forget detecting! -----What did the cat weigh Daniel?

((( I'm not surprised by the Tarsacci )))!!!

However, I AM surprised by that fish!!!

Awesome hunt and sweet fish!

I had my MTD out yesterday at a beach where in the summer it's relatively quiet in terms of targets but in the winter it gets littered with bits an pieces of traps that have been moved onto the beach due to winter storms. I couldn't go 5 feet without encountering 3-4 negative tones in MM. My question for Tarsacci owners is what % of bad sounding tones (in MM) with negative tone numbers are you digging that actually come up as non-ferrous? I only have around 25-30 hours on mine in wet salt and I can't remember digging a tone that was bad sounding and had negative numbers that has ever come up as non-ferrous, not one. When I've hunted with my Equinox I've had several rings start off as iron at depth and turn into a ring at the surface so with it I never pass over a target but the Tarsacci was not wrong once. How many are you seeing?

The only issue I have with the Tarsacci is getting the Salt # to balance. According to Dimitar I should be able to pump the machine over the water and adjust the number until it gets quiet. To date I've never been able to do that. Thank you for sharing your success. It's great you have a place like that to go.

I just recently started catfishing (have long been a crappie fisherman) so this is my PB blue catfish. 61.38 lbs and 52 inches long. It's still up there swimming around; took a few pictures and let it go. Some of the catfish websites have formulas for figuring out the age/weight average of catfish. By their charts, that fish was 30-35 years old...it and me were born about the same time frame and both have been eating well. Haha

I'm gonna hit another beach next week that I hunted over Christmas break with the Equinox and just found 2 targets.

It's says something about you letting that ole boy go, awesome.

You let the big boy go?
Good for you Dan.

Glad you let that big boy go Dan.--You good guy!!!

That's a grand cat, Daniel. 61 lbs of anything that swims is a good catch. Thanks for the Tarsacci report. Mighty interesting unit. HH jim tn

If you are getting into winter time blues you should try to make a trip to buggs island. Fishing can be awesome crappie and cats. World record blue came out of there a few years back

Nice report Mr.D
Liked it.

Interestingly, I prototyped 'Explorer XS' in a large field in 1999
That day it would run @ Sens 1 only producing some scrap bits.
Due to that extremely low 'usable' Sens, I never bothered with the 14.4 hectacrrs again... until last year 2019 when it went For Sale.
So getting the owner's permission (again) after the 20yr gap I set about with the 'Explorer XS' again and deduced whatever happend in 1999 was an anamoly because the 'Explorer' ranged from 16-18 in Auto.

I tried a few other machines and didn't have 'many' problems?
Occasionally, an 'X-Terra' jumped from 'smooth to wild' which had to be shut down. Changing coils didn't help.

So, there is some form of 'anomaly' there for sure but is it 'ground' or 'EMI' related?

Des D

I used to cat fish on the Savanna River coffee... boat... lights and a whole lot of gods quiet.

Daniel.... next time use AM HOT.... settled or not targets are easily heard thru the fast pops of the minerals or what ever. Find a target .... barely have to move the coil over the target gets you a better TID digit. I think you will find more depth. I don’t why but it doesn’t seem as important to settle this machine down. Run it like an Xcal in PP mode. Some like mixed mode.... but I use that to ID targets not find um. Disc ...like you said to much modulation making signal tone seem weak. In AM ....you still get a good size on the target but a better louder longer tone IMO.

Dang Daniel, You a great fisherman too.
Anything you can't do? LOL!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/11/2020 09:15PM by Harold,ILL..

Daniel,

Great report on the Tarsacci, and WHAT A CAT! I bet you had a great time trying to bring that thing in!

Oh -- and from a Pennsylvania boy who has been transplanted and residing in the Plains of Oklahoma for the last 25 years, those pictures -- especially the one with the mountains in the background, and lake in the foreground -- make me HOMESICK for the Appalachians! Beautiful!

Steve

"Oops! It was 4.4 hectacrrs (around 10 acres)"

Daniel (and skate)……. I was not trying to downplay your Tarsacci's performance; yet, I was stunned by the cat! That was the proverbial icing-on-the-cake!
Having far better performance over the CTX-3030 and EQX …… is nothing to sneeze at.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,., but...…. this matches my expectations for the MDT...…… especially in your soil/mineralization conditions. (Hence: "why" the sales are starting to gain momentum). Daniel...…………………. my concern for you is: You most probably will have to adjust your Grnd Bal for your (very) distinct 3-sets of mineralization zones ….. on your beach. The good thing is...….. this particular platform allows you to INDIVIDUALLY adjust for 1.) Salt, 2.) Mineralization/Grnd Bal, 3.) Black Sand. This is one of the primary reasons 'why' you are achieving the levels of performance that you are encountering. To my knowledge...…. there are no other detectors on the open market ….that has these adjustments separated and 'individualized'. And...……… as you have witnessed (and stated)…… when the unit was Grnd Bal'd to your conditions...… the MDT was stable/quiet. And THIS is when (and where) I would like to see you bump Sens up to 7...…. and Thresh to -2. THEN see what the MDT can find. I 'think' you too...….. are starting to see that the MDT is not a VLF platform.

skate...…. Yes, Salt balancing to the actual water.... can sometimes be a little more tricky...….. especially if the water is moving. In your case..... if you are in the wet sand (close to the waters edge)….. it may be easier for you to adjust (up or down) the Salt Balance …. whilst bobbing the coil on the wet sand. Once you are Salt Balanced...… you will notice that the unit is quieter/stable........ which then will allow you to increase Sens...... and lower the Threshold. Also (and to answer your other question)……. I do find 'fringe-depth' non-ferrous targets on the MDT ….. to ID as 'iron'; yet, this is a bit rare.

Nasa Tom -- I opted to cut back on the sensitivity to try and give my ears a bit of a rest. The all metal side of Mix mode was bombarding my ears. Some of it was from the changing ground but most was from a iron bits. I dug several of them that didn't give a double blip...the ones that sounded more solid just to see what they were. They were pieces of iron like horse shoes, iron wedges, and large logging chains in the 10-12 inch range. If I remember correctly, they made this lake in the 1950s and I presume the stuff is from the logging days when they were cutting trees for the lake. There's that stuff to contend with, plus rusty fishing hooks and bobby pins. Most of what I was seeking was shallower, more recently dropped things. This swim area was constructed in the early 1980s so it's not all that old. The "old" beach that was used from the 1950s to 1980s has remained unsuccessfully hunted by me. I've took several stabs at it over the years I've detected.

I'm just glad that the Tarsacci technology finally opened up that door.

What are the details on that ring that you found?

Curious as to what those deep iron targets read? Mine on the beach read in the -27 or may jump from that to +28 when looking at the screen in AM. Sounds good for a Relic guy thou. Im also looking more for gold so those digits are in the 13 and below range.

Dew -- It depends on what the iron is as to the numbers it gives. I can hear the hair brats, bobby pins, fish hooks, etc coming through on the all metal side. Those give a fast zip zip sound, and are negative numbers. Some of the medium to larger iron will give me mostly negative numbers but will occasionally (once out of every 3 or 4 sweeps) high tone with the positive number 30. I have been signal sizing with the all metal side...there's a big difference in audio size between a coin or ring and something like a horseshoe half, pocket knife, etc. The +30 high tone falses seem to also be linked to deep nails. Sometimes they sound good from one angle in all metal and the disc side too...then I can rotate 90° and get the double beep give away.

I hit a small beach yesterday morning that was more normal ground for around here with a lot of traces of black sand. It had already been detected...could see the remains of dig holes in the sand. I had also water hunted it once back during the summer with the Nox. Didn't find as much there but was able to run -1 threshold and upped the Sens to 7. I dug 2 nickels that were as down past my shovel hilt. I had trouble with the hole filling with water before I could get them out. Both were black and had been there a while. Also one 10k gold earring in the shape of a cross. It was not deep. With the recent rains we had over the weekend, the best section of the beach that gets the most activity from adults was back under water. If I had my waders I could have got out there easy, as it was just shin deep but I only had my Muck boots with me.

I don't find many gold rings on our freshwater beaches. I'm not downing anyone but traditionally, most of the people that go swim at the lakes are lower income people that can't afford gold. The ones that can afford gold and better things, don't swim at the lakes...they have pools at home or friends houses, and then vacation away from home in the gulf or east coastal beaches. There's still the potential though...but most of what I find is tungsten, stainless, or plated stuff here. It's not til I go on vacation myself that I think I have the highest chance of finding gold jewelry. 2019 proved to be just that. I only found 16 rings in 2019. Only 1 was gold and it was 10k found at Panama beach on vacation...heart with a small diamond. My niece proudly wears it now as she was there when I found it.

On the beach in the salt water those iron pieces..... mostly surface chunks.... ring in at 28 or there about. I "NOTCH" 28 out .... that covers like 27-29 pretty well. That takes care of IRON from 0 down and those high digits when i switch to disc. Some of those may come in at 30 or even 26.... but it gives a very slow response with a high ping. Thus far its all been iron ive checked. To me you are getting the standard wrap around ...... like on the DFX we used to disc out those top two digits.

People who use our local beaches even here can dictate the type of jewelry worn.... and lost. We have various times of the year when we may see more Spanish, Russian, Indian.... ect..... and of course just young kids. That can really change whats being found out there. Right now it seems very few want to get into the water..... been a strange month or two. My local beach didnt have a lot of iron...... but this year we are getting a huge amount of steel flakes and nails for some reason. Its time consuming.

20200125_205754 by Daniel Teague, on Flickr

20200125_205700 by Daniel Teague, on Flickr

More Tarsacci beach finds from Saturday 1-25-2020. These were found at the same beach this original thread was in response to. The difference was, they had lowered the water more and I was able to get into a small section that is normally 10 to 12 feet of water. I almost didn't hunt it because we are only talking a strip about a swinging archs width from where I stopped the other day (it was still under water at that time). I will definitely be back. The problem is, the gates are locked for the season and I can't drive to the beach parking lot. I have to park across the lake and do a 1.25 mile trek on a hiking trail to get to the beach and then do it again to get back to the truck. 1.25 miles aint bad but carrying all the gear can be a hassle, especially when I am wanting to do some detector comparing while there. Next time, I may stow the Tarsacci in the backpack it came with and hike it in that way. With the lake muck/mud that was caked on my boots, each foot weighed an extra few pounds lol



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/26/2020 03:16PM by Daniel Tn.

Pretty productive outing, Daniel, good going. HH jim tn

Very little trash in that section of the beach as well. I think there was some stratification going on there, because everything seemed to be in that one line and were heavier objects...quarters, nickels, rings, larger fishing sinkers. I have begun the process of trying to find the class ring owner. No success on social media by searching for the person directly. I did find their school, which is about 4 hours away from where it was lost and found. I sent a message to the school itself, so maybe I can get pointed in the right direction from there.

I’d say you are pretty comfortable already with the MDT. Nice collection of rings. How you running it?

That particular day, I had it Sens 6, Thres -1, and 12 khz. Black sand mode off, Mix mode. Several of these rings stopped me in my tracks with the all metal side sound. And the disc mode pings with IDs at 5 were icing on the cake. The class ring is a class of 2018 but was surprisingly deep to have been a more recent drop. It is rather heavy.

I had planned on going back there Monday morning. My work schedule allows me to leave early on Mondays but there's a 90% chance of rain until early evening. I may throw the Frog Togg suit in the trunk and go anyways.

Good Job Daniel.
Have you been able to dial it in on your red dirt?

I've not dirt hunted in quite a while. The only thing I ever really hunted for in dirt, was civil war stuff and I've more the less lost interest in that. Ring fever has ahold of me for the time being in regards to detecting.

I did get to go back to the ring beach and compare the Nox and Tarsacci. Actually the first target I walked up on and compared, ended up being a 10 inch deep heavy tungsten ring. Located with the Tarsacci as a stop you in your tracks, gotta dig that signal. On the Nox, no matter what I did, it was a broken one way hit. IF I pressed the horseshoe button and opened the whole disc range down into iron, then I got a repeating signal every sweep, with most of the signal coming through as iron. This kinda confirms what I had been thinking...the soil there is really bad and almost all vlfs struggle in it. I would hunt a line or two with the Tarsacci...compare signals when located, with the Nox...then would turn around and rehunt it with the Nox, and compare any signals located with it, with the Tarsacci to see why I had missed them with it...then dig them to see what they were. It was time consuming but I learned a bit.

The bullet points:

1. The Tarsacci and Nox either one would have found the majority of targets.

2. The Nox really lights up the smaller targets that are junk...lumps them right into that have to dig gold ID range. I'm talking like super small split shot sinkers, .22 bullets, various pieces of small foil. The Tarsacci can give a signal on them but they sound more relative to the size and can be ignored if you choose.

3. When balanced, the Tarsacci is much quieter in heavy mineral. There is a lot that gets lost in the ground noise on other machines.

4. No doubt I believe the way I run each machine, the Tarsacci has the advantage for depth. I noted as with the ring, a few coins I dug did the same thing...sounded great on the Tarsacci but was a broken signal on the Nox with most of the signal coming through and reporting as iron.

Good report Daniel. Reminds me of a Corp of Engineers lake I hunted up north each winter. Just about a mile walk in with chest waders and gear. Lake was drawn down each fall and I would start in October and hunt it until freeze up returning each weekend and using a different machine. Really wish I had the Tarsacci then.....
Good luck, there is more there!

Cliff

Just wait until you get to compare them in salt water. I believe that will be an eye opener as well. There you will find running in AM 9khz to have an advantage over the two higher freqs in the water. Very good information...... what were your settings when comparing them? I noticed the other day hunting right behind a guy in the same trough who was ahead of me using the Nox. He came out with two rings..... but i noticed he didnt dig much..... was he cherry picking? I dont know but i ended up with nearly 50 of those sinkers from shots to 3 ounces. We are talking a very short trough. In AM you get ...... just like the Xcal in PP mode...... a sizing advantage i feel over disc as well as that big boom longer tone from a target. I also have to admit it got a little crazy digging in that trough...... there wasnt just sinkers..... a lot of iron was in there.... so i spent hours checking targets. I ended up with two silver rings. Who says you have to have a multi freq in the water to be successful?