Need recommended settings for Relic Hunting?

Just received the new (Black) F75 LTD today. Played around with DISCRIM. side and like it very much, I can handle the chatter Sens.99, Disc.0 never got to the ALL METAL side yet. Soil conditions are very mild here in the midwest (Kansas) any recommended setting for optimum performance?

The AM side will probably be quieter. I always hunt relics in 2F first because it will easily pick the non-ferrouse out of the iron if it isn't heavily masked. I run disc=6 but sometimes I will run the disc even higher (like 15 or so) to begin with AND IF I have unlimited or contimual access to a site. Then I will go back over it with lower disc and higher sens. You will find that you do not need 99 sens to get good depth and if you are going to be able to come back and rehunt the place whenever you want then you might consider lowering the sens the first time to 50 or 60, raising the disc to maybe 10, using 2F tones and get the easy stuff out of the ground. You can move pretty fast with the LTD but not as fast as the original (or the LTD in DE mode) The original and the LTD in DE will give a higher TID resolution the faster you swing it. BP requires you to slow down a bit, CL requires you to slow down a lot.

Of course you can still go in there and run disc=0 the first time but i'd at least lower the sensitivity for the first hunt, until you get a feel for how much iron and other junk is in the ground and how the mineralization is. Don't forget to find the quietest frequency and fastgrab every 10 or 20 minutes especially if the groung visibly changes or if you go up or down a hill or on/off a lawn area, from a plowed field onto a fenceline or near a stream. I usually like to FG in AM mode and then move the GB slightly positive.

Of course it will help you to know where small and large lead, brass, old coins, etc read on the TID but don't rely on the numbers much if you suspect that the target is deeper than 3".

Bottom line... if it were me i'd start with disc=6, sens 70-75, 2F, BP and don't move too fast... then i'd go back later with disc=0, either 2F or 1 tone... perhaps AM BP... always BP and a higher sensitivity and probably the 5" coil in spots where I found a lot of targets or iron. I just think that starting out with disc=0 and sens=99 might be counter productive if you will be able to go back and hunt the place more later but it is just my opinion... however I would give AM BP sens 99 (or as high as stable and quiet) a try because if there isn't a lot of iron it can be excellent.

I've seen places with bad ground... really bad ground where the LTD was so quiet on sens=99 and disc=0 using the 5" coil that I had to check to be sure it was actually working. So I guess the thing is that if you aren't overwhelmed with signals.. run it hotter. If there is a lot of small iron, canslaw, etc... then i'd lower the sens and raise the disc to at least 6 or go to AM mode to see if it gets better. The LTD is different and I don't really know why but at some sites it is quieter than the original and at some sites where the original worked the LTD is just not usable with the sens higher than 30... but it still works at 30 sens in BP.

Good luck! You'll get it figured out. Make certain that the coil connector is tightened to the control box because if it isn't it will chatter. If you're out in the sticks your cell phone will make it chatter (if there isn't a tower close enough it will keep trying to connect to a tower) if there is a tower in decent range it will chatter for a few seconds every 15 or 20 minutes. The Garrett's pinpointer will make the LTD sound off when you swing the coil to the side where you have it if you're in AM and when the pinpointer is off. The 11" coil and the pinpointer coil are tuned the same and the 11" coil will pick it up, even though the pinpointer is off... it will give a moan everytime you swing it in that direction.. at the end of the sweep.

J

Time permitting.............read the thread titled: "Rcpt Ack of F75 LTD proto" .....and "COMPILATION #1" and "COMPILATION #2".

Nasa Tom: I will reread your recommendation "Rcpt Ack of F75 LTD proto" again. It has a wealth of information on that thread. Thanks again Tom!

J bow:
Thank you for your recommended settings. Tomorrow I will be heading out to 3 locations, first site is an early Dragoon site 1830's-40's. Not alot of iron but I can't tell you how many D buttons I've pulled off this hill the last two years. The Whites MXT has done very well here and I have litterally pulled ALL the non-ferrous targets up to 9 inches deep at this location. There is a major power line that runs overhead that never effected the MXT. I may have to go with your recommended settings of disc.6, sens.70-75, 2F and BP.
The second site is where I want to "let it all out". Grass alittle bit tall, iron is spread out but no power lines. I pulled a rare sash buckle out of here along with mulitple D buttons. I'm going to try 0 disc., 99 sens., 2F and BP.
If I have time tomorrow I'm going to hit the 3rd site. Now this site has heavy iron all over the place but I've been pulling good stuff underneath it. This site may require the small 5" coil but again...0 disc., 99 sens., 2F and BP.

I am very curious if I will be able to pull anymore Dragoon buttons out of Site One. I have totally cleaned this area out with the MXT. We'll see if the LTD can pull a few more out of this site. Thanks for you input and will give a report back soon.

For me if I was starting out I would set sens to 75-90 make sure you have the best AA the coil connection is tight. fast grab after you set your sens and disc and processer mode and from time to time reground bal. I would use two + tone and a disc of 6 to start. If you are finding relics and coins I would hunt that way all day as long as you can come back...Then I would use the same settings but Disc of say 1-5 and mono tone. You sometimes want to dig iffy dirty tones sometimes that is a good target that is near iron or iron has leached into the maytrix of the ground.

Over-tones and iron readings can be horse shoes axes and cool relisc like that, so don't pass up all of those readings if they read iron. And bullets and shells can have low VID I dig high teens and above. It is better to say you are going to dig all good tones or good mono tone and have a collection of iron and junk in your junk pile but you will soon learn there are also relics hiding in there also. My advise when you get to tired take a rest drink lots of water even you don't feel thirsty this really helps your ecover really fast. Coffee is a great pick me up followed by a lot of water. Stay away from soft drinks. As long as you can come back you can dig the trash because that burns me out fast but is worth it. And I can't dig trash all day so I pace myself. But digging the trash helps unmask relics and coins. You should always go over an area that you think you cleaned out. Try from a different directions. And then if you have a 5DD go back and you will find even more trust me we tested this in the Gold Country of Calif and the 5DD did far better then the 11DD and yes it covers less ground but if I am going to be able to hunt an area a few times I try it all and then bring in my Omega and I still find even more deep masked and unmasked targets.

When you are hunting for HISTORY and find it you want to do all you can to save it and admire it and wonder who may have lost it over a hundred or so years ago...

LowBoy

TAKE A LITTLE TIME KICKBACK AND WATCH SOME OF MY DETECTING VIDEO'S BELOW ON YouTube

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If you don’t dig it, then how are you going to know what you’re missing!
How can you have your pudding if you don’t eat your meat!

LowBoy, thanks for your input! It will certainly come in handy while out in the field. One other thing I noticed while testing LTD last night, pinpointing seemed to be an issue. On my MXT I use a 6x10dd coil, it was such a tight hit that pinpointing was a snap. With the LTD, if your target has any depth to it, the sound covers the entire width of coil. I know I read somewhere in the manuel where you can hold coil over target and then squeeze trigger to get a smaller precise location of target. I will need to take extra precautions in the beginning when trying locate targets. I haven't dinged a relic in years and I don't want to start now.
Also Lowboy, I've watched alot of your videos. You seem to really do a great job conveying information about the machine as your hunting. Keep up the good work!!!

LowBoy I am just curious as to why you suggest choosing your settings before GBalancing, and why fastgrab?? Do you normally fastgrab in really trashy areas because manual gb is to difficult?

F4
F75LTD
I can dig it!!!!