Second time out with V n Me, another huge field

[Ytcoinshooter]

Here's are the keepers from my 11/6 (2nd V3i hunt). Very typical for this site with the exception of a copper and sometimes a 1 or half real, (next time!). After cleaning with water then coating with penetrating oil the fine hand tooled detail of the cuff button and the coat button to right become more visible.
The next photo contains a small ball - musket/pistol, sleigh or crotal bell frag, shoe buckle frag, later 1800's colt bullet, strange copper nugget, old weight (3 .oz ?) anda couple of whatzits.http://i1005.photobucket.com/albums/af176/idigther/bfeb1e32.jpg
http://i1005.photobucket.com/albums/af176/idigther/989f8473.jpg
http://i1005.photobucket.com/albums/af176/idigther/91649cf6.jpgMy settings were the following tweaks to the HiPro program. Gain = 12, DC sense 65, AC sense 88, show depth on search screen and show track. I did have to rebalance often and also tried lock track and was diligent checking and rebalancing. Ground probe was -95. There's some iron here and there as well plus some coal. The DFX runs in salt mode and was almost never out of balance in the past at this site, never peeped on coal (coal reads near slat I think). Seemed like too much ground balancing, I'll have to try adjusting the filters, maybe someone has a good suggestion based on similar experience. I did bury a dime and liked how it sounded off strong while raising the coil up.In all I think the V and me are going to have a fine relationship. The super 12 goes on the next time I visit this site, take a day off tomorrow would be just the thing. Pardon my old school settings terms in referring to the V3i.
HH-http://i1005.photobucket.com/albums/af176/idigther/c110bd5a.jpg

[aloldstuff]

Sounds like you are having a ball with that V. I run one also but I am definatley still in the learning stages, 8 months later.

[Ytcoinshooter]

Hey aoldstuff: Your 2011 find list indicates you are doing something right. I used an Eagle 2 SL for over a dozen years before moving to the XLT, DFX and this October the V3i. The Eagle had the worst menu system but I got it down. The next two detectors I spent countless hours in my old test plot to learn the relationships between settings. Since selling my house and moving I need to plant a test plot once again. With the V I spent a month reading the manual before purchasing but it's no substitute for hands on. My first times out with this new detector have been to sites I can freely dig and check signals or as I put it tear it up - go wild and pocket all the targets, kick dirt back in the hole and keep going. Plowed unplanted farm fields are great for this.
Being a newbie to the V and knowing the factory programs are hotter than my last two whites I just tweak the sensitivity settings, make sure the discriminator is wide open from -20 through +95(HiPro) and the unit is stable and ground balanced. I'm sure if I was out trying to work this in a park setting my learning curve wouldn't progress as well for now. My last time out with the DFX in the same field last December netted a handful of coppers and buttons. But the DFX was not as fun as the new V. My next goal is to get together with a member who is using an E-Trac and compare readings on HIS deep signals. In the past the Minelab boys have impressed me. I just don't like the way a Minelab Explorer sounds, even the Sovereign sounds awful to my ears. The V is so nice to listen to and better balanced for me. I decided not to use my DX-1 on it and went with a new Garrett ProPointer to save weight. This is the most exciting detecting since I bought my XLT (still have it). I felt as one with the XLT more than any previous detector. I dug over 50 Barber dimes with the XLT in short order. 100 silver (1/3 Barber) from another beat on site. I needed to reinvigorate my land detecting now. I just got away from the turf, now I'm getting addicted to dirt again.
HH-Bruce
Everything except the two 1bit coins came from my last outing with the DFX (same site) Dec. 2011.http://i1005.photobucket.com/albums/af176/idigther/cbc907cc.jpg

[earthmansurfer]

Hey Coinshooter,

Thanks for sharing your finds. I'm in Germany and mine often look quite similar from being in the ground so long. But sometimes I find coins 200 or 300 years old that look like new. Hey wait, I just realized you are in the states and not in England! You are finding some mighty old stuff - congrats.
The ground around here (under zoom ground probe) reads around -92 to -93 (high iron) but near zero overall mineralization, no EMI usually. (Your settings are near identical to mine - RX@10-12, AM 65, Disc@85). The 5 band works best for me. I am still playing with the 5 high pass but it is hit or miss depending on the target (I switch between filters with the trigger forward custom setting). I like what Jack is doing, he likes that 5 filter even though he has some mineralization as that gets the best depth unless the mineralization is high. What did your ground read at (and -95 as you know is crazy high for the type of minerlization). I imagine it's like mine as you too run your machine relatively hot. I find iron sometimes falses more with the 5 filter, at least when the ground is wet.
Regarding ground balancing. I ran lock track the first 2 months or so and had problems finding a place to GB due to the high iron content all over here. A mod on another forum told me to try auto track and I haven't looked back. Most of the coins where I hunt are less than 6 deep. It is still hard for me to trust auto track but I can still bury a coin very deep and pick it up. (I set the auto track setting very slow - 10.) You might be surprised with AT, but then again I might be surprised with Lock Track as I'm still playing around. eheh
Last thing and maybe you know this. But to find your best filter, have you tried burying a coin at around 5 or so, then dropping your sensitivity settings so you can barely barely pick it up. Then go through the filters and find the best one. You really need to GB between changes so use lock track throughout. I made a video on setting up the V3i and include this in it. I'm under earthmansurfer69 on youtube. I'm still learning the machine, very very much so and claim to be no expert, just sharing.

Keep up the great old finds, wow again,
Albert

[Ytcoinshooter]

long before I bought my V3i. Your shared info was a deciding factor in my purchase and my familiarity with Whites detectors. I live in Connecticut and the detecting competition is large if not crazy here. Tonight I'm attending my club meeting and I know the finds that will be displayed from the last month of digging by the members will knock me over as usual. GW buttons, federation (state) coppers and Spanish silver often turn up. I'm hoping the adjustability and depth of the V3i keeps me competitive with my peers. The site I'm posting finds from is ginormous and I had a partner who I used to hunt with that brought up an 1809 draped bust dime near VF condition. Anything is possible there, I got two identical heavy revolutionary cross belt buckles there and saw the identical ones in a period painting of soldiers.
I'm going to try the filters as you mentioned, turning the sens and gain down. With the DFX once I dialed in settings for an area I saved the program for future use. I can run high sensitivity there and will see how my V rated whites 12 does....tomorrow, I'm taking a mental health day. The weather here is unusually mild.
I'll be rechecking the ground probe in the cleanest areas I can find. How Jack deals with the mineralization in the Colorado mountains and foot hills is educational. The ground in my part of the country is pretty much full of iron minerals. The northwest corner of CT was a major source of iron for cannons during the revolutionary war. At the other end one of the beaches I hunt has red sand, black sand and heavy thick clay, it changes so fast as you walk VLF units have a tough time. So much rusty iron my PI kills me digging. The antiquities of Europe intrigue me. Where you are, Germany is so cool. Have you posted much information about the detecting and recovery laws? Most of know how Great Britain works. You also have access to great beer /bier. Thanks for all your info on the V.
HH-Bruce

[aloldstuff]

I'm from western ma, Springfield area. I would love to meet up with you sometime and do some hunting. I really need to pick your brain. My hunting partner has the Etrac so you can compare signals with him. PM me

[Ytcoinshooter]

aoldstuff: Springfield area, that's close my dad grew up there. Season for land is only as long until the ground freezes. No more chisels for me on frozen ground >:{, I would like to get together I'll pm ya when I get a chance - contact info and so forth. One if my options is to take a day off from work. Many fine places in your area as well to ask permission to hunt.

[earthmansurfer]

Good to know Bruce that I helped you decide on a V3i and as long as you are happy I take full responsibility. :grin: You are really lucky to have such large and old sites.

I have been asked a few times about the detecting laws. Basically you need permission to hunt historical sites. You won't get that and so I don't try. To hunt parks and such seems to be no problem. I went to a land protection office or something like that and the man there told me to hunt fields, parks, etc. should be no problem again, as long as there is no historical site there. Like, I can't go to Nürnberg castle and detect there but you know what? I wouldn't want to, it was leveled during the war (Though a man right after the war found buried Nazi treasure there with a detector!). Every time I go detecting I get approached by 3 people or so. I often speak for close to 15 - 30 minutes every hunt but I don't mind as people tell me lots of good info on the history, I get to practice my German and sometimes the ladies are quite cute. :shocked03:

Last thing on the filters as I really think this is the setting of settings, maybe because it isn't really understood like others, though yes they are all important. Even when you find the best filter, when you get a deep signal, try out the filters again. I only say that because on my last hunt I am sure that sometimes the 5 band was better than the 5 high pass and vice versa (and the EMI was not there the whole time). Please report back what you find as it will help us all (especially those with ground like yours... like me!). I'll do the same. Oh yeah, I remember that Lowboy on another forum mentioned that sometimes when running correlate it changes how the filters operate (e.g. - He said something like in his ground the 10 filter was better even though the mineralization was low). Not sure if that is true but I do know that sometimes what is counter intuitive does actually work better as he said, so it is nice to just check stuff out... e.g. - I run my modulation at 2 via Jack's suggestion and it really helps with the iron and doesn't affect the targets.

Take care,
Albert

[Ytcoinshooter]

Hi Albert, Interesting scene there - and people in most instances can be very friendly and inquisitive when you are detecting. I had a German family approach me this summer while detecting along the Connecticut shoreline. I passed German in high school but really cannot converse, though pronouncing German words comes pretty good.
Wednesday was tough at that old site. It encompasses hundreds of acres. Non-ferrous finds other than twisted aluminum and more modern projectiles can be few at times. As a place to start learning the V it's fine. I stuck to the plowed areas for easy digging. Six and a half hours netted nothing remarkable. I feel ready to go into yards & parks now. I used the 12 whites coil and after two hours of no buttons or coins I decided to check the filters to see what responded best there. Instead of a natural find target I put a dime down a good 8 and filled in the hole...I almost used a holed 1 real on fishing line but forgot to take it with me. I decided to just lower disc sens to 68, leaving the rest as is. In the future I'll do the testing with a natural find (coin signal) at sites I visit. Testing all the filters showed the 10 high pass had the best repeatable response. For now I also carry the cheat sheet on the ground filtering. In that spot the ground probe showed -95, throughout the day -93 was as mild as it got. EMI is no issue there, the nearest utility pole is a half mile + away from where I park. I ran the tracking at 30 because I felt just maybe the V was overcompensating for decomposing iron the last time out. What I clearly noticed yesterday vs the last time out was the +95 response on deeper signals accompanied by a wrap on the signagraph & a high tone. Just like my XLT / DFX when signals were almost beyond accurate VDI range. We all know that a deep rusty nail can do this sometimes. To sum my approach to the V based on 25 years of using Whites detectors:
1) open the disctiminator to at least -20 thru +95
2) tweak up gain, all metal & disc sensitivities but keep stability.
3) check ground balance & tracking to avoid confusing the circuitry.
4) match ground filter for a consistent dig signal on smaller targets almost out of range.
5) always- always use tone ID & VCO. On XLT & DFX the were not on by default and I consider them essential.
The one disappointment now is the all metal sens of 65 does not cut it for pinpointing, especially if the target falls deeper into the hole once I start recovery. I'll up that next time and lift the coil up for pinpointing shallow items.
For now (IMHO) the rest of the adjustments don't figure in learning target responses.
Last, I just don't like the way my DX-1 works on the V. That's just me, I know Jack configured his trigger to work with it. My gripe is the response just isn't as crisp as I'm used to. I'll save weight too. The Garrett ProPointer is acceptable, I hope I don't lose it in the future. Got a vibraprobe (460?), and ancient Classic Target Probe as back up. The latter was a real winner in the 1980's.
I'll knock this long post off before it puts someone to sleep ;)
HH-Bruce

[del]

it doesn't put me to sleep Bruce as i still run the dfx with the same basic principals you mentioned although i do accept into the iron vdi's a little more ( +94 -35 ) , hey i was nice to see you again at the meeting last Tuesday.

[Ytcoinshooter]

On the DFX I accepted to -40 though +95. it really made a difference in hearing things near iron, it was noisy but the depth was also pretty good. I'll never forget pulling wheats and silvers from a hole with several nails. It was where a house was torn down in Newington. Vince hunted it many times and did well there. I'll start to open up the negative range on the V once I spend more time with it. A new test plot is a must. In my previous house in Farmington I had club members come over to ny test plot, that was always fun. That plot was 10 years in the ground when I moved.
Good seeing you too Tuesday!
HH-Bruce

[earthmansurfer]

Thanks for the info there Bruce. I would still like to know what your ground reads at under ground probe strength - that is the true overall mineralization level, the other is the type with the VDI number. Mine is usually near 1% or so, basically nothing. I'm just curious how things work with the strength % and the 10 filter being best - sort of try to connect logic with actual field results to better understand the machine. Oh, were you using the 10 filter before as well? I imagine your overall mineralization (strength %) is much higher than mine as I often can't get a peep out of the 10 filters.

I have always run my detectors wide open in recent years. That includes my old T2, current Omega and V3i. But, with the V3i I put the iron range at tone 0. I was running tone 5 as I like to know what is there, but I have to say, running tone 0 unmasks a little bit better, only because a slight sound breaking through silence (tone 0) is easier than a slight sound breaking through a tone of 5 or higher. To good ears it probably won't matter, but I also like the quiet hunt. I have to go back through though to make sure it really is better (for me). Very nice option to keep the discrimination circuits free and depth and unmasking high!

Good hunting,
Albert

[Ytcoinshooter]

EMS, I'll have check the ground as you indicated, strength & %. I think when I'm out there I just overlooked doing that as well. I'll have to get to where it's a routine in in setting up for a site. I'm always anxious to start swinging. The 10 high pass filter was used for the first time by me there on 11/8. Before I stuck with the default HiPro filtering, 5 high I think it was. Thanks for reminding me!
HH-Bruce