Nails...lots and lots of nails.

FliesOnly

Senior Member
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Apr 26, 2019
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313
Location
Middle of Michigan
I’m searching a piece of property that had a home, barn, and an “outbuilding” (of some sort) on it…all from the early 1900s through the early 80s. All that remains are the foundations...the structures are long gone. I alternate the settings on my Ace 300 between “Jewelry” and “Coins”. So far I’ve found a few new coins, and nothing even remotely close to jewelry…unless you want to count a large (and seemingly old) horseshoe as jewelry, I guess. What I have found, however, are nails. If you're thinking of adding an addition to your home…don’t buy any nails. Send me a message and I’ll send ya mine. Jumpin Je$us on a pogo stick, I think I’ve found enough nails to rebuild the house and the barn. I’m still working the property, so I’ll probably soon have enough nails to rebuild the outbuilding as well.
What I don’t feel, is confident enough to ignore any “beeps” that I’m “sure” will be just another nail…cuz…well…maybe it won’t be? How long did it take you experienced hunters to feel confident in ignoring “beeps” cuz you know it’ll be junk? Or, do you still pretty much dig every beep you hear?
 
Don't feel bad.......some years ago I hunted a house built in 1795 and all I dug that day was nails. :laughing: Now, at age 73 I ignore low end signals and don't worry that I might miss something.
 
You are digging a nail bed. If you "dig everything" in a debris field full of nails you will drive yourself crazy. If you detect back and forth over the area walking in different direction sometimes you can pick out high tones in between all the nails.
 
... on my Ace 300 ...


The Ace 300, as with any modern coin-detector, should be able to effortlessly discriminate out nails. You shouldn't be digging any iron nails. So are you talking about copper or brass nails ? Or iron nails ? Iron nails should be easily distinguishable. Are you in disc. mode ? Or all-metal mode ?

Granted : If you disc. out iron nails, then you'll likely mask over any conductive targets beneath them. For that type-task, you can get various 2-filter Tesoros, or an old Compass 77b. They can often-time get a hint of conductive targets beneath a nail or two.
 
Thanks for the info. I have the detector set on either Jewelry or Coin mode, which I thought would eliminate most of the iron targets, and my tones are often up in the mid 80s-low 90s...so I dig..and I swear I find another nail.

To be honest though, I don't really keep any notes on what I find at any given spot based on the tone I'm getting, so I could be incorrectly remembering what the tone was when I dug yet another nail...but I swear I'm still getting nails even with high pitched tones. Should I keep a log book of some sort, writing down the frequency of the tone, and then what I find there...at least until I get better at this?
 
The Ace 300, as with any modern coin-detector, should be able to effortlessly discriminate out nails. You shouldn't be digging any iron nails. So are you talking about copper or brass nails ? Or iron nails ? Iron nails should be easily distinguishable. Are you in disc. mode ? Or all-metal mode ?

Granted : If you disc. out iron nails, then you'll likely mask over any conductive targets beneath them. For that type-task, you can get various 2-filter Tesoros, or an old Compass 77b. They can often-time get a hint of conductive targets beneath a nail or two.

I can assure you that I can find plenty of old rusty nails with both the ATPro or the Equinox. High tones. Usually, the high tone signal is very, very small which suggests it isn't a coin, but rather hitting off the tip of the nail or the head of the nail. I can turn on iron audio to see if the high tone bleeds into the low tone, which suggests no separation (i.e., it's the same object).

Other times I get fooled and dig them. These are usually bent 90 degrees or more.
 
an Nox 800 with a six in coil might be able to pick out the good stuff among the nails. Or in theory it should be. I have a 6" coin on my 800 but have not given it a good test among the nails. Proper iron balance setting is supposed to help.
 
After taking some advice (in another thread relating to false positives), I was able to cut back drastically on the number of nails I dug up. And then, after finding quite a few coins from the 60s, 70s, and 80s, I finally found my first 1940s Wheat Penny!! I was very excited. If nothing else, I feel "rich"...on the inside. :)
 
Congrats on the tenacity and nabbing a wheat cent. I get fooled by nails with the Nox at this one spot. It’s so full of iron, if I turn on all metal, it’s like a constant bass beat swinging. And every once in awhile I’ll get a high tone off the end of iron, and have to make the call wether to dig or not. I mostly do dig it. Once it was a silver dime....
 
When I was running an ACE 250, I was getting horrible results doing what sounds like the same thing as you..

Someone gave me this tip, and I was extremely happy with my results following the advice..

As you are swinging (say east to west) and you get a good signal, check it again by swinging perpendicular (north to south) if the numbers or icons jump around or are way different it's probably junk..

Could you miss some good things, yes, but don't sweat it, because you are constantly moving on to more good things. You'll never get it all anyway, might as well have fun digging good stuff as much as possible..

Good luck..

<°)))>{
 
I’m searching a piece of property that had a home, barn, and an “outbuilding” (of some sort) on it…all from the early 1900s through the early 80s. All that remains are the foundations...the structures are long gone. I alternate the settings on my Ace 300 between “Jewelry” and “Coins”. So far I’ve found a few new coins, and nothing even remotely close to jewelry…unless you want to count a large (and seemingly old) horseshoe as jewelry, I guess. What I have found, however, are nails. If you're thinking of adding an addition to your home…don’t buy any nails. Send me a message and I’ll send ya mine. Jumpin Je$us on a pogo stick, I think I’ve found enough nails to rebuild the house and the barn. I’m still working the property, so I’ll probably soon have enough nails to rebuild the outbuilding as well.
What I don’t feel, is confident enough to ignore any “beeps” that I’m “sure” will be just another nail…cuz…well…maybe it won’t be? How long did it take you experienced hunters to feel confident in ignoring “beeps” cuz you know it’ll be junk? Or, do you still pretty much dig every beep you hear?

Considering where you are, maybe it’s just because I’ve already been to that spot and cleaned out all the good stuff! :lol:
 
A nox 800 with a 6 inch coil will slice right through those nails and reveal good targets underneath and Around Those nails
 
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