I'm a real rookie that gets out off and on with my F2. I find fun in lots of my finds but my primary target is coins. I've been at this for two years but can go months without a search. I've gotten out for a few hours over the past month or so. I typically set the discrimation for iron and foil. I usually dig all repeatable, localizing signals. Lately I have passed on signals in my neighbor's lawn that I was pretty sure were pull tabs but most of the time I decide that's what it is and go ahead and dig them. Yet of all the coins I have found I think I have found only two nickels. Why?
No nickels
- Thread starter clm
- Start date
I started out on an F2 and I did not find many nickels either (at least in comparison to other coin denominations). Digger27, a fellow forum member and master of the F2, said the following on another blog:
"I have to mention that in the higher end coins like zinc or copper cents, dimes quarters and above the tones, VDI numbers and depth bars are usually stable...but on nickels this is not always the case. As you get lower in the discrimination areas it seems the F2 is not quite as sharp as it is on the high end for some reason and I have dug nickels all over the place in the past that were above and below my regular 33 number and even some that jumped more than my 2 number rule...but that is just something we need to understand and deal with."
This was my experience as well.
Here's the link I quoted Digger27 from:
http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/fisher-research-labs/401273-f2-gold-nickels-pull-tabs.html
"I have to mention that in the higher end coins like zinc or copper cents, dimes quarters and above the tones, VDI numbers and depth bars are usually stable...but on nickels this is not always the case. As you get lower in the discrimination areas it seems the F2 is not quite as sharp as it is on the high end for some reason and I have dug nickels all over the place in the past that were above and below my regular 33 number and even some that jumped more than my 2 number rule...but that is just something we need to understand and deal with."
This was my experience as well.
Here's the link I quoted Digger27 from:
http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/fisher-research-labs/401273-f2-gold-nickels-pull-tabs.html
Coinshark
Elite Member
Its the discrimination.....on mine machine, it helps skip on the bottle tops, pull tabs, and iron objects.
This unfortunately also tunes out the nickels range in most cases. If you use the discrimination, you have a large chance on missing out on nickels....if your machine can adjust the discrimination and it's only partly on, you still may miss nickels deeper than 2-3 inches.
(You could be missing out on small rings as well.)
This unfortunately also tunes out the nickels range in most cases. If you use the discrimination, you have a large chance on missing out on nickels....if your machine can adjust the discrimination and it's only partly on, you still may miss nickels deeper than 2-3 inches.
(You could be missing out on small rings as well.)
Semtav
Elite Member
My mxt all pro is the same way.i am starting to find a few but they are so close to a pull tab it's really hard to tell the difference.
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BlackRain
Elite Member
Pull tabs and nickles vdi the same or close to it, so if you are skipping tabs, you could very well be missing nickels
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DIGGER27
In Memory Of
Some don't find a lot of nickels ever, others find a ton.
They are out there, maybe less than dimes, copper cents, hated zincolns and who knows, maybe even quarters but they are there.
The problem is even though many come in exactly where they should solid and stable this coin is just weird compared to others so they can be missed for many reasons.
Many are not a solid and right on as most other coins for some reason which I assume has to do with the metal they are made of.
I have found them at nickel, below nickel numbers and even higher, once I found a shallow one that was into the 40's with nothing else around that I could see.
They come in near areas where smaller can slaw pieces and sta tabs do and many avoid digging lots of extra signals in that area.
I have found many in coin spills...these are combo signals that many times can be trash area numbers and also avoided lots of times.
If you dig all signals logic says you should find more than your current two.
If you dig all signals from the mid to high 20's to the mid 30's you should find more.
If you don't want to dig everything but just dig the more solid signals that I ended up doing, no more than a 3 number jump, and dig every number in the nickel range you should find more.
If you use a sniper coil it makes it easier to find more solid signals in the nickel area especially in trash...so you should find more.
If you are a gold hunter like me and tend to do all these things along with digging some extra nickel area numbers even if jumpy just to be sure...you should find more.
Curiously, there are a few extra things I learned about nickels and especially regarding Fishers over the years.
Nickel area gold that is dead on exactly like a nickel still seems to come in a bit more stable than an actual nickel.
Fishers, among a few other brands, seem to love nickels and in air testing and also the real world can hit them deeper than even quarters sometimes.
The upper end Fishers up average all signals around iron so if anything including a nickel is near a piece of iron or you hunt in iron oxide rich red dirt nickel numbers can soar high and the deeper they are the higher those numbers can get.
The F2 could do this too but I didn't know about that when I used it so that high numbered nickel I mentioned could have been near iron on that one but I had iron knocked out so I didn't notice at the time.
Here in Bama in my dirt my normal 32 or so nickels come in from the high 80's to low 90's if they are 6" or more in depth every time with my F70.
V nicks, buffs, modern Washington's....all of them.
Also as good as I was at finding nickels from the get go when I got the F70 it seemed I was finding a whole lot more than usual and I attribute this to one thing...I was using the 4H tone choice for a long time which is pretty much like the 4 tones on the F2 but it changes all nickel numbers to high tones like dimes.
All of a sudden I was finding lots of extra nickels everywhere and I believe it was that high tone that did it.
I think we are just attuned to noticing high tones more than the lower ones because they are a bit rarer than the low to mid tones because so many kinds of extra trash comes in lower than dimes or even zinc for that matter.
If your senses were as attuned to mid tones as well as the high tones you would probably be finding more nickels, also...but we are just not built that way.
Just a theory but it seems logical to me.
Below is a pic of the clad I found the first 10 months spent in this hobby hunting mostly just public parks and even though I was fairly new at this and learning several machines I still found more than my share of nickels.
The first three months I was using a low end BH unit with problems and with which I barely broke $30, a Vaquero full time for 4 months, a Compadre on and off for a few months later in the year but an F2 was so much fun to use while learning it even with only about 4 months of hunting it found at least half of the clad in that pic...maybe more.
The F2 just zeros in and locks on coins well for some reason, among most other targets.
By the way, I also used to knock out iron 99% of the time with the F2 but never, ever foil.
If I did there would have been many gold rings and silver chains I never would have found if I did.
You would be surprised at how much great stuff comes in at foil and for me starting at that 24 number.
I am talking some small yellow gold rings but also some really large white gold rings...with diamonds.
To this day using my F70 even when I do use disc I rarely go above 23...you can miss way too much great treasure if you do.
They are out there, maybe less than dimes, copper cents, hated zincolns and who knows, maybe even quarters but they are there.
The problem is even though many come in exactly where they should solid and stable this coin is just weird compared to others so they can be missed for many reasons.
Many are not a solid and right on as most other coins for some reason which I assume has to do with the metal they are made of.
I have found them at nickel, below nickel numbers and even higher, once I found a shallow one that was into the 40's with nothing else around that I could see.
They come in near areas where smaller can slaw pieces and sta tabs do and many avoid digging lots of extra signals in that area.
I have found many in coin spills...these are combo signals that many times can be trash area numbers and also avoided lots of times.
If you dig all signals logic says you should find more than your current two.
If you dig all signals from the mid to high 20's to the mid 30's you should find more.
If you don't want to dig everything but just dig the more solid signals that I ended up doing, no more than a 3 number jump, and dig every number in the nickel range you should find more.
If you use a sniper coil it makes it easier to find more solid signals in the nickel area especially in trash...so you should find more.
If you are a gold hunter like me and tend to do all these things along with digging some extra nickel area numbers even if jumpy just to be sure...you should find more.
Curiously, there are a few extra things I learned about nickels and especially regarding Fishers over the years.
Nickel area gold that is dead on exactly like a nickel still seems to come in a bit more stable than an actual nickel.
Fishers, among a few other brands, seem to love nickels and in air testing and also the real world can hit them deeper than even quarters sometimes.
The upper end Fishers up average all signals around iron so if anything including a nickel is near a piece of iron or you hunt in iron oxide rich red dirt nickel numbers can soar high and the deeper they are the higher those numbers can get.
The F2 could do this too but I didn't know about that when I used it so that high numbered nickel I mentioned could have been near iron on that one but I had iron knocked out so I didn't notice at the time.
Here in Bama in my dirt my normal 32 or so nickels come in from the high 80's to low 90's if they are 6" or more in depth every time with my F70.
V nicks, buffs, modern Washington's....all of them.
Also as good as I was at finding nickels from the get go when I got the F70 it seemed I was finding a whole lot more than usual and I attribute this to one thing...I was using the 4H tone choice for a long time which is pretty much like the 4 tones on the F2 but it changes all nickel numbers to high tones like dimes.
All of a sudden I was finding lots of extra nickels everywhere and I believe it was that high tone that did it.
I think we are just attuned to noticing high tones more than the lower ones because they are a bit rarer than the low to mid tones because so many kinds of extra trash comes in lower than dimes or even zinc for that matter.
If your senses were as attuned to mid tones as well as the high tones you would probably be finding more nickels, also...but we are just not built that way.
Just a theory but it seems logical to me.
Below is a pic of the clad I found the first 10 months spent in this hobby hunting mostly just public parks and even though I was fairly new at this and learning several machines I still found more than my share of nickels.
The first three months I was using a low end BH unit with problems and with which I barely broke $30, a Vaquero full time for 4 months, a Compadre on and off for a few months later in the year but an F2 was so much fun to use while learning it even with only about 4 months of hunting it found at least half of the clad in that pic...maybe more.
The F2 just zeros in and locks on coins well for some reason, among most other targets.
By the way, I also used to knock out iron 99% of the time with the F2 but never, ever foil.
If I did there would have been many gold rings and silver chains I never would have found if I did.
You would be surprised at how much great stuff comes in at foil and for me starting at that 24 number.
I am talking some small yellow gold rings but also some really large white gold rings...with diamonds.
To this day using my F70 even when I do use disc I rarely go above 23...you can miss way too much great treasure if you do.
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brushog65
Full Member
I went a long time without finding any nickels with my at-pro because I would usually not dig numbers down in the 30's coin hunting. Once I started digging those I was amazed at how many nickels I found.
rob.ream258
Elite Member
Take a nickel and put it out on the ground so you can run your coil over it and see where it's reading on your discrimination. Set your discrimination down until you get a strong reading on the nickel. Now, try burying one 3-4 inches down and see if you can pick it up with that setting. If not, you will have to adjust down until it is a strong reading. Hunt with that disc. setting and you will start to find nickels. I usually find nickels about half the frequency of dimes, but it depends on the site.
Good Luck in your quest!
Good Luck in your quest!
DiamondDan
Junior Member
Not sure how you're missing nickels with that machine. I run its little brother, the m6, and nickels pretty much have their own tone. I always find a ton of em.
Semtav
Elite Member
Probably cause I'm a slow learner !! I am starting to catch a few. I know its a little deeper tone when I do find one.
Ohiodigger
Elite Member
I use the MXT, its not the all pro though and i find tons of nickels, they always ring up 18 or 20 on the VDI, and pull tabs ring up 22......I have never found a nickel that wasnt 18 or 20...usually 18...
I'll keep trying. Thanks again.
BlackRain
Elite Member
You should get a nickel and a couple different pull tabs and compare them....
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hikingthehills
Full Member
10-4, don't forget gold as well. The gold ring I fold a couple weeks ago on the Atpro rang a steady 50-51. That is the same exact number for pul ltabs and nickles.
I found a lot of nickels. Think my record inland was 38 if I remember correctly on one hunt.
Florida Tabdigger
Elite Member
I find lots on nickels, they ID at 18. the beaver tail of pull tabs also ID as 18. square tabs at 24-25 and full tabs as 32+. I use no discrimination so no signals get chopped or distorted. That's the best way to hunt in my humble opinion. If your not getting nickels, then I would love to rehunt your sites. 
TabZilla
Forum Supporter
Never used a fisher yet, but with my Tesoros the nickel has the smoothest soft tone. Unmistakable most times.
Noah
Noah
Semtav
Elite Member
I found a V nickel today. That was the sweetest Nickel sound I've heard. Knew it right away. just didn't know which nickle. but was hoping for a V. forgot to look at the VDI
