Big Boys Hobbies

All the high signals I dig up are either iron or aluminum.

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k2gleaner

Elite Member
Joined
Jan 27, 2019
Messages
519
Location
NC
Unless I go to my kids' school - where I can dig up a couple bucks in change pretty quick - I only seem to find large pieces of iron when my AT Pro rings up in the 80s and higher.

I know I have to get better at 'reading' my AT's signals, but I can't differentiate between what might be a big piece of aluminum or steel as opposed to having a piece of iron AND silver coin next to each other. Very frustrating.

I do try to swing over it in different directions and sometimes I lose the high tone - and move on - but often it's still there, so I dig.

My finds bag is getting heavy. I need a sherpa.
 
The more you dig, the more you will understand what your machine is saying. If you lift your coil off the ground 6-8 inches and still get a really high tone and the depth doesn't change, then it's a big item and you can pass on digging it.
 
I don't have an AT but my detector is good at identifying trash vs coin but..... Mine seems to like those friken twist off caps! Can give a high tone.
One tip, be sure to check ground balance often. And with DD coils you could do the wiggle and pull move. Over the target you do short sweeps back and forth, beep, beep, beep, beep while pulling coil toward your feet. When it pulls out of the detection area see if the VDI jumps more than a couple numbers. More than one or two and it's usually trash. If the VDI number stays or moved one to two numbers only, dig your coin. If you have a multi tone setting and DD coil do the wiggle pull and the sound will really change with a high to low like it's a blend of harmonics, when leaving the detection area, that's trash. My 705 does this great with deep iron , the worst enemy we run into!
 
I am not familiar with the AT pro, but that doesn't sound right for a discriminating detector. Most all modern discriminating detectors will give different signals for aluminum vs iron vs coins (pennies, dimes, quarters, etc...).

But a few notes:

a) The iron "O" rings can sometimes fool you. Also soldered can bottom (the coffee can type bottoms from the 1850s). But if you're getting fooled all the time by normal scrap iron (cast iron parts, etc...) then you're doing something wrong, or interpreting the tones wrong. Try doing a momentary speeding up of the coil-swing speed. Sometimes, by varying the swing speed: Some machines will start to "break up" the iron . Versus if it were a coin, it stays concise and clear.

b) As for aluminum: If you get a BIG ENOUGH piece of aluminum (eg.: the entire can), then yes: It will ring up at penny or quarter or whatever. But the tell-tale audio of the size, should give it away as being larger than a coin. And then you can decide if you want to pass it or not.
 
I run the AT Max and I find this happening also. One thing I have noticed is that whenever it is a coin the tone will be short and sweet. If the tone last too long then watch out. I think someone mentioned earlier that if you lift the coil up and the signal does not change much then it may be large aluminum. In this case the duration of the tone will also be long. Look for those short little blips that a small object gives.
 
My AT Pro will sound off on iron with a one way high tone and high VDI# but on the backswing the tone will go silent and the VDI reading goes way down into the iron area. A lot of aluminum will sound off in the coin area around where zinc pennies are. Either eliminate the zinc or you'll have to deal with aluminum.
Additionally you can eliminate digging some of those iron targets by using the iron audio button.
 
I've had plenty of old rusty iron and nails give off high tones with both the AT Pro and Nox.

While there are some ways to play percentages and not dig a lot of those signals, you'll never truly know if it is a coin next to a bit of iron, or if it's just a rusty nail giving off a high tone. Or, if that big, rusty, jagged piece of iron giving off a huge high tone signal is sitting right on top of a gold dollar.

If you're in an area where you're limited to shallow targets, then run the sensitivity lower. That'll clear things up a bit. I have a hunt this weekend where I can't dig anything deep. Reducing sensitivity will help me stay focused on good signals and reduce the chances of me chasing after a squeak coming off of the tip of a 6" deep rusty nail.

I had a wonderful medium deep coin signal in my backyard. I dug the plug and about 6 inches deep found a rusty nail. I removed it and the high tone was gone. I waved the nail around the coil and no high tone. I put the nail into the bottom of the hole and no high tone. Then, I pushed the nail into the wall of the hole until I could only see the surface of the nail head. Boom. The high tone reappeared. I pinched out the nail and no high tone. I pushed it into the wall of the hole in a different spot. High tone. Dirt matters.

With the Equinox, a higher number on the iron bias setting makes it assume small sketchy high tone signals near iron are also iron and reports them as such (i.e., fewer false high tones). A low iron bias number will let those high tones come through to assist in relic hunting as well as reduce the chances of missing a coin largely masked by iron. Based on my side by side comparisons, the ATPro is somewhere in between. It isn't adjustable on the ATPro. With the Nox 800 I run the lowest iron bias I can without producing near constant squeaks of high tones on iron trashy sites.

I was on a site where two large brick 1800s houses were demolished and with the iron bias on zero I had high conductor signals nearly everywhere. With iron bias set halfway, it gave off squeaks about the same as what my ATPro did.
 
k2gleaner said:
Unless I go to my kids' school - where I can dig up a couple bucks in change pretty quick - I only seem to find large pieces of iron when my AT Pro rings up in the 80s and higher.

I know I have to get better at 'reading' my AT's signals, but I can't differentiate between what might be a big piece of aluminum or steel as opposed to having a piece of iron AND silver coin next to each other. Very frustrating.

I do try to swing over it in different directions and sometimes I lose the high tone - and move on - but often it's still there, so I dig.

My finds bag is getting heavy. I need a sherpa.
Click to expand...

Lift the coil off the ground. If you are picking the signal up 12” above the ground it’s most likely big iron or a can.
 
k2gleaner said:
Unless I go to my kids' school - where I can dig up a couple bucks in change pretty quick - I only seem to find large pieces of iron when my AT Pro rings up in the 80s and higher.

I know I have to get better at 'reading' my AT's signals, but I can't differentiate between what might be a big piece of aluminum or steel as opposed to having a piece of iron AND silver coin next to each other. Very frustrating.

I do try to swing over it in different directions and sometimes I lose the high tone - and move on - but often it's still there, so I dig.

My finds bag is getting heavy. I need a sherpa.
Click to expand...

Thats how the pro works, location is key.
Alum caps sound great.
Big iron can sound great, you can size whats in the ground and lift coil to see how big object is.
Iron audio can help id if its iron.
Using headphones helps tremendously.
 
Toy soldier made a great point on soils making a difference.
There two camps or better yet, ways to hunt. Neither are wrong.
One way- Dig it all cause its the only sure way to tell what the target is.
The other way- Try to identify the target with the machine as best you can. Eliminate some digging. To one guy the most fun is to dig all and see what may surprise him. The other guy has the most fun playing with the detector, tuning, doing wiggle pull swings, and such things. To me, the latter. I love seeing how well I can ID stuff. My machine really works other than a couple targets like whole deep aluminum cans and twist offs.
2 ways to approach this ID thing. Neither style is wrong. What gives you the most fun is the right one. My detector, the Exterra 705 even has a setting called ID+ . It gives you a little more solid VDI number reading. The best method for trash vs coin for me though is the DD coils with the wiggle method. I still dig a few poor signals or say,,, one that the wiggle says trashy just to verify my style and machine is working. That's the most fun for me. Nothing to do with right or wrong.
 
CTX does it too. The more you dig the more you will figure it out. Two way sweeps is a good way but also when the squeak is in a different location than the pinpoint. Not always though as when there is iron with a silver. I dug so many little peices of iron when I first got my CTX, still dig a few and always will just to be sure. Cans give themselves away with the depth reading and the size. If the depth is reading 0in and you are at 3 with no coin or reads 1-2in and you dig to six and still nothing, that is a give away. Good luck to you, never know unless you dig.
 
Never used your machine but all I can say is the more you use it, the more you'll understand what it's telling you
 
k2gleaner said:
Unless I go to my kids' school - where I can dig up a couple bucks in change pretty quick - I only seem to find large pieces of iron when my AT Pro rings up in the 80s and higher.

I know I have to get better at 'reading' my AT's signals, but I can't differentiate between what might be a big piece of aluminum or steel as opposed to having a piece of iron AND silver coin next to each other. Very frustrating.

I do try to swing over it in different directions and sometimes I lose the high tone - and move on - but often it's still there, so I dig.

My finds bag is getting heavy. I need a sherpa.
Click to expand...

You need more use.
And do some testing with coins buried.
Size of target, it will be learned with time. Use of pinpoint, coil height raising, sweeping from different directions, tonal behavior on different angles of sweeps.
Another trick is (if you are in a place where you can use a shovel) is too put shovel in the ground say 6-7” and not lift up all the way to dig hole, just lift up a little to shift the ground matrix/iron you might be hearing in your detector. Many times after this shifting the high tone will go away when you sweep. (If iron)
Some times you can actually stomp on the spot on ground real hard and cause this shift.
You can’t do adequate testing using your detector after freshly burying iron. This won’t cause what you will see/hear while detecting in the wild.

Tonal nuance is paramount to get good at listening for to be an above average detectorist. Not all iron will sound the same way. Not all nonferrous even silver coins will sound the exaclty same way. But ferrous under your coil is odds on favorite for not sounding repetitive as far as what you will hear with controlled height and speed sweeps of your coil. As you sweep iron it will generally tonally will be altered somewhat. If you will bear down and listen carefully you’ll start to hear. Flat bigger iron tone is usually more short and blurty sounding (signal has no smoother rise and fall on edges) vs how a coin say will sound. Listen for the entire tonal spectrum given you. Don’t think of the tone as just a BEEP.

No matter how well one is at detecting, some iron will be dug with any VLF detector. Comes with the territory.

A good sign you are starting to really catch on with your detector is....if you are digging iron rings, nails that resemble fence staples shape wise. These if you aren’t digging then you likely aren’t infact not paying attention and are leaving perhaps some nice finds innthe ground.

My recommendation. Go to an old site with loads of iron. And sweep around in and listen. Rmember thereis high chance there’s always more iron and nails than there are nonferrous targets. By doing this you can listen and get a good look on what a lot of different sized iron and nails sounds like. By all means dig some of the iron and have an actual look see. And notice some of it when dug and place on top of the ground and swept won’t sound the same as before you dug.

Being to able to place good odds on iron when detecting saves you a lot of time. Time for you to actually get over a nonferous target.

Seems most folks like the pro zero mode using At Pro. I don’t have one. VLF detectors, all can alert on iron in one fashion or the other.

Good luck.

Hunting easy sites all the time will not greatly improve your detecting skills.
You must crawl before you can walk, and walk before you can run.

I find it takes about 100 hours of actual in the wild use of a detector new or strange to me to be what I call somewhat proficient with. More hours past the 100 hour mark I am really drilling down with detector. The 100 hours is spent in what I consider challenging sites, be it higher trash and or iron.

Cheers.
 
Last edited:
This is an audio Primary Sport...It takes a while to develop an attuned ear to the full Grand Orchestral Symphony of subtle nuances and the melodies of dirt Metal...In this light,

How do you get to Carnegie Hall?.....
 
k2gleaner said:
Unless I go to my kids' school - where I can dig up a couple bucks in change pretty quick - I only seem to find large pieces of iron when my AT Pro rings up in the 80s and higher.

I know I have to get better at 'reading' my AT's signals, but I can't differentiate between what might be a big piece of aluminum or steel as opposed to having a piece of iron AND silver coin next to each other. Very frustrating.

I do try to swing over it in different directions and sometimes I lose the high tone - and move on - but often it's still there, so I dig.

My finds bag is getting heavy. I need a sherpa.
Click to expand...


Hopefully your running on pro zero after about 100 hours of serching
It will click. You should get to the point where you are guessing what it is before you dig it. Remember the VDI will lie to you. Learn to trust your ears. How far have you came in the last month? Happy hunting
 
ToySoldier said:
I've had plenty of old rusty iron and nails give off high tones with both the AT Pro and Nox.

While there are some ways to play percentages and not dig a lot of those signals, you'll never truly know if it is a coin next to a bit of iron, or if it's just a rusty nail giving off a high tone. Or, if that big, rusty, jagged piece of iron giving off a huge high tone signal is sitting right on top of a gold dollar.

If you're in an area where you're limited to shallow targets, then run the sensitivity lower. That'll clear things up a bit. I have a hunt this weekend where I can't dig anything deep. Reducing sensitivity will help me stay focused on good signals and reduce the chances of me chasing after a squeak coming off of the tip of a 6" deep rusty nail.

I had a wonderful medium deep coin signal in my backyard. I dug the plug and about 6 inches deep found a rusty nail. I removed it and the high tone was gone. I waved the nail around the coil and no high tone. I put the nail into the bottom of the hole and no high tone. Then, I pushed the nail into the wall of the hole until I could only see the surface of the nail head. Boom. The high tone reappeared. I pinched out the nail and no high tone. I pushed it into the wall of the hole in a different spot. High tone. Dirt matters.

With the Equinox, a higher number on the iron bias setting makes it assume small sketchy high tone signals near iron are also iron and reports them as such (i.e., fewer false high tones). A low iron bias number will let those high tones come through to assist in relic hunting as well as reduce the chances of missing a coin largely masked by iron. Based on my side by side comparisons, the ATPro is somewhere in between. It isn't adjustable on the ATPro. With the Nox 800 I run the lowest iron bias I can without producing near constant squeaks of high tones on iron trashy sites.

I was on a site where two large brick 1800s houses were demolished and with the iron bias on zero I had high conductor signals nearly everywhere. With iron bias set halfway, it gave off squeaks about the same as what my ATPro did.
Click to expand...

hunt with a single tone analog tesoro set it to just eliminate nails, and you will never have this problem! a good candidate?..tesoro mojave.

(h.h.!)
j.t.
 
MrLostAndFound said:
Hopefully your running on pro zero after about 100 hours of serching
It will click. You should get to the point where you are guessing what it is before you dig it. Remember the VDI will lie to you. Learn to trust your ears. How far have you came in the last month? Happy hunting
Click to expand...

correct!..learn the audio!..may i suggest the wonderful single tone analog tesoro?

(h.h.!)
j.t.
 
Mud-puppy said:
This is an audio Primary Sport...It takes a while to develop an attuned ear to the full Grand Orchestral Symphony of subtle nuances and the melodies of dirt Metal...In this light,

How do you get to Carnegie Hall?.....
Click to expand...

a single tone analog tesoro will lead you to carnegie hall.
as the mud man points out, subtle audio nuances gets it done!

(h.h.!)
j.t.
 
tnsharpshooter said:
You need more use.
And do some testing with coins buried.
Size of target, it will be learned with time. Use of pinpoint, coil height raising, sweeping from different directions, tonal behavior on different angles of sweeps.
Another trick is (if you are in a place where you can use a shovel) is too put shovel in the ground say 6-7” and not lift up all the way to dig hole, just lift up a little to shift the ground matrix/iron you might be hearing in your detector. Many times after this shifting the high tone will go away when you sweep. (If iron)
Some times you can actually stomp on the spot on ground real hard and cause this shift.
You can’t do adequate testing using your detector after freshly burying iron. This won’t cause what you will see/hear while detecting in the wild.

Tonal nuance is paramount to get good at listening for to be an above average detectorist. Not all iron will sound the same way. Not all nonferrous even silver coins will sound the exaclty same way. But ferrous under your coil is odds on favorite for not sounding repetitive as far as what you will hear with controlled height and speed sweeps of your coil. As you sweep iron it will generally tonally will be altered somewhat. If you will bear down and listen carefully you’ll start to hear. Flat bigger iron tone is usually more short and blurty sounding (signal has no smoother rise and fall on edges) vs how a coin say will sound. Listen for the entire tonal spectrum given you. Don’t think of the tone as just a BEEP.

No matter how well one is at detecting, some iron will be dug with any VLF detector. Comes with the territory.

A good sign you are starting to really catch on with your detector is....if you are digging iron rings, nails that resemble fence staples shape wise. These if you aren’t digging then you likely aren’t infact not paying attention and are leaving perhaps some nice finds innthe ground.

My recommendation. Go to an old site with loads of iron. And sweep around in and listen. Rmember thereis high chance there’s always more iron and nails than there are nonferrous targets. By doing this you can listen and get a good look on what a lot of different sized iron and nails sounds like. By all means dig some of the iron and have an actual look see. And notice some of it when dug and place on top of the ground and swept won’t sound the same as before you dug.

Being to able to place good odds on iron when detecting saves you a lot of time. Time for you to actually get over a nonferous target.

Seems most folks like the pro zero mode using At Pro. I don’t have one. VLF detectors, all can alert on iron in one fashion or the other.

Good luck.

Hunting easy sites all the time will not greatly improve your detecting skills.
You must crawl before you can walk, and walk before you can run.

I find it takes about 100 hours of actual in the wild use of a detector new or strange to me to be what I call somewhat proficient with. More hours past the 100 hour mark I am really drilling down with detector. The 100 hours is spent in what I consider challenging sites, be it higher trash and or iron.

Cheers.
Click to expand...

correct! magic in the nuanced audio! ..learn the differences,
takes time,worth the effort!

(h.h.!)
j.t.
 
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