Need some nickel VDI help

[Cherry Picker]

I'm having a tough time zeroing in on the nickel VDI for both my Legend coin-only program, and my Equinox 800 coin-only program. I do better with the Equinox 800 because if I get a VDI of 13-14 so far, it tends to be a nickel. But I still get a pull tab in the mix. With the Legend nickel seems to come in at 25-27, but so do some pull tabs. So far, more pull tabs than nickels.

So the Legend has 60 target ID segments, counting the 10 iron, and the NOX 800 has 50 counting the 10 iron. I know some people don't think this makes much difference, and it probably doesn't with the exception of us Cherry Pickers, but my Deus with 100 I get a correct nickel ID close to 80% of the time. I usually find more nickels than pennies with the Deus using my coin-only program. But that is to be expected with double the TID segments. I need to know if I can get a better nickel to pull tab ratio with the Legend and NOX 800. Any suggestions?

Legend Notching: reject 0-24 accept 25 & 26 reject 27-39 accept 40 and above
NOX 800 Notch: reject 0-12 accept 13 & 14 reject 15-19 accept 20 and above

 

[stetam]

My Nox will hit 12-13 on nickels and headstamps pretty much all the time. When I get a 12-14 its 80% pull tab. FYI I do not notch anything out as you will miss A LOT of good stuff. My legend is usually 25-26

Steve

 

[Cherry Picker]

My Nox will hit 12-13 on nickels and headstamps pretty much all the time. When I get a 12-14 its 80% pull tab. FYI I do not notch anything out as you will miss A LOT of good stuff. My legend is usually 25-26

Steve

My detecting time is very short because of health issues. It is getting better, but for a long time, 15 to 20 minutes was my limit before I had to stop and go home for recovery time. I have to make the best of every minute I'm out. I've done my years of digging it all and now I just do it for fun. The fun doesn't last very long, so it needs to be good. If I get a good coin-onyl program I can choose to only recover the very deep coins which gives me much better odds of a keeper. At the city park anything shallower than 7" is almost always clad. I listen for the faint deep peeps in the coin range

 

[markinmichigan]

Pull tabs in Park M3 start around 28 and go up to 32 from my experience. Nickels always 25-27. Bottle caps are my biggest nemesis, they can sound amazing and fool me often. Caps usually have a scratchy sound starting around 40 up to 46 and it drives me crazy. I have 1 solid year on the Legend and can usually call the target.

I always stop and double check anything over a 42. Keep swinging.

Mark in Michigan

 

[LovestheShiny!]

I hunt with guys that have used the Box 600 and 800. Older nickels like Buffaloes and "V" nickels can ring up asa 12 so I would not notch that number out.

 

[SirDigsALOT!]

I really been nailing the nickels with the Legend now. They are in that sweet spot at 26. I noticed they are faint even at the surface or deeper. Pulltabs are always (well mostly) bouncy from 25 - 32 and louder to me. They still fool me though.

Mark I upped the bottle caps rejection at 4 I think now rarely dig them.

 

[Diga]

Sweet spot for nickels for me on the Legend is 26. Most rectangular pulltabs are 27-32. Mystery stuff is 33-39 lol. 40 and above is usually coins.

 

[SirDigsALOT!]

And all the sprinkler heads are 17 - 21 lol.

 

[markinswpa]

I'm having a tough time zeroing in on the nickel VDI for both my Legend coin-only program, and my Equinox 800 coin-only program. I do better with the Equinox 800 because if I get a VDI of 13-14 so far, it tends to be a nickel. But I still get a pull tab in the mix. With the Legend nickel seems to come in at 25-27, but so do some pull tabs. So far, more pull tabs than nickels.

So the Legend has 60 target ID segments, counting the 10 iron, and the NOX 800 has 50 counting the 10 iron. I know some people don't think this makes much difference, and it probably doesn't with the exception of us Cherry Pickers, but my Deus with 100 I get a correct nickel ID close to 80% of the time. I usually find more nickels than pennies with the Deus using my coin-only program. But that is to be expected with double the TID segments. I need to know if I can get a better nickel to pull tab ratio with the Legend and NOX 800. Any suggestions?

Legend Notching: reject 0-24 accept 25 & 26 reject 27-39 accept 40 and above
NOX 800 Notch: reject 0-12 accept 13 & 14 reject 15-19 accept 20 and above

So Terry, I'm with Stetam on not notching any thing out. However using pitch and volume can keep all targets in play but bring desired signals to the forefront. Course you already know this, I was chasing cheerleaders when you started Md'ing. Anyway lets go back to the 800 for a minute. In 5 tone bin 2 I set at 11-12-13. The factory pitch is 6. I like that, very pronounced. There are those out there recommending to raise the pitch to 25. IMO all those pulltabs, beavertails will cause ear fatigue, sensory overload hearing all those high tones. Save the 25 pitch for high conductors. Now if you set the volume for bin 1 at 2, the vol for bin2 at 25, 3 at 18, 4 at 21 and 25 for 5 you have the nickel/midtones jumping out at you as well as the high conductors..

Now we have the Legend. I prefer 6 tones. And after 6 years of using the Equinox's 8 -900s I like and am used to the tones. So I try to match them as closely as, in my ear, possible. So I had to adjust the pitch in bin 3 to 6, which means I had to lower bins 1 &2 to a pitch of 1 & 3 respectively. 4 being at 14, 5 at 20 and 6 at 28. I found the pitch of 30 to be a little scratchy for bin 6.
The volumes I have set is bin1is 1 bin 2 -2 bin 3 -10 bin 4 is 3 and 5 is 8 and 6 is 10. Now, like the Equinox I have a very pronounced, loud mid-tone and a loud high tone, still keeping all targets in play but inconsequential unless I choose to pay more attention to them.
Set like that I am clobbering nickels like I did with the 900 which eclipsed the 800 on the the nickel/ mid-tones.
That said in my soil the magic number for nickels is 25. Every nickel with the exception of 2 has been a solid 25 or a 24-25. One Buff was a 22-23, almost all 22-23-24s are beavertails, and a 27-28 had a wheat in with it. 26-27s 28-29s have been full pultabs of some sort or other. One more thing I might add, there is, at least in my old ears, a nuance in the tones on some of the targets. I will say I'm looking forward to see what this machine is capable of.

 

[Cherry Picker]

While I find the Legend & Equinox 800 pretty well matched in ability, they are for sure different.

Over the years I've met 2 other detectorists hunting the city park, but they were from out of town. Just taking the family on vacation to famous old Dodge City. They were probably hearing a lot of targets. My buddies and I have cherry picked the park for the last 35 years. If you run no discrimination/notching it is a blanket of targets. I have taken everything but the Manticore & 900 through the parkwith 6" to 13" coils hoping to get a bit more, but, at this point, the E-Trac seems to still bring home the bacon. There are lots of great coins waiting to be recovered. This I can say with confidence.

I'm able to spend several hours hunting and probably recover 10-20 targets. Just last year I was lucky to be out for 30 minutes and recover 5 targets. I have the Deus, a Legend, and the Equinox 800. They all have pretty much the same ability, but I prefer the Deus in my tot lots. The ergonomics are just made for me, but the small screen makes my cherry picking harder with my eyes not what they used to be. This is why I got the Legend & 800. Loving the 800 GUI over the Legend, but I like the Legend's snappy response. Works well in the park conditions.

The best cherry picker I got is still my E-Trac at this time. Of course, it has 1,500 TID segments. My coin-only program gets me pretty much nothing but coins. What I like is it can hit a 10" coin between all the other stuff and I know it. I just can't swing a 6lb detector anymore. If Minelba could only give me a 3lb E-Trac LOL.

I may be expecting the impossible out of the Legend and 800. Only having 50-60 TID segments may limit the ability to distinguish a nickel from a pull tab.

 

[jmaclen]

This 1911 US Barber silver dime was recovered yesterday, February 14th 2024. It is a little worn and weighs 2.24 grams. It was 10" deep. The Fisher F-Pulse pinpointer's total length is 9.5" and it does not reach the top of the hole. The 8" (20.5 cm) mark is clearly visible on the side of the pinpointer if you enlarge the photo.

I had my Deus 2 with 13X11" coil and Manticore with 11" coil with me at the time. Both detectors could detect this deep coin. There was aluminum and iron trash very close by this target and I had to remove those targets first just to make sure that this target was legitimate. Even after removing those adjacent shallower targets, the dime still had "iffy" responses but I had both detectors setup well for high conductor target recovery for the soil conditions at this location. Both detectors indicated a possible deep high conductor coin from the audio responses and from their target ID tendencies.

I have also recovered 8 to 10" deep US wheat pennies and silver US dimes at this location with the Equinox 800 11" coil and the Legend with the 11" LG28 coil running them in Park 1 and Park M1, iron bias/iron filter on 1, recovery speed 4 or 5, iron volume ON, but with no notching and only the first 2 or 3 iron target IDs rejected to take care of ground noise coming from the magnetite mineralization at this location.







I usually run my Legend with a US nickel/medium sized gold ring tone bin that includes target IDs 24-27. Most US nickels that are in the surface to 6" depth range here have target IDs of 25 or 26 if they are easily detectable and are not having their target IDs polluted by nearby targets. Deeper than 6" their target ID range can widen to 24 or 27. Those target IDs can change by one number sometimes due to ground balance not being quite right too here. Most of the smaller undamaged rectangular pull tabs I recover have a target ID of 22 to 24. The smaller, more recent undamaged oval pull tabs start at 27 and cross that tone break with multiple sweeps. Damaged ones can be anywhere and overlap those nickel target IDs and so can detached beaver tails from the older pull rings and freshness seals from modern pop cans

I had the same experience with the Equinox 800. I set a US nickel tone bin that included 11, 12 and 13. I saw nickels come in at all of those numbers depending on depth, adjacent targets and ground balance. I rarely saw a nickel have a 14 ID. There are lots of regulary encountered aluminum, lead, brass and gold targets that share those IDs unfortunately.

I agree with CherryPicker. I think the Legend has some very descriptive audio capabilities if recovery speed isn't too low or too high for the conditions.

From my experience, the LG 28 coil does not have consistent target IDs at different places on the coil. When I really want to get the most accurate target ID on a borderline target, I make sure to pinpoint that target with the onboard pinpoint function so that I can really center the coil over it and recheck the target ID. That resulting target ID or range of IDs is usually very dependable for a dig/no dig decision.

 

[Rattlehead]

On my Nox 800 most nickels came in at the 12-13 TID range. However, older/worn/deeper nickels would occasionally ring up as a solid 11. Shield nickels are actually slightly smaller in diameter than all of the others, which probably accounts for them ringing up lower. TID 14 has always been mostly pull tabs in my soil. I think I did get one war nickel that rang up 14. Anyway, if you're going for older nickels you might want to include 11 & 12 in your accepted range.

 

[longbow62]

The most sure fire way to know I had a nickel with the Equinox was depth. I only care about digging old nickels anyway. I had plenty of deep V nickels ring up 11-12, and sometimes even 10. I have a mid tone bin 10-13 with the volume jacked. The 14-18 bin the volume is lowered quite a bit. The 19-40 bin has the volume turned way up. Nothing on the detector is notched out though.

 

[sube]

When I run the nox 800 which is not very often 12 to 13 was a nickel and once in a while a ring from a pull-tab a 13 to 14 was a pull-tab but a solid 14 both ways was a silver nickel sometimes . As to getting best ID you have to center coil as others have said . sube

 

[sube]

On my Nox 800 most nickels came in at the 12-13 TID range. However, older/worn/deeper nickels would occasionally ring up as a solid 11. Shield nickels are actually slightly smaller in diameter than all of the others, which probably accounts for them ringing up lower. TID 14 has always been mostly pull tabs in my soil. I think I did get one war nickel that rang up 14. Anyway, if you're going for older nickels you might want to include 11 & 12 in your accepted range.

All nickels are the same diameter the only difference in nickels would be the V nickel it was 1.7 millimeters.thick compared to the other nickels which were 1.9 millimeters thick but all nickels are the same diameter . sube

 

[Cherry Picker]

When I run the nox 800 which is not very often 12 to 13 was a nickel and once in a while a ring from a pull-tab a 13 to 14 was a pull-tab but a solid 14 both ways was a silver nickel sometimes . As to getting best ID you have to center coil as others have said . sube

That seems to be the case with me. I see most nickels at 12-13 and most pull tabs at 13-14

 

[bottlecap4u]

I don't notch on my Nox but do run it on a -3 accept/reject. All depends on the site I dig, depth and tone whether I dig typically trashy numbers (up to 12, 14-19, big tone 20-22s and can slaw numbers. Parks, I typically ignore, unless depth and tone give me hints it might be something good, but private permissions, I dig it all. Good example is I generally ignore IHP signals 16-20 in parks, particularly at shallow depths but always dig these on older permission sites.

 

[sube]

On my Nox 800 most nickels came in at the 12-13 TID range. However, older/worn/deeper nickels would occasionally ring up as a solid 11. Shield nickels are actually slightly smaller in diameter than all of the others, which probably accounts for them ringing up lower. TID 14 has always been mostly pull tabs in my soil. I think I did get one war nickel that rang up 14. Anyway, if you're going for older nickels you might want to include 11 & 12 in your accepted range.

I looked it up some say the same some say smaller I wonder what it is lol. sube

 

[Rattlehead]

I looked it up some say the same some say smaller I wonder what it is lol. sube

Definitely a fuzz smaller. I first read it online a few years ago, then compared some of the ones I've found. Its not much at all, but a slight difference. 20.5mm vs 21.2mm.

 

[Cherry Picker]

Definitely a fuzz smaller. I first read it online a few years ago, then compared some of the ones I've found. Its not much at all, but a slight difference. 20.5mm vs 21.2mm.

View attachment 591559

So I might want to think about dropping my nickel notch down to 10-14 on the 800, and 22-26 on the Legend. But I would rather miss some shielded nickels than end up spending a lot of my time recovering more tabs.