Rudy
Admin
Had a chance to go out tot lot hunting last Sunday for a few hours.
Went to a different area of the city, hoping to find something as the
areas I usually hunt have not been very good lately.
Well let me tell you, the tot lots I went to had been pounded hard!
Hardly any targets except for some zilcons down at 7 - 9 inches.
As I was ready to go home in disgust, I got this very faint whisper.
So faint I almost missed it. I took several passes and the VDI would
read between -1 and +4 and wouldn't give me a reapeatable reading.
Went to pinpoint mode and I couldn't get a reading the first two times!
Whatever this was, it was small!
I finally got a VCO signal, but no depth indicated. Wow, new one for me and my MXT.
The VCO pinpoint was extremely tight. If my 6X9 DD didn't go over the center while,
pin pointing, I would get no VCO sound at all.
Putting the clues together:
From the faint whisper in Disc mode, I reasoned that it was either a very deep target,
or a very small low conductive target (ergo the -1 to +4 VDI).
From the all-metal pin point mode I deduced it wasn't ferrous as it pinpointed very tight,
whereas ferrous objects tend to have a broader signature in pin point mode.
The lack of depth indication told me that rather than being a deep coin sized target, this
could very well be a very small and shallow one. Could be a tiny foil piece, or it could be
that elusive yellow metal we all like to find. :
So, I carefully started moving the tan bark and down about 1" I found the remains of a
very fine 14K chain and clasp. The whole thing is about 4" long and the finest (thinnest)
chain I've ever seen. It weights in at 0.7 grams and is made in Italy.
I reckon the signal I was able to get was mostly all coming from the clasp itself.
Unfortunately, I couldn't find the rest of the chain or a possible medal. I figure that when it
broke, this little piece fell off and the remainder went inside the person's shirt.
Key take aways:
When looking for gold, keep you discrimination low or you'll miss the small gold items.
Run the MXT as "hot" as possible, while still having a stable threshold or you'll miss
the whispers. In this instance, I had my MXT set at around 9.5.
The small gold pieces put out a very faint signal. If your coil's "sweet spot" doesn't go
over the target, You'll likely miss it. Overlap your sweeps, even with a DD coil.
Small gold items can produce low negative VDI numbers. If it pin points tightly, don't
assume it is ferrous and move on.
When the signal is faint, the VDI reading will not lock, so take the VDI reading as just
one of several indicators.
Be prepared to dig lots of foil.
Went to a different area of the city, hoping to find something as the
areas I usually hunt have not been very good lately.
Well let me tell you, the tot lots I went to had been pounded hard!
Hardly any targets except for some zilcons down at 7 - 9 inches.
As I was ready to go home in disgust, I got this very faint whisper.
So faint I almost missed it. I took several passes and the VDI would
read between -1 and +4 and wouldn't give me a reapeatable reading.
Went to pinpoint mode and I couldn't get a reading the first two times!
Whatever this was, it was small!
I finally got a VCO signal, but no depth indicated. Wow, new one for me and my MXT.
The VCO pinpoint was extremely tight. If my 6X9 DD didn't go over the center while,
pin pointing, I would get no VCO sound at all.
Putting the clues together:
From the faint whisper in Disc mode, I reasoned that it was either a very deep target,
or a very small low conductive target (ergo the -1 to +4 VDI).
From the all-metal pin point mode I deduced it wasn't ferrous as it pinpointed very tight,
whereas ferrous objects tend to have a broader signature in pin point mode.
The lack of depth indication told me that rather than being a deep coin sized target, this
could very well be a very small and shallow one. Could be a tiny foil piece, or it could be
that elusive yellow metal we all like to find. :
So, I carefully started moving the tan bark and down about 1" I found the remains of a
very fine 14K chain and clasp. The whole thing is about 4" long and the finest (thinnest)
chain I've ever seen. It weights in at 0.7 grams and is made in Italy.
I reckon the signal I was able to get was mostly all coming from the clasp itself.
Unfortunately, I couldn't find the rest of the chain or a possible medal. I figure that when it
broke, this little piece fell off and the remainder went inside the person's shirt.
Key take aways:
When looking for gold, keep you discrimination low or you'll miss the small gold items.
Run the MXT as "hot" as possible, while still having a stable threshold or you'll miss
the whispers. In this instance, I had my MXT set at around 9.5.
The small gold pieces put out a very faint signal. If your coil's "sweet spot" doesn't go
over the target, You'll likely miss it. Overlap your sweeps, even with a DD coil.
Small gold items can produce low negative VDI numbers. If it pin points tightly, don't
assume it is ferrous and move on.
When the signal is faint, the VDI reading will not lock, so take the VDI reading as just
one of several indicators.
Be prepared to dig lots of foil.
