IDXMonster
Elite Member
Everything I say here will be MY experiences in MY area while looking for items that particularly appeal to ME. This thread is NOT meant to be a discussion of why I should be doing things different,rather...what works for ME and what I’ve experienced with the machine. I’ll also preface this by saying...if someone told me that this machine would find me an additional 140+ silver coins THIS YEAR out of mostly the same sites I’ve hunted for the past 6 years,I would’ve told them I was VERY doubtful about that. The following is about HOW I did it,and WHY I feel the CTX was instrumental in doing so.
Firstly..I’m not a deer hunter. Of the guys I’ve talked with,their goal is to bag something very specific,i.e. a big buck with a big rack! Nobody I know is opposed to a “big rack”! These guys are not going to go shoot a deer the size of Ol’ Yeller. Many of these guys will go without shooting a deer for 2-3 seasons straight because although they SAW many,none were up to their standard. It takes a lot of discipline to NOT squeeze that trigger,and (most of) these guys have discipline!
It’s no different when I go detecting. I’m looking for something very specific,which are silver coins. If I happen to trip over an LC or a nice deep silver ring in the process,that’s good too! But,my PRIMARY TARGET is the silver coin. In order to heighten my chances of finding these,I have to do some things in order to skew the odds in my favor. Even though I hunt very hard and put many hours into detecting,there are only so many hours in a day.
The first,and BY FAR the most important thing I do is look for a site that has had 75+ years of activity. I want the site to have had 20+ years of people running around and losing silver coins...til they went out of production in 1964. Even though a site that was built in 1957 likely has a few silvers, in order to skew the odds in my favor,the site must be older than that.
Another one of the things I do is to have a tight pattern. On the CTX,my main hunting screen has 35-50 CO open,as well as 0-25 FE open. I also run in Combined Tones,and set that one singular “bin” to 1200 khz. If I’m looking for ONE THING,I want ONE SOUND. That sound tells me I’m onto something,and to investigate! With the CTX,I rely much more on the CONSISTENCY of the response while sweeping,and the consistency of the numbers.
Using the DEPTH METER has become a staple of my detecting method. In order for it to be of use(and it’s not possible ALL of the time)the target has to be centered. If I’m off center,the meter will show a deeper depth than the target really is,defeating its purpose. If I have determined wheats and silver to be 6” or more,I will NOT dig a target shallower than that UNLESS the numbers are straight up “silver numbers”. I have found the CTX to be THAT ACCURATE.
The last really main thing about my method is using a huge coil. I hunt as many old ball fields as possible,because those have been the biggest and most consistent producers of ultra-deep silver coins. The 17” coil on the CTX can get heavy if I’m not digging a coin at least every 10 minutes,so in addition to the coil I use a harness. It makes hunting MUCH more comfortable,and that in return allows me to concentrate fully on what the machine is doing,along with proper overlapping and sweeping. I have found AT LEAST 80-90% of my silver coins with the 17” coil.
In this last part,I’m just going to supply my settings that I use EVERY TIME I hunt a ball field. Some of it could be changed to optimize the machine in different sites,but this is my GO-TO setup. Again,this is what has gotten(and kept) me in the deep silver game around here. I’m sure there is more silver to find with different methods,coils and sites...
Coins mode
Pattern 1...35-50 CO open,0-25 FE open (see first pic)
Pattern 2...Fully open in case I want to check something(hardly needed for ME)
Tone Profile...1200khz for area that’s open in Pattern 1
Response...Normal
Fast...Off
Deep...Off
Seawater...Off
Target Separation...High Trash
Pinpoint...Sizing
Sensitivity...Auto+3
Volume Gain...30
Threshold Level...Just audible
Volume Limit...30
Threshold Pitch...15
Target Trace...Off
Target Trace Pinpoint...Off
Enable Ground Balance...Unchecked
In all reality,what I’ve been able to do with the CTX flies in the face of a lot of advice that’s floated around for decades...”the more you dig,the more silver you find”. I haven’t found that to be true. AT ALL. I have found the LESS I dig,the more silvers I find,because what I AM digging has a very high possibility of being silver in the first place,due to firstly the age and type of site,and secondly because the machine has VERY accurate ID,even on extremely deep silver coins.
TIP!...When using High Trash Separation,I find that the CO numbers will be a bit more spread between a copper penny and a silver dime,especially when in the 8-10” range. FE/Coin may give a 12-44 at 9”,indicating it could be either copper or silver, while High Trash may give a 15-46 at 9”,indicating a much better chance that it’s a silver coin. This is just what has happened to ME,and accounts for a great deal of my success...
Finally,the thing that I absolutely HAD to come to terms with,after digging too much trash quite unnecessarily very early on with the CTX...I had to TRUST it. After awhile I learned that indeed,I could tell a nail from a coin on the initial sweep,sometimes not easy to do! But I could,and can. I KNOW whether it’s going to repeat at 90 degrees or not,just by the first sweep of the target and how it sounds..how it comes and goes,and is the response “full”. Something raspy and broken is NEVER a coin with the settings I use. It could be a coin with OTHER settings,but for ME,MY hearing,MY headphones,MY settings...NEVER.
Over the last 2 seasons,I’ve become confident that if I have an older site lined up,such as a ball field or even older school,that I WILL come home with a silver coin,or a few...or several. Much of the “individual game” is having confidence,and confidence is brought on by success at whatever you are doing. Success is brought on by overall knowledge,and having a GREAT coin hunting machine such as the CTX. I really cannot say enough about it,so here are just the silver coins from 2017. After a few re-counts there are 147. The first pic will be my primary hunting pattern.
Happy New Year to everyone and keep posting your finds! I would wish you all “good luck” in 2018, but in this game, as discussed elsewhere,”luck” is a product of hard work,preparation and great equipment. Instead,I will wish you “great success”, as so many of you have had and will continue to do so!
Firstly..I’m not a deer hunter. Of the guys I’ve talked with,their goal is to bag something very specific,i.e. a big buck with a big rack! Nobody I know is opposed to a “big rack”! These guys are not going to go shoot a deer the size of Ol’ Yeller. Many of these guys will go without shooting a deer for 2-3 seasons straight because although they SAW many,none were up to their standard. It takes a lot of discipline to NOT squeeze that trigger,and (most of) these guys have discipline!
It’s no different when I go detecting. I’m looking for something very specific,which are silver coins. If I happen to trip over an LC or a nice deep silver ring in the process,that’s good too! But,my PRIMARY TARGET is the silver coin. In order to heighten my chances of finding these,I have to do some things in order to skew the odds in my favor. Even though I hunt very hard and put many hours into detecting,there are only so many hours in a day.
The first,and BY FAR the most important thing I do is look for a site that has had 75+ years of activity. I want the site to have had 20+ years of people running around and losing silver coins...til they went out of production in 1964. Even though a site that was built in 1957 likely has a few silvers, in order to skew the odds in my favor,the site must be older than that.
Another one of the things I do is to have a tight pattern. On the CTX,my main hunting screen has 35-50 CO open,as well as 0-25 FE open. I also run in Combined Tones,and set that one singular “bin” to 1200 khz. If I’m looking for ONE THING,I want ONE SOUND. That sound tells me I’m onto something,and to investigate! With the CTX,I rely much more on the CONSISTENCY of the response while sweeping,and the consistency of the numbers.
Using the DEPTH METER has become a staple of my detecting method. In order for it to be of use(and it’s not possible ALL of the time)the target has to be centered. If I’m off center,the meter will show a deeper depth than the target really is,defeating its purpose. If I have determined wheats and silver to be 6” or more,I will NOT dig a target shallower than that UNLESS the numbers are straight up “silver numbers”. I have found the CTX to be THAT ACCURATE.
The last really main thing about my method is using a huge coil. I hunt as many old ball fields as possible,because those have been the biggest and most consistent producers of ultra-deep silver coins. The 17” coil on the CTX can get heavy if I’m not digging a coin at least every 10 minutes,so in addition to the coil I use a harness. It makes hunting MUCH more comfortable,and that in return allows me to concentrate fully on what the machine is doing,along with proper overlapping and sweeping. I have found AT LEAST 80-90% of my silver coins with the 17” coil.
In this last part,I’m just going to supply my settings that I use EVERY TIME I hunt a ball field. Some of it could be changed to optimize the machine in different sites,but this is my GO-TO setup. Again,this is what has gotten(and kept) me in the deep silver game around here. I’m sure there is more silver to find with different methods,coils and sites...
Coins mode
Pattern 1...35-50 CO open,0-25 FE open (see first pic)
Pattern 2...Fully open in case I want to check something(hardly needed for ME)
Tone Profile...1200khz for area that’s open in Pattern 1
Response...Normal
Fast...Off
Deep...Off
Seawater...Off
Target Separation...High Trash
Pinpoint...Sizing
Sensitivity...Auto+3
Volume Gain...30
Threshold Level...Just audible
Volume Limit...30
Threshold Pitch...15
Target Trace...Off
Target Trace Pinpoint...Off
Enable Ground Balance...Unchecked
In all reality,what I’ve been able to do with the CTX flies in the face of a lot of advice that’s floated around for decades...”the more you dig,the more silver you find”. I haven’t found that to be true. AT ALL. I have found the LESS I dig,the more silvers I find,because what I AM digging has a very high possibility of being silver in the first place,due to firstly the age and type of site,and secondly because the machine has VERY accurate ID,even on extremely deep silver coins.
TIP!...When using High Trash Separation,I find that the CO numbers will be a bit more spread between a copper penny and a silver dime,especially when in the 8-10” range. FE/Coin may give a 12-44 at 9”,indicating it could be either copper or silver, while High Trash may give a 15-46 at 9”,indicating a much better chance that it’s a silver coin. This is just what has happened to ME,and accounts for a great deal of my success...
Finally,the thing that I absolutely HAD to come to terms with,after digging too much trash quite unnecessarily very early on with the CTX...I had to TRUST it. After awhile I learned that indeed,I could tell a nail from a coin on the initial sweep,sometimes not easy to do! But I could,and can. I KNOW whether it’s going to repeat at 90 degrees or not,just by the first sweep of the target and how it sounds..how it comes and goes,and is the response “full”. Something raspy and broken is NEVER a coin with the settings I use. It could be a coin with OTHER settings,but for ME,MY hearing,MY headphones,MY settings...NEVER.
Over the last 2 seasons,I’ve become confident that if I have an older site lined up,such as a ball field or even older school,that I WILL come home with a silver coin,or a few...or several. Much of the “individual game” is having confidence,and confidence is brought on by success at whatever you are doing. Success is brought on by overall knowledge,and having a GREAT coin hunting machine such as the CTX. I really cannot say enough about it,so here are just the silver coins from 2017. After a few re-counts there are 147. The first pic will be my primary hunting pattern.
Happy New Year to everyone and keep posting your finds! I would wish you all “good luck” in 2018, but in this game, as discussed elsewhere,”luck” is a product of hard work,preparation and great equipment. Instead,I will wish you “great success”, as so many of you have had and will continue to do so!
