Very early spring a year ago I asked permission for a nondescript lot that had always been covered in two-foot weeds but a guy I knew had cleared it to build a house. To my utter shock, one corner of the property yielded @10 Barber and Merc dimes, same amount of Buffalo nickels, and a lot of early wheats with a couple IHPS. And a bucket list Barber quarter. I have gone over this lot crisscross and at angles, varying sensitivities, mostly 6" coil but did try the 15" once, used Field 1, Park 1, Beach 1 and even ventured into Field 2 although the 50 tones freak me out a little. Some of the strategies plus just covering it over and over found coins i missed (most of the goodies were in the first week). Someday there will be a house and lawn, but I could probably go back there and take another couple shots at it this spring. But I've found almost nothing last few tries. Any suggestions are welcome. I don't consider myself skilled but guess I've got several years on the Nox and two or three on a Tesoro before that. Thanks!
May have time for another go at spot I hit hard with Nox 600 - suggestions welcome
- Thread starter Iggyks
- Start date
AirmetTango
Forum Supporter
Sounds like you’ve had some great hunts at that permission, Kevin! And while you’re probably reaching that point of rapidly diminishing returns, it wouldn’t surprise me if there are a few more goodies hiding at the site if you’re willing to put in the time and patience with a strategy or two you might not have tried yet.
You mentioned sensitivity settings, but have you tried altering recovery speed (RS) and your iron bias (IB) settings? If I remember right, default RS on the 600 is 3, which is the fastest for the machine…maybe try 2, which is the equivalent of 4 out of 8 on my 800. It doesn’t sound like much, but the lower setting will actually squeeze out a little more depth without sacrificing much separation (especially on the 6” coil) - the Equinox is quite fast regardless, and you can always help compensate for the lower setting with a slightly slower swing speed. What you’ll also notice is the tones sound a little fuller - less clipped. In my opinion, it makes deeper, fainter targets pop out more.
For IB, try hitting the site in F2, either 0 or 1 (which would be equivalent to 0 or 3 on the Equinox 800). Yes, you’ll get more falsing and be enticed to dig more iron, but masked and deeper targets are more likely to get classified with some non-ferrous tones instead of being dominated by ferrous tones.
It’s less likely, and counter-intuitive, but you could also try the stock 11” round coil at the site, if you haven’t already. Yes, the smaller coils definitely unmask better in general, but the larger coil could conceivably unmask targets in very specific situations. Our own @AccurateCalls has an excellent video that touches on this possibility, while also clearly explaining why small coils are usually better in iron infested sites (video linked below).
Lastly, I don’t remember if you still have that Tesoro or not…but if you do, try bringing it out to the site! There’s no doubt that a different machine could reveal targets that another misses for one reason or another.
You mentioned sensitivity settings, but have you tried altering recovery speed (RS) and your iron bias (IB) settings? If I remember right, default RS on the 600 is 3, which is the fastest for the machine…maybe try 2, which is the equivalent of 4 out of 8 on my 800. It doesn’t sound like much, but the lower setting will actually squeeze out a little more depth without sacrificing much separation (especially on the 6” coil) - the Equinox is quite fast regardless, and you can always help compensate for the lower setting with a slightly slower swing speed. What you’ll also notice is the tones sound a little fuller - less clipped. In my opinion, it makes deeper, fainter targets pop out more.
For IB, try hitting the site in F2, either 0 or 1 (which would be equivalent to 0 or 3 on the Equinox 800). Yes, you’ll get more falsing and be enticed to dig more iron, but masked and deeper targets are more likely to get classified with some non-ferrous tones instead of being dominated by ferrous tones.
It’s less likely, and counter-intuitive, but you could also try the stock 11” round coil at the site, if you haven’t already. Yes, the smaller coils definitely unmask better in general, but the larger coil could conceivably unmask targets in very specific situations. Our own @AccurateCalls has an excellent video that touches on this possibility, while also clearly explaining why small coils are usually better in iron infested sites (video linked below).
Lastly, I don’t remember if you still have that Tesoro or not…but if you do, try bringing it out to the site! There’s no doubt that a different machine could reveal targets that another misses for one reason or another.
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MasonDixonMding
Elite Member
Thanks for that link. Very interesting.
CountyWorker
Forum Supporter
Obviously, a lot of solid advice here OP.
All that I’ll add is that you should definitely drop your IB down to 0 for another go around. But, in my testing FE 0 performs better than F2 0. I recently went over the same area in F2 6 and then in FE 0 and while it wasn’t a mind blowing find
, I did get a little coin spill of two 1940s Wheaties and an early 1950s Canadian penny sitting right next to an iron spike.
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Big Boys Hobbies
Forum Sponsor
Try a few days after our rain while the soil is somewhat damp. Sometimes help bring some goodies.
