Silver/VDI's/Depth
ASUtodd
Posts: 1,312 ✭✭
Well I have had my DFX for about 2 weeks now. During that time I was lucky enough to discover a "virgin" site. In about 6 hunts out there I have found over $13.00 in clad, a gold earing, a pendant (tin or something cheap), a 1899 Indian Head Penny, several wheat pennies, a piece of a civil way bullet, and a complete civil war bullet.... NO SILVER..(Everything was dug 5 inches or closer to the surface) Well I kept getting told that the deep silver will probably come in as a faint blip on the screen, if you will. Well today I went back to my site, used my headphones (which I hate), and went slow and methodically. Well I found a 1931 Wheatie, at about 4 inches, and some more clad....that was it.... NO SILVER... Fed up I came home to run some test to find out what the heck was going on. I usually run in Relic mode with DC Phase on so I can get a more accurate reading on the vdi (or so I have been told and so far it works great). Well today I listened for the "hum" to blip just a little then I would attempt to pinpoint it so I could see the size and a vdi from the dc phase. Well no sliver, as I previously said. Here was my test. I took a 1951 Roosie out of my collection (I picked the worst one I had) and took it outside. I dropped it on the ground and ran the detector over it (Relic mode, backlight 1, and DC Phase on). the dime picked right up with a +93. I then dug a nice hole, about 7 to 8 inches in depth and then dropped the dime in the hole. I ran the detector over the hole and nothing......................... I then swung a few more times and was able to get a couple of high tones (quick ones at that) with numbers ranging from +70 to +81. These were very quick blips and seemed a bit scattered. I then took to pinpoiting the coin to see what the VDI would say. It registered a -92 to -93.... I was like, "What the *****". I then had a thought, no laughing, so I dug the coin out of the ground and laid in on the surface of the grass. I ran the detector over the coin and got a +93 again. Well I put the coil to the side of the coin and proceeded to pinpoint it. A nice +91 to +93 showed up with the DC Phase. Well when I started to pull the detector upwards (straight up in the air right above the coin) the VDI number started going down. Once I reached about 6 inches the number switched to a -93. Eventually it hoovered around -93 to -94. For me this was a revalation. It told me that I did not understand this machine and that it would be a LONG time before I would. So if I am reading all of this right, I should go back to my "honey" hole and find those faint blips that I got a negative number on the DC Phase (when pinpointing), and dig them. Seems a bit redundant but oh well. If you have any suggestions or tips as to why I'm having troulbe with the silver, Im all ears. Thanks
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Comments
It took me nearly two years to learn my old midlevel Garrett- I mean, to REALLY learn it.
I now have the top of the line Garrett (2500), and there are still features on it that I have yet to use. I am comfortable with it, but having had it only about a year or so, and not used it but a few times a year, I cannot truthfully say I have mastered it.
You lost me there with some of your White's talk, but I got the gist of what you're saying.
This is why practice is so important. It is also proof that it doesn't hurt to read one's detector manual so many times that you can quote it verbatim, from memory. The latter seems a little silly and certainly isn't necessary, but I did it with my old detector and it certainly didn't hurt me to know the machine inside and out.
(Well, not literally- I don't know the insides of these things and what makes 'em work electronically- I was just referring to learning everything possible from the user end.)
Todd
Before you start chasing "iffy" signals on a new machine...
Something sounds fishy here. Those numbers you mentioned just don't sound right.
From my experiences, this is what I saw with my White's XLT (and I've also used a DFX):
92, 93 was usually a half
87, 88 silver qtr
85, 86 clad qtr
81, 82, 83 silver dime
78, 79 clad dime
67, 68 zinc penny
Of course these could change slightly due to conditions, depth or other items in the hole or near a target, but the numbers you mention sound way off... Makes me think something is not set up correctly on your machine.
If you have time, could you try this?
Try switching to the factory setting of Jewelry/Beach and do some air tests with some of the coins I've metioned and let me know what vdi numbers your machine give to you. (this is just to see if it provides similar numbers to the ones listed above)
I know a couple of the DFX aces in my area and could ask them what they think is going on... (DemoDigger is one of them, and he posts here on CU).