Metal Detectors...

We have a bunch of emag geophysical equipment including several "metal detectors" ad EM units.
Whenever we are looking for a drill site and we have to call in a "Miss Utility" serviv=ce to assure that there are no buried facilities (even out in the boonies ), we always check with three of our own instruments
1A schoenstedt E mag, which sets up a field that discriminates various metals at depths up to 8 feet (Its kinda pricey for home use)

2A WHITE metal detector-these come in all speeds and vary from 250 up to 2000$. They all detect metals at , say 4 feet or less, but the more expensive ones can be used underwater and can discriminate between iron gols and aluminum pop tops. If your gonna be scouting at old colonial sites and battlefields (Watch out for Fed REgulations on Metal detectors in Civil war battlkefields)

3 An e/+ magnetometer. If you can find an old magnetometer through Craigs or some school, buy it if you can get it for 200$ or less. An old "flux gate magnetometer" will do it all but youve got to learn how to use em properly. They must be kept vertical . They acn locate the deep metal bearing deposits but will also detect shallow stuff too.

If your gonna buy a metal detector, they are pretty much all the same (brand wise) they all just add more bells and descriminators. BUT, you will pay for that ability to tell aluminum from gold.

If your kid is only going to do this as a passing fancy, then you can often find the half decent ones at a yard sale. (Seems that metal detectors and Exercise equipment all require effort that most people, kids especially, run out of interest in very quickly)

WOW, I try to help and get totally blown off. NOTE to self: anymore shewolf questions, just ignore .

She's probably out scratching around in the dirt.

Shewolf - check out Kijiji - there are some fab deals on there - I just bought myself a bike for $20!!

I can relate to the frustration.

Whaddaya peddling there, a meter that always says "Yes!"

uummm.....
dunno what i did to get that response.


oh well.

and.. by the way, it was this post that helped my buy one. I started googling a lot of the terms you used in this post immediately.
Following that, I left town the next day for 2 weeks.

so if it was time that made it seem like i blew this off, it wasnt. I am hardly home these days traveling all over texas most of the time.

but anyway
im ignored so im speaking to the wind..

so what did you buy? have you used it much? Is it now sitting in the closet?

it is about to sit in the closet. Im ready for something else. I get it now what to look for. Reading about it all was good, but actually using it?? ohhh no.

I bought a http://www.kellycodetectors.com/bountyhunter/pilot_buy.htm

I found it for 1/3 of that price though at bass pro shop .
Mine does not have a headphone jack number one....
number too the display is WAY to simple to understand if that makes sense at all.

it says - shallow, middle , or deep.
I can probe up to ...I think.. 2 feet the manual said. So deep I guess means 2 feet, and shallow means on top of the dirt.
But when I use it, that blows everything right out of the window. It does not apply, in fact it seems backwards.

The tones of different metals are very different so that is quite helpful, but it is so loud I sound like a broken ambulance when I use it.

I have taken it to parks, found change
Taken it to soccer fields.. same thing
Found a penny once right next to an old cup that I posted here which has so far been the best find.

I am taking it to Van Raub . A ghost town here in texas. With permission, im going to scout around the old school and any other places I see and see what I can dig there .
Im hoping to get something interesting.


At this point I am still just digging all beeps, but learning through repetition that the iron beep is nothing but pull tabs, broken pieces of tin cans, or gum wrappers of all things..

I know now that I would like one with a more detailed display. But for now, it is working

are you sure you didn't buy a fish finder...???

you wouldnt like earphones. We always just plop a piece of duck tape over the speaker and it makes your day more peaceful the ambient whining and theramin -like pitch and volume changes can drive ya nuts but just knock it down without screwing with the electronics. The WHites have volume level knobs. A discrimnator circuit makes hunting for nuggets a targeted search.

Bottle caps, pop tops, screws, od horse shoes and nails are a constant PITA.

http://able2know.org/topic/174615-1

this is the cup i found.
Nothing major or really special, just an interesting find.

when it comes to sensitivity, this machine is very basic in its offering.

There are a few signal codes at the top and according to how deep the beep is tells you what you have found.
Deepest being iron, and the highest pitch being what it calls coins.

But for sensitivity, I only have a knob that lets me turn it down or up. No real measurement on it. Im not sure if that is going to directly affect the DEPTH? or the metal in which it hunts?
does the sensitivity option have a universal mode? meaning , if you can adjust it on a machine it always does ____blah blah__?

sensitivity will give you some assistance in fringe areas where the soils are wet or theres some other **** in the way or oits a red (iron rich) soil.

Id guess that your cup may be an old Fostoria, which, along with the Depression brands like Heisey and Blenko, could be worth something today. Except you appear to have a slight condition problem with yours. This will ower the value by about 98%. In glassware, if it dont hold a cuppa coffee, ya might as well bust it up and throw it in a rock tumbler.

My partner was c,learing a fundation site for an ore separator and he found several tons of copper pipe that was buried in the muck. That was when copper was worth about 75 cents a pound. Today its worth about 3.50 a pound.

Carry on. theres some good **** down in Texas. Out in the Delawares , you can find gold nuggets. You gotta learn a back and forth sweep so you can cover a loit of ground and still get good signals. After a while you only hear it when you get a wild squeal .

I carry a geo pick to help in the digging. Some guys will magnetize their hammers so they can also find meteorites