Digital Machines & Modern Trash?
Before I start this blog I'd like to make a point that I've made many times before, I dig all foil, pull tabs and bottle caps, however tedious and ridiculous it gets I still do it.
If I Was To Discriminate Out Modern Trash Would I Use A Digital Machine?
No I wouldn't, I've demonstrated on my Equinox 800 and Legend how notching out foil, pull tabs and/or bottle caps masks targets really badly - as does any bottle cap reject setting. Actually to put it bluntly notching out any segments of the VDI or "Cherry Picking" as some like to call it is a mugs game. I understand that some people might assign an iron tone to foil if their park is totally littered with it but this still doesn't eliminate target masking it simply changes the tone of the foil.
Some like to push the "Digging By VDI" approach, so you're basically targeting and isolating the 'coin' numbers in-between the 'trash numbers'. This has to be one of the most ridiculous pieces of advice I've ever heard, digging by VDI in heavy modern trash will not only drive you nuts but it's literally impossible because so many targets fall within, or close to the same numbers and these numbers will be all over the place due to the sheer amount of targets in close proximity to each other. This approach might seem like a great idea when showing it in your test garden but out in the real world it's useless and ridiculous
What Machines Would I Use In Modern Trash If I Was Hunting A Park?
This is a very easy question to answer, any of my analog machines including my Fisher F75 which I look upon as a hybrid detector, their ability to discriminate out pull tabs and foil and still detect a nonferrous target in close proximity or directly underneath is a subject many choose not to talk about. Tesoro machines handle both pull tabs and ring pulls very well to the point where they make little to no noise on either if you've discriminated them out.
BUT let us remember that not all pull tabs are the same so you will still dig a few. On analog detectors you don't have to arse around with notching out segments of a VDI scale "that will cause target masking". You simply turn the disc dial to the desired position and start swinging. Bottle caps can be a little more complicated due to their composition, but, with the exception of my Golden Mask detectors and my Deeptech Vista X the disc can be set so the signal breaks up but you can still detect a nonferrous target underneath or in close proximity to the bottle cap. Both the Golden Mask and the Vista X struggle to unmask nonferrous targets in close proximity to or under bottle caps.
My Nexus machines work exceptionally well in modern trash as well and there's plenty of videos on my YouTube channel demonstrating this. You can actually cancel out pull tabs and still pick up small silver and gold. Guys out there that want to continue to crap on single frequency analog machines won't acknowledge anything I've mentioned here in this blog. Now let me make this point regarding Tesoro, they aren't as deep as the digital tech machines and this is always stated when people are making comparisons between the two. But let us remember that you can't go deep in trash just like you can't go deep in iron without removing it. So the depth point that some people like to push is meaningless in the scenarios I'm talking about.
 |
| Three Bars Of Bullshit |
This is why I choose to dig it all out because you're clearing the top layers of the soil which over time will open the ground up so you can hunt for the potential deeper targets using proper deep machines and coils. Discriminating out the 'nuisance' targets is never going to allow you to do this, there are no short cuts in this hobby but a lot of digital machines try to provide them, target trace, VDI and multiple bars of identification, to me this is all bullshit that catches the consumer more than catching the finds in your finds pouch at the end of a hunt. It goes back to that age old point that I keep making, I'd rather use different machines that excel in certain areas of performance as opposed to one machine that can 'sort of' do a good job in most areas. In my opinion analog detectors deal with modern trash far better than the digital machines.
Feel free to argue amongst yourselves about this subject!
I agree with all that. The main thing I want in a detector, analog or digital, is proper iron reject. There is no way to knock out aluminum trash without losing jewelry and such. However, the detectors I have that reject iron well will ID the old steel bottle caps just fine. The more disc you run, the less depth and good targets you will get. Nothing has changed with that in the 40ish years I've been detecting. BTW, I have everything from old Tesoros to digital stuff, including a Manticore. I run them basically the same.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely the Tesoros with the 180 ED
ReplyDelete(Expanded Discrimination) are excellent and by listening to the subtle tones work very well .Aluminium bottle caps and salt water do need a bit of advanced technique but still works well
It’s clear there are times when iron discrimination along with tabs and bottle caps is advantageous, the foreshore of the Thames clearly an excellent example though I’ve not detected there. Inland at least, I find I’m quite able to distinguish them along with shot gun caps and aluminium foil using mainly sound but in my case with VDI on a GM analogue machine (a hybrid if you will). Locating something more interesting very close by or even underneath with a 7” or 91/2” coil can be achieved much of the time. As you rightly say, it’s about learning what a detector is telling you and not the instant gratification of tuneful digital interaction. Nuanced and modulated sound and knowing how to evoke it (I’m still learning all the time) makes all the difference to any search and from my experience analogues do this better if the time is taken to learn. Digital interaction is too much of an ‘on or off’ experience if you will or like an attempt to emulate a curve with a series of short straight joins lines. Iron artifices afford us a view into a permission's history and with time and the sounds of scrap learnt, I have found the VDI is accurate about 80% of the time. I always like to hear iron even on infested sites, I just turn it down a little knowing that interesting items can be missed otherwise. Also, if it’s a regular permission, what’s the hurry, there’s no competition as all mainstream manufacturers like to imply there is to sell goods. I am competing with no one on my permissions even when I am accompanied and any iron scrap I pull out won’t be there to get in the way the next time so that’s all good with me. There are no shortcuts in this pastime if you wish to do it well with any satisfaction, it’s a long game of patience and learning. It’s about finding history, an escape from this ever more pressured world filled with mislead and often ragingly entitled souls and finding a bit of peace. I find this quiet and thoughtful hobby being turned to avarice and competition highly distasteful, pitting one detectorist against another just to sell ever more plastic. I miss the days of us being a quiet and understanding collective. This is all a forceful marketing construct designed to empty our pockets and it’s leading to the destruction of this pursuits true virtue. No question about it though, using and learning a machine such as a Nexus, Tesoro’s or GM’s without a screen would lead us all to becoming a more accomplished detectorists, should we have the patience.
ReplyDelete