Metal detecting top tips and good ideas
Everyone has metal detecting goals, one of the top must be to find deep coins, for some this is a regular occurrence, for others this can pose a massive challenge, so this Skill School blog is aimed at you guys.
Let’s assume you have a high-end Metal Detector such as the Minelab Manticore and you are still not achieving the imagined depth on coins.
Firstly, I would have a look at the ground you are searching, is it mineralized? Does it have a lot of Iron contamination? Has it been recently ploughed?
These are all factors to be considered when it comes down to finding deep coins.
What are the perfect conditions for finding deep coins
Personally I think slightly damp pasture, very little trash or Iron contamination and low mineralization would offer the best results.
My second observation would be to have my metal detector correctly tuned for the search conditions.
How do I tune my metal detector?
Tuning your metal detector to get maximum depth on the ground you are searching is a fine balancing act. If you run too much power, it will become unstable and the small quiet deep targets will be masked by the false signals.
Setting your Minelab Manticore sensitivity is an easy procedure that many people get wrong, especially those new to the product, it has way more power than you will ever need…..However did you know the sensitivity is not the power going into the ground, this is determined mainly by the chosen frequency.
The sensitivity is the signal amplified from the ground, it is an RX adjustment.
Let us assume you are looking for deep Silver coins
Focus on a lower frequency band (General High Conductors), slower sweep speed, Depth Audio theme.
Minelab Manticore how to find deep coins
My perfect hunting ground for the Minelab manticore
The Depth Audio Theme
When Depth is selected, all audio tones are disabled because the Depth Audio uses what’s known as a VCO – Voltage Controlled Oscillator.
This feature uses less filtering and makes the Minelab Manticore a very raw metal detector.
There is a noticeable difference in audio target intensity depending on deep or shallow targets.
In turn, giving the operator a much better perception of depth, because the targets are quieter.
Minelab Manticore controlling the audio depth
Did you know, you have full control over how the Manticore delivers the target signal, you have 3 choices via the tone profile feature.
RICH – This will give you a very wide range of audio intensity, deep targets will be very quiet, shallow or large targets will be very bright and loud.
MEDIUM – Offers slightly less range and is my personal choice.
SIMPLE – Offers very little audio change, so all targets will have the same intensity no matter what size or depth, Simple audio profile is very “punchy”.
Can a bigger search coil give you more depth?
This is where we get into a Grey area, yes the can give more depth, but I have found only on bigger targets, the main advantage is the extra ground coverage.
However, the downside is they may see more than one target per sweep, which will confuse the signal and target ID.
You can see a perfect demonstration if you watch the Skill School video at the bottom of this page.
If you are new to this site, may I also remind you that we have a wealth of metal detecting tuition videos over on the Skill School YouTube channel.
The art of Cherry Picking deep targets
This indeed is an art and something that requires practice and confidence, the audio will give you some great information, combine that with some screen information, and you will be on the right tracks.
Trusting the Minelab manticore is a big part of success, be brave and dig some suspicious targets, the key here is suspicious and quiet.
Deep coins will very rarely give a textbook sound and target ID.
You may dig some unwanted Iron, but this is good, it means you are finding your limits.
At depth, the ground signal starts to consume the coin signal, so be aware of those slightly broken signals.
What is a respectable depth for a coin
This really depends on the size of the coin, I would say around 14″ is very achievable if site conditions allow. On Iron contaminated ancient land, perhaps only 6″, so providing you have everything set up correctly, don’t beat yourself up too much over depth, because the soil is your barrier to entry.
If you are looking for a new metal detector or metal detecting gear, check out my affiliate link here.
Skill School metal detector affiliate link.
You can see more of what we have talked about in the video below, where I explain the Minelab Manticore settings and demonstrate the sounds from deep coins.
