I have received so much email and more questions have been asked about deep hunting that I decided to write a summary review and set the steps in order so you know what to do first. You might say that you can find three different iron tones.

There is the repeatable iron signal which will id as iron even if you pass the coil over it a dozen times there are two things that this can be. It could just be a small iron object or it could be a coin that is even out of your deep hunting detection range. These things occur at the beach where coins are covered up with lots of sand. If you are intent of finding out for yourself what it is then remove the top couple of inches of soil or sand and repeat the process. That will generally tell you if it is a good target.

The iron signal that confuses all of us at one time or another is the one that signals as a coin when it is really just iron. This one reacts to your loop just backward from a deep coin. On the deep coin you will pickup a iron tone and multiple passes may detect a coin signal but the confusing one gives you a coin signal first and when you center it right over the target it gives you a iron signal. The properties of this one are really simple to identify. If you pass your coil over the object while you are walking you will pickup a coin signal and when you try to locate the object with pinpoint and then move the coil over the center of the object you will get an iron tone or meter id. Don't let this one confuse you because as you move away from the iron signal in ANY direction you could get the coin tone. This is always iron but iron that may be dense and shaped strangely. I have found that the center of the signal ID's as iron but the edges and above it may register as coin. For years people blamed the problem on their detector when it actually was the properties of certain targets and the detector was giving you good information that you disregarded

That leaves the third type of iron signal and that one is always deep and you must verify this on your pinpoint and it should be small and when you find this one take your time to see if it will give you another ID on the meter or tone. Iron deposits left over from a rusted object can appear small and deep but disappear when dug and cannot produce a coin signal.

I like to walk around the object facing the faint iron signal and sweeping across the object repeatedly to see if I get another tone or ID. I should add that I have on occasion scraped away sand(easy on the beach) and then tried it again to then receive the suspected coin tone. You MUST keep the coil level and very close to the ground. It goes without saying that you should tune your detector to its most sensitive and NEVER discriminate anything!. Discrimination will very often inhibit the detector from operating deep and is useful for shallow targets but not deep hunting. A good target may signal only once as something other than iron in a dozen passes with the coil and produce iron tones or meter indication as iron every other time. Do not get in a hurry when you are hunting deep! These could be your very best finds and you don't want to make any mistakes.

Step 1

Select the place to hunt that is very clean. I think that a beach that has produced loads of good things that has been worked clean. You could hunt a very old park which has been hunted out but there must have been very good finds there. Relic hunting where it is mostly barren ground with no trash or an over hunted relic site.

Step 2

Assuming that your detector is set most sensitive and set to NO discrimination, then sweep carefully because you are listening for a weak iron tone. Target your search to the best place to look. Once I hunted a stretch of beach and dug lots of jewelry and coins but at the same time I noticed lots of iron signals. At the time the light bulb over my head did not light up! It was only when I had sucked out every gold ring and coin off that beach that my thoughts returned to the iron signals. That is the day when I discovered this technique. Hunt your best spots again and you may find much more than you imagined there.

Step 3

Remember that there are three possible types of iron tones and when you pickup your first iron ID then determine which one that it is. Pass up the bad signals and target the weak iron with the repeatable signals. Repeatable meaning every time you move you coil across the target that you get a signal. Once you identify a good target then dig carefully and bring a clip-on measuring tape for your belt and measure just how deep you are digging good targets. Be aware that on occasion a large deep coin that is standing on its edge will cause the coin signal to occur in two locations and the deeper it is the farther apart it may signal up to 6 or 7 inches maximum. In this case dig exactly between the signals.

Step 4

I switch to pinpoint or autotune and perform a target profile. I do this by walking around the object passing the coil back and forth over the object while listening to the signal which actually paints a pattern in my mind of the target shape. I find that coins are always the small round profile and sometimes a deep silver ring produces a weak but wider profile. I can even get an idea of the shape to such objects as keys. I find this to be a challenging game and try to get better at it each time.

Note: On rare occasions you will discover the exception to this technique. It may show as a good, deep target when it actually is an extremely deep object that looks good but may be three feet deep! Always try moving the coil down the hole to see if the signal seems very loud and wide. Sometimes I have to dig a large hole to tell when I have one of these targets but thank goodness they only occur about once in fifty times.

This technique represents the reasons for getting a good detector and staying with it until you learn it. Many people see that a new detector just works differently than their last one and they may think that it is not working correctly, however they may have not taken the time to learn how to use it.