depth

[adt69]

Hi all
I have been wondering about depth, there detector manufactures out there very very expensive machines blabbing on about my machine goes deeper than yours, how often do you find very deep items, I use a blisstool and a minelab both are very deep machines but I have not found much past 8 inch deep, I think I have had about 8 coins in total at about of foot down,
Almost all my finds are around 4 to 8 inch deep .
Is there a need to go out and spend a fortune when most machines can do the job.
Al

[carling2]

my answer would be no ,anybody would tell you that most finds are in the top 6" most detecting makers like you to think that the deeper a machine goes the better stuff you will find {its usually the opposite unless better stuff consists of plough shares and tin cans} and as ive said before if a machine tells you there may be something at the 2ft deep range could you be really bothered to dig it?
lets face it the deeper a machine goes really shoots the makers in the foot ,, weve all heard that finds will get churned up by the plough and a site is never dead {yea right} but imagine if a machine did pull up stuff from 2ft ,,plough or not I think youll be struggling to find anything once you've gridded that with the latest must have machine,even most hoards are in detecter range its just the fact that they are as rare as rocking horse poo, I for 1 am happy with my average 8" {who wouldent be  }  and in this game patience is a virtue remember a good producing site is good cause nobody has dug everything up with a jcb on it.

[Dale]

my answer would be no ,anybody would tell you that most finds are in the top 6" most detecting makers like you to think that the deeper a machine goes the better stuff you will find {its usually the opposite unless better stuff consists of plough shares and tin cans} and as ive said before if a machine tells you there may be something at the 2ft deep range could you be really bothered to dig it?
lets face it the deeper a machine goes really shoots the makers in the foot ,, weve all heard that finds will get churned up by the plough and a site is never dead {yea right} but imagine if a machine did pull up stuff from 2ft ,,plough or not I think youll be struggling to find anything once you've gridded that with the latest must have machine,even most hoards are in detecter range its just the fact that they are as rare as rocking horse poo, I for 1 am happy with my average 8" {who wouldent be  }  and in this game patience is a virtue remember a good producing site is good cause nobody has dug everything up with a jcb on it.

Carling I grid heavily detected areas and it still produces, you can grid with a top end machine all you want but if its not laying right in the ground you will miss it, a deep plough always works for me, just think of the small cut coins, out of reach, I must of had about 10-15 this year from gridding a back garden sized area........ I think this season coming will be the same with the next turn of the plough.

[carling2]

the question was would a top end detecter find good finds at a greater depth , you really haven't answered  the question , indeed your just confirming what I said that if you take your time on a good site finds will come up but not what would happen if you had the must have hoover on it,,, just the same as any other machine once the field has been turned you may {or not} find more stuff.

[Chef Geoff]

Firstly have a read of this thread which may help explain things;
http://www.detectingwales.com/index.php?topic=17543.0

I'm afraid Paul has fallen into the commonly held belief about finds being in the first 8" which I fear is one of the biggest loads of rubbish talked about in the hobby, the majority of what we find maybe in the top 8" but that is the limitation of detector technology not of the finds themselves, I personally would hazard a guess that on a field that has seen almost continuous usage stretching back over 2000 years detector finds would represent only 20% of what is actually there with the majority being out of reach, this also explains why a site is never dead, only a detectorists enthusiasm and patience for it has died.
And another bit of fantasy is that "most hoards are in detecter range" no sorry the hoards that have been found with a metal detector obviously were but those that are deeper can't be found so who knows, given that the floor level of many Roman towns such as London, Bath, Gloucester etc are far more than 2 meters below the current surface and then add the depth the Romans buried them and they are gone forever. It's the same as the often repeated "My machine doesn't miss much" well I'm afraid ignorance is bliss here and we will never know what we miss as we don't know it's even there.
Remember that absence of evidence IS NOT evidence of absence so keep swinging a proven machine and be happy with what you find, dwelling on what we aren't finding but walking over is a short cut to a padded cell

[carling2]

I agree with everything you say Geoff , as for my point of most things being in top 6" and the hoards in detecter range ,,im thinking of the here and now ,,im sure there is masses of stuff that will never see the light of day but tectin technonlogy is what it is and these are todays limitations and as we don't know what and where things are buried that will never come to light I prefer to keep that side out of the equation.

[galoshers]

theres also the point that the currant machines wont find the big big hoard at depth because they just dont see them at deep down .garys hoard test is still unfound by a standard machine .
so you could say they only see items down to 8 inches and no major hauls at 2-3 feet or even deeper such as the Jersey hoard which was 5-6 foot deep

[Dale]

theres also the point that the currant machines wont find the big big hoard at depth because they just dont see them at deep down .garys hoard test is still unfound by a standard machine .
so you could say they only see items down to 8 inches and no major hauls at 2-3 feet or even deeper such as the Jersey hoard which was 5-6 foot deep

Did the Deus find the hoard? im sure it did, but its been a while since I went on Gary detecting.

[Dale]

theres also the point that the currant machines wont find the big big hoard at depth because they just dont see them at deep down .garys hoard test is still unfound by a standard machine .
so you could say they only see items down to 8 inches and no major hauls at 2-3 feet or even deeper such as the Jersey hoard which was 5-6 foot deep

Did the Deus find the hoard? im sure it did, but its been a while since I went on Gary detecting.

I just did a quick check, the Deus did find the hoard with the big coil.... The standard coil gave a iron signal with a reading of 01... The large coil also gave a reading of 01 but gave a dig able signal, its buried at 2ft the Deus is the only machine to have found it in 4years    

[Chef Geoff]

Not quite Dale in his first post about the hoard he states  "We are not interested in testing a machine with no discrimination circuit as you would not search in all metal on a junky ancient site" but a 01 signal on the Deus is an iron signal also he's testing a larger coil which as far as I know he doesn't do on any other machine so is it more a case of the Deus with the larger coil is the only one he's bothered to test

[david995]

What about the pi machines any extra depth with the better ones of those ? 

[NEMESIS]

  Lets be honest, if i wanted to bury a hoard<I would want a REALL LONG shovel...  LOL.
     IMHO  I think most people would bury their hoard at least 12"+.. 

[Chef Geoff]

What about the pi machines any extra depth with the better ones of those ? 

Yes definitely but of course there is no discrimination (target id) and so you have to dig everything which is OK when hoard hunting or looking for something specific but for general detecting it means that you would probably only cover a few yards in a day on most sites

[david995]

Hi geoff  i thought some of them have disgrim ?

[Chef Geoff]

No not yet or not a reliable one anyway, some can disc iron by switching from being a detector to being a magnetometer a sort of reverse discrimination but true target id is the holly grail of detecting technology