How much iron are you prepared to dig ?

[U.K. Brian]

I had a few questions sent me re cannons/cannon balls and other iron finds. I like gold so am prepared to dig more iron than most. First ten or so years I had no gold except off the beach and no larger items as I was sticking to knocking out small iron but making the fatal mistake of assuming that if an item sounds large, especially larger than the coil, that its not worth digging.

I must have missed loads of good stuff !  And I wonder how many hoards would have been found if the plough had not scattered the find, the detector user then locates a coin or two scattered round the edge then finally investigates the main body of the hoard which he may well have ignored as a lump of old scrap if not for the single coin finds.

Now I spend more time and thought as to what an item may be and am prepared to do the extra digging. Result was my first small hoard, spear heads, iron keys etc.

If your in the position of many with limited ground you may as well make the most of it. Even try removing all signals and seeing what they are masking.

Find someone with a sandblaster and you can build a nice display for an old cottage.

[Kev]

UK BRIAN that is a brilliant collection for sure ,as you say makes you wonder what we are leaving behind ................  those keys look great.

[hedgehog]

Interesting stuff there Brian, I was on a Roman site and decided to dig the big iron, found lots of nice bits and pieces, even pleased to dig up the big blacksmith made nails!

[mole]

Uk Brian !!! I use the explorer11 goldmaxx mk1 and whites m6 all are set for audio d isc  small Iron only nails etc sometimes the larger signals are easily identifiable as Iron anyway  but the rule of thumb is in my opinion personally set the disc to the lowest setting you can get away with for the site concerned mole

[zorro]

thats cracking collection of keys. i would have thought there'd be a good market for selling such items to old pubs etc as interior designers will buy stuff like that

[DIGGA]

WOW  BRIAN  LOVELY COLLECTION OF KEYS THERE

[Debbie]

I was just talking about this very subject yesterday  I don't dig iron - I don't use any discrimination, but have set the detector so it gives a low tone on iron and a high tone on everything else.  However, if the non-ferrous finds are getting a bit thin on the ground, I may have a go at digging some small iron signals - that is a great collection of keys Brian 

[U.K. Brian]

The other plus is the far greater response on gold.

[vitallius (Dave)]

Fantastic finds Brian ,like you say makes you wonder what you miss?

[Debbie]

Brian - I am not quite understanding something here  As I do not use any discrimination, I would have thought that gold gives a 'high' tone on the e-trac - the last gold ring that I found gave a good 'high' signal - or are you saying that gold can give a low signal on the e-trac - the same as iron???

[Beefy (GARETH)]

VERY NICE FINDS...............   I DONT WONT TO DIG UP NO IRON BUT I WOULD DIG UP 4 THEN ANY MORE I WOULD LEVE IT........................

[bymatt666 (byron)]

i have had those days when i say i'm going to dig every signal....but after an hour i'm fed up of digging iron !...we learn the sounds of our detector and trust them...we all want to find GOLD !.....i still live in hope !!..... ....byron

[U.K. Brian]

Debbie

I want to borrow an E-Trac to see if this still applies or not. Though the Explorers have the ferrous/conductivity display with the original Explorer a gold hammered at a few inches in bad ground was I.D.'d as iron the same as with most detectors.

With the standard discrimination display (straight line, ferrous to the left), the worse the ground the lower the reading drops down the display into the don't dig section.

There's a few exceptions such as the Discovery Treasure Baron where the readings climb which is better in many ways but does mean again that more iron is dug.

[beachboy (viv)]

brian,i have dug up some iron mind you it did weigh just over 2 stone (canon ball) but i don't want another one,beachboy(viv)

[Debbie]

Brian - I see what you are saying now - as I have not had the joy, thrill and delight at digging up a hammered gold coin, I don't know for certain what signal one would give - though my thought process tells me that if a 22ct gold ring gives a 'high' tone on the e-trac, then a gold hammy should give the same.  I tend not to go by the numbers shown on the display when I get a signal, I just dig all the high tones.  I just glance at the display to get an idea of what I may be digging - around 12 and 28 were the tubes yesterday