Well, a year later I am ready to cover part 2 of my blog on finding nickels.

My hypothesis at the end of the last blog post was: Would opening the FE all the way from top to bottom for 12-13-14 result in more nickels? Is the FE value of nickels the trick? That would explain my friend's result with using Relic mode. It would also tend to support my supposition that the nickel "halo" is causing the nickels to read lower than FE 12 and more like/closer to iron. This will be by next experiment... which will be covered in Part 2.

Did opening the FE all the way from top to bottom for 12-13-14 result in more nickels? No, not really. They all tended to stay right around the 12 line and in the accepted range for coins in
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These are the finds of my friend,Terry Barnhart (Goes4ever on the online forums). He was a Minelab X-Terra 70 wizard, but upgraded to the Minelab E-Trac this year. I think his finds, all made near his home in Van Wert, Ohio and even at sites he thought he had hunted out with the X-Terra are a phenomenal example of what someone can find in Ohio with the right equipment and the right mindset. He met and surpassed many of his detecting goals for the year, over 100 Indian Head cents, over 100 silver coins including two Seated and a gold class ring and a wide variety of relics.

Terry said, "I had the X-terra 70 for about a year and a half and my local Minelab dealer told me I'd do better with an E-Trac. I thought he was nuts, how could I do better? I was doing
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Just as the weather gets colder and the days get shorter, I have the best month of the year! Lots of firsts for me, and these are firsts in 20 years of detecting! Seated coin (dime), fatty Indian (1862), a Chinese cash coin, and a three ringer minie ball.

And on top of that, four large coppers, a two cent piece, 21 Indian heads, three shield nickels, two V nickels, five buffalo nickels - all with dates, 18 silver dimes, 1899 Barber quarter, four old
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Well, I was out on Dec. 31 in the snow looking for silver coin #300. I came home with a pocket of clad, that last one was just too elusive.

So, now I take stock and look back at a really fabulous year of detecting thanks to the Minelab E-Trac, which has definitely paid for iteslf in just 9 months (I started the detecting year mid-March with my Minelab Explorer SE).

$349.63 in clad coins
Over 4,700 total coins and tokens.
299 silver coins, 1244 wheat cents.
Dozens of rings, most silver, two gold.

2009 was my 19th year of detecting, but by far this was truly the best year ever. In 2009, I found my first large cent and oldest coin, dated 1820. Then just a few weeks later, a second large
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Most of the online forum conversations I start about nickels either get no responses or a bunch of defensive talk about how the E-Trac finds plenty of nickels. In less trashy sites, I'm sure picking out nickel signals is a breeze, and if you run wide open and "dig all" I'm sure that works too. I've found some old nickels with the E-Trac, but nowhere near what I did with some of my older machines in the past.

Overall the buzz in the online forums is that while the E-Trac is a silver slayer, it is weak (but not useless) on nickels (and theoretically gold). My impression is that this is true. Air testing
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"How come I am not digging really deep targets with (my detector).The deepest I dug was about six inches and on the videos they're digging (coins at) like 11". Are there specific settings for digging deep coins...?"

I saw this post on the TreasureNet forum and it got me thinking.  I often read these discussions online about detector depth.  Way back when, depth was the "next big thing" a detector could offer.  The marketing started to be all about depth.  Now here we are and most modern detectors
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It seems to be easy to go accessory crazy with detecting.  I think many times people who are not able to spend a lot of time detecting, instead start buying detecting accessories.  Maybe these detectorists are not having much luck and think a new machine or a new coil is just the thing they need to make better finds.

When it comes to coils, this is a tough one to answer.  Certainly for different types of detecting, having a smaller or larger coil can be an advantage.  But 90% of the time the stock coil will give you good results for coinshooting. 

There are two main types of coils available, concentric and double-d (DD).  Knowing which type your detector uses helps you understand how to get the most out of it.  A concentric coil puts out a cone-shaped field (shaped like a O), the DD field is more like the "center slice" of the concentric (shaped like an I).
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There are quite a few different types of metal detector hobbyists.  Seems the types of targets desired determine the types of detecting you do.  Naturally, where you live plays a huge part in determining which kind of detectorist you are.  Someone seeking colonial relics in Utah is going to have a pretty challenging and miserable experience!

What types of metal targets are out there to be found?  Coins, relics, jewelry and ores are what all immediately come to mind.  Ohioans are blessed with good opportunities to find three of the four.  Not many gold nuggets around here, though I have heard stories of some people panning for gold

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I've just put the finishing touches on organizing the metal detecting club links on my website.  I created an entire list of defunct or clubs of unknown status.  As I was researching and composing, a million ideas flew through my head about detecting clubs so I thought I'd set a few down here in a bit of a ramble.

First idea is leadership.  Someone has to want to do it and inspire others to participate.  It takes time and commitment.  This is no small thing to ask for people who are trying find time to detect, hold down a job and have a home/family life.  So, besides a leader, there need to be some

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This is a follow up to the question, “Are newer machines the key to older coins?" Online forum posters brought up operating frequencies and gold, so this addresses these two topics.

Looking at some online resources:  "Lower frequencies penetrate more deeply but higher frequencies are more sensitive to smaller targets." "Different metals respond better to different frequencies which is why all gold detectors run at 15 khz and up." "The lower the freq. such as 3 Khz will be sensitive in detecting copper and silver targets. Higher freq. such as 15 to 60 Khz will

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