Hello Ytcoinshooter,
I think your question concerning hunting trash/iron infested areas is right on the money so to speak. This is where you are going to find the good stuff, especially when it comes to heavily hunted parks and the like.
The coins are still there because they are being masked by adjacent trash and deep iron. The conventional wisdom of smaller coils, and quicker recovery times will get you some of those goodies, but much will still be missed due to the depth factor. As much as this approach helps you get inbetween the trash targets, it will rob you of that depth needed to get down to those coins in the process. So what to do?
I have spent much time with the V3 working the trash and deep iron areas. In the last year and a half I finally started pulling a substantial amount of finds from these areas. Here are the key methods and settings I use to get the job done with the V3. Much of the technique is modeled after Angel's methods used with his E-Trac.
1. Use the stock D2 Coil. It has great separation, and maintains the depth needed to get down to the coins. Using a Smaller DD coil like the 6X9 Eclipse will cost you more coins than it will help you find.
2. Stay with a Correlate based program. The Correlate Mode is key to quieting some of the iron and trash without the masking and nulling effect. Open up your Span Setting to 45 to allow for composite skewed hits. If your dealing with EMI in the Area adjust your wrap setting to -93 or -94. If you are in a non EMI affected area you can relax this setting a bit.
3. Don't use any discrimination in the non ferrous VDI area +1 to +95.
4. Recovery Delay must be slowed down dramatically. I use a setting of 100-108. This is important. We need to give the V3 the time it needs to determine signal response, and report it back accurately.
5. Use Tone ID. Keep each VDI number represented by an individual tone response. Discipline your self to a lot of noise. In the end we are not looking for an individual given tone, but rather a tone response from a certain range that is repeatable.
6. Irregardless of soil condition the Filter setting must be low. Use 5.0 Hz Band Pass, or 5.0 Hz High if there is no EMI to contend with. If your soil is bad you can adjust this to 7.5 Band Pass, but no higher. Why the low filter setting? This brings us to our next item...
7. Use a very slow swing speed. Keep the coil right down on the grass. If your on dirt then keep it as close to the ground as possible. Your swing speed must be rhythmic and slow. Use a 3 to 4 foot pass. When you catch the sound of a possible good target, work the target from all angles. Use a short 1 foot pass. Think of a Metronome when you swing. Slow, and rhythmic. Listen for a repeating consistent response from a possible good target. It may break up a little, and remember it could be skewed. I have dug Silver Dimes any where from +69 to +93, but the response will be somewhat consistent and repeatable. I can't stress enough the importance of a slow rhythmic swing. The Recovery delay setting needs this time, and the low filter setting will make this slow swing style possible.
8. Don't be in a hurry. Pick an area and grid it carefully with overlapping swings. When You find a Keeper stop griding, and hunt circling out from it about 10 feet before resuming your grid. This is the Grid and Circle technique I learned from Angel. IT WORKS WELL!
Hopefully this will give you some new perspective on hunting with the V3/V3i. Be patient, this will take a little time to adjust to if you are used to a faster paced hunt. Get used to hearing a lot of response in your headphones. A quiet detector is generally considered a bad thing in my book. It can mean one of several things... you have the detector cranked down to much with discrimination or sensitivity, your coil is to small, or there is nothing there. The ground is filled with things. If you want to root around in the trash, you have to be willing to hear it all to get to that one shiny Silver coin that is still hiding there.
Jack
EDIT: Just a Note. I have started exploring and experimenting with Mixed mode in hopes of overcoming some of the nulling effect. It will be interesting to see where this goes. Air testing with multiple targets show some good possibilities with this setting.
