🚀 go-pugleaf

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   I enjoyed the articles on metal detecting.

   Saturday, I started planting my own  "coin  garden."   By
   burying  a few coins at measured depths in my own yard, I
   can learn more about the quirks of my White's 6000 detec-
   tor and compare its performance to other models.

   Before burying any coins, I started to sweep the area for
   metal.   Of  course,  the  last thing one would want in a
   metal detector test bed is random bits of metal  to  dis-
   tract  you  from your targets. In the process of sweeping
   this small portion of my yard, I found coins and a  Ster-
   ling Silver ring with a large (unknown type) gem!

   It would be a shame to dig holes, bury a few coins,  then
   forget  where  they  were  buried.   For  this  reason, I
   elected to make the burial sites visible  but  in  a  way
   that  would not interfere with cutting the grass.  I also
   drew a map.

   I cut an 8 foot long 1-1/4" diameter schedule 40 PVC pipe
   into  several  smaller  pipes,  each  pipe 8 to 12 inches
   long, then buried the small  pipes  vertically,  about  4
   feet from each other.  One end of each pipe is flush with
   the soil (not grass) surface.  I buried a clad quarter at
   8",  a clad dime at 6", and will bury other items each in
   their own pipes as time permits.   Each  pipe  is  filled
   completely  with dirt, so looking down at the ground, all
   that's visible is a round, white circle.

   In GEB/discriminate mode, the  White's  6000  (with  9.5"
   search  coil) will just barely detect the clad quarter at
   8", but the identification (VDI) meter will peg  at  full
   scale,  making one think the item was junk.  The detector
   will detect the clad dime at 6", but  the  identification
   meter  will  not  read  "dime"  only  sometimes.  In both
   cases, the depth meter is fairly accurate.

   This test convinced me to heed the advice that if a  tar-
   get  produces  a  "junk"  meter  reading,  but is deep (6
   inches or more), it's best to recover it.

   A few hours of hunting in a park  Sunday  netted  several
   domestic coins, a 1943 Australian 3 Pence, a 9 mm bullet,
   and a few shotgun shell casings.
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Bob Parnass, AJ9S - AT&T Bell Laboratories - att!ihuxz!parnass (312)979-5414