Garrett GTAX550 HELP!

[Carson Coin Master]

So I have been detecting with my Garrett GTAX 550 for about 2 1/2 years now and i don't know if it is the lack of use or inexperience on my part in where i am detecting. basically i have not found anything really good a few old relics and some clad but i am mainly digging bottle caps pull tabs cans and so on trash trash and more trash everywhere i go. I should get paid by the county parks for cleaning up all there trash. anyway if anyone out there on t-net has a garrett 550 let me know if you had similar issues finding stuff and maybe if you could give me a hint or two on what targets i should be digging and how i should be reading my detector. thanks for looking

 

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[Sandman]

It isn't your detector that is wrong. It is reporting the metal in the dirt, it just isn't finding the older coins. To do this you need to hunt where the older coins might have been dropped. You also need to over lap your sweeps as the field at the bottom down in the dirt is only about 2 inches round and that doesn't give you much area to get the coil over the target that you want. You could turn up the disc but then you will lose depth and still might lose out on finding those lower conductivity old coins. Also if the old coin is near or under the junk, you won't hear it because it will be masked out.

Good Luck,
Sandman

 

[Carson Coin Master]

It isn't your detector that is wrong. It is reporting the metal in the dirt, it just isn't finding the older coins. To do this you need to hunt where the older coins might have been dropped. You also need to over lap your sweeps as the field at the bottom down in the dirt is only about 2 inches round and that doesn't give you much area to get the coil over the target that you want. You could turn up the disc but then you will lose depth and still might lose out on finding those lower conductivity old coins. Also if the old coin is near or under the junk, you won't hear it because it will be masked out.

Good Luck,
Sandman

so do you think my sensitivity is set to high on my detector right now it is set on about 9 to 9 1/2 and it goes as high as twelve. i thought the higher that was set the deeper the targets you will get. is that not the case?

 

[Sandman]

Extra sensitivity makes the detector "see" more metals, junk and minerals too. The detector has plenty of power at about half the setting of the sens. It is mainly not hunting were the older coins are. Hunt where the bushes are as the newbies stay out of the hard to detect areas and this might up your odds.

 

[Carson Coin Master]

Extra sensitivity makes the detector "see" more metals, junk and minerals too. The detector has plenty of power at about half the setting of the sens. It is mainly not hunting were the older coins are. Hunt where the bushes are as the newbies stay out of the hard to detect areas and this might up your odds.

I Will definitely start doing that, I'm mainly after the high priced jewelery that people lose. That's why i spend most of my time at parks and ball fields. but i just ordered an atlas for all the old mining camps and ghost towns in for the area i live in and hope to find some good old coins out in those spots.

 

[tabdog]

Hay CW,

I used to have a GTAx 500. It is very much like tha GTAx 550.

When you said,

Im mainly after the high priced jewelry that people lose.

That got my attention.

Two years ago I figgered out that I can find jewelry. I read lots
of stuff on these forums and now I am good at findin gold jewelry.
I am land locked with just a few hunted out beaches far away.

I found a silver ring with with my BH Quick Draw II. But I found
it not to be very sensitive to small gold jewelry. I figger women
ware small gold jewelry with gem stones. I wanted it.

I got tha GTAx 500. It was better. But not much better with small
gold. I never found one peice of jewelry with it.

I tried two Fishers. Not much help.

Then I learned more after I got a Cibola.

I use Tesoro now. I got five of them. The lowly Compadre finds
most of my gold jewelry.

In two years I have found some stuff.

Here is a sample,

Rings

Chains

Ear rings

Pendants

And other goodies

Most of that stuff could have been found with a GTAx 550.

But, a lot of tha small gold and some other stuff would not.

On the other hand, the GTAx 500 would have found some
stuff that the Tesoroes could not.

But, I have confidence in my machines.

Tabdog

 

[tabdog]

Hay CW,

You may ask your self, How does old Tabdog do that?

I hunt every tot lot in all tha towns close to me. I use
no disc to hunt tot lots. Disc will inhibit tha response,
and decrease depth and sensitivity. If you use disc or
notching, you are hurting your chances of finding gold
jewelry.

Dig everything, even those iffy sounds..... I guess you
have to use that useless display on your GTAx 550.
It is a lot easier to just thumb an analog discriminator
knob than to fool with a slow clunky digital display.

Dig everything in a tot lot until you know without question
what tha response is.

Turn your sensitivity as high as you can stand it. If it
is low, you will not have much chance at small gold.

You should open your case and set the ground balance.
If tha ground balance is not set for your soil, or if your
soil changes much, you will not be ground balanced, and
you may loose depth and sensitivity.

Hunt any school playground that allows the public to use
them. Hunt any swim beach you can find.

If you can find where folks like to get drunk and have sex
in public places, there will be jewelry around that spot.

Those are the best places I know of....... Sand volley ball
courts, sports fields, schools, parks and so on come next.

That is kind of tha basics of Tabdog prospectin.

Happy Huntin,

Tabdog

 

[Carson Coin Master]

how do I set the ground balance? It's all digital and I really don't want to mess with stuff I'm not to familiar with.

 

[syko]

If you can find where folks like to get drunk and have sex
in public places, there will be jewelry around that spot.

from the looks of your finds, there must be a lot of drunk,horny people

 

[thrillathahunt]

Hey Carson Wreckmaster,

My son has a GTAx 550. He also has a Bounty Hunter Tracker lV. He likes his 550 because the screen tells him what kind of coin he's detected. For that it does very well. However, he has discovered that the factory setting for his kind of hunting is too sensitive. It goes off on way too many targets. He is mainly interested in coins and the factory setting detects too much junk, so he ups the discrimination a couple of bars, to where it discriminates out zinc pennies. At this setting, the GTAx550 is accurate at ID'ing copper pennies, silver and clad dimes and quarters and larger coins, but discriminates out everything else!

He is totally happy with this manual setting, but he has not found any jewelry with it though........ but he has only had it for 3 months.

Hope this helps.