Not sure if I am using too high of discrimination....

[Cranman]

I have been using the discrimination settings on my MD (Whites prism 4) to eliminate the "undesirable" items such as nails, pull tabs, bottle caps, etc, and also there's one for zinc pennies, and the nickel is in that lower group as well. My logic is that if I don't "discriminate" I'll be digging alot and it will mostly be junk. I still get some junk, pull tabs, nails, foil bits, soda can pieces, but I guess it would be alot more junk if I dug everything?

So now I am wondering if there was a coin but it was deep will I be more likely to miss it? In other words would a quarter at 8 inches look like a pull tab to my MD?

I'm still trying to feel out this detector. Advice? Thanks!

[XL-PRO PRO]

Most seasoned detectorist's set disc just to where it knocks out nails.Use your target id to seewhat the signal is. You are aware that most gold rings sound and id the same as pulltabs/nickels aren't you?And yes, anytime you raise discrimination you will lose some depth!DBULL

[stevemc]

You should set it with no disc, or minimum disc and dig everything. Never trust a meter. You shouldnt look at it. They work on conductivity. Learn what your detector is telling you, and then, you still wont be able to completely trust that it is not a gold ring or coin. Iron maybe, but a gold ring or a nickel or a folded pull tab. They all might sound the same. Or if it is deep. Disc works on conductivity and if it is deep, it wont be as conductive as something on the surface. Gold jewelry is less conductive than a silver coin, or a copper penny, about like a nickel. Alloys in general are less conductive than pure metal like aluminum. Get rid of pull tabs and you get rid of gold rings, get rid of nickels and for sure you get rid of gold rings and any coins except maybe pennies. Dont trust all the disc cut outs. Learn your detector.

[gleaner1]

Set the machine at recommended settings for new users. Hit hot spots not hit before, like house yards or the old ball field that your great uncle owns. If you use too high of discrimination, you will only find copper and silver coins. Dont get me wrong, too high of scrim is underated.

[Cranman]

OK sounds good, I guess worst case I dig everything for a while and compare what the MD says it is to what it actually is, and maybe I can get a better idea how the MD works.

Thanks guys!

[U.K. Brian]

Don't even "knock out" nails. Set the discrimination level so that the problem/unwanted targets (could be foil on a beach) just sound different/broken/less smooth than the wanted targets.

Don't forget that people avoided much buried rubbish before discrimination was invented. Sweeping over a target from several directions in all metal provides much information as to whats iron. Nail type targets give one good signal when swept across the width and a multiple sound as you sweep the length. Lots of detectors will sound off very wide on iron in all metal compared to the discrim. mode. Others will pinpoint in different places when switching from one mode to the other. Its just a case of experimenting.

Unfortunately the price you pay for discrimination is that it doesn't work to well beyond a few inches. On my test bed all very deep good targets I.D. as iron. The more discrimination used the sooner "correct" I.D. runs out of steam. The problem is if you decided to bite the bullet and dig everything in your local park you will probably be banned.

[Tom_in_CA]

cran-man, it depends on what type site you're hunting. If you're hunting junky turf, then by all means, knock out foil, and tabs (shallow ones anyhow). Will you miss gold rings and nickels? SURE, but then again: there are some junky urban parks where you will dig 500 tabs and foil wads, before you will EVER dig a gold ring. So if you're that hot and bothered to find a gold ring, why torture yourself in junky blighted parks where the ring ratio is poor? Simply go to places where there's more likeliness of finding gold jewelry, TO BEGIN WITH. Namely: swimming beaches. Other close seconds would be certain types athletic uses (where there's no picnick-ing/eating, to introduce scads of aluminum junk), sand volley-ball courts (where people frolick and jump around in sand), etc....

So you see, the answer to finding more gold jewelry is not simply (as some people say), to just lower the disc, and dig junk till your arms fall off. The much bigger part of the formula is WHERE you hunt.

And yes, the deeper silver and copper might waffle in and out of the acceptable ranges (ie.: take occasional low TID bounces down in to the rejected zones, as the machine struggles to classify them). Only experience will help in this regard. If you set your machine to fairly low disc, and then use your meter and tone ID to make the final judgements, sometimes you'll get those really deep silver dimes or wheaties in turf to give the right audio clues, that they're deep high conductors hiding down there

[Cranman]

Wow this is harder than I thought! Well I went out today and started with my disc on nails only, and dug a bunch of junk, including a bunch of nails! I got tired of digging trash every foot or two and gradually bumped the disc back up to include pull tabs and nickels. Never found a coin in the first hour.

I then moved to a gravel parking lot at a church and began finding coins right off, all clad though. I still had my disc set pretty high after the frustration of the last location, I wish I had turned it back down. I also have setting for tone alert that gives a real low tone for big cans junk, a medium tone for pull tabs, nails etc and a high tone for coins above nickel.

I realize now if I had backed the discrimination back down, and used the tone id setting, I could have probably learned how the different tones related to what I found, quarters, dimes and pennies. I found 24 coins, no nickels, I guess because of the discrimination? I do have a disc "notch" setting for nickels, guess I need to use that!

I also can't see much of a pattern as to what the MD says the target is and what I dig. I get alot of jumpy signals and rarely is it "right" like .25c at 4in and that's what I actually find. Maybe my MD isn't too good, or maybe I am not paying close enough attention and using too high of disc again!

Thanks again for the advice guys!

[luvsdux]

I just scanned quickly through the replies, but I think one point may have been missed. Your Prizm IV has notch discrimination. If it had fully adjustable (by knob) discrimination you could set the discrimination to where a chosen trash level would just crackle and break up rather than go totally silent. For example, on several of my detectors, I throw a nickel on the ground and pass the coil over it moving the disc. knob until the nickel tone crackles and drops off. Then I turn it back to where the nickel barely responds well. This setting will still pick up most gold jewelry although may still miss smaller pieces.
With the notch style discrimination you have to be satisfied with how the engineers designed the detector as you can't fine tune the discrimination settings any differently than how the notches are set. All this said, I'd recommend as others have, that you use as little discrimination, mainly just small iron, as you can in order to be sure to get a signal on the gold/jewelry items that discriminate out at the lower settings. This means you'll dig more trash which can drive you bonkers in really trashy parks, but you'll pick up more goodies as well. Good luck and stay with it.
luvsdux

[Cranman]

Luvsdux: good point about the notch setting in the discrimination, I realized after my last outing that of the 24 coins I found none were nickels, and I didn't have the notch set to include nickels. I think each time I go out I learn a little more, and I like the idea of using minimal discrimination and digging more but hopefully geeting more keepers sounds like good advice!

[goldentruth]

Cranman: Bottom line, if you set your machine ro reject, you will REDUCE the depth!
I have seen posts that many have had a pull tab "Hit" and it be a Gold ring!
A guy hit a pull tab with a gold ring next to it.
I like to hit all "Targets" and dig all "Targets". I don't want to pass up my find of the day.
I live in a old 1800's town of the gold rush, many spent silver coins & some had gold coins.
Many drove wagons and dropped nuggets in the dirt and snow comes sometimes to bury it up more.
The Old gold rush local bar is still in operation and remember they liked to drink and pay with gold.
So I dig everything.(Dumb luck would have it, if I passed a signal some one else may get the "Big one" like when you get off a slot machine and the next guy in 2 pulls, hits the jackpot!... Dig everything.)
I could find coins, artifacts, stuff plus junk for 6 to 8 months but if I am out there steady with my
routine, one fair gold nugget will make it worth while! Best of luck, try the 8 inch coil.

[Goes4ever]

The only two gold rings i have dug registered exactly in the pulltab range, i disc out iron and that is it

[Seamuss]

If your discrimination is to high with a detector used for gold and there is a lot of iron in the ground...well you would be digging a lot of ironized ground.

[luvsdux]

If pulltabs weren't enough, I read several years back that some gold jewelry IDs the same as a zinc penny, as well as some IH pennies. If you've gotten in the habit of passing up the zincs, you may also be missing good targets. I had been skipping over zincs when I read this and started digging them again. Third one turned out to be a small, black hills gold ring. I'll never know what else I may have missed.
luvsdux

[Chug And Red]

One Of these days Some one Will Say It!!!!


Here Is My best Pull Tab!!! Chug

Don't Discriminate!!! You Might Have To Dig allot Of Trash But you will Be rewarded!!!