Breakthrough

[Escape]

A week ago I was seriously considering selling my Whites DFX which I’ve had for a couple of years. I thought it was too complicated and heavy. I have the Digging Deeper book, but the amount of information it contained was overwhelming. (There should be a guide book to help you understand that book.) So I just basically ran the stock programs. Worked well at the beach, but at my local trashy park, discerning the multitude of signals was daunting. Dug lots of trash for relatively few coins.
I decided to give it one more shot. I studied the book and learned its capabilities and how to move through the programs. I took it to my local trashy park. To keep it simple I set it to except +74 to +95 and increased AC sensitivity, Pre Amp and DC Phase. Wow! What a difference! In two hours I dug up about 30 coins consisting of about 8 wheat pennies, one mercury dime and one silver school ring. I was amazed how solid it ran. Dug very little trash. Had similar results the following day. I know I’m missing a lot with this much discrimination, but I’m also finding a lot. Many of the targets were deep. Ground was wet.

As far as the detector being too heavy, I fixed that. I adjusted the extension pole and made it shorter. Duh! Now its weight is balanced. No arm strain at all. The only thing strained are my ham strings from digging up all those coins.

 

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[Tom_in_CA]

Hey escape, your experience is a case-example of the folly of handing a detector to a beginner, letting them head out to the nearest inner city urban park, and telling them "dig all lest you miss a goodie". Either the avalanche of signals is over-whelming (and an orchestra of chaos with musical tone-machines like the DFX or Explorer), or the trash-ratio causes them to pull their hair out. So they go on to the forums seeking advice, and sure enough: someone will tell them "have patience, dig all the trash, this is normal, lest you miss a gold ring" blah blah.

But your experience shows that there IS merit, in SOME conditions, of cherry picking. At least for the training part of the formula. I mean, for pete's sake, if gold rings are someone goal and objective, then what the h*ck are they plying junky parks for, trying to be a hero, and strip-mine out all the aluminum? Simply go to a swimming beach, if gold rings were someone's objective And then at junky parks, sure: angle for the silver coins, IMHO.

And even if someone's going to go for the mids and or lows in junky environs, it's still a good idea for machines like the DFX, Sov, Exp's, etc... to start exactly as you have done: Send the newbie out to a place prolific with clad, and have them crank the disc. so that everything below copper penny is knocked out. Ie.: everything from zinc and down. Then the next day, they can lower the disc. down to where they accept zincs. Then the following day lower it down to where corroded zincs come in. And so forth, and so, lowering a bit more each day. AND THEN the cacophany of tones will make sense.

Good post of yours to illustrate this psychology.

 

[Msbeepbeep]

Maybe some folks don't realize Just how trashy some parks and schools are now days!
I don't believe they send the newbie there to just dig all targets.
You are right it can be extremely frustrating to someone starting out trying to learn their machine in a mountain of trash.
We have schools here that are so trashy I have to ground balance BEFORE I hit the school grounds!
Beaches and fields are less trashy overall.

 

[BDinutah]

Escape, I appreciate your post, a lot of people will read it and learn from your experience, I had a Sov that just about drove me crazy, but through trial and error I learned what it was trying to tell me and got pretty good at detecting with it. Nowdays we have many that have done the research & wrote the books that help lessen the learning curve. The thing that impresses me about your post is the underlying theme of not giving up. Thanks for sharing.

 

[bryan]

What program are you running now. I too have the DFX but having trouble figuring out what program to run. i have that book somewhere but i cant find it to save my life in all my junk..

 

[jeepGold]

Great job BUT don't discriminate trash, just iron. That soda/beer tab is the same signal as a nickel and GOLD! If you want to pull clad all day, go ahead. I'll follow after you and graciously pull those 100 pull tabs and on the 101st I'll get a 18k ring which equates to about 1500 of your coins. Its exciting to pull something of value! When I first got my detector I was pulling solid signal pennies and was like "YEAH!!!!!". A quarter? Well that was almost a happy dance. Now I've learned to go for those fainter signals and pull most everything even if it takes me a week to cover what I used to cover in a day. Remember, you have a pretty good detector. Most low end detectors can and will pull those 2-5" deep clads. You paid good money for the difference. Dig deeper and get those treasures that others missed. Dont get frustrated if you pull trash for an hr. That's what your there for. Personally I get kind of impressed when I get a solid signal and dig 9" for a rivet from a pair of jeans. That means I'm doing something right!
A few weeks ago I found my 1st gold ring and was in a negative state of mind. I was getting tired of trash and started speeding up and increased my discrim. After about 10 paces I took a deep breath and told myself, "why am I here??" I lowered the discrim slowed my swing and got a tab signal AGAIN. SIGH,,, I'll pull it up.. BINGO!!! 18k!!! You NEVER know when your gonna get it, but you know you WONT if you close your "eyes" to it. Keep on it and great job!

 

[Escape]

What program are you running now. I too have the DFX but having trouble figuring out what program to run. i have that book somewhere but i cant find it to save my life in all my junk..

What program you run depends on where you are hunting and what you are hunting for.
I'm not sure what kind of trouble you are having with the programs. If you elaborate I'm sure you'll get some input.