Frustrated and discouraged

[kyleeskastles]

As the title says i just dont know right now what is up and i need to vent.

I got two metal detectors now, the BH pioneer 202 and sharpshooter II.

Sharpershooter II is seems like it can find a target fairly well, good repeated signal over target but shows no depth, and metal probability may as well not exist, cans are silver and zinc pennies are pulltabs?? Depth of detection is terribly shallow. The max i have found something was 8 inches, a unopened mountain dew. Overall the better detector, but it leaves alot to be desired it seems when i watch you guys banging out the goods or youtube vids, im like golly man either i am the most unluckiest man to ever detect or i just dont have the know how/right gear.

The pioneer 202 tells depth fairly accurately, but trying to find a target is frustrating as heck. I will be doing a sweep motion exactly aas it instructs in the manual going along and it will just fart(what it sounds like lol) then i will freeze and search over and over the same area, and it will fart here and there very sporadically and its very rare it will get a repeat target signal, and so far only on pull tabs it seems. Trying to pinpoint even a 6 inch area of where the target may be is so frustrating i just want to throw the thing.

I run both machines on notch with discrimination at about the 9 o clock position, or sometimes all metal for the sharpshooter then see what it is with notch. It picks up gold silver, clad fine, on my kitchen table. Notches out iron and small junk like nails and tacks etc. Honestly i wish i had one good MD that is a good mix of both machines features. Been drooling over a fisher f2 or garret ace 250

Dont even get me started on the BH pinpointer, thank god the thing was free is all im say on this thing. Compared to vids of a garrett, i may as well be using the ol needle hanging on a thread wives tale trick.

On top of that since i started the absolute best thing i have found is a 1944 war nickel and a gold half loop earring. This area was a bustling trade center since the 1850's, with a large influx of german immigrants, slaves, market trade etc. No reason at all im not finding stuff.

Either someone/s has completely cleared out everything or i am doing something wrong.I know for sure im get money together in a few weeks for a used garrett pro pointer and im not too sure the BH pinpointer will make it out alive! I am determined to stick with this hobby as it sure as heck beats sitting in the house all day and night plus my kids love it. But i wont stick with it with if it isnt at least fun and relaxing.

Any ideas, need better gear maybe? Advice? Is this the norm?

 

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[Rawhide]

Quote"While on the subject the F75, Casca you stated it uses the same board as my BH. Now you got me wondering exactly what they do to make it better then, because i read the reviews for it and other then a chatty signal issue that can be solved with some good settings, it has raves of praise. It also kinda scares me off a lil bit as like i said i read fisher is made by the same folks/same gadgets. Dont want to get another one i just want to beat a tree with trying to figure out what i am doing wrong lol. I can deal with chatty or sure as heck give it a good shot. But i cant deal with having to pass up potential goodies because i cant get a good location signal for whatever reason. That sucks and probably drives anyone nuts."

I am still learning the F75. For my area I have settings that work for me. There is too many features to mention on post of the forum. But it is deep, and finds the goodies. I work with friends who use the T2 and they dont like the fact I find more coins than them. Now the T2 guy is usually holding on to a couple of rings he found lol when says this lol.

The T2 is more stable and quiet than the F75. I dont know why anyone would want to run a F75 quiet, it defeats the sens and depth of the machine. While All metal mode will talk to you. The discriminate, and Stat(cache) modes will scream at you when you hit a target. Its like a bomb going off n my headphones. But the tones you want are the wisp sounds you barely hear. Even better is a sound with no VDI readout, but your gonna dig deep.

The problem with the F75 on mine anyway is this. It is a fine hair to get the machine set right. It will function perfectly completely out of tune. But to get the depth and for it to hunt right. You need to set it for the target you are hunting. Also there is 500 positions for the ground balance which is critical with the F75. But there is a fast grab trigger that cures this. I have hunts I run the ground balance manual and set the gb a little lower for depth and to miss the first few inches of targets.

My F75 is not as complicated as other machines. But a joy to play with. You will learn about threshold and notch that you dont have now. You can also change the sound, and even the pitch of the sound for your ear that makes it a killer on the deep targets.

You sound like a turn on and go machine, I hate to say it. But Garrets AT series can do the job and you can even shower with it as its waterproof lol.

I live in a desert so I laugh when folks tell me about the annoying little bell sound when they find a coin and how it is waterproof. But the darn things can hunt. What ever you decide, Im sure it will be good choice. The only detectors I would steer from is the ones made in china. I also would tell you to buy new, and from a sponsor on here. If there is a problem in the process, you can quickly find help here. My next machine will be bought from Evan Granger from Barts Big Toys. When you buy new, you get a warranty. I read somewhere on the forum half of all Garret ATP have to be returned for repair. Im sure they fixed that by now but you really want a warrenty, and some machines the warranty wont transfer.

Okay this is a forum for short post. A thousand apologies for rambling. Good Luck.

 

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[kyleeskastles]

Sounds about as advanced as your gonna get for a machine, but a solid target finder with alot of features which is perfect for a gadget nerd like me. The more gadgetry it has the more i like it whatever it more be. I just want it to have reliability when it gets to chirping and grunting.

My main grip i have i think really is reliably finding a target. I been paying alot more attention to these phantom farts lately on my current machines. It is almost always a real low sounding tone like you would get with gold, and on the 202 is always reading between 6-8+ inches. I am suspecting that it is a depth capability issue. It is having a harder time reading and recognizing the deeper items, and out here there is going to be alot of them in a agriculture farming town that has been around since birth of texas.

So im thinking this about the 202. It cant read reliably enough to really zone in on the deeper targets and give you that constant bam bam bam back and forth sweep signal that enables you to accurately pinpoint a targeted dig/recovery area. It instead gives off off these very sporadic readings till i lower the sensitivity, then its gone. Raise it back up and its there but still very sporadic, too much to make a respectable dig anyway. i dont want to be digging manholes to recover no telling what you know lol. I have to set it in such a way it has maybe a max depth of 6 inches at most but reliable signals and fairly accurate ID of the metal. This is killing me because i know there is stuff down there i just dont have the power to get to it.

Now if the eurotek pro, F70 or F75 can find those deeper targets reliably, bam bam bam signal you love to hear that will track down a tighter location, then that will make me a happy boy My wife applied for me a F70 through :: Miller MDZ :: a dealer she found on the internet that does financing of those higher priced goodies that will get the job done because she is frustrated im frustrated and back in the house most the time again! Haven't heard back yet though so im thinking it might be a scam? or something, anyone heard of them? No biggie though i will just as well try and save up or wait till taxes.

Im going to that site tonight i mentioned a few days ago barring any setbacks, cant wait. Hopefully will find something neat or maybe some old iron i can do some rustic country art with.

 

[Rawhide]

Im concerned with the low tone you are hearing. I suspect your getting coil overload, your power is set too high. What happened to me and my BH202 was a bottlecap would set it off like that. Your machine may be working. Also old steel bottlecaps will disintegrate into nothing but red soil, and that is enough to set your detector off. Sounds like to me you have outgrown your detector, happens to all of us.

I have had no issues with phantom targets. Low tones are ignored. Im not a lazy md'r, I have a bad back so I have to use my md time smart. I am sorry to hear you two are in the house, you wont find the goodies there. I use a few things that have help me recover targets faster, and easier. I use a Garret propointer, you can scan before you dig, you may just need to probe the coin out. I use a lesche digger, you can cut a seemless plug and go as deep as your machine will detect on the deep targets. I use a vivtar hd video cam, same as the gopro. I like to watch my swing patterns. I could close my eyes and hunt, but I understand how we all get tired or distracted and may be missing targets.

If you havent put a few sets of batteries through you two detectors you really havent learned them. Buy a more expensive machine is just going to produce the same results. I spent hundreds of hours researching how detectors are made and how they work. Understanding what your detector is telling you is important.

I see two mistakes made by most new md'rs. The first the power is too high and the coil is overloaded. The second is the coil swing, usually too high and too fast. The guys posting the great finds are only showing the good stuff they found. They got lucky or researched some good areas to hunt. They walked over the target.

Reliability depends on the operator. The detectors do what they are programmed to do. They operate faster than you mind thinks, and if they beep there is a change enough in the field to make it do so. A example is lifting the coil at the end of a swing, will cause it to beep. Hitting a wet blade of grass can cause it to beep. Instead of me posting several fixes here I suggest you download a few manuals for different detectors and read them. Along with the tips found here you will gain a good knowledge base.

I think you have confused emi, which is the electricity going through the air from machines and power lines as a reliability problem. While this does reduce the effectiveness on your fisher F75, it is something that can be overcome to a degree. Now another function of the F75 is the ability to change the frequency if this happens. You also have other options. You also can change coils, or lower the sensitivity which helps.

No one here has asked where are you going to hunt? What type of hunts are you going to do? It really is important to pair the detector with the hunt your gonna do. Soil conditions in your are also may limit what detectors work. Reliability comes with confidence in your machine. Those phantom targets could be the tiniest pieces of foil or metal setting your detector off. You could be doing it all right.

I hunt by sound mostly, using the vdi to check the numbers to see if I have a solid number I like. In the end I go with the sound my detector makes as the most reliable. Headphones will help you find the smallest of sounds of those deep targets. You can hunt by vdi only but my sites are so trashy sometimes I like to use sound. Those chirpy F75's just means they are really sensitive. If I want to a chocked machine so it is pleasing to my ear. I will switch to all metal and tune it myself. Also notch will really quiet a F75 down. Yes I said it, if you run a quiet machine, it has been dumbed down unless your hunting on the moon where there are no targets lol.

 

[lastleg]

Kyle

What I have learned from many years of detecting is do not buy off brands. If you can find a
used (cheap) White's you will begin finding good stuff because the discrimination is the best
of all detectors I've used and that's a lot of good and bad machines. If the meter reads quarter
you will find a quarter or rarely a quarter sized aluminum object.

If it says penny you can bet a penny is what you will find. White's has a lock on accurate IDs.
I base this on experience in the late 1980s. Another one nearly as good was the Compass but
they aren't around anymore. Tesoros are good too but if you like gadgets pick something else.

I would consider selling what you have and stay with American mds. Some old Fishers go way
deep but it talks to you if sens is set too high. I found a seated dime, my first with a Fisher but
had to really work to pinpoint. I have a Minelab Explorer, seldom used, that you would love for
the high tech capabilities but it has a learning curve requiring a PHD.

Everyone will LOL at this but if I have a yard or farm site without high weeds I reach for my
trusty D-Tex Coinshooter because it goes silent over trash and responds only to non-ferrous
targets. And the coin or ring will always be in the middle of the small coil. Don't make them
anymore either.

 

[BARKER]

Hi Kylee; Then if RELIABILITY in signals and Depth is your WANT then the F75 is your huckleberry ok. It "WILL" fill your bill exactly ok. I know I use one and I love it. I find dimes at 1ft and Quarters at 14 - 16" routinely ok. Anything larger like a jar of cons or something you can easily talk 2 - 4 Feet. AAAND it is HOT on gold ok. More so than a LOT of other detectors out there ok. Yup, I've used most of them myself as well ok. You can get a used one here dirt cheap under the Retail price ok. Good Luck. PEACE:RONB

 

[RustyGold]

I'd take Wayne up on his generous offer!

 

[kyleeskastles]

Casca, your right about those steel caps, everytime i get one they have orange all around them and they always ring up as pulltabs at that. Not sure if the coil was overloading or not but it has been stable at about the 1 o clock position on sensitivity. It could well have been since i was doing it at about the 3-4 area and that is also when it would display the most trouble with deep targets.

My area is fairly rural, youll get through town here and back in the farmland in a matter of minutes. Not much emi out here unless i get close to the transformers or right in town, other then that it is all really rural. I hunt mostly the old park established in the 1870's and school lots, and have been researching potential private properties including the one i went to tonight. That one unfortunately ended up being just a photo shoot after all. It was way too overgrown to swing a metal detector but we had a great time doing pics. As for type of hunt i am looking to get silver and depending where i am, old iron that can be re purposed as rustic country art, example old hand saw hanging on the wall, horse shoe etc. There is ton of homes well over 100 years old out here, a good bit of them historic markers and private property. The spot i went to today was private historical markered too, texas marker #8290 info: A native of North Carolina, Robert Starke Armistead moved with his family to Alabama in 1818. He married Ann Sylvesta Carney in 1826 and they came to Texas in 1835. Armistead served in the Republic of Texas army in 1836 and with forces defending San Antonio during the Vasquez invasion in 1842. He was a charter trustee of Baylor University in 1845. Settling in Washington County, the Armisteads operated a large agricultural enterprise and in 1863 adopted a daughter, Sallie. Robert and Ann are buried nearby in a family cemetery on land once a part of their farm.

These types places are all over here, i just got to track down the owner and that is probably the hardest part of it all. then trying to figure out how to say hey can i get permission to come on out and take pictures, metal detect etc etc.

Tom miller got back in touch with my wife today, working out the details i think on what to do but looks like we might be upgrading sooner then expected if everything works out well!

Here are some pics if anyone wanted to see some of the lay of the land in this spot

 

[kyleeskastles]

I'd take Wayne up on his generous offer!

I just might on this next property we are looking into just for detecting, even though she is eyeballing it for pictures also lol. It has a huge victorian style private home built in the 1850's on it that is still in fine shape today. This home really should of been a motel or government house for its size that is how big it is for period. Absolutely beautiful home anyone would love to have, be around or see. It use to be on a much larger tract of land and most certainly at one time belong to very wealthy people for the time and location. Small patches has been sold off over the years that also have old but smaller victorian houses on some of those broke up plots. I suspect the family extended the property to other family members over time based on the old land tract maps i can find and the current county tax records.

I found that the property taxes are now being handled by a trust bank, which i know already will yield no permission rights. Thankfully the property owner was listed and that is where i am at now. Finding said property owner is going to be the hard part and im have to really dig to find who this is. Might have to look over some old telephone records or something see if i can come across a phone number. No one lives there now but it is well kept and not a flaw can be seen, but the history of the place is there and is listed for sale for the paltry sum of 1/2 of a millions bucks! that is alot for a home out this way when you can get you a real good one for 50k or so. By the looks of it, it is worth every penny though.

Either way i shall find this elusive owner and give it my darnedest shot. If i get lucky enough to step foot on this ground i no doubt would like to do it with the best available machines wayne can grab because we are talking a very wealthy home here from that long ago in texas. Silver and gold to be found and no telling what else. Heck i would be thrilled to just dig anything at all here, because of its history and just massive looking private home for its period.

 

[ivan salis]

ah the famous "disappearing target" and phantom fart sound * when small iron items rust to bits --the iron rust "ghost" is left behind -- it will ring up as metal * (so will rotted aluminum foil as well) as you "dig up" these signals you break up the their "clump" and then they simply "disappear" poof --since their now all busted up to bits --they no longer have enough mass to ring up.---red clay (due to high iron content) can also trigger your detector as can certain high mineral areas--- thus the great importantance of properly tuning your machine to not "see" all the background minerals in the soil --known as "ground balancing"

 

[kyleeskastles]

Found her! Well at least who i hope it is anyway, phone numbers registered to several of the same properties. Will call in the morn as the search continues

 

[TxFlag]

Im just started out also.

I have a Bounty Hunter and the first time I used it it had trouble even beeping over my huge metal bbq grill. I got frustrated and thought "do low end detectors really work this bad?". I changed out batteries and everything else I could think of.

After becoming frustrated and just about to give up on my newly started hobby I checked all the connections...It ended up being the coil plugged in wrong. One of the pins was bent. I fixed it and the thing works great now.

 

[kyleeskastles]

Im just started out also.

I have a Bounty Hunter and the first time I used it it had trouble even beeping over my huge metal bbq grill. I got frustrated and thought "do low end detectors really work this bad?". I changed out batteries and everything else I could think of.

After becoming frustrated and just about to give up on my newly started hobby I checked all the connections...It ended up being the coil plugged in wrong. One of the pins was bent. I fixed it and the thing works great now.

Oh ya they are not bad machines, just a pain in the butt sometimes lol. Sucks i have to limit it to get reliable readings but itll do for now. Good luck out there in austin, should be some sweet spots to be had that way

 

[TxFlag]

I limit mine too. I have found more stuff with the sensitivity all the way down than in any other setting. I realized this limits depth but for hobby hunting shallow clad this works for me. It still finds coins 5" deep this way. I even found a ring yesterday with mine setup this way.

I wont lie...I really want a nicer md, but this BH has been a great joy for me and the kids. I have learned all the tones and I know a quarter or a penny pretty well now.

Austin went very anti-md awhile back (no md's in any city parks), but there are some great places to hunt here.

Good luck to you kyleeskastles.

 

[kyleeskastles]

Between here washington on the brazos austin san atone was alot of trade routes and gold/silver routes back in the day like old independence road. Some of these roads are no longer major roads and a few not even paved(nothing like dirt road country btw). Most of the modern stuff now wont be the right location anyway if your into finding older stuff. Between fighting santa anna and the mexicans, the indians and out laws, alot of gold silver and no telling what else was lost hidden and sometimes tells were told. Check this out, here is a old one i been researching from the late 1800's, after wars with mexico settled down and the confederate army was recruiting.

Brenham weekly banner. (Brenham, Tex.) 1877-1907, August 26, 1897, Image 7 « Chronicling America « Library of Congress

As far as i can tell it was never found and is still out there somewhere waiting

Stuff like this is said to be all over texas from battles and people in general wanting to strike it rich the outlaw way and i have found a few other neat little bits of history like this, but uh those im keeping secret for now!

 

[mikeraydj]

I had a bounty hunter Quick draw 2. I found most of the clad that earned me enough to get into the fisher F2. I hated selling that machine. It seemed accurate. The only thing I didn't like about it was it had no ground balance or pin pointing. I was told to run sensitivity at 9 o'clock and discrimination at 11 o'clock, then hit the auto notch button. This worked great for coin shooting for me. Should be the same for your machine.

 

[TerryC]

I limit mine too. I have found more stuff with the sensitivity all the way down than in any other setting. I realized this limits depth but for hobby hunting shallow clad this works for me. It still finds coins 5" deep this way. I even found a ring yesterday with mine setup this way.

I wont lie...I really want a nicer md, but this BH has been a great joy for me and the kids. I have learned all the tones and I know a quarter or a penny pretty well now.

Austin went very anti-md awhile back (no md's in any city parks), but there are some great places to hunt here.

Good luck to you kyleeskastles.

Tx, have you ever heard of the "90 degree step" ? Try this. It may improve your finds. When you swing past a target and get a beep, step 90 degrees to the right (or left). If you still get a strong beep, it probably is a good target. Dig. This is not a fool-proof method but it does eliminate most "bad" targets. That is to say, the beep may disappear or sound different for bad'uns. You get the added benny of improving your pinpointing this way too. Terry Soloman did a good video on someone doing the 90 degree step. Check his archives. DO NOT just swing the coil 90 degrees! Most cannot duplicate the sideways swing by "pushing the coil". You must swing left and right then step and swing left and right again. Try it. TTC

 

[Rawhide]

might pay a local farmer to brush hog that for you.

 

[kyleeskastles]

They do clear it up every once in a while, i guess i just caught them at a bad time. The owner said they were thinking about selling this historic site property too, couldn't understand why we wanted to bother coming out there for pictures and thought it was dangerous lol. Well some of us appreciate history and old rustic country things you know, course i didnt say that as she might of took it the wrong way. A chance at metal detecting it would of been a bonus but no biggie, as the family and i had a great time.

For this new property we are looking at, i tried to get ahold of the owner today, no luck. One number was disconnected and so far no one has answered the other number. Going to keep tryin and keep looking though.

 

[ivan salis]

when you look to upgrade try the delta 4000 * a $279 its affordable --runs on 1-- 9 volt --has a 0 to 99 number visual sorting "display" -- a all metal and notchible setting "custom" mode * plus its light in weight (for those long hunts)