Karinus
Jr. Member
Since Im a new GT user I put together all the info I could on it. I was stuck in the house when it was 25 below zero, and wishing it was a little warmer. Hopefully this will save someone the trouble of sifting through mulitple topics.
Im in no way taking credit for writing any of this, it all came from very helpfull T-netters- and I thank you, as Im not a patient person and all of you no doubt saved me a lot of frustration. Hope it helps.
MINELAB GT SOVERIGN-
The Sovereigns are a different type of detector and not like anything most have ever used, these do take some time to get used to and the biggest tip I can give is DON’T GIVE UP. These detectors with the different tones, and nulling may confuse many to begin with, but the more you use it the more you will understand its language and the better you will get with it and see finds that will make many a believer the Sovereign may be if not the best detector you have ever used.
With the Sovereign you can never go too slow, but you can go too fast and miss a lot of good targets that are deep or close to a trash item. Most find running no disc or very little will get you less nulling and you can hear everything there is other than the iron which is disc out with the Sovereigns and will null when it sees iron. The speed depends on where you are hunting as you don’t want to go as slow in a park that only has surface targets, but want to go much slower in an area where you know holds deep targets or where there is a lot of trash as it has to see every target. I find in most areas I want to hear the threshold coming and going and changing to different tones. If this is doing this in most areas I know it is working good as it is seeing what I want. Now if this area is old and could hold deeper targets I will want to go even slower than normal in some of the areas where I know would be the deeper targets, such as around some of the bigger and older trees in a park where people sat many years ago and lost coins. You want to go very slow and listen close to that threshold changing and wiggle the coil over any signal a couple of time to see if you can get the tones to start climbing and number too, you may not be able to get to the correct tones or numbers, but they will be trying to climb and not locking on. These I will check out as they could be so deep the Sovereign sees them, but being so deep can not get a good signal to ID them. Like I say when doing the wiggle they will be trying to climb, but may not make it. If they lock on to a number, nice, than that is the ID of that target, but if they cant quite lock on and want to climb is the ones I am talking about. With the Sovereigns you have to go slow normally and going for the deep ones at the fringe of detection is where going super slow will make a difference. I learned some of this by accident when I was forced to stand in one spot on the back side of a tree as some young people were playing Frisbee golf and I was in their way. I was moving the coil ever so slightly and could hear the threshold change tones indicating it was seeing something. I did the wiggle and seen the numbers bouncing around and the best I could get was up to a 165 on my 180 meter, but I could see it was trying to climb along with the tones. I dug down a good 8-10 inches and with the help of the Sun Ray S1 probe (best investment for the Sovereign) I found a deep wheatie. I went around that tree real slow after that and dug 3 more older wheaties, a merc, an IH penny, and a gold plated heart with not one of these giving me the correct meter reading, but they were trying. Up until then I had only found new coins and some trash, after that I dug many of older coins from 8-12 inches and less than 10% read like they should have, but they all were signals that were trying to climb, but just couldn’t make it. This is why I say go very very slow in those areas you feel has some very deep targets.
Now another tip I can offer is some of those iffy targets you can’t tell are good or bad. I will try to get the target to the tip of the coil by moving the coil back to me with the short side to side until I lose it, then move the coil forward until I get the target. Now I will know about right where it is so I will come at it from a different angle and see if it is there or moved. I may come from a different angle all the way around and find if I can only see it one way it is probably a false off of iron, but if I can get it several ways I will be digging. Now I will go to all metal pinpoint and pinpoint it doing the 90 degrees turn as I find on the deeper targets this works great plus to do my test to see if it is good I have to have the target centered right on. I will switch to pinpoint and go side to side and center the target, but don’t go forward or backward, just side to side. Now when you have the target centered I push the coil to the ground so it will not move off that spot and turn 90 degrees and then swing the coil side to side again until you have it centered, but make sure you don’t go forward or backwards with the coil. Now you have the target right under the very center of the coil and if it was a iffy one because it was deeper and want to get a better ID I will hold the coil very still and switch back to disc mode, now once this is done I will wiggle the coil every so slightly, if it nulls it is trash, if it is a positive signal trying to climb I will be digging and even if the threshold don’t change I will wiggle a little more and chances are it wont null so you want to dig this one too to make sure. I found with the GT it is harder to do this for some reason as I get a null first, but by wiggling it a little more it will ID it. I also find that the GT seems to be more sensitive and will false on iron more, but by coming at the target from a different angle it is easy to tell it is iron as it will move or null.
The next tip is with using the S1 probe of Sun Rays finding the deeper targets. Once you know your Sovereign and have used it a bit you can tell the depth just the way it acts and sounds like in more cases than a depth meter will. When I get the deeper signals and some that are more iffy I will do my pinpointing using the 90 degree turn and dig my plug as I know it is deeper and while in the all metal pinpoint I will switch to the probe and stick the probe in the hole trying to find any kind of a signal, when I do and dig close enough to the target to get a good signal then I will switch back to disc and see if it will null, or if it is a good target. If it nulls I know it is iron and will try to see if I can find another signal or I will take out the iron and try again. This has helped finding those targets that are close to nails and other trash. It is nice to have this probe as most of the time I can get the nice signal of a good target and even some of the iffy ones tying to climb I dig I can see once I am close to it if it is a good target by the tones I get. The S1 probe has really helped me find those deeper than normal targets, those at an angle and I find more since I use this probe as I know right where to dig and not put a big scratch across a coin
Pinpoint: You pinpoint at the very top of the coil, not the center. Look at your coil, lay your finger on the TOP outer edge. This outer edge is exactly where the target will be if you do it right. Once you get a signal, backup until you hear that loudest blurb signal...holding the coil in that spot...pivot 90 degrees and backup again until that blurb signal takes place...that's dead center. The blurb (as I call it) is that sudden blast (loud) signal you get just before the signal dies. This blurb can also happen on the heel of the coil (the exact other side). This is why I sometimes backup too far just to make sure I'm not using the heel instead of the top of the coil. Then I move back to the target and do what I wrote above. So the point is to get that blurb in one spot located at the top of the coil outer edge. Also: I moved the coil back toward my feet until the target went silent and then start the Sovereign 'Wiggle' forward until I heard it. Right under the tip /center of the coil is where X marks the spot every time.
Max depth: On the GT, run it in all metal, ground balanced, and fixed GROUND BALANCE, Sensitivity just out of auto if the detector is stable. Also, for general relic or coin hunting turn your sensitivity to manual and turn it up until you start to receive false signals then back it off slowly until they stop. In this setting you will increase your machines depth capabilities. If you turn the machine onto all metal it will also detect deeper than in discriminate.
Ground balance: You should do this first thing before searching an area. First find a piece of ground with no metal targets under the coil. Make sure the disc switch is in all metal and put the ground balance switch in 'track' and pump the coil up and down from 1" to 6" until the tone evens out, then put the GROUND BALANCE switch into the fix position and start hunting. If after doing the above you want to hunt in disc. instead of staying in All Metal, switch to Disc. If you think the minerals are changing (most likely in some areas) You'll need to switchback to all metal and back in track mode again. You could stay in track, but on finding a target the detector will track the target till it disappears and the Ground Balance will be all messed up till you move away from the target again. Before I start searching, I usually set the machine to All metal, Track and pump the coil a few times till it levels out then I switch to discriminate as this is the mode I hunt in most of the time. When operating in Disc mode, the Sovereign GT uses digital filtering to compensate for ground effects and the Track / Fix / Pinpoint function switch is disabled. I leave the switch set to pinpoint since it's disabled, then when I do need to pinpoint I can simply move the Disc. switch to 'ALL METAL'.
Minelab test/setup: Make sure you can ground balance it in All Metal mode, set toggle in Track and bob the coil till threshold is steady. You can't really compare depth because of different minerals in different locals. Test it on various targets in Disc. mode, Threshold ON, Iron Mask ON, Sensitivity. on Auto. Disc on 3, and Notch off. See if you can hear all the targets and see if it nulls on a nail. Try it around to see if it remains steady threshold, if not, lower Sensitivity. till it steadies.
Setup Instructions:
Disc: With very few exceptions, I leave this at the lowest possible setting, the very first notch. A new user, however, may benefit by making some adjustments, at least until he is fairly acquainted with the GT's tonal range on various targets. If working your typical park, moving the dial to about the 11:00 notch will help in rejecting the pesky pieces of foil littering many parks, while still picking up most gold rings. I don't recommend increasing the discrimination past this setting, unless the user is cherry picking a site, and isn't concerned about missing low conductive targets, such as gold. Keep in mind too that increasing the discrimination tends to have a negative impact on depth.
I leave my metal mode on "discriminate". I leave the notch and disc turned all the way down to the left. That is supposed to give you further depth, and I believe it does. BUT.....running the machine on those settings, the digi-meter is a MUST. Once you've learned what the numbers are telling you, you will know what you're digging 95% of the time before you dig it.
Notch: While this one can be useful in some situations, I personally never use it. The setting is intended to cancel out pesky targets falling within a specific range. For example, when working a sports field littered with similarly sized pull-tab's, a user can set the machine to reject that specific target range, while still picking up targets of a lower or higher tonal range. I personally prefer to use the tones as a means of discrimination, but that's just a personal preference. Experiment with this setting. You may find it to be quite useful at your sites.
Volume: I set this one to just about the 3:00 position. I have found that a higher setting tends to produce an echo on shallower targets, which I find annoying. It differs with each user though, so experiment with it.
Threshold/Silent: I have used the silent setting on some occasions, and it is helpful, but I prefer the reassuring slight hum of a well-set threshold. I would leave it at the threshold setting until you become comfortable with the machine. If you do decide to use the silent mode, first make sure you have a low and consistently smooth threshold before switching over to silent. If your threshold is barely audible or erratic when setting the machine to silent, it can have a negative impact on the machine's ability to pick up deep targets.
Sensitivity: A properly set sensitivity and discrimination is what makes the GT a great coin shooting and relic machine. This setting is one you will need to pay close attention to, since it is the one you will be using the most. In general, setting it at the 12:00 position will work well at most sites. Note that the more clockwise setting actually lowers the sensitivity, so a 2:00 position would produce a lower sensitivity than the 12:00 position.
To set the threshold and properly ground balance using this setting, start with the 12:00 position. Make sure that there are no metal objects in the ground. Repeatedly lower and raise the coil from the ground, making sure it isn't at an angle. The threshold may initial change, but then it should hold steady. If it doesn't, decrease the sensitivity, moving it to about the 1:00 position. Once it holds, sweep the coil on the ground several times. This will allow the machine to read the ground's mineral content and adjust itself for it. You're now set to go! You can now increase the sensitivity, though be mindful of any falsing.
If ground conditions cause nulling of the threshold , then the Sovereign is not correctly analyzing the ground. It thinks that the ground is a metal object instead of dirt.
If nulling is caused by iron trash, then too much sensitivity will cause a Sovereign to see so much of the iron response that it can't see anything else. It takes a very strong hit on a good target to get through a iron null.
If sensitivity is set too high, then ground noise will swamp out the Sovereign and cause loss of depth on good targets. It chokes on induced noise that may not cause audible false signals.
The Sovereign needs to see the ground for what it is to determine what is dirt and what is metal, and it must not be overpowered by junk to see desirable objects
I am sure if you are brand new to the Sovereign this may confuse you and why it is recommended if you are new to run auto sensitivity until you learn the Sovereign a little as the threshold will run the smoothest. Once you understand the tones a bit more you can run manual sensitivity as you will know what to listen for on a good and bad signal with the threshold coming and going. Even in auto that threshold will be coming and going and this is where you adjust your sweep speed so it is not a solid null. When you run manual sensitivity I tell most that the higher you set it the slower you will have to sweep the coil as the threshold will be going more than it is there in most sites. By going slow is where you get the depth too running the higher sensitivity. I think you will find most will tell you they have found that between 12 and 10 o'clock position is where they have found works the best for them and adjusted their sweep speed to make it work. I have run max sensitivity at times if it don't chatter with the coil in the air of electrical interference. When sweeping I have to go very very slow and listen close to all the nulls to see if I can get a good tone on the edge of a null
More advice: Set it on 12 noon and run a light threshold, like the gentle buzz of a bee. You will get near max depth and good stability this way.
If you have the 12.5" or WOT coil, you probably want the Sensitivity at about 1 o'clock. If you have the 10" then probably at 11 or 12 o'clock. If using the 8", then you can probably turn it up as high as 9 or 10 o'clock with good stability. The bigger the coil and the tougher the ground, the more you need to twist it clockwise. The smaller the coil and the more neutral the ground the more you can turn it towards the "Auto" mark. Max sensitivity is experienced just prior to clicking into "Auto", at which point you will lose a lot of depth in most cases. Best to stay safe and run it at around 11.
One of the "problems" with the Sovereign is that it can be hard to tell if your setting the sensitivity to high since it wont chatter at high Sensitivity settings like other detectors, but it will still be set to high causing falseing(digging nails) and so on. I mostly hunt between 3 o'clock and 1 o'clock on my Sensitivity setting and that 1 o'clock setting is strictly for the ocean beaches with minimal black sand. That minimal setting works great for me also and I've used it many times.
Iron mask: All metal is just that - it picks up all targets, even iron. You can switch to All Metal when pinpointing a target in Pin Point Mode or when working the beach. I turned the Sovereign on with iron mask active and set the sensitivity to half way with a slight threshold, instantly I could hear the machine nulling over the Iron, in fact it was a constant null indicating the sensitivity was too high so I backed it off to the 2 o'clock position...still nulling, the machine finally settled down just above the zero. For starters the sensitivity needed to be raised if I stood any chance of finding something below the surface, I set it back to my original halfway position and turned the threshold switch to silent search so the background nulling couldn't distract me. The machine was much stable with the occasional blip just to let me know it was switched on, then a low blip, more of a blurp, I passed the coil over again and worked the signal in very short sweeps(known as the Sovereign wiggle) with every pass the signal became more solid as the target locked but still sounded a little abrupt, I flicked the switch over to Iron mask off (disc on position). Iron mask off made the machine more blippy, some of these blips were actually signals that just needed to be worked with the "wiggle".
Noise Cancel: This can be useful in certain circumstances, as when there's another detector nearby and his machine is interfering with yours, but you will likely hardly have a need to use it. The settings are user preference and with experience you will find what's right for you and the area you are hunting. Good thing is the tones with the sovereign can be vary reliable for target ID once you get your ears trained. I am sure you have heard people say "learn your machine". IMO the sovereign is a machine where learning the machine will actually equate to better finds and better junk to good target ratios. I would suggest a lot of bench testing with a wide assortment of items. If possible have someone run the items past the coil with your back turned to them and guess what tone relates to the given item. I think you will be surprised at just how tone specific items can be with the sovereign. For air testing turn sensitivity all the way down and iron mask off to stabilize threshold, especially indoors. The Sovereign does not air test well but you can still air test to learn your tones.
Here are a few other tips. The Sovereign can be pretty hot on crown bottle caps. Many will give a tone for a left to right sweep. However they rarely give a tone when run front to back of coil while all other metals will. So in the field when you suspect a crown cap give it a front to back sweep. Like pushing a vacuum cleaner away from you and pulling it back toward you. If it does not produce a tone when doing this you most likely are over a crown cap. If the item still gives that wonderful low tone front to back of the coil dig it up. There is a good chance your standing over gold. Foil and small gold items can sound very much alike. Especially in the 14k thin men's wedding band for example. Another great thing about the Sovereign is after it is run over an item the threshold pitch will return to correspond to that item. In most cases the returning threshold pitch after running over foil will be slightly lower than after it is run over a small gold item. If you have a small gold item give it a air test compared to a balled up piece of foil. I think you will see what I mean. These threshold changes are often something people initially dislike about the Sovereign but after gotten use to they become something most guys don't ever want to do without again.
These threshold changes will also work when notch discing a specific item. Say you have notched out pull tabs. The machine will null out over a pull tab and then return to a pull tab threshold. Now we all know when you notch out pull tabs you can miss some gold. Now if your machine nulls over a pull tab but the threshold pitch returns different than your typical pitch after nulling on a tab...That's right dig it. You may have gone over a disced out piece of gold.
IMO the Sovereign is capable of telling you everything you need to know. You just need to learn its language. You will probably get so good at this that when you see someone swing around with a fancy LCD detector you will quietly chuckle to yourself confident in the fact that they are pretty much unnecessary and don't do a lot when compared to your Sovereign other than to drive up the cost of the detector and provide one more point of confusion and possible mechanical problems. Who ever coined the phrase "keep it simple stupid" was most likely a Sovereign GT user.
If you do any wet sand hunting it may even get more amusing as you watch the guys with the signal or dual frequency detectors do the ring around the rosy double checking all there ghost signals. With the Sovereign you wont have this problem. The only time I have ever had it false on me at the beach is when sand gets caught between the coil cover so make sure things are nice and clean in this regard.
Determining size of target: As for the tones, they are not just at the coil, but come through the headphones. An excellent book that really explains the tones with the GT is " Finding Gold, Silver and Coins with the Minelab Sovereign" by Clive J Clynick. He post on the classified forum with his book for sale almost weekly. Excellent reading! If the target you are trying to get a size reading on are surface targets, lift the coil 6 inches or so and see if the tones sizing of the target gets smaller or stays the same. I mainly beach hunt with mine, and after raising the coil and the target stays large sounding, it is normally a beer can or the top of a beer can. I still dig them as that is the same signal for a watch. A dime or a surface quarter will sound the same until you raise the coil , immediately the dime will be much smaller sounding than a quarter. I only glance at the meter to see what target range I might me in, either a coin or in the gold range. Right now, I am still learning the tones of the GT as they are more pronounced than my Excalibur and the meter is a big help on the learning curve for me.
One way to get an idea of target sizing with the GT is to lay a quarter, a dime, a nickel and a penny on a 2 X 4 a few feet apart, raise the coil 6 -8 inches above the target and listen to the difference in the size of the different targets. It also helps to throw a couple of pull tabs in the mix and see if you can hear the difference between the pull tab and the coins. The coins will have a much rounder sound and the pull tab a longer sound. Then put a gold ring on the 2X4 and listen to how SWEET that sounds.
More Tips: Run your Sovereign with the volume fully up and then adjust your headphones to a comfortable audio level. Soil conditions change so you may need to set your machine differently, even if searching the same field on a different day. Don’t expect great depths if soil conditions will not allow, use auto sensitivity as a last resort and trust the machine. Using silent search and turning the threshold up to a slight 'hum' appears to make the machine a little more sensitive. When ground conditions allow you can turn the sensitivity higher and hunt in silent search, your Sovereign may be a little unstable but investigate the solid signals. Unless you are a novice always run with the Iron mask off, this is the position which says "disc on". When turning your machine on keep the coil at waist height for 10 seconds before searching, then do a ground balance. Always make sure no soil is trapped between the coil and cover, this can cause false tracking.
Meter calibration- If you have a meter, calibrate 180 on a quarter. Calibrate it by waving a quarter over the coil and while this is being done set the knob on back of the meter to read 180. When using you may have to reduce your sensitivity. This will possibly cause the meter to scramble. What I did to remedy the problem of bumping the knob- for a quick fix was to use a gold permanent marker, fine tip, and once I got the meter calibrated, I made a mark on the knob at 12 O'clock and a mark on the meter housing corresponding to the mark on the knob. When I knock it out of calibration in the field, I can just realign the marks and off I go without having to drop a quarter and recalibrate. I have checked it frequently and the aligned marks are still accurate on the original calibration. Be careful not to get lazy with the meter and go for just the 177-180 signals on copper and silver. I have found some older wheat's in the 167-168 range and nickels from 137-150 and some early merc's as low as 175. With the meter you'll be picking coins out of trashy areas where other guys are scratching there heads. Below is a table, print this out and take it with you.
180-177 1¢, 10¢, 25¢, Large Cent
176-173 Zn 1¢, IH 1¢(Br), Half Dime
172-169 Square Tab, Med Gold
168-165 Round Tab, Small Gold
164-160 2½ Gold, IH 1¢, (Copper)
159-147 Round Tab, Small Gold
146-141 New 5¢, Small Gold
140-137 5¢ Buffalo/V-Nick/Shield
136-133 Small Gold
132-129 $1 Gold
128-117 Small Gold
116-106 Foil, Fine Gold
105-095 3¢, Fine Gold
094-065 Foil, Fine Gold
-498 Iron
Im in no way taking credit for writing any of this, it all came from very helpfull T-netters- and I thank you, as Im not a patient person and all of you no doubt saved me a lot of frustration. Hope it helps.
MINELAB GT SOVERIGN-
The Sovereigns are a different type of detector and not like anything most have ever used, these do take some time to get used to and the biggest tip I can give is DON’T GIVE UP. These detectors with the different tones, and nulling may confuse many to begin with, but the more you use it the more you will understand its language and the better you will get with it and see finds that will make many a believer the Sovereign may be if not the best detector you have ever used.
With the Sovereign you can never go too slow, but you can go too fast and miss a lot of good targets that are deep or close to a trash item. Most find running no disc or very little will get you less nulling and you can hear everything there is other than the iron which is disc out with the Sovereigns and will null when it sees iron. The speed depends on where you are hunting as you don’t want to go as slow in a park that only has surface targets, but want to go much slower in an area where you know holds deep targets or where there is a lot of trash as it has to see every target. I find in most areas I want to hear the threshold coming and going and changing to different tones. If this is doing this in most areas I know it is working good as it is seeing what I want. Now if this area is old and could hold deeper targets I will want to go even slower than normal in some of the areas where I know would be the deeper targets, such as around some of the bigger and older trees in a park where people sat many years ago and lost coins. You want to go very slow and listen close to that threshold changing and wiggle the coil over any signal a couple of time to see if you can get the tones to start climbing and number too, you may not be able to get to the correct tones or numbers, but they will be trying to climb and not locking on. These I will check out as they could be so deep the Sovereign sees them, but being so deep can not get a good signal to ID them. Like I say when doing the wiggle they will be trying to climb, but may not make it. If they lock on to a number, nice, than that is the ID of that target, but if they cant quite lock on and want to climb is the ones I am talking about. With the Sovereigns you have to go slow normally and going for the deep ones at the fringe of detection is where going super slow will make a difference. I learned some of this by accident when I was forced to stand in one spot on the back side of a tree as some young people were playing Frisbee golf and I was in their way. I was moving the coil ever so slightly and could hear the threshold change tones indicating it was seeing something. I did the wiggle and seen the numbers bouncing around and the best I could get was up to a 165 on my 180 meter, but I could see it was trying to climb along with the tones. I dug down a good 8-10 inches and with the help of the Sun Ray S1 probe (best investment for the Sovereign) I found a deep wheatie. I went around that tree real slow after that and dug 3 more older wheaties, a merc, an IH penny, and a gold plated heart with not one of these giving me the correct meter reading, but they were trying. Up until then I had only found new coins and some trash, after that I dug many of older coins from 8-12 inches and less than 10% read like they should have, but they all were signals that were trying to climb, but just couldn’t make it. This is why I say go very very slow in those areas you feel has some very deep targets.
Now another tip I can offer is some of those iffy targets you can’t tell are good or bad. I will try to get the target to the tip of the coil by moving the coil back to me with the short side to side until I lose it, then move the coil forward until I get the target. Now I will know about right where it is so I will come at it from a different angle and see if it is there or moved. I may come from a different angle all the way around and find if I can only see it one way it is probably a false off of iron, but if I can get it several ways I will be digging. Now I will go to all metal pinpoint and pinpoint it doing the 90 degrees turn as I find on the deeper targets this works great plus to do my test to see if it is good I have to have the target centered right on. I will switch to pinpoint and go side to side and center the target, but don’t go forward or backward, just side to side. Now when you have the target centered I push the coil to the ground so it will not move off that spot and turn 90 degrees and then swing the coil side to side again until you have it centered, but make sure you don’t go forward or backwards with the coil. Now you have the target right under the very center of the coil and if it was a iffy one because it was deeper and want to get a better ID I will hold the coil very still and switch back to disc mode, now once this is done I will wiggle the coil every so slightly, if it nulls it is trash, if it is a positive signal trying to climb I will be digging and even if the threshold don’t change I will wiggle a little more and chances are it wont null so you want to dig this one too to make sure. I found with the GT it is harder to do this for some reason as I get a null first, but by wiggling it a little more it will ID it. I also find that the GT seems to be more sensitive and will false on iron more, but by coming at the target from a different angle it is easy to tell it is iron as it will move or null.
The next tip is with using the S1 probe of Sun Rays finding the deeper targets. Once you know your Sovereign and have used it a bit you can tell the depth just the way it acts and sounds like in more cases than a depth meter will. When I get the deeper signals and some that are more iffy I will do my pinpointing using the 90 degree turn and dig my plug as I know it is deeper and while in the all metal pinpoint I will switch to the probe and stick the probe in the hole trying to find any kind of a signal, when I do and dig close enough to the target to get a good signal then I will switch back to disc and see if it will null, or if it is a good target. If it nulls I know it is iron and will try to see if I can find another signal or I will take out the iron and try again. This has helped finding those targets that are close to nails and other trash. It is nice to have this probe as most of the time I can get the nice signal of a good target and even some of the iffy ones tying to climb I dig I can see once I am close to it if it is a good target by the tones I get. The S1 probe has really helped me find those deeper than normal targets, those at an angle and I find more since I use this probe as I know right where to dig and not put a big scratch across a coin
Pinpoint: You pinpoint at the very top of the coil, not the center. Look at your coil, lay your finger on the TOP outer edge. This outer edge is exactly where the target will be if you do it right. Once you get a signal, backup until you hear that loudest blurb signal...holding the coil in that spot...pivot 90 degrees and backup again until that blurb signal takes place...that's dead center. The blurb (as I call it) is that sudden blast (loud) signal you get just before the signal dies. This blurb can also happen on the heel of the coil (the exact other side). This is why I sometimes backup too far just to make sure I'm not using the heel instead of the top of the coil. Then I move back to the target and do what I wrote above. So the point is to get that blurb in one spot located at the top of the coil outer edge. Also: I moved the coil back toward my feet until the target went silent and then start the Sovereign 'Wiggle' forward until I heard it. Right under the tip /center of the coil is where X marks the spot every time.
Max depth: On the GT, run it in all metal, ground balanced, and fixed GROUND BALANCE, Sensitivity just out of auto if the detector is stable. Also, for general relic or coin hunting turn your sensitivity to manual and turn it up until you start to receive false signals then back it off slowly until they stop. In this setting you will increase your machines depth capabilities. If you turn the machine onto all metal it will also detect deeper than in discriminate.
Ground balance: You should do this first thing before searching an area. First find a piece of ground with no metal targets under the coil. Make sure the disc switch is in all metal and put the ground balance switch in 'track' and pump the coil up and down from 1" to 6" until the tone evens out, then put the GROUND BALANCE switch into the fix position and start hunting. If after doing the above you want to hunt in disc. instead of staying in All Metal, switch to Disc. If you think the minerals are changing (most likely in some areas) You'll need to switchback to all metal and back in track mode again. You could stay in track, but on finding a target the detector will track the target till it disappears and the Ground Balance will be all messed up till you move away from the target again. Before I start searching, I usually set the machine to All metal, Track and pump the coil a few times till it levels out then I switch to discriminate as this is the mode I hunt in most of the time. When operating in Disc mode, the Sovereign GT uses digital filtering to compensate for ground effects and the Track / Fix / Pinpoint function switch is disabled. I leave the switch set to pinpoint since it's disabled, then when I do need to pinpoint I can simply move the Disc. switch to 'ALL METAL'.
Minelab test/setup: Make sure you can ground balance it in All Metal mode, set toggle in Track and bob the coil till threshold is steady. You can't really compare depth because of different minerals in different locals. Test it on various targets in Disc. mode, Threshold ON, Iron Mask ON, Sensitivity. on Auto. Disc on 3, and Notch off. See if you can hear all the targets and see if it nulls on a nail. Try it around to see if it remains steady threshold, if not, lower Sensitivity. till it steadies.
Setup Instructions:
Disc: With very few exceptions, I leave this at the lowest possible setting, the very first notch. A new user, however, may benefit by making some adjustments, at least until he is fairly acquainted with the GT's tonal range on various targets. If working your typical park, moving the dial to about the 11:00 notch will help in rejecting the pesky pieces of foil littering many parks, while still picking up most gold rings. I don't recommend increasing the discrimination past this setting, unless the user is cherry picking a site, and isn't concerned about missing low conductive targets, such as gold. Keep in mind too that increasing the discrimination tends to have a negative impact on depth.
I leave my metal mode on "discriminate". I leave the notch and disc turned all the way down to the left. That is supposed to give you further depth, and I believe it does. BUT.....running the machine on those settings, the digi-meter is a MUST. Once you've learned what the numbers are telling you, you will know what you're digging 95% of the time before you dig it.
Notch: While this one can be useful in some situations, I personally never use it. The setting is intended to cancel out pesky targets falling within a specific range. For example, when working a sports field littered with similarly sized pull-tab's, a user can set the machine to reject that specific target range, while still picking up targets of a lower or higher tonal range. I personally prefer to use the tones as a means of discrimination, but that's just a personal preference. Experiment with this setting. You may find it to be quite useful at your sites.
Volume: I set this one to just about the 3:00 position. I have found that a higher setting tends to produce an echo on shallower targets, which I find annoying. It differs with each user though, so experiment with it.
Threshold/Silent: I have used the silent setting on some occasions, and it is helpful, but I prefer the reassuring slight hum of a well-set threshold. I would leave it at the threshold setting until you become comfortable with the machine. If you do decide to use the silent mode, first make sure you have a low and consistently smooth threshold before switching over to silent. If your threshold is barely audible or erratic when setting the machine to silent, it can have a negative impact on the machine's ability to pick up deep targets.
Sensitivity: A properly set sensitivity and discrimination is what makes the GT a great coin shooting and relic machine. This setting is one you will need to pay close attention to, since it is the one you will be using the most. In general, setting it at the 12:00 position will work well at most sites. Note that the more clockwise setting actually lowers the sensitivity, so a 2:00 position would produce a lower sensitivity than the 12:00 position.
To set the threshold and properly ground balance using this setting, start with the 12:00 position. Make sure that there are no metal objects in the ground. Repeatedly lower and raise the coil from the ground, making sure it isn't at an angle. The threshold may initial change, but then it should hold steady. If it doesn't, decrease the sensitivity, moving it to about the 1:00 position. Once it holds, sweep the coil on the ground several times. This will allow the machine to read the ground's mineral content and adjust itself for it. You're now set to go! You can now increase the sensitivity, though be mindful of any falsing.
If ground conditions cause nulling of the threshold , then the Sovereign is not correctly analyzing the ground. It thinks that the ground is a metal object instead of dirt.
If nulling is caused by iron trash, then too much sensitivity will cause a Sovereign to see so much of the iron response that it can't see anything else. It takes a very strong hit on a good target to get through a iron null.
If sensitivity is set too high, then ground noise will swamp out the Sovereign and cause loss of depth on good targets. It chokes on induced noise that may not cause audible false signals.
The Sovereign needs to see the ground for what it is to determine what is dirt and what is metal, and it must not be overpowered by junk to see desirable objects
I am sure if you are brand new to the Sovereign this may confuse you and why it is recommended if you are new to run auto sensitivity until you learn the Sovereign a little as the threshold will run the smoothest. Once you understand the tones a bit more you can run manual sensitivity as you will know what to listen for on a good and bad signal with the threshold coming and going. Even in auto that threshold will be coming and going and this is where you adjust your sweep speed so it is not a solid null. When you run manual sensitivity I tell most that the higher you set it the slower you will have to sweep the coil as the threshold will be going more than it is there in most sites. By going slow is where you get the depth too running the higher sensitivity. I think you will find most will tell you they have found that between 12 and 10 o'clock position is where they have found works the best for them and adjusted their sweep speed to make it work. I have run max sensitivity at times if it don't chatter with the coil in the air of electrical interference. When sweeping I have to go very very slow and listen close to all the nulls to see if I can get a good tone on the edge of a null
More advice: Set it on 12 noon and run a light threshold, like the gentle buzz of a bee. You will get near max depth and good stability this way.
If you have the 12.5" or WOT coil, you probably want the Sensitivity at about 1 o'clock. If you have the 10" then probably at 11 or 12 o'clock. If using the 8", then you can probably turn it up as high as 9 or 10 o'clock with good stability. The bigger the coil and the tougher the ground, the more you need to twist it clockwise. The smaller the coil and the more neutral the ground the more you can turn it towards the "Auto" mark. Max sensitivity is experienced just prior to clicking into "Auto", at which point you will lose a lot of depth in most cases. Best to stay safe and run it at around 11.
One of the "problems" with the Sovereign is that it can be hard to tell if your setting the sensitivity to high since it wont chatter at high Sensitivity settings like other detectors, but it will still be set to high causing falseing(digging nails) and so on. I mostly hunt between 3 o'clock and 1 o'clock on my Sensitivity setting and that 1 o'clock setting is strictly for the ocean beaches with minimal black sand. That minimal setting works great for me also and I've used it many times.
Iron mask: All metal is just that - it picks up all targets, even iron. You can switch to All Metal when pinpointing a target in Pin Point Mode or when working the beach. I turned the Sovereign on with iron mask active and set the sensitivity to half way with a slight threshold, instantly I could hear the machine nulling over the Iron, in fact it was a constant null indicating the sensitivity was too high so I backed it off to the 2 o'clock position...still nulling, the machine finally settled down just above the zero. For starters the sensitivity needed to be raised if I stood any chance of finding something below the surface, I set it back to my original halfway position and turned the threshold switch to silent search so the background nulling couldn't distract me. The machine was much stable with the occasional blip just to let me know it was switched on, then a low blip, more of a blurp, I passed the coil over again and worked the signal in very short sweeps(known as the Sovereign wiggle) with every pass the signal became more solid as the target locked but still sounded a little abrupt, I flicked the switch over to Iron mask off (disc on position). Iron mask off made the machine more blippy, some of these blips were actually signals that just needed to be worked with the "wiggle".
Noise Cancel: This can be useful in certain circumstances, as when there's another detector nearby and his machine is interfering with yours, but you will likely hardly have a need to use it. The settings are user preference and with experience you will find what's right for you and the area you are hunting. Good thing is the tones with the sovereign can be vary reliable for target ID once you get your ears trained. I am sure you have heard people say "learn your machine". IMO the sovereign is a machine where learning the machine will actually equate to better finds and better junk to good target ratios. I would suggest a lot of bench testing with a wide assortment of items. If possible have someone run the items past the coil with your back turned to them and guess what tone relates to the given item. I think you will be surprised at just how tone specific items can be with the sovereign. For air testing turn sensitivity all the way down and iron mask off to stabilize threshold, especially indoors. The Sovereign does not air test well but you can still air test to learn your tones.
Here are a few other tips. The Sovereign can be pretty hot on crown bottle caps. Many will give a tone for a left to right sweep. However they rarely give a tone when run front to back of coil while all other metals will. So in the field when you suspect a crown cap give it a front to back sweep. Like pushing a vacuum cleaner away from you and pulling it back toward you. If it does not produce a tone when doing this you most likely are over a crown cap. If the item still gives that wonderful low tone front to back of the coil dig it up. There is a good chance your standing over gold. Foil and small gold items can sound very much alike. Especially in the 14k thin men's wedding band for example. Another great thing about the Sovereign is after it is run over an item the threshold pitch will return to correspond to that item. In most cases the returning threshold pitch after running over foil will be slightly lower than after it is run over a small gold item. If you have a small gold item give it a air test compared to a balled up piece of foil. I think you will see what I mean. These threshold changes are often something people initially dislike about the Sovereign but after gotten use to they become something most guys don't ever want to do without again.
These threshold changes will also work when notch discing a specific item. Say you have notched out pull tabs. The machine will null out over a pull tab and then return to a pull tab threshold. Now we all know when you notch out pull tabs you can miss some gold. Now if your machine nulls over a pull tab but the threshold pitch returns different than your typical pitch after nulling on a tab...That's right dig it. You may have gone over a disced out piece of gold.
IMO the Sovereign is capable of telling you everything you need to know. You just need to learn its language. You will probably get so good at this that when you see someone swing around with a fancy LCD detector you will quietly chuckle to yourself confident in the fact that they are pretty much unnecessary and don't do a lot when compared to your Sovereign other than to drive up the cost of the detector and provide one more point of confusion and possible mechanical problems. Who ever coined the phrase "keep it simple stupid" was most likely a Sovereign GT user.
If you do any wet sand hunting it may even get more amusing as you watch the guys with the signal or dual frequency detectors do the ring around the rosy double checking all there ghost signals. With the Sovereign you wont have this problem. The only time I have ever had it false on me at the beach is when sand gets caught between the coil cover so make sure things are nice and clean in this regard.
Determining size of target: As for the tones, they are not just at the coil, but come through the headphones. An excellent book that really explains the tones with the GT is " Finding Gold, Silver and Coins with the Minelab Sovereign" by Clive J Clynick. He post on the classified forum with his book for sale almost weekly. Excellent reading! If the target you are trying to get a size reading on are surface targets, lift the coil 6 inches or so and see if the tones sizing of the target gets smaller or stays the same. I mainly beach hunt with mine, and after raising the coil and the target stays large sounding, it is normally a beer can or the top of a beer can. I still dig them as that is the same signal for a watch. A dime or a surface quarter will sound the same until you raise the coil , immediately the dime will be much smaller sounding than a quarter. I only glance at the meter to see what target range I might me in, either a coin or in the gold range. Right now, I am still learning the tones of the GT as they are more pronounced than my Excalibur and the meter is a big help on the learning curve for me.
One way to get an idea of target sizing with the GT is to lay a quarter, a dime, a nickel and a penny on a 2 X 4 a few feet apart, raise the coil 6 -8 inches above the target and listen to the difference in the size of the different targets. It also helps to throw a couple of pull tabs in the mix and see if you can hear the difference between the pull tab and the coins. The coins will have a much rounder sound and the pull tab a longer sound. Then put a gold ring on the 2X4 and listen to how SWEET that sounds.
More Tips: Run your Sovereign with the volume fully up and then adjust your headphones to a comfortable audio level. Soil conditions change so you may need to set your machine differently, even if searching the same field on a different day. Don’t expect great depths if soil conditions will not allow, use auto sensitivity as a last resort and trust the machine. Using silent search and turning the threshold up to a slight 'hum' appears to make the machine a little more sensitive. When ground conditions allow you can turn the sensitivity higher and hunt in silent search, your Sovereign may be a little unstable but investigate the solid signals. Unless you are a novice always run with the Iron mask off, this is the position which says "disc on". When turning your machine on keep the coil at waist height for 10 seconds before searching, then do a ground balance. Always make sure no soil is trapped between the coil and cover, this can cause false tracking.
Meter calibration- If you have a meter, calibrate 180 on a quarter. Calibrate it by waving a quarter over the coil and while this is being done set the knob on back of the meter to read 180. When using you may have to reduce your sensitivity. This will possibly cause the meter to scramble. What I did to remedy the problem of bumping the knob- for a quick fix was to use a gold permanent marker, fine tip, and once I got the meter calibrated, I made a mark on the knob at 12 O'clock and a mark on the meter housing corresponding to the mark on the knob. When I knock it out of calibration in the field, I can just realign the marks and off I go without having to drop a quarter and recalibrate. I have checked it frequently and the aligned marks are still accurate on the original calibration. Be careful not to get lazy with the meter and go for just the 177-180 signals on copper and silver. I have found some older wheat's in the 167-168 range and nickels from 137-150 and some early merc's as low as 175. With the meter you'll be picking coins out of trashy areas where other guys are scratching there heads. Below is a table, print this out and take it with you.
180-177 1¢, 10¢, 25¢, Large Cent
176-173 Zn 1¢, IH 1¢(Br), Half Dime
172-169 Square Tab, Med Gold
168-165 Round Tab, Small Gold
164-160 2½ Gold, IH 1¢, (Copper)
159-147 Round Tab, Small Gold
146-141 New 5¢, Small Gold
140-137 5¢ Buffalo/V-Nick/Shield
136-133 Small Gold
132-129 $1 Gold
128-117 Small Gold
116-106 Foil, Fine Gold
105-095 3¢, Fine Gold
094-065 Foil, Fine Gold
-498 Iron
