proper technique- how much practice does it take?

[Skooter]

Got the basic White's Coinmaster and have found some pie tins, a metal squeeze tube, and a grommet. At least I know I'm doing something right. But last night I randomly buried some coins (silver, copper, and clad) in a deep pile rug in my living room and had a difficult time finding those initially. I figure a rank newb unboxing the machine should be able to find those immediately, without 5 minutes practice! It wasn't a big rug, maybe 24"x36", set at lowest discrimination and fairly high sensitivity.

It's just shocking knowing how easy it would be to miss a significant piece of silver laying under the grass.

 

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[ret-detector]

Welcome...

from Central Florida!

I'm new, too! I took a gold ring, a silver coin, a nail, a pull tab, and various other items in our garden...not buried...just on top of the ground.
Then I just went over the items to listen to the different sounds...it helps.

ret

 

[kazcoro]

Keep your volume up, and listen for breaks in the signal as well. You have to remember that your detector is simply converting electrical impulses to sound. It should talk to you. You have to learn what it is saying.

 

[smalltowngirl13]

Welcome aboard!

 

[fireford10]

When hunting for shallow objects like you did with the coins, your sensitivity needs to be low. A seasoned member put it like this to me the other night. Imagine your zoom on a camera, when you zoom IN everything in front of the object your taking a pic of becomes blurry, when you zoom OUT everything behind it becomes blurry. Your sensitivity is the same....higher sen setting...deeper targets its focuseing on, lower sen setting itll focus on more shallow objects (youll still get hits either way, but they will become clearer with however deep and according to setting) Also, if you have a concrete floor and other electronic devices on at the time your gonna have tooo much interferance. My suggestion, put them in ziplock bags and go burry them out side 2-3", and set your machine at low sen, and try it again. burry themn at 8" and still use low sen, then bump up sen each time you do a few swings over target. you should see a difference. Alot of times you have to hunt the same area over and over, removing targets from shallow to deep if you want to find the hidden signals. Otherwise your going to pass on an iron signal at 2" and just below it at 6" is a silver coin. You might not ever find it until you remove the trash above it. My suggestion, and it becomes a B to do but dig everything. youll find a lot more cool stuff that way. And if your just a coin hunter, then youll have to accept the fact that a lot of coins are going to be left unearthed if you dont dig it all. Good luck!

 

[Skooter]

When hunting for shallow objects like you did with the coins, your sensitivity needs to be low. A seasoned member put it like this to me the other night. Imagine your zoom on a camera, when you zoom IN everything in front of the object your taking a pic of becomes blurry, when you zoom OUT everything behind it becomes blurry. Your sensitivity is the same....higher sen setting...deeper targets its focuseing on, lower sen setting itll focus on more shallow objects (youll still get hits either way, but they will become clearer with however deep and according to setting) Also, if you have a concrete floor and other electronic devices on at the time your gonna have tooo much interferance. My suggestion, put them in ziplock bags and go burry them out side 2-3", and set your machine at low sen, and try it again. burry themn at 8" and still use low sen, then bump up sen each time you do a few swings over target. you should see a difference. Alot of times you have to hunt the same area over and over, removing targets from shallow to deep if you want to find the hidden signals. Otherwise your going to pass on an iron signal at 2" and just below it at 6" is a silver coin. You might not ever find it until you remove the trash above it. My suggestion, and it becomes a B to do but dig everything. youll find a lot more cool stuff that way. And if your just a coin hunter, then youll have to accept the fact that a lot of coins are going to be left unearthed if you dont dig it all. Good luck!

Thanks for the input; it's opposite of what I thought. Had envisioned a solid cylinder of detection if you will, not understanding it focuses somewhat at different depths.

 

[fireford10]

I still get hits on deep targets when my sen is set at low with larger objects....but youll get better hits at the shallow ones that way. but you have to get out and just start swinging, youll learn a lot just by doing that. Im still a newbie too. Only been at it for 6 weeks, so dont hold me to my advice in every situation. lol. HH, and good luck. btw, Welcome to the site

 

[TreasurePirate69]

I'm going to disagree with the whole "set your sensitivity lower for shallow targets". Although it is true that a shallow signal can overload a machine at higher sensitivities causing the signal to sound "broken", you still should hear a signal. Also, it is very rare that someone will want to setup their machine just for "shallow targets". So this type of detecting isn't really useful in telling you what type of real world performance you expect to get. You usually won't know if the target you are looking for is going to be shallow or deep so how can you know which way to set the machine? Most people try to get as much sensitivity as they can while still keeping the machine in a stable state. Don't get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with kicking the sensitivity down a notch or two. But it shouldn't be necessary just to find coins sitting on top of the ground.

My guess is that you are doing this on a wood sub-floor that has nails in it every few inches. These nails are likely masking certain targets because you have your discrimination turned up to exclude them. Are you running in discrimination or some sort of all metal mode? I know nothing about the White's Coinmaster so I don't know if it even has an all metal mode.

For starters I'd begin with a simple air test. Then I'd take the coins outside away from interference and lay them on top of the ground. Then I'd start burying them at different depths to see what happens. Try all of these tests in both discrimination and all metal modes (if you have them).

 

[fireford10]

I guess i should of worded it different?? I dont know but im not realy saying set it on low just to look for shallow coins (maybe thats kinda what i did say), but what i mean is you cant really go wrong by hunting an area on low, then med, then high. In my opinion and recent hunts (after i was told the same advice i gave) you seem to get more targets each time you go over it. It tripples your hunt time in one area, but if your like me you dont want to give up on one spot after one hunt because youd be outta spots in a month, lol. The part about the broken signal can cause you to disregaurd it if your just coin hunting cuz youll think its another can or peice of randon aluminum or something. (at least thats my experience with my machine). if i get a broken quarter signal at 4" and it just wont pop and stay on the ID then i pass if im just searching for coins because its alomost always a dang can. But if im digging everything and have time to, then ill dig it. Im rambling, i prolly dont have a fraction of experience as you do , lol, thats kinda why i ended it with "dont take my advice in every situation" in a month i might have a different opinion, but thats what its all about is for us to learn and share i think. either way, good luck with all you experimenting!!

I'm going to disagree with the whole "set your sensitivity lower for shallow targets". Although it is true that a shallow signal can overload a machine at higher sensitivities causing the signal to sound "broken", you still should hear a signal. Also, it is very rare that someone will want to setup their machine just for "shallow targets". So this type of detecting isn't really useful in telling you what type of real world performance you expect to get. You usually won't know if the target you are looking for is going to be shallow or deep so how can you know which way to set the machine? Most people try to get as much sensitivity as they can while still keeping the machine in a stable state. Don't get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with kicking the sensitivity down a notch or two. But it shouldn't be necessary just to find coins sitting on top of the ground.

My guess is that you are doing this on a wood sub-floor that has nails in it every few inches. These nails are likely masking certain targets because you have your discrimination turned up to exclude them. Are you running in discrimination or some sort of all metal mode? I know nothing about the White's Coinmaster so I don't know if it even has an all metal mode.

For starters I'd begin with a simple air test. Then I'd take the coins outside away from interference and lay them on top of the ground. Then I'd start burying them at different depths to see what happens. Try all of these tests in both discrimination and all metal modes (if you have them).

 

[TreasurePirate69]

When I get any type of broken signal I lift my coil off of the ground by 6 to 12 inches and swing again. This helps me tell the difference between a coin on top and trash. I don't have to adjust my sensitivity when using this technique.

I understand the idea of being thorough in particular areas if that is your goal. So using different sensitivity levels for different layers is a reasonable strategy. But most of us don't have the time or patience for that.

 

[fireford10]

lol, niether do it...i have to force myself to slow down and be patient. then i start to relax and just go with it. thanks for the tip on lifting coil. ive tried, but what exactly will the difference in signal be if its either one if its coin will it keep signalling and if trash will signal stop?? i usually just bend down and use pin pointer to see if its close to surface. i have so much to learn, ughhhh

 

[Digger2]

I think most of questions about ones metal detector/skills can be answered by finding a signal free place in your yard, (or creating one by digging up all signals) and do some testing/experimenting.

 

[TreasurePirate69]

lol, niether do it...i have to force myself to slow down and be patient. then i start to relax and just go with it. thanks for the tip on lifting coil. ive tried, but what exactly will the difference in signal be if its either one if its coin will it keep signalling and if trash will signal stop?? i usually just bend down and use pin pointer to see if its close to surface. i have so much to learn, ughhhh

I'm no expert either. The results you get really depend on your detector. On my detector (which is a beep and dig machine with no display), I can usually tell the difference between an overload and trash anyway. They sound different. Trash sounds "scratchy" and an overload will usually give me multiple "clean" beeps (like more than one target). If I pick the coil up and the multiple targets suddenly sound like a single clean target then I pretty much know that it is a good target on top of the ground. Like you, I always swing my pinpointer over the top of the spot I've marked to see if the target is right on top (regardless of whether I think it is junk or good). But lifting the detector off of the ground and swinging again just gives me more data to decide with. If the target is trash, lifting the coil off of the ground and swinging again will not make it suddenly sound like a good signal. It will either disappear or still sound like trash.

Lifting the coil off of the ground on a beep and dig machine (no depth display) can also give you a relative idea of depth. If the target sounds like a coin and you know your detector can't detect coins deeper than about 8", then lifting the coil and seeing where the signal drops out gives you a decent understanding of how deep the object must be. Just like with digital depth displays it is based on a guess and isn't perfect. But it can give you a better idea of what you are dealing with.

On the flip side, if you think it is a coin and you lift the coil off of the ground but the signal doesn't go away until you have lifted the coil 2 feet, then obviously it is not a coin. Your detector couldn't find a coin at 2 feet. So it must be a large object of some kind that is ringing up in the coin range.

Like I said, it isn't fool proof but it is one more data point. If you lift the coil off of the ground and it changes your expectations because you get a surprising result, then you have added data to help you make up your mind about digging. And it takes so little time to perform this test that I figure, why not?

 

[fireford10]

Skooter, are you getting all this? great info on this site.!

 

[hamiddetecting]

Welcome from under sand

 

[cudamark]

Got the basic White's Coinmaster and have found some pie tins, a metal squeeze tube, and a grommet. At least I know I'm doing something right. But last night I randomly buried some coins (silver, copper, and clad) in a deep pile rug in my living room and had a difficult time finding those initially. I figure a rank newb unboxing the machine should be able to find those immediately, without 5 minutes practice! It wasn't a big rug, maybe 24"x36", set at lowest discrimination and fairly high sensitivity.

It's just shocking knowing how easy it would be to miss a significant piece of silver laying under the grass.

Start out by doing your testing outside on clean ground. There's too much interference inside a house.

 

[firemac]

welcome

 

[Skooter]

Skooter, are you getting all this? great info on this site.!

Absolutely. And after the first good weekend detecting I'm probably like alot of folks, never realizing how trashy my yard is just below the surface! And if you've ever had aluminum siding or metal roof or anything remotely close, you can almost forget about finding anything but little snippets that were too small to throw away when the job was cleaned up.

Also thinking about the Andy Griffith show and the prices in Floyd's barber shop...they're about ten times cheaper than today. Implication being, any pennies knowingly dropped were scurried for with the urgency a dime would be today. Which is a good history lesson.

Learning and still searching for my first penny, wheatie or otherwise.

 

[fireford10]

keep picking all the scraps out of dirt...youll get your finds once that trash is out. Oh, i dont know what yalls laws are but public school playgrounds on the weekends or evenings will give you all the clad you can dig for a while. If you want your first coin find, id say hit them first, it dosent take too long to find coins there. especially if playground area is sand. Happy hunting!

 

[Urban Grund]

Welcome from Michigan!