The Teknetics Gamma 6000....Accuracy of Breakpoints in Discriminate Mode

[ToddB64]

Hello !

I have a Teknetics Gamma 6000, VLF, 7.8 kHZ and normally hunt for coins and jewelry in Discriminate mode.

I just realized that I haven't been using the method of checking the breakpoint of targets by using numbers 10, 40, 55, 60, etc., etc. on the Gamma screen to determine the likelihood of a good or trash target (and whether or not to dig). This would be similar to "Thumbing" the Discrimination dial on a detector such as the Tesoro Compadre, only with a digital machine (The Gamma).

I read a post sometime ago where the author recommended thumbing upscale and then back
downscale to the breakpoint, as he believed this method to be more accurate for arriving at the true breakpoint, however, he was using a Tesoro Compadre, VLF 12 kHz, single rotary Discrimination dial (no digital display screen). I believe the Compadre would fall into the category of "analog" circuitry. I don't know if this makes any difference, whether you are using an analog or digital detector, when employing the "downscale-to-the-true-breakpoint" method; any opinions on this ?

So before starting to use either one of the breakpoint techniques on my next hunt, I would like some feedback from other detectorists who have employed the "upscale only" technique, as well as the "upscale-downscale" technique described above, using the Gamma 6000, to tell me how accurate they have found these breakpoint methods to be....detailed examples follow:

If the screen is bouncing between 53 - 54 Foil, how likely is it that the target is actually a Nickel in the 55-60 upscale category ? Likewise, if the screen is bouncing between 55 - 57 in the upscale Nickel category, how likely is the target actually a piece of Foil in the 40 - 55 downscale category ??

I hope this post was written well enough so you could understand, but if you have any questions or need clarifications before giving your feedback, feel free to ask.

Thanks,

ToddB64

 

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[Irishgoldhound]

You can never rely on your machine to tell you what's in the ground and what you think it's telling you it thinks it is. Rely on your lesche to dig the hole and recover your treasure. Dig the foil signals and you'll eventually be rewarded, but not as often. Dig the nickel signals,..you'll be rewarded more often, at least with a nickel if not gold. Good luck! IGH

 

[mreese1849]

I have gotten to where I dig everything... I dug a big silver bracelet that rang up as a zinc penny and have found two gold rings in the past month and a half. The smaller gold ring rang up a little lower than a nickle and the other exactly like a nickle or pop top.

 

[mreese1849]

Only reason why I say that is because I use to do the same thing, but digging everything will also allow you to teach yourself more about your detector. Items like chains will always vary because your detector will only pick up individual links or the clasp itself and will cause items like silver to show up lower on your id. The only detector I have had that was more consistent on I'd was a minelab. A tiny silver earring would still ring up high, but it was such a slow recovering machine and took the worst when it came to the halo effect.

 

[Irishgoldhound]

Mreese... Sounds like you know what you're doing. You only find the treasure if you dig the trash and the trash is most often foil. You have to use your own technique when you're in the field or the beach. You'll get to know when you should dig a signal or pass it by. I'll pass 20 foil signals and then the next foil signal will ring in and sound different than the others. That's the way you find the treasure.,,,recognizing different and odd signals between the crap! Good luck!!

 

[mreese1849]

I also have started hunting at some of my old spots that I thought I cleaned out good targets and then I decided to get some of the iron out. Well sure enough there was some silver under that iron. Dig it all even the trash because that trash is hiding your best find I bet.

 

[Irishgoldhound]

You bet!! The trash will mask good targets that are faint or deeper

 

[mreese1849]

I know I got my first Indian head under three pull tabs!! I was so excited as it was my first 1800s coin.

 

[Irishgoldhound]

Now that's impressive and good hunting experience.

 

[ToddB64]

Irishgoldhound and mreese 1849,

Thank you both for those replies !

Are you swinging a Teknetics Gamma 6000 and what coil do you generally use ??

I'm using the Teknetics 5" DD coil on my Gamma to help working through the trash.

ToddB64

 

[James/Texas]

I purchased a used O8 about a month ago. Mainly to use in the parks and schools that I hunt in. No parks or schools are over 100 years old down and there is no land available to hunt on like some have 'up north' as most Texas land is private, federal, or state owned and there is NO detecting in State parks, federal land and you better not be caught on private land without permission. Now, that being said, yes, the best thing to do is dig all signals. That is just not an option down here where I live and hunt. There are a very few schools that I can hunt in all metal and do dig most signals. What you are going to do is to dig all signals, if you do not have a real trashy area and watch your detector and listen to your detector. It will not take long to become one with your detector and a quick swing, look and listen will let you know if you want to dig or not. I have been detecting since 1971 and am not young any more and have to put up with back problems and that is one reason thay I can not dig all signals. The other reason is shown in the vid in the link. When I made the vid, I did not search out a nasty place, it is what all of our parks sound like. It is a wonder that the detectors can single out a good signal in all the crap. Have a look at what we put up with down here... Hang in there you will get the hang of the Gamma.

 

[supertraq]

Unless your ground is clean with nothing but good targets the i.d will never be 100% accurate,as long as there are more than 1 target uner the coil it want be accurate...I do not know of any places like that,and if theres no trash there want be any good targets..With more than one target under the coil your going to get up or down averaging to some extent,so use minimal disc and no notch and dig everything if you want to find all the good stuff,,i'm not really up to that anymore so i figure it out as i go..s.t

Added note:the gamma has turned into my go to machine,its light with great depth and all the interface you need,v-break would make it and the omega the perfect machine period..But its still the most useable machine i've used,,really can hunt all day and i have fibro,lots of shoulder pain..

 

[Garrett424]

I have gotten to where I dig everything... I dug a big silver bracelet that rang up as a zinc penny and have found two gold rings in the past month and a half. The smaller gold ring rang up a little lower than a nickle and the other exactly like a nickle or pop top.

I totally agree with you.

I dug a nice silver ring that rang up as "zinc" recently, around 77; as well as a really nice 18K pinky ring that bounced between the nickel and foil range with a quite a few grunts going on. I dig those trash signals religiously and every now and again, it pays off very nicely in GOLD. I always get excited when I swing over anything in the 40-50's range. Plus, 10K can get well into the high 60's or even 70's, depending on conditions, depth, etc.

I also go far more by tone than I do numbers anyway. I learned on BH machines starting with a simple Tracker IV and that's what I've gotten used to from day one. I more or less listen closely and "feel" what my machine is telling me. Seems to work for me.

The numbers and depth ID's are only best guesses based on whatever information the detector can gather at any given time under whatever conditions are in play. You'll NEVER truly know what's under the coil until you dig it up and see with your own two eyes.

If there's one thing I've learned, it's that it pays to dig "trash". Another thing is, the conditions of the ground, the moisture, depth, etc. can make targets ring up as something they are not and that it happens quite frequently.

I second guessed a really bouncy signal about two weeks ago. I literally walked back about ten steps to re check it after writing it off as "trash" in my mind. That little voice told me to have another look at that one. Gotta' love that intuition when it shows up. It was bouncing from the low 40's to the low 80's with multiple tones. I still figured it was probably trash but dug it anyway. Turned out to be a 14K ring with 12 little diamonds and 4 small sapphires.
The ground was very moist and it was at least 6 inches down, if not a little more.

It was also sitting at roughly a 45 degree angle. That changes things also. I seem to get the most consistent and stable signals on flat sitting targets like coins but as we all know, targets can be and often are in many different positions. I've dug deep copper pennies that ring up solid as 50 cent pieces. I've never even dug a half and when I get that solid signal I assume it's something else because so far, it always is.

You just never know until you actually know. The screen and tones may say one thing (or more) but there are often many factors in play.
You gotta' dig it up and look at it.

 

[Garrett424]

I know I got my first Indian head under three pull tabs!! I was so excited as it was my first 1800s coin.

I got my second IH the same way. I dug about 6-7 pull tabs and then I was able to locate that IH ringing out nice and high. I would have totally missed it had I not dug those pull tabs.

That was another occasion where my intuition told me that there was something hiding under all of that trash and that I needed to get it out of the way.
It made my day too because I was having NO luck that day and it was almost dark when I dug that IH.

Sometimes we just have to clean up the existing mess to find the treasures that lie beneath the junk.

 

[diggininms]

Hello !

I have a Teknetics Gamma 6000, VLF, 7.8 kHZ and normally hunt for coins and jewelry in Discriminate mode.

I just realized that I haven't been using the method of checking the breakpoint of targets by using numbers 10, 40, 55, 60, etc., etc. on the Gamma screen to determine the likelihood of a good or trash target (and whether or not to dig). This would be similar to "Thumbing" the Discrimination dial on a detector such as the Tesoro Compadre, only with a digital machine (The Gamma).

I read a post sometime ago where the author recommended thumbing upscale and then back
downscale to the breakpoint, as he believed this method to be more accurate for arriving at the true breakpoint, however, he was using a Tesoro Compadre, VLF 12 kHz, single rotary Discrimination dial (no digital display screen). I believe the Compadre would fall into the category of "analog" circuitry. I don't know if this makes any difference, whether you are using an analog or digital detector, when employing the "downscale-to-the-true-breakpoint" method; any opinions on this ?

So before starting to use either one of the breakpoint techniques on my next hunt, I would like some feedback from other detectorists who have employed the "upscale only" technique, as well as the "upscale-downscale" technique described above, using the Gamma 6000, to tell me how accurate they have found these breakpoint methods to be....detailed examples follow:

If the screen is bouncing between 53 - 54 Foil, how likely is it that the target is actually a Nickel in the 55-60 upscale category ? Likewise, if the screen is bouncing between 55 - 57 in the upscale Nickel category, how likely is the target actually a piece of Foil in the 40 - 55 downscale category ??

I hope this post was written well enough so you could understand, but if you have any questions or need clarifications before giving your feedback, feel free to ask.

Thanks,

ToddB64

Most teknetics have a secret number for iron masking. My gamma was awesome when i set my disc at 39. It helped alot with iron masking. Better targets on my end were recovered using that secret number. Good luck give it a try and let me know please maybe it was just me.

 

[Phantasman]

I can never depend on break points, because a ring (or even a tab) can slightly give a different conductivity reading by how it lays and whether (like tabs) it is bent. The area between 20-60 (on my LRP/QDP) is where most of the action goes on. I can set my notch width at 5-6 to get many tabs to quit bothering me, because most rings I've found travel the arc somewhat. I also can set my V-Break to give me a low tone at say 30, so the VCO only resides in 40-60, medium 30-40, low 20-30. Below 20 is disc out. So out of the whole 20-60 spectrum I notch a partial segment where perfect tabs hit, leaving nickels open and having 3 different tones within that mid range.

Now, after all of that, I am finding that the sounds become more important than just a beep in that 20-60 range. The more sounds, the more likely trash. Once I get a strong no changing sound, I use the numeric to narrow it down whether to dig. More coins and a few jewelry finds and less tabs has been the result.

 

[Cal G.]

This is my findings in my ground on the gamma and Omega for that matter,56-57 nickels, foil very unlikely, I have found very few nickels at 58 and fewer at 55. New style pull tabs 57-60 old style 59 to 63, mans wedding ring 14k 59-60 ect; The main thing with the gamma is, keep the disc as low as possible and listen to the sounds. Also you may get a low sound and a high sound together which can be 2 different targets. I usually run both the gamma and omega at 16 barely knocking out small nails. Bouncing more than 10 points usually is a sign of trash. Coins are usually within 2-3 points ( dime 84-85) unless other targets involved These machines are different than Tesoros, For my kind of hunting I like these machines better and sold my vaquero.

 

[supertraq]

The reason I like my gamma so much is the accuracy of the break points,it really does out do my t2.