just a little confused.

[lets_go]

I read about discrim and sensitivety, all the time on this forum. I Thought I had it figured, dis down sens up.? Then I read another thread that says they crank both up to their highest setting and they find coins and larger items.? Am I missing something or do different machines have different settings.? I have a Whites classic 2 bare bones, two knobs dis and sins.? I wish to find coins mainly, but there is also a possiblity for relics in my area.

 

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[Sixties Kid]

Sensitivity varies from detector to detector and from soil to soil.

If the detector becomes unstable, turn down the sensitivity. Otherwise leave it as high as you can. Your sensitivity control is in many ways your depth control.

 

[jeff of pa]

Dis all the way up, ONLY if you don't care about Gold or Nickels. or older Coins

 

[lets_go]

So, do I have to go over a area twice, once for old coins, then reset macine and look for relics?

 

[jeff of pa]

The way you Described your settings in your first post, is almost Perfect. The Only Difference I'd suggest is Sens. at 50% or at the Highest Level you can go, and still have a Stable Signal.

? ? ?IF you have your Disc. Turned all the way down & dig everything you will get Relics along with older coins.

? ? ?If you Have your Disc Turned all the way Up, you will not.

? ?if you set in somewhere in between, you may find a "Sweet Spot" so to speak where you can find some of each & still, avoid some trash.

? ?The best thing you can do is Dig Everything.

? ?the Next Best, would be to find a Bunch of Different items you want to find, and run your detector over each of them & setting your Disc, so that you Don't tune them out.

? ?once you run out of signals at a particular spot, Either Turn your Disc Down or Move on to a new spot.

? Does this Help ?? I'm not actually shure Why you would want to avoid aluminum Can tabs & other trash, as some Relics are Aluminum & Gold is in the same range. IF that is what you would like to do.

 

[Sixties Kid]

Jeff is right, the only safe way is to dig everything. I've gone over this again and again. I've used discrimination high, low, and in between. The bottom line is this--discrimination adds to the possibility you'll miss good targets. That's it period.

Today I lean toward an all-metal machine. This is the way I started back in the 60's and I found more good stuff back then than today with all the gizmos and doo-dads.

Two things are supreme in detecting:

1) depth
2) stability

Signal meters are useful as they can give one visable indication of a deep target where an audio tone might be so weak it could be missed.

 

[Screech]

Jeff is right, the only safe way is to dig everything. I've gone over this again and again. I've used discrimination high, low, and in between. The bottom line is this--discrimination adds to the possibility you'll miss good targets. That's it period.

Today I lean toward an all-metal machine. This is the way I started back in the 60's and I found more good stuff back then than today with all the gizmos and doo-dads.

Two things are supreme in detecting:

1) depth
2) stability

Signal meters are useful as they can give one visable indication of a deep target where an audio tone might be so weak it could be missed.

What is "an all-metal machine" ? ThankYou

 

[Sixties Kid]

All-metal simply means all types of metal will be detected.

Most metal detectors can opporate as all-metal detectors or they can be switched to a discrimination mode and therefore tune out certain metals.

Years ago, all metal detectors were all-metal detectors. That is, any metallic object within range would be detected. But then people wanted a way to make detecting easier with less digging so companies started developing a way to discriminate out unwanted metals. The trade off was that some good targets were lost because the discriminating detector mode mistakes them for unwanted metals.

And on top of this, some unwanted metals may sometimes be great treasures. Such as cast iron toys, relics, etc.

What I was talking about was I'm leaning more toward hunting in all-metal mode rather than in discrimination mode. So I'm looking for a stable detector that excels in all-metal detection, is deep, but yet is stable (doesn't go out of tune easily).

Today very few metal detectors are all-metal only. Most also have discrimination abilities.

 

[Monty]

I know there are several people who dig everykthing on the forum, with which I do not disagree. I just don't see how anyone can spend two hours digging everything and have time to find anything. Maybe I'm just slow but it takes me 5 or six minutes to dig one plug, sometimes more depending on the ground condition. Then by the time I get all my gear situated and get back to swinging the coil I don't have time to dig more than 4 or 5 holes per hour. So, what am I doing wrong? Is there some way to better use my time?

 

[jeff of pa]

Thats where My Sunray Pinpointer Shines.

It takes me 30 Seconds (Give or take 10 seconds) to dig a target most of the time.

 

[Sixties Kid]

I don't think anyone hunting in low discrimination or all-metal mode digs absolutely everything all the time. It does depend on the quantity and type of trash in any given area.

I dig all good-sounding targets. For example, if I'm hunting in a area that has lots of surface foil, I may avoid all the screaming-loud tones. I'll raise my coil and if the target still screams after raising the coil 3 or 4 inches it's most likely surface foil, pull tab, or new coin. But, on the other hand, that surface target could also be a recently lost ring! It's a gamble.

I'm just saying one is more likely to miss a good target by not digging everything. However, like you pointed out, one does need to be practical and time is a major factor.

I also should mention that I rarely hunt old parks and places super trashy. Where I go there's not all that much modern trash.

 

[Sixties Kid]

Thats where My Sunray Pinpointer Shines.

? It takes me 30 Seconds (Give or take 10 seconds) to dig a target most of the time.

I'm glad you posted Jeff--how deep does that Sunray go?

 

[jeff of pa]

on average 4" on a coin. I think they Advertise 3"

depending on Size of target deeper.

a few times on can size objects I doubled that Depth easily.

I have the S-1 on my Sovereign

 

[lets_go]

The way you Described your settings in your first post, is almost Perfect. The Only Difference I'd suggest is Sens. at 50% or at the Highest Level you can go, and still have a Stable Signal.

IF you have your Disc. Turned all the way down & dig everything you will get Relics along with older coins.

If you Have your Disc Turned all the way Up, you will not.

if you set in somewhere in between, you may find a "Sweet Spot" so to speak where you can find some of each & still, avoid some trash.

The best thing you can do is Dig Everything.

the Next Best, would be to find a Bunch of Different items you want to find, and run your detector over each of them & setting your Disc, so that you Don't tune them out.

once you run out of signals at a particular spot, Either Turn your Disc Down or Move on to a new spot.

Does this Help ? I'm not actually shure Why you would want to avoid aluminum Can tabs & other trash, as some Relics are Aluminum & Gold is in the same range. IF that is what you would like to do.

Yes it does. I think I still have alot to learn yet, so I'll just listen. Thanks.

 

[jeff of pa]

there is Nothing Wrong with asking Questions also,

? lets_go ;? ?sometimes knowing what your wondering about helps us to help you.

? as someone once said, "Their are no Dumb Questions".

? ? ? ? ?J e f f

 

[Sixties Kid]

on average 4" on a coin. I think they Advertise 3"

depending on Size of target deeper.

a few times on can size objects I doubled that Depth easily.

I have the S-1 on my Sovereign

I've never used a Sovereign and have no idea what they're like. But I can tell you the pinpointer sounds good. I find it a pain in a bad place trying to pinpoint targets. Therefore I have to dig this big hole. And I don't care what anybody says--those holes show bad. I put all the dirt and sod back but it looks like the devil a week later.

I'm hunting more yards now and need a better digging method.

Anyway, this isn't my post so I'll butt out. Maybe this stuff will help the guy who started this?

 

[poptopking]

I also have a Classic2 and am able to make as many finds or more than the guys with the big machines. As for the settings, it depends on where and what I'm hunting. If I'm in a park and just looking for coins, I turn the sensitivety all the way up and set the discrim at the lower end of coins. At this setting, screw caps and cans will show zink and the coins will give a good signal. When rellic hunting I set the sensitivety wide open (unless I am around power lines) and the discrim at about the 9 oclock position. This will get rid of nails while still allowing small buttons and bullets to show up. If you run across a coin, it will still show up as a coin. I do find pulltabs and large iron in this setting. If I am with several people, I set the discrim at about 10:00 or 11:00 and give the area a fast going over. This way my targets are usually good. As the area has been gone over I set the discrim to the 8:00 or 9:00 position and check the ground slower and am able to find things that were missed. The only time I turn off the sensitivity is when there are very few targets such as walking up a hill to a civil war camp ground. This has worked very well for me, and hope this helps you. BTW if the graff bar goes all the way to the right with a good signal there is a good chance you are sitting on a buckle. Makes your blood preasure go up!

 

[lets_go]

A quote from poptopking " BTW if the graff bar goes all the way to the right with a good signal there is a good chance you are sitting on a buckle."? I was with you until you said graff bar.? Graff bar, what graff bar?? My machine doesn't have this thing.

 

[Monty]

The only way one can dig a hole and fill it where it doesn't look bad later was the method I read on this forum a couple of times. Use a cloth of some type to put all the dirt on, I use flour sacks I buy at the local Farm and Market Store. When you're finished digging you can easily put all the dirt back into the hole. If you put the dirt on the grass, you can never get it all back in or at least I can't. Carry a squirt bottle full of water and give the reattached plug a couple of squirts of water. This will help to keep the plug grass from turning brown. I don't always do this because it's so time consuming but if on a nice lawn or park sod it makes it look a lot better. No matter if I put all the dirt back into the hole I still notice the plug has a tendency to sink in forming a small depression and I haven't figured out how to prevent this yet! Not very practical to try to carry extra dirt.

 

[Bill(de)]

Why not think of your sensitivity as your detector gas pedal and your discrimination setting as your turn signals.Sensitivity settings determine how much signal strength goes into the ground through your coil to excite the target response into the receiving coil which is the inner small circle of the coil.Think of discrimination as your turn signals and have the nickel accept setting as the middle of the road.If you encounter a lot of aluminum trash and turn disc to get rid of the constant beeping your gonna discriminate nickels and some gold.Perhaps a good setting in that situation would be to accept Zinc pennies and you would do that by practicing where the disc point is on Zincs it's simple put one on the ground and turn disc until it doesn't beep then turn it back until it beeps thats your disc point.If your detecting a low trash area run a lower disc setting to accept nickels or even iron when looking for relics.You have to hunt at settings practical to the situation.Now back to Sensitivity, if your in a high trash situation i would lower the setting and would use a smaller coil than the 950 , perhaps the 5.3 coil,you probably won't find deep targets in high trash areas with a big coil and high sensitivty settings.When you use a higher sensitivity setting the detection field of your coil spreads out beyond the outer rim of the coil and brings in a response from more targets.You only have the 2 set points to learn so try to learn them and it's best to practice outside in clean ground away from electrical intereference.It takes time to become familiar with a detector and it pays to spend it on experimenting with settings and different targets.The main thing is to get out and dig then you'll learn.Hope this helps and sorry about being long .HH Bill