Minelab Safari help, Thanks in advance!

[dualshowman007]

Happy holidays all! Intermediate hunter here, with some questions about my detector.
Respectfully, I could use some help. I'll try and list everything, Im sure I will leave something out, but here goes.
So, a few weeks ago, I took my beloved Safari out to the beach, and she was acting very erratically. No power wires around, battery bar was on 3 out of 3. Ground balanced several times, didnt get any better until I turned it off and on a few times, kind of fixed itself.
Now, when I am in the woods, I am getting tons of false signals, including every time I swing and hit even the tiniest stick or branch. Maddening. Sometimes if you lift on the outside of your swing it will do this, I already know. But all the extra beeps really slows you down. If you back down sensitivity, wont you lose depth? I use Auto Sens mostly.
Again, no power lines anywhere. Deep black wet soil conditions.
Also, the most aggravating thing is that I will find a nice bright target, swing and get signal both ways, dig, only to find there is nothing there. At first I thought maybe I turned the target sideways, as this has happened before, but not 6-8 times in a row. To dig up a good signal only to have it disappear is awful.
This hobby is frustrating enough without wondering if your equipment is failing.
I usually hunt in Coin/Relic (top right setting), sometimes all metal, hate digging nails, like anybody else.
Some are suggesting my coil may be damaged, but I cant see anything. I like equipment you don't have to baby, and these things seem stout, but its got wear and tear.

So now I have fresh batteries, I swing relatively fast, because I feel it helps with "resolution" in my brain...

Hopefully thats all the pieces of the puzzle, so the million dollar question is, what the hell is wrong? I've about had it, and am ready to toss it. Any advice welcome, and thanks to everyone.

 

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[Longhair]

Have you tried a factory reset yet? Often it will fix small glitches.

 

[dualshowman007]

I will try that. Just read that same time on another site. Thanks very much!

 

[ChampFerguson/TN]

Some thoughts on your comments:

- the Safari does not like having its coil bumped. at all. depending on the speed of your swing, a stick could cause a response ime. twigs should not, but if youre swinging fast enough, the kinetic energy may be enough.

- I think you mean Noise Cancel, not Ground Balance. right? GB is automatically done on the Safari.

- at the beach, you have to be wary of rapidly changing/moving layers of salt water under the top of the sand. depending on which way the tide is going and even how long since the last wave washed over the sand, theres going to be a zone somewhere that's erratic in/near the swash zone. from what I have experienced on southeastern beaches, it will be 1 to 2' wide. is landward and very near the swash zone, and moves around a lot. think of this zone as a transition zone between dry and wet sand. I just don't detect that strip when swinging my Safari and live with it.

- disappearing signals (assuming its totally gone after digging your plug, and again after refilling your hole). I have read of, and possibly experienced a signal that was probably something totally rusted away that disappeared when the 'rust halo' was broken up by digging. perhaps that's it? if not, I'd be more inclined to think its a pinpointing problem. I've experienced that more times than I care to think about.

- now to what I think is the real problem. you swing too fast. that makes beeps when your coil is well past where the target was and makes beeps at the end of a swing when you quickly reverse....yes, even when the coil is perfectly level. the Safari processor is the slowest of the FBS machines, some say Minelab intentionally has re tarded (sorry had to split that word as it is verboten as profanity by forum software) the processing speed to sell more eTracs and CTXs. (when I went from my Safari to a CTX, all I could utter for days was Rocket Ship Speed). slow down and I promise your signal discrimination will improve.

Good Luck and Merry Xmas!

 

[dualshowman007]

Hey Champ, thanks man, everything you said is helpful, and I'll try all of it.
At the beach, there was black sand. I have never noticed if that had been a problem before, but maybe thats where I was. And yes, Noise cancel. And yes, Ive heard of the rust halo effect, but so many times in one outing is still suspect. That makes me madder than he ll and want to give up. But I will slow down too, I wondered aboutthat myself. The weird thing, is that all of this seems like a new thing.
So, will pay attention and make some changes. In th emeantime, I REALLY appreciate it.

 

[Keppy]

Yes slow it down a bit ... Some say that the recovery of the Safari is faster than the Quattro ... But not true the Quattro is faster To me ...

 

[timelord]

Go slow!!!!!!! I can say that enough..... Yes you may feel like you need to cover ground but you are mistaken if you do. I have found many coins others missed and that by going slow enough to let the Safari do its job.

As far as disappearing targets, are you using the stock coil? In my experience it's iron and it will always give you the iron grunt, at least in ferrous mode the one I like to run in. If you have a good tone along with an iron grunt you can tell if it's iron buy first pinpointing use the X method and then use the pinpoint mode, if it pinpoints off center of the X it's most likely iron.

Another thing to do is make sure your coil is clean under the coil cover, I've read that could cause chatter. Hope this helps...