Tips to Using Your Metal Detector Correctly

[sdschd]

Hi

A metal detector can be a huge investment for anyone. There are many expensive metal detectors on the market, but unless the investor knows how to use it properly, he won’t get nearly the results he expects to get.

1. Ask for Assistance the First Time
If it is the investor’s first time using a metal detector, it is important for him to ask for assistance from the person he bought it from, or to read the manual thoroughly. This is important because every machine is different. They can have different sounds when they find different pieces of metal.

2. Practice Makes Perfect
Practice really does make perfect. Investors should practice with a few items until they become familiar with the different sounds that the device makes. For example, the investor can run the metal detector over a pull tab from a pop can, a nail, a coin, and over a gold ring to distinguish the various sounds the metal detector makes for each item. This will save the investor time when looking for specific items and prevent digging for unwanted objects. When beginning, move the metal detector slowly over the area being searched while keeping track of the area that has already been searched. Practice doing this on small pieces of ground at a time.

3. Train the Ear to Hear the Beep
It is important that investors train their ears to hear the different beeps. Place a gold ring and a penny on the ground; slowly run the detector over both of them, and listen for the difference in the beep. If a detector is set properly, the investor will hear a much stronger beep from the ring than from the penny. The investor should continue doing this for awhile until he feels confident in knowing the difference between a hit and just a small beep.

thanks

 

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[luvsdux]

I agree with your thread completely. When I started detecting, I didn't know there were concerns about ground balance, reasons for different sizes or types of coils, why headphones, or pinpointers etc. Now that I'm much more knowledgeable and in my own admittedly prejudiced thinking I'd recommend any beginner to put in a lot of hours with a beep and dig, non-ID detector until quite proficient with it. Then, if desired add an ID machine. I use both types and find my experience with the sound first is invaluable with ID machines as well and helps to enforce the decision to dig or not. Depending on the ID alone can leave some good targets in the ground as every trash target that is ID'ed is not trash.
luvsdux

 

[Rawhide]

Hi sdschd, hunting in the city park and old sites I encounter many targets. The F75 allows me to put it in high gain and monotone allowing me to hear and not just see what targets are in the gorund. But I usually run 3 tone which automatically puts me at a disc of 15 and I miss all targets masked by iron between a disc setting of 5-15. This reports all targets as iron, even though there is other targets next to the iron. I loose depth in this setting. So with the F75 should I go for depth and work those high and mid tones beyond the VDI or should I work the monotone and punch through the iron targets and get the shallower masked stuff?

 

[bigfoot1]

I have tought several folks to detect.The best single advice I ever gave was to dig every target untill you can identify 6 of ten before digging.Even with quality machines 60% is pretty good.More money does not necessarily mean less trash when buying a new machine with any intermediate or better model.In fact many super nice finds will indicate as foil or other trash on even the best machines at times.
Just popped a 7.8 gram 14k mens ring that locked just below nickle...I dug it anyways and bam...nice gold.

 

[Rawhide]

Nice BF, I dig the iffys when it comes to rings too. Problem I have with the F75 is the processor is actually faster than your ears and brain can compute targets. So what you get is all the targets all at once. Yes my ears bleed hypothetically. The tone I hear is actually the target being id several times. The cost of the detector has been paid for many times with ability to punch through the trash. I have thought about it a long time on how to make a video of what Im sharing here. The reason the T2 and F75 os so successful is they can find masked targets most other machines would miss. My question about of depth verses defeating target mask is open for all.

 

[Msbeepbeep]

Excellent advice, like you said even the best detector is only as good as the operator. I upgraded to one with a screen for the purpose of knowing the depth of my targets & a lighter weight. I like the ability of the M6 to ID the target by tone, VID #, and type of signal. If it says iron it's iron, any bouncy signals I dig, because there's either multiple targets or targets composition is mixed metal.
I still dig pop tops they read as rings, don't want to miss those!

 

[Rawhide]

One thing I learned about the VDI on the F75 is it is only good for the first 12 inches, after that you will get a blank screen with a tone. This may be true for other detectors also. As for trash, I will dig all targets first few hours out, I tend to get lazy after that and only dig good signals. I have one deep iffy signal I like to hear also. Even though I have spent months using the F75, I still read the manual and advanced articles online as I never quit learning.