1st Trip to Beach with Quattro

[fllawboy]

After reading through, "Mastering the Quattro" I took mine out for a spin on Crandon Beach in Key Biscayne, Florida. I thought I knew it all after reading the book, needless to say I need to go back and read it again. It ended up being a good practice run, but I realize now that I am going to have to put in some serious time to really learn this machine's language. I thought I understood it, but now realize I have minimal understanding that will only improve with a lot of hands on practice. The positives: I think I got the cross saving thing down pat. I also am impressed with the ability of this machine to hit Nickels at the beach, I only found three, but they were deep! I also liked the stability of the detector, though at times I felt I was getting some falsing. The negatives: It is heavy!! I need to get used to swinging it compared to my Chest mount MXT. I am really feeling it right now. Also, it seemed to false on occasion, or maybe I was doing something else wrong. I did use Noise Control a lot as I moved from dry to wet sand to water. I wanted to take no chances. I also realized that at times I was swinging too fast and would catch myself and slow down. Here is where to problem arose. As I would sweep the coil, I would get a low beep and a visual display of "1" and "ring." I would attempt to get the same signal in the same area I just swept to try and confirm the signal and readings and I would no longer get any signal, audio or visual. This happened on other visual displays "1, 10, 11, 14, 26, 31" and different audio signals as well , both High and Low. I am probably not explaining this very well. Long story short, I got a ton of signals once and could not get them to repeat and therefore could not dig to see what was there as I could not be sure of where I got the signal on the sweep. It was a little frustrating. Anyone ever encounter this issue, if so what was I doing wrong? Additionally, there were at least a dozen times that I got an initial signal in the "20's" and after I took my first scoop out and checked the hole the signal dropped to the "10 to 17" range. I also had at least a half a dozen times where the signal disappeared completely after I dug my first scoop out of the hole. I could not get a signal from either what I took out of the hole or the hole itself. Again, if anyone had this issue, I would appreciate some feedback. Very frustrating. Lastly, I had about 15 different occasions where I would get a nice strong signal in wet sand and when I went to Pinpoint mode to try and pinpoint, there would be no signal for the pinpoint and the bars remained low. No matter where I moved around this point, I could not get the pinpoint bars to raise. When I would go back to search mode I would get the signal again. For some reason it would not pinpoint properly. I dug a few of these for the heck of it and found 1 pull tab and the rest after going down about 18" I stopped because I could not get a repeatable signal. I also notice in the water I would get a lot of 1 time audio signals that I could not get to repeat when sweeping the coil over them a second, third of fourth time. It was like whatever was there disappeared. Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated. All and all, I do not want to sound discouraged, because I am far from it. I knew getting into this that it was going to take some time. I like the Quattro and am getting comfortable with it.

My totals for the day are as follows: 2 Nickels, 1 dime, 2 pennies, 51 pull-tabs. All coins were recent except for one Nickel which was 1964. The 64 Nickel was about 9 inches down in the wet sand. I did not dig one piece of foil or any iron. With my MXT I would have gotten a lot of foil along with the pull-tabs, but I dig everything that is borderline. Today, I was following the advice from the book.

Any feedback from some experienced Quattro users would be appreciated. Best regards,

 

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[Treasure_Hunter]

I don't have a Quattro, but if the weight is any proiblem at all get a harness, you can't beat them for hunting.....

 

[seas1to2]

on the problem with a target disappering after the first scoop, well its still there, just take 1 or 2 more scoops an then check the pile. sometimes when digging you will move the target or stand it on its edge an the machine might miss it, just move the sand around some an there it is, also if its a low signal in the foil range I have seen targets get blown from the hole while digging, you might not see it happen.

 

[Dave45]

I bought the 15 inch wot, it seems to make the detector a lot more stable and you can cover a lot more ground faster, I was going to trade mine off glad I didnt after the wot.
Dave

 

[fllawboy]

I think I figured out part of the problem. Last night, I just rinsed off the outside of the coil with fresh water. Today I decided to do a more formal cleaning of the coil. So I took off the Coil cover and there staring back at me was a ton of sand! It was caked on to the coil cover and to the bottom of the coil. I cannot believe that much sand could get in between the coil and cover in a 3 1/2 hour hunt! I think this might have some thing to do with the falsing I experienced. I have been thinking about this first hunt a lot today and realize that the falsing did not occur until about the last 1 hour of my hunt. This was the point where I was following the low tide out and was going into the water about shin deep. After that is when the falsing became a real issue. I am going to seal the 10.5 coil this week so that next week when I go to the beach I can determine if the sand between the coil was the issue. On an unrelated note, I have completed my fist read of "Mastering the Quattro" and think the book is fantastic! I modified the Coins program as described in the book and took the 8" coil for a test run in the backyard. I had 20 minutes to try the settings out, so I did not think I would be able to fully evaluate this tip. While, I was wrong!! On my first sweep over ground I covered with the Quattro last week and ground that had been previously covered by my MXT and Silver UMax I got a good repeatable signal of 33. I pinpointed it and dug about 6 1/2 inches and staring back at me was a 1964D penny. About 4 sweeps after that I got another repeatable signal of 36. I dug down 9 inches and found a 1976 penny. About two seeps after that I got a really strong 36 signal and thought I was going to get the trifecta! Alas, I was wrong I dug down 8" and hit a copper handle. I pulled the handle out and it was approximately 14" long and the area of the handle in my hole was about three inches. I have no idea what it is a handle to or if it is in fact a handle. Needless to say, given that I have hit this area hard with my MXT and Silver Umax, I am a believer in the "Good Coin Program" outlined in Mastering the Quattro. I am really starting to enjoy this detector. I cannot wait until I fully understand all of its capabilities!

 

[Dave45]

Yes with the tenfifty coil you definately have to keep it clean or it will false, the wot isnt as bad although I still remove the cover and clean it. If your definitley going to keep the unit I'd buy the wot but only if your sure your going to keep it $215, and it all depends on where you hunt.
good luck
Dave

 

[fllawboy]

I am definitely keeping the dector. I have been looking at the platypus coil and the 15 WOT.

 

[Dave45]

there's a 5x10 platypus here on tnet for sale, never used one