Cibola DISC frustrations

[GreyGhost]

I've owned my Cibola for about 9 months now. It’s the second Tesoro I've owned, first one was a Silver uMAX. So I'm not brand-new to the "language" of the screen-less Tesoro's.
The last few weekends I took the Cibola out I seemed to get more and more frustrated with it because of all the junk I was digging up. Junk I thought the DISC should be filtering out.
I had a lot of fun with my Silver uMAX but I bought the Cibola for the added depth it brought to the game but I'm beginning to think the DISC was better on the Silver uMAX because I sure was digging up a lot less trash..
I always run the Cibola "super-tuned" i.e. the THRESH knob is all the way up and the SENS knob is all the way up. I metal detect a lot of old and new campsites in National Forests here in Arizona and I try to find goodies that campers/hunters/ranchers left behind like coins or rings so I keep the DISC cranked all the way up too. I would really like to just find things made from silver or gold (who doesn't) so that's why I keep the DISC so high. I also keep it high to try and combat trash. HOWEVER all weekend long all I ever dug up was aluminum bottlecaps, tin pull tabs (not aluminum ones, those got filtered out) and frackin' .22 casings (these little buggers drive me absolutely bonkers). I MD'd a campsite yesterday that was last used in the seventies or eighties and the place was an absolute trash dump. Bottlecaps, beer cans, foil balls, pull tabs and shell casings everywhere. By the end of the afternoon the place looked like the surface of the moon from the all craters I’d dug. How in the world do you guys back east who MD truly “urban” settings that get thousands of visitors every year like sandboxes filter through all the junk? I know its all in the tone with the Tesoro’s but I’m still not getting it or I’m still not tuning the Cibola right. Do truly good targets like silver coins and gold rings ever give off “double beeps”? i.e. “beep-beep, beep-beep” from a left to right pass? I’m beginning to finally catch on to the sound of a strong target too that has no “cut-off” at the end of the tone after each pass but its so tempting to just dig everything. But then my frustration level rises... I’m also considering upgrading to a Vaquero because the manual ground-balancing but what tips can you offer for the time being for my Cibola? How do I get through all the trash? Is there possibly a problem with my DISC and do I need to send it in to be serviced? I also do not wear headphones when I MD. I’m often in remote areas only a mile or two from the international border and like to keep my “situational awareness” so I’d rather not be down there with my ears covered up but this might be a reason too why I’m not getting the full potential out of my Tesoro.

 

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[Sandman]

I think the main reason you are getting more trash is because of the Super tuning. You've got it jacked up where everything sounds like a good target. The super tuning option is availabe when you are in any area with little junk like in the woods and you need the max depth and sens.

.22 shell casings will hardly be disc out too because of their conductivity. As for making an area look like the moon with all the craters, you better back off or learn how to make it look like nobody was there or it will soon be another place where we won't be able to detect.

The Vaquero has a couple more features that you could find useful, but I would wait till spring.

 

[vaquero44]

well the old rule of thumb is if you aint diggin nickels you wont dig the gold and when it comes to gold depending on size its just about all over the metal range but ring size gold is in the foil/nickel, finer gold even futher back into the iron range, basicly if your not diggin trash to some degree you won't get the gold, copper and silver are the only ones if you want to disc all of that stuff you can but your going to lose a little bit of depth as well i would consider making a trash test bed with a couple of good targets in amonst them and burry them anywhere's from 4 to 8" deep and good pair of head phones, run your disc low as you can and practice to the sound of junk and good targets, usually most coins are smooth and trash and iron are very abrupt and pull tabs start sounding smooth but usually have a crackle at the tail end of the swing and go from all angles, hope this helps!

 

[GreyGhost]

I think the main reason you are getting more trash is because of the Super tuning. You've got it jacked up where everything sounds like a good target. The super tuning option is availabe when you are in any area with little junk like in the woods and you need the max depth and sens.

.22 shell casings will hardly be disc out too because of their conductivity. As for making an area look like the moon with all the craters, you better back off or learn how to make it look like nobody was there or it will soon be another place where we won't be able to detect.

The Vaquero has a couple more features that you could find useful, but I would wait till spring.

I figured the super-tuning had the detector all cranked up and was making the DISC less effective. But how would you recommend setting it then for a very trashy area? I played with the THRESH, SENS and DISC knobs all afternoon but couldn’t wrap my head around the best way to set it. And don’t worry I filled in all my holes at the end of the day, I respect the land. It’s an open range out there anyways and the camp site was near a tank so there were big cow patties every three feet and salt licks all over the place. I cleaned up my mess but the cows sure do a good job trashing the place.

well the old rule of thumb is if you aint diggin nickels you wont dig the gold and when it comes to gold depending on size its just about all over the metal range but ring size gold is in the foil/nickel, finer gold even futher back into the iron range, basicly if your not diggin trash to some degree you won't get the gold, copper and silver are the only ones if you want to disc all of that stuff you can but your going to lose a little bit of depth as well i would consider making a trash test bed with a couple of good targets in amonst them and burry them anywhere's from 4 to 8" deep and good pair of head phones, run your disc low as you can and practice to the sound of junk and good targets, usually most coins are smooth and trash and iron are very abrupt and pull tabs start sounding smooth but usually have a crackle at the tail end of the swing and go from all angles, hope this helps!

Thanks for these tips too. I figured there are probably some universal problems that all detectorists encounter in trashy areas, regardless of how skilled they are or how expensive their detector is. When there’s lots of crap in the ground you will always have to dig some of it up if you want to find the good stuff. I have begun to notice the slight subtleties in sounds that you’re mentioning too and what you’re saying seemed to be corroborating what I was finding yesterday. The tone that you get from pull tabs and bottle caps is strong but is a little sharp at the end. Then when I threw a nickel on the ground I’d get a strong and pure “waaah, waaah” tone after each pass. I think I need to bite the bullet and just start wearing some headphones so I can really start hearing the differences in sounds. These machines are kind of funny to me because unlike a personal computer or cellphone that has a screen you use, a Tesoro has a speaker that “talks” to you to tell you what’s going on.

 

[RL OH]

I have owned two Cibolas and if I was hunting in an area of old rusty nails and other rust, I could never "super tune" the detector. I hunt a 1840's house and even when I did not super tune the Cibola, I was getting good sounding signals even with the disc turned to accept just copper and silver. Try it not super tuned and start lowering your sensitivity. Also, it could be the preset ground balance is way off in these places. Put it in all metal with a threshold that you can hear, slowly pump the coil from the ground to about 6 inches. If the threshold is changing as you get near the ground, the ground balance is off and you will not have much success. Just my two cents. Good luck. R.L.

 

[GreyGhost]

I have owned two Cibolas and if I was hunting in an area of old rusty nails and other rust, I could never "super tune" the detector. I hunt a 1840's house and even when I did not super tune the Cibola, I was getting good sounding signals even with the disc turned to accept just copper and silver. Try it not super tuned and start lowering your sensitivity. Also, it could be the preset ground balance is way off in these places. Put it in all metal with a threshold that you can hear, slowly pump the coil from the ground to about 6 inches. If the threshold is changing as you get near the ground, the ground balance is off and you will not have much success. Just my two cents. Good luck. R.L.

OK so:
1. Push pinpoint button, set threshold to slightly audible tone (like the manual says).
2. Back off sensitivity to maybe 7 or 8.
3. Then set discrimination to whatever I want?

I remember “pumping” the detector yesterday too with the pinpoint button pushed and the threshold tone turned up to just audible. I was attempting to check the ground balance per something I read online the day before but was unable to completely recall how to do it or what I was supposed to be listening for
I believe while the detector was up in the air I heard the tone then as I dropped the coil down to the ground the tone went away then when I raised the coil up again it “beeped” or “popped” and the tone became continuous again. What do you make of that?

 

[RL OH]

Ghost, here is how to check ground balance quickly and easily.With the disc at the lowest setting(iron or below) scan the ground and make sure the ground is free of any signals. Second set the sensitivity to 9 or 10 and the threshold until it is loud enough for you to hear. With these steps taken, start with the coil 6 or 7 inches above the ground. Push and hold the pinpoint button and slowly lower the coil to about one inch above the ground. As you slowly approach the ground, the threshold will do one of three things. It will get louder, it will remain constant, of it will get quieter. If it gets louder or quieter, the preset ground balance is not set close enough to the ground you are detecting. If the threshold sound varies just slightly you should be able to hunt that spot.What you are looking for is the threshold to remain constant with it neither louder or quieter as you approach the ground. I had some places where preset ground balance was so far off that detecting was nearly impossible. I have found that if you lower your sens in these spots, you can hunt, but depth will be sacrificed. The Vaquero has a manual ground balance which will allow you to hunt just about anywhere. I hope this helps.

 

[GreyGhost]

Awesome, thank you for the advice sir.

 

[GooniePirate]

Same thing happened to me when I started using my Vaquero. After about 2 weeks I happened to run into a couple who were detecting in the park. We chatted and they asked me about the Vaquero. I explained that it seemed REAL sensitive and I was making a lot of improvement in my aluminum collection. They showed me their settings and offered advice on my settings. I had that thing cranked all the way up so I backed it off to what I thought would be settings that would not even work, But I respect other peoples opinions especially experienced folks. We started covering the same ground and when they would find a target they would tell me what their machine IDed it as and I would check it with the Vaquero. This helped tremendously! They explained that they used settings like this to coinshoot the trashy parks and now that I understood the settings a little better I could have more fun. I found over $3 worth of change and only dug a few chunks of trash that afternoon. They also explained that I should crank it back up when hunting in clean areas like when you are in the woods or relic hunting, and that this would help the learning curve of the Vaquero and it did. I understand the settings much better and I am enjoying the Vaquero even more.
Best of luck to you!

 

[GreyGhost]

Thanks. I had mine all "cranked up" too because I wanted to find stuff but I understand now that I need to back off a little if I want any success in trashy areas like campsites.
When I'm out in the boonies with little or no signs up human traffic I'll "super-tune" it so it'll be deep and sensitive.

 

[MaineRelic]

This may sound strange but when I encounter a really trashy site I want to work I find throwing in a used weak battery helps cool the machine a little. MaineRelic.

 

[niffler]

I don't have a Cibola, but I have always found that jacking up the sensitivity on my detectors is an easy way to find less good stuff. The coil is too sensitive to shallow trash and ground minerals, and the deeper good stuff is masked. An easy way to find good stuff in a trashy situation is a smaller coil, like a 6" coil. They still get good depth, but target masking becomes less of an issue, even with higher sensitivity settings. They also ground balance easier because there is less ground minerals covered by the coil. Just my 2 cents. Good luck. Niffler

 

[sqwaby]

Get a pair of behind the neck headphones, you can hear the targets but also whats going on around you. You don't need to have your machine making lots of noise drawing attention to yourself.

 

[Olegrumpy]

Hi

Cranking up the sens "to get more depth" has an annoying side-effet, especially in trashy areas : it will also enlarge your detection pattern.

So your detector will be subject to iron masking or multiple targets analysis and will not behave like it should.

Lowering the disc is the way to go in many hunting situations, and especially for coin shooting.

HH

Ole G.