Comparative discrimination tests in multi-target situations...any interest?

[Silver Searcher]

Being overly analytical of my machine kind of takes the fun out of the hobby for me. Time, practice and patience will give you all the information about your machine you'll ever need.
People are going to buy a machine based on what they find and what people recommend.

My last few detectors have so many variables and adjustments to make, one single test of discrimination is pretty moot. I'd have to adjust and re-adjust, gain, sensitivity, sweep speed, etc. to come to an average conclusion and I'm just not willing enough to spend that much time in my back yard when I can be out hunting.

With an older machine I was demonstrating to a few guys one time, I got the typical trash garbling response on my machine and told the guys with certainty it was a pull tab. I dug it just to prove it. Turned out to be 2 quarters laying side by side, one a 1964, the other a 1965.
Normally I would NOT have dug it.

Conversly, I've taken a brand new machine to a park and found 3 silver dimes in the first hour, and it was a tiny, "worked over" park that several guys hit before me.

You will never duplicate your home test responses to those in the field. Different soil, different metals other than foil and iron, etc.
Try a rusty, old bottle cap from a beer bottle and let me know how it masks. I dig wayyyy too many of em. Good, solid, repeatable....hate them suckers. Some of those old urban parks are thick with them. But a good sign that most detectorists have avoided the trasy areas.

I may pass over a few dimes but I've also found dimes in those "worked out" areas.

Truth is, it's all hit or miss. You'll just never know with 100% certainty what is causing your detector to go off unless you dig it.

Al

You just can't beat the learning curve (time) that all detectors need, what you find is what you dig up...simple, I don't understand why people get hung up on all these tests they mean nothing in the field.

SS

 

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