Going slow vs swinging your coil slowly

[Dan Hughes]

Everyone tells you you'll find more if you slow down - but what does that mean?

Try this experiment - Put a coin on the ground and swing your coil over it, listening to the beep. Slowly raise your coil until the beep stops. Now swing your coil faster - does the beep come back? Swing it very slowly. Is there a beep? This little exercise will tell you the best swing speed (the speed that gets you maximum depth) for your particular detector.

Some detectors require a faster swing for the best depth. Going slowly, and swinging your coil slowly, are not the same thing. When I say "go slower" I'm talking about tightening your overlap, not necessarily slowing down the speed of your swing.

The more you overlap, the more really deep targets you'll find. Remember, the standard coil has a range like a cone - the deeper the target, the more the hot spot of your coil must be directly over it to get a beep.

You'll get the shallow stuff with a loose overlap, but it takes a tight overlap to get the deep stuff. And usually, the deep stuff is the good stuff.

---Dan Hughes, http://treasuremanual.com
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[mfitzy111]

Dan - outstanding tip. Thank you! being I still consider myself a new-be (since I just started this year detecting.) info like what your talking about here is why I keep coming back to TNet.

Thanks again.

 

[Frankn]

It's true the field under the coil tapers, but the word cone is miss used here. The field tapers more like a lead bullet and the cone goes deeper than you think. I have picked up large targets at 2' with my XLT so that cone tapers way down there. Another thing about speed is the duration of the tone or signal you hear. It 's duration is adjestable on better detectors. If you set this tone to long and go fast, it will mask the next target. I set the tone duration short and go fast. I have tested this by going over the same area twice without removing targets. The first pass fast and the second pass slow. No new targets were found on the second pass. You jest got to know your detector. Frank

 

[Silver Slayer]

Good info guys thanks

 

[Frankn]

Dan, I usually guage the info given by the detector used to evaluate it. That's why I usually list which of my detectors I used to get info. Detectors bias the info so to speak. Which of your detectors did you use for your evaluation? You don't list any of your detectors. Frank

 

[Dan Hughes]

Dan, I usually guage the info given by the detector used to evaluate it. That's why I usually list which of my detectors I used to get info. Detectors bias the info so to speak. Which of your detectors did you use for your evaluation? You don't list any of your detectors. Frank

Hi Frank,

I tried to keep my note generic enough - without specifics - so that all detector owners could do the test and find the best parameters for their own machines.

But to answer your question, I'm pretty oldschool - I mainly use a Fisher CZ-5 and a Compass Coin Pro II, sometimes a Tesoro Toltec. I have a few other Tesoros and Fishers and a Whites and even a Compass X-100. I keep all of these around so when I give classes, everybody has a machine to play with.

 

[Goes4ever]

Everything changes with a DD coil

 

[Woodland Detectors]

Well said Dan. I always mention to go in with a positive/relaxed attitude, which falls in that whole slow it down approach.

 

[deepskyal]

Good suggestion Dan. Different detectors I'm sure have different responses to targets.
I've used White's machines since I started years back and found they all seem to work the same way for me.
I've used the same swing speed of about 3 seconds back and forth to locate targets and to identify one I use a quick short swing. Seems quicker speed helps ID the target better than the slower one but going that fast to locate one, I'd probably miss a lot.

Again, it boils down to learning your machine and what you suggest is a good exercise to do just that.

Al

 

[littlebill31]

Yes, thanks for the tip!!! Being a "green as green can be" newbe, I need these tips. I just went out and tried it. Now I've gotten just that much better.
Thanks again