mclmorizfat said:
Other than wheat pennies in my yard I have found only two coins since purchasing a metal detector, neither of which were with the metal detector. An 1863 penny in a window sill I was tearing out at work(along with some buttons) and today my first Mercury Dime removing baseboard. Oh well at least I found them.
Well congrats on the 1863 and Merc. I've never found a 1863 IH in 40 years of detecting but I have found more IH's than I can even recall anymore. Recently a fellow stopped to chat while I was hunting and he told me he had never found an Indian cent in that town with his DFX. I told him I had found several just recently. I don't think he believed me. His problem wasn't with his brand of detector, his problem really was he didn't understand coin hunting.
As for your detector, here's a tip that may help you.
Set your discrimination high enough so that you tune out most small iron and the signal for most larger trash is somewhat distorted. Distorting iron sounds is the only good use for metal detector discrimination.
Find an area with lots of people trash and hunt very slowly. Focus on the center of your coil NOT THE WHOLE COIL. When you hear a signal move only the small part of the coil back in forth like you were pinpointing a target.
Does the signal quality sound more like a coin?
If it sounds a little better, remove a couple inches of dirt and check the signal again. If it improves greatly, dig the target.
I'll let you in on e secret very few THers will tell. Silver coins, rings, and many other smaller nonferrous targets begin to sound like trash iron at only 3-4 inches (depending on soil). Many soils quickly corrupt signals from good targets. Most expereinced THers know this and this is the reason they dig so much more when they work heavily hunted sites.
We don't have much silver up here in northern Michigan but the last pieces I dug sounded almost exactly like deep trash iron. This is not a brand thing either. All detectors brands do this that are VLF.
Detector built-in discrimination is not at all what people think it is. Most of my discrimination is done between my ears. Meters are for the most part....well lets just say don't put your trust in them. Back in the 80's when this meter thing all started Fisher at first refused to even put meters on their detectors. They told people what they are but the market wanted them so Fisher gave em what they wanted. Probably more good finds are missed today due to meters than any other reason.
Sounds are what really matter. Look mostly for tight, small signals that die out fast when you left the coil a few inches after hitting a target. Make small (short half sweeps) with the coil to really hear the target. Sometimes I barely move that coil. You want to hear the sound of the target. Does it get better the more you listen? If so, remove a little soil and listen to it again.
Sorry for the long post but I feel for you, give it a try...okay? It's one of the major secrets to finding rings
Badger
or something like that. Stop Listening to the sounds your machines make and start digging more. 
