Minelab safari settings and help PLEASEEE

[Chickenhawk]

10 years decting here with garret machines and few others jist went from the at pro to the minelab safiri I'm haveing trouble I can't even find coins I'd have better look just looking on the ground .I know I need to put time in on it .but jist wondering if anybody has any tips for settings done some sweeps with nails with a coin test and I can't even get it to grab the coin. Jist ordered the nel 13 inch and the sharpshooter thanks

 

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[vpnavy]

I noticed this is your very first post - so, Welcome Aboard! Take a look at Sub-Forums: Missouri and Sub-Forums: Arkansas for information (i.e., clubs, etc.) directly related to both your states.

Until someone pipes in - I searched

and here are just a few related threads I found...

safari settings (Jun 23, 2009, 05:58 PM)

Minelab Safari help please (Sep 06, 2010, 02:57 PM)

Minelab Safari - Coin / Jewelry Mode? (Jan 10, 2014, 01:07 PM)

Minelab Safari Setup? (Mar 19, 2015, 04:42 PM)

Minelab Safari my BEST setup (Jun 29, 2010, 12:32 AM)

Winter Blues post your Safari settings (Dec 29, 2013, 09:58 AM)​

 

[clv]

I will try and help,but only have 11 hours so far on mine.
Reset to the factory settings, chose coin and jewelry mode. Gather up some targets lay them out at least a foot apart. Listen to the sounds and what the readings are. That's how I started and I have been finding coins where others haven't.
If you bought your Safari used, the warranty is not transferable to a new owner, no matter what the seller told you.
If you don't have the manual you can download one from the Minelab web site.
The book "Minelab Quarto & Safari Handbook" should be released in the next two months (it's being updated).
P.S. welcome to t-net

 

[timelord]

I'll give you my two cents on how I would run your Safari since your new to Minlab. I went through the same thing two years ago. First thing is you have a different beast in your hands and you will have to unlearn some habits you have from the AT Pro. The Safari has a new language you have to learn, just as learning a real language it will take time so don't throw away your machine or give up on it.

First and foremost you need to really slow down your sweep speed, the Safari is slow in reacting to what's under the coil. If there is anything being discriminated out along with a good target it will null out, go silent for about a second because of its slow reaction time to targets. So if your sweep speed is slow enough you might pick up the good target. In your post I'm going to guess you had the nail to close to the coin and your sweep speed was to fast and the Safari just nulled out. Get use to it that comes with owning the Safari, in the future you will learn to work around it and find what others have missed.

Now how to set up your Safari for the first couple hunts, discriminate out everything from 29 down to I think -10. With this setting you will find most American coins from Indians to $1 coins and most importantly all silver coins. You will miss all gold and nickels but you will not be digging every piece of trash out there. I hunt in ferrous sounds, I like it because coins always sound good to my ears in this mode. Check out my video on how, it's not the clearest and I need to redo it in the future.

https://youtu.be/-UmRcGGxMFM

If you want to find nickels undo 15 on the scale then dig the good tones that come up 15 not the broken sounds at that number.

When you get use to the sounds or language of the Safari start opening up more numbers on the scale. I have gotten use to running in all metal or at least having from 0 and up open, then you can hear everything and dig the good sounding targets. That will be months from now for you.

Most of all go slow, your there to find targets, not to cover as much ground as you can. Watch more of my videos and realize most of them are from parks that have been detected hard for the last 40 years but the Safari has found many good targets that were missed.

Hope this helps, remember take your time learning the Safari and you will be rewarded and come to love the machine....

 

[ChampFerguson/TN]

good post from timelord, but I would open 12,13,14,15 for nickels and ignore any target that hits 15. virtually all my Safari nickels are 14s.

 

[timelord]

good post from timelord, but I would open 12,13,14,15 for nickels and ignore any target that hits 15. virtually all my Safari nickels are 14s.

Great info, it seems each detector might be just a little different. Again this is just me and maybe the soil where I live but a solid 15 are always nickels and for learning the Safari only opening 15 should make less frustrating for new owners. I would rather miss nickel and discriminate 15 and hunt for the more lost coins rather than digging up excessive amount of trash. Once your comfortable hearing what good tones sound like open up more. Again just my opinion.....

 

[ChampFerguson/TN]

100% agree, timelord. I have come to the same conclusion after reading other folks' post on where certain targets show up. It important to learn where YOUR machine hits in YOUR soils. Then you can hunt to your individual 'trash comfort level'. (mine isn't very high, tho it has gotten better in the last few years)

 

[clv]

Was out today found 2 nickels both hit 14. All the quarters hit 37/38 dimes 36/37. The silver ring hit 37.
All coins were 8 to 12 inches down. The ring only an inch. Not too bad for a winter beach day. This safari really goes deep. I no longer miss my cz 7a pro.

Just swing slow, if you go left to right and back left in less than 4 seconds you are going too fast.

 

[timelord]

100% agree, timelord. I have come to the same conclusion after reading other folks' post on where certain targets show up. It important to learn where YOUR machine hits in YOUR soils. Then you can hunt to your individual 'trash comfort level'. (mine isn't very high, tho it has gotten better in the last few years)

Do not know what your soil is like in TN, but for me there is a lot of sand where I hunt, some of it is right along the lake and will turn to sand 8" down. Maybe that is why I can be more picky in my settings. Experimenting with different settings brings excitement to the world of MD, and along the way you find what's best for your area, and best of all more finds......

 

[timelord]

Was out today found 2 nickels both hit 14. All the quarters hit 37/38 dimes 36/37. The silver ring hit 37.
All coins were 8 to 12 inches down. The ring only an inch. Not too bad for a winter beach day. This safari really goes deep. I no longer miss my cz 7a pro.

Just swing slow, if you go left to right and back left in less than 4 seconds you are going too fast.

Nice post, and swinging slow is the key. When it get nice out I will post a vid on my swing speed. One advantage in slow swing speed is you find more..... That is hard to convince other about, but it's true. Thanks for the great post...

For silver ring all of mine have been 39, silver coins have been 36-39. On the Safari I dig any good sounding target 30-39 no matter what, and one of them turned out to be a 4000+ year old Native American copper spear point, my best find ever......

 

[ChampFerguson/TN]

Do not know what your soil is like in TN, but for me there is a lot of sand where I hunt, some of it is right along the lake and will turn to sand 8" down. Maybe that is why I can be more picky in my settings. Experimenting with different settings brings excitement to the world of MD, and along the way you find what's best for your area, and best of all more finds......

Very different, timelord. My soils are limestone/dolostone derived and can be classified as Loamy Clay or Clayey Loam- usually the former. Sand is essentially nonexistent except in old river/creek courses. Yours v Mine is a good example of why soils can matter.
(and Beach is a whole nother animal)

Silver = Good Day in my world, clv. WTG! Very interesting that it was a 37- I've never seen silver on my Safari that it wasn't 39, even at the beach.

 

[timelord]

I think my numbers are all over the place is because some are on edge or at odd angles, I even found a 1943 Walker that didn't come up a 39 so it was a real shock when it came out of the hole.

 

[ChampFerguson/TN]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I bet that Walker still sang the silver song regardless of the visual display.

I too have encountered a few oddities over the years. 2 or 3 times I had a solid visual 14 and a clad quarter sound. It was a quarter every time. soil mineralology, angle, nearby targets, are you left or right handed, the phase of the moon, etc- seems like many things mess with the electromagnetic fields on a given day. Or maybe the Metal Gods are real and like to screw with our minds.....

 

[gunsil]

Chicken, if you haven't bought that NEL13" yet cancel your order and get an 8" coil and lower shaft if you're largely using your Safari for coin hunting. The larger coil will be overkill and not as hot on small coins like trimes on edge, the 8" coils will do better for coins down to about a foot. I have found silver dimes at 8" with my Sunray 8" coil. Safaris are a little slow on recovery, the smaller coil is a whole lot better in the usual more trashy areas we coin hunt in. Another important tip is to lower your sensitivity in many areas. I often go down to 10-12 on my sensitivity and still have great depth. Safaris have a lot of chatter, lowering your sensitivity will help lowering the chatter.

 

[timelord]

Just bought a 15" WOT and will be going back to the parks in my area. I have done them with the standard coils and a 5" NEL so it will be a good comparison between all three. I haven't really found much extra with the 5" NEL so we will see what the 15" does.....

 

[clv]

So Chickenhawk, how are you doing on the Safari now?