New guy from KY here got some questions

[jon1996]

Hello,
My name is Jon, I live in east ky around prestonsburg and pikeville, I have always wanted to start detecting, a freind of mine came up a few years ago and brought his whites xlt, within a hour we dug up a 1845 2cent piece, Well I got a good deal off of ebay on a bounty hunter pioneer 202, I know its not much but it was in my range, I took it out tonight in my wet yard, I had on my headlamp, I hit something right away so I dug a giant hole, for a piece of belt buckle, I keep going, and I hit another target it shows up as 10c and it 6" deep, I dig a 12x10 hole in the ground and its a piece of a pop can, well after a hour of hunting I head back in,

there was one more spot I wanted to hit, within 3 sweeps it hits a hard 25c reading, it reapeats everytime I swing, it says its 6" deep I thought I had something, so I dig about 6" down and about 12" around and all it is is a folded up piece of aluminum siding,

How can I pinpoint better or should I just buy a cheap pinpointer? this was frustrating trying to locate exactly where a item was,

Thanks,
jon

 

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[Highwater]

Jon,
Welcome to treasure net. Although I have been detecting and reading the forums for many years I finally just joined myself. This is a great place to learn this great hobby. Everyone here is very helpful and all seem to pull together. It is a great network.
Now, about your problem pinpointing your target. I am not familiar with the unit you have and I take it that it may not have a pin point mode. If it does then you need to use the pinpoint mode to 'step down' on the target and narrow the signal down as small as you can get it and still hear the target. If you looked at your coil from a side profile and drew a V under the coil that is the basic pattern of the signal your coil transmits. You can shorthen up the V and make a smaller signal area to pinpoint with by moving off the target slightly while still holding the pinpoint, then let go of the pinpoint and while still in this position hit the pinpoint mode again and swing it back over the target. If you do it right you will notice the target seems to be much smaller. You may have to do this many times until you get used to it and figure out how far you have to move the coil over before you step it down. Also, before you start with the pinpointing, if you raise the coil up above the target a little and make some swings over the target it will be easier to know when you are close to center because you are "looking" at the target with the small part of the V signal under your coil. If your coil is open in the middle it will sometimes try to make you think it is centered when it is actually under the edge of your coil. This may be what is sometimes happening to you. So if you raise it a little you can narrow it down and find the center a lot easier. So pinpoint, move off center from your target, let go of the pinpoint, hit the pinpoint again and go back over the target. Hope this makes sense.
If you don't have the pinpoint mode then you have to X the target to find the center. You can do this by going over the target and watch for the loudest signal, then walk around 90 degrees to the target and run your coil over it until you hear the loudest sound. Where these two point meet will be the center of your target. Until you get good at it just remember to raise your coil when you swing over the target, but be sure to keep the coil flat. You can raise the coil until you can just barely hear the target and watch for the 'hot' spot. Keep your eyes focused on that spot as you turn to 90 degrees and repeat the procedure.
Don't worry jon. It will come to you after a while. Pinpointing is probably one of the hardest thing to learn when first starting out. Sometimes you will dig a foot deep, only to find that the target is on the edge of the hole about an inch deep. After you get good at it you will be able to stick a probe or screwdriver in the ground and hit a dime dime with it at 8 inches and hit your target the first or second time. Don't give up on it. Just practice and read the forum. It is filled with great advice. This a great hobby. Just be sure to do your practicing in your own yard and try to get very precise. Big holes won't go over very well in your local park or school yard. You really have to learn a good proceedure so when you pull a target from the ground you won't evern be able to tell where you dug, except for maybe a little bent grass. The best way to recover a target from beneath a lawn is to cut a 3 sided hole and leave a hinge where you flop ''the plug'' back to get at your target. This way the grass has a better chance to keep it's roots when you flop it back into the hole and step on it. NEVER gut a plug at an angle and make a cone shaped plug. The grass will dye and turn brown and the plugs will fly out of the hole when a mower goes over it. Always stick your digging tool straight down into the soil. Of course if the target is coin size and it isn't very deep you don't even have to cut a plug. Always be sure to cover your holes, no matter where you are hunting and always pack out any trash you find. Happy Hunting. Highwater

 

[Ricardo_NY1]

You can easily tell if your target is not a coin and instead a large metal object by lifting your coil higher as you swing. On a coin, the detector will normally stop sounding off after you get past a few inches, say 3-6, but a can or other large object usually has it going well past that. Try it out.

 

[EasyMoney]

White's and Garrett both make detectors that show size probability. I would chose the White's though, it is lighter, better balanced and handles bad ground a whole lot better than the Garrett. My Fisher cz-70 produces a bell tone when anything is larger than 2'X4" and it handles bad ground very well, matching a Minelab and a high-end Compass. .

Besides that, the width of the target signal is telling you something too, that the target is too wide to be a coin or gold ring, for example.