Pin pointing with the Cortes

[Coin Digger]

I need some advice on pin pointing with my Cortes. I bought it new about 1.5 months ago and I have had a devil of a time pin pointing with it. (stock setup)
I called Tesoro and spoke with one of their tech heads and he suggested to send it in for a tune up. So I did and it came back with a clean bill of health, their suggestion was to raise the coil.
I was surprised a $650 machine didn't have a pin point feature. Trying to do it in A/M is useless because it nulls out so fast. If I try Xing the spot 5 times I get 5 different pin points that I think it might be. The best I've come up with is sweeping tight S's and lifting the coil over the target enough times until I think I have the general center.
I've been doing the, hide a target under cardboard thing, with little progress. I'm usually off by 2-3 inches sometimes just forward of the center of the coil and sometimes to the right of the center.
Any Ideas?

 

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[Sandman]

Practice works best when you can see the coin on the ground and see here the "hot spot" on the coil is. Sweep slowly and by raising the coil up it narrows down the field. I don't use the center of the coil at all and just pull the coil away from the target till the sound goes away, then slide it forward till I hear it again and the coin is off the front tip of the coil. Practice this way.

 

[Smudge]

I am still very weak when it comes to pinpointing, so I bought a Garrett Pro Pointer. That has made my life much easier.

 

[Ism]

I had a cortes and if the sensitivity was too high, it would pinpoint off center by quite a bit.

 

[Shortstack]

Lifting the coil is the old school way of narrowing the pinpoint. The biggest problem most folks have with Tesoro's is they run the Sens too high.

I have a DeLeon and it automatically narrows the center of the target if you stay in Disc. and do the "Xing" a few times. The longer you "X" the target the smaller the center will be until the target is Discriminated out. This is due to the machine auto-retuning ON THE TARGET. I use this technique and NOT the Pinpointing circuitry. The DeLeon and the Cortes have the same circuitry so my technique should work with your C.

 

[Coin Digger]

I used Sandman's suggestion and put the coin on the ground unhidden and discovered the sweet spot wasn't where I thought it should be. It's just back from the center. I just by happen chance discovered this weekend turning down the sensitivity helps also. You have to love a quick turn of the knob VS scrolling through menus.
Next time out I'll try out the Xing until it shrinks the target.

Thanks for all the input.