Pin pointing

[Casull]

I've been away from metal detecting for awhile, and can't help but notice that all the videos I see show fellows that can't pinpoint with their detectors. They will cut an 8" plug and the target will may be somewhere in the plug or maybe still in the side of the hole. Are the new detectors just that bad at pinpointing. When I started back in the mid 80's, I was using White's and Garret's machines and could pinpoint a target to the extent that most times on the first probe I would hit the target and then pop it out with a screwdriver. Now everyone seems to cut a large plug and THEN attempt to locate the target with a pinpointer. Am I missing something?

 

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[xr7ator]

The answer to your question is no, the machines are not bad at pinpointing. People are lazy and/or bad at pinpointing, imo. I find that I almost never use the pinpoint mode with these new fancy double D coil machines. It's soooo easy to pinpoint that I don't see a reason to cut a large plug. On the other hand, there are times on hunts that being nice to the ground is not required. That allows one to move faster.

The best thing about a pinpointer is speed. That may play a factor in these vids you speak of. It's all about # of targets retreived in one hunt. The # is much much higher with a pinpointer and cutting a larger plug probabaly is not slowing them down.

 

[eman1000]

I'm not good enough to pop targets out with a screwdriver consistently, but I agree with these DD coil machines you can get pretty spot on. I actually dig a 3 sided square plug and usually a really small one at that. I haven't used a pinpoint button in 2 years. The Deus is so fast and has such a tight window that you really do not need one. In a park I can usually put my pin-pointer on the ground and pop the target out with my spade or screwdriver.

I'm finding with this new machine the Vista X that it likes to sound surface loud on targets that are 3-4" deep and that is taking me some getting used to.

The one exception if I am in the field or an old site I tend to dig bigger plugs to avoid hitting the coin at all cost.

 

[relicmeister]

I do use a pp Mi4 , Mi6 by XP in pitch mode only. I do however take care in machine pinpointing, not using the pp function, but by making beep/ eye notes in several short sweep directions. The target is always near the center of my hole every time. With 11” coil it might be an inch or two off center but never need to widen the hole to find it.

 

[Gare]

Some times i tip the coil on its side and just use the edge of the coil to pinpoint. Try it you MAY LIKE IT

 

[oldkoot]

the videos that get me are the ones you see someone digs a big plug out and then the taget is close to the surface near the grass, the way I was taught was check with your pinpointer to see if the target is near the surface before opening up a big hole 8-10 inches deep dont know how many videos I have watched with people digging huge holes out that could have been avoided if they would have ran their pin pointer across the spot before digging a big hole