So if you don't search out the minute tonal differences, what is it that you do do that enables you to successfully bypass most trash with your single tone machines?
I have posted my methods before so to save time I just copied and pasted the info below.
This is the way I do it, others have tried it and it works for them and they contacted me and thanked me but everyone needs to figure out how to do this hobby for themselves that makes them the happiest.
I got extremely fast at this method after so much practice.
If you watched me I would look like I would stop for a couple of seconds and make a couple of quick swings over an area and then either move on or bend over and dig.
The bulk of the targets I have found including older ones tend to be 6" or less in depth so I average about 20-30 seconds or less from the time I acquire a target, figure it out and recover it and then close up the hole and move on.
On deeper targets I don't think these rules apply as much so those I usually just get down and dig.
I have no illusions that this method is foolproof and I can find every great target out there this way because the numbers say I probably miss stuff here and there.
Don't care...I no longer have the patience, energy levels or time to hunt like I have in the past so I had to figure out better ways for me to do this.
If you saw what I am able to pluck out of my mostly really trashy park sites doing this while avoiding tons of trash you will understand why I am happy and satisfied and I no longer let the what if feelings bother me like they used to when I started.
Some sites still need a dig it all mentality to be the most successful and I do that when I come across them but for wandering around my open public park areas or curb strips I use these methods and I stay happy.
These methods work with both my Compadre and my Vaq but my Vaq is a high tone model and even though I found out I actually prefer the lower tones the Vaq has a little superpower with that high tone that makes dealing with foil and can slaw very fast and efficient too also so I will keep it the way it is.
The second post below tells about this.
The most efficient way to do this using my Vaq is with concentric coils as DD coils don't handle the high tone pop top problem the same way.
To compare, using my Fishers long ago I got good enough to realize that I could quickly maneuver the coil over any target, again not super deep, and either get the numbers on the screen to calm down and be stable or not.
The ones that did a lot of jumping were usually trash, the ones that stayed fairly solid were usually good.
I quit digging most the jumpy ones and again my good finds totals soared while I succeeded in avoiding about the same 80% amount of trash I used to dig.
I definitely found way more gold in trashy sites than ever before and still do plus all kinds of other great keepers.
In essence this is the same method I use with a screen unit that I do with no screen info but by quickly manipulating the disc knob instead.
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Ok, let me tell you how I hunt with this thing and what seems to work well for me to cut out a lot of that trash with confidence.
Confidence is a big thing with me, it is the reason that drove me to be a real world dig-it-all hunter at first, and that is because the "what ifs" in this business would kill me if I let them get to me and they still would even to this day if I let them, anal as I am about these things in this hobby.
Keep in mind without X Ray vision there is no way to ever tell 100% what you are swinging over without digging it...EVER, something I know and believe in with the very fiber of my being, but I dig so much trash looking for gold jewelry in so many trashy sites that I just had to find a way to cut out at least some of it and over time this is what I figured out...my line in the sand if you will.
I use a Vaquero and a Compadre and I have never in all my hundreds of hours hunting with either one set the disc knob and dug everything that beeps above it.
I have always thumbed that knob on every target and tried to figure out and make an educated guess on what that target might be.
Just a game I have always played with myself and it has become the natural way for me to hunt and pretty fast and efficient too because I have had so much time in doing it this way.
You will sacrifice some depth, not much but a little as you turn up the disc.
All units are a little different but there might be very little or as much as an inch difference in depth with the knob down in all metal and the knob set at max disc.
Maybe even a little more on some units.
I used to hunt like they say in the manuals and turn the knob up to the fade out point to figure out targets, but over time I changed and eventually learned to hunt in all metal to get the deepest, clearest signals and then turn it up past the fade out point and then back down slowly and listen closely to how the target comes in...I never turn up the disc till it fades out anymore.
If there is a lot of iron I might set the knob a little below the I in iron, if I don't want to dig a ton of junk like little foil at a real trashy site I might go all the way up to a little past the N in iron, if I am tired maybe up a little more to cut out some foil but that's about as high as I go.
In my opinion it is much more accurate to go past the target fade out point and then back then it is to do it like the manuals say.
Listen to what it sounds like as you do this and you dial down to hear how targets come in.
Good targets like coins and rings will usually just "come in"...they just appear with very little noise like crackles, pops, or clicks or scratches, irregular shaped trash will usually not sound like this and you will have anywhere from a little to a bunch of these noises and sounds as you slowly dial down.
These rules don't apply 100%...there is still a lot of shallow or coin shaped trash or trash that is presenting itself perpendicular to the ground that still might come in solid like many tabs, compressed foil that is coin shaped and some others like certain sizes and shapes of can slaw pieces, and some good targets that might be deep and near the limit of the scanning field that could be a little more noisy, but 98% of the time I have found these rules will hold true.
Out of all the coins nickels seem to be a little weird and might come in noisy, also, but all other coins seem to come in clean.
Most high tone pop tops will disc out.
They might disc out when you turn the knob to max disc and just a slight turn back they could come in with no noise clear as a bell, but dimes, quarters, copper pennies and other large high tone coins won't do this and won't disc out so you can always tell.
I can't count how many pop tops I used to dig learning this fact, but don't anymore.
I still dig a lot of trash because doing it this way only cuts out about 80% of the trash amount I used to dig when I actually did dig it all, and it might be true that I have missed some very good targets along the way that just fooled me and never fit into these rules I have, but if you could see the large amount of great targets I have found while avoiding digging so much trash this way you would understand why I don't worry about those missed targets all that much, anymore.
Again, having confidence I am not missing great targets is actually more important to me than actually knowing the truth, and I go back to my sites over and over so if I don't hit all targets from all different directions every time I just figure I will usually get around to it eventually.
Sometimes hitting targets from one direction vs. another could make a difference in the sound of that signal as it comes in, and I do stop and do a turn sometimes when examine targets in the gold areas, but again most of the time these rules apply when scanning targets from all directions.
Sometimes I still dig trash at some sites even though I suspect it is actually trash just to check myself at first, especially at new sites, but eventually I just fall into this method and stop doing that after my trash digging threshold has been reached and hunt and I have found some great targets in sites so trash filled you might not believe it doing it this way.
This technique seems to work on both the Vaquero and the Compadre, so this is the way I do it when I hunt with either one and probably always will.
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I also have a Vaq with the high tone...I ordered it that way but I had no experience with any other Tesoros up to that point.
I enjoyed it immensely, but a few months later I also bought a Compadre and eventually came to the conclusion that I like the lower tones better.
When I switched back to using the Vaq I no longer enjoyed listening to that high tone, it actually became kind of annoying after now having experience with another lower type.
I want to send mine in for a little free service and I called them and asked how much it would cost to change it back to a low tone and the cost was only $15 so that was what I was going to do....but then I started thinking.
After awhile I came to understand that the
most annoying thing about that high tone is when it came to foil and aluminum.
When I ran over any of that, especially the larger types of can slaw into the zinc and high tone area, I knew it
every time because that very "tinny" sound I heard just grated on my last nerve and made me grind my back teeth every time.
I know other tricks to help tell trash from good targets, but this sound is so unusual to my ear and so telling it is the perfect way to tell foil and can slaw for me 99.9% of the time quickly and efficiently and almost instantaneously... when I gnash my teeth I am hearing foil or aluminum, and I have dug a ton of garbage like this checking targets over time to know this method is pretty darn accurate for me.
Way more accurate than I ever would have believed if you would have told me it was this way before I ordered mine.
Surprisingly aluminum tokens don't seem to have the same annoying sound and I have found my share of those, too...just trash I need to avoid sets my teeth grinding so I am thankful for that.
I am not sure if this is just an ability I have or have learned because of my specific way I hear things while using that high tone Vaq frequency or if others can do this too, but I hope it can be replicated by others if they know to listen for this very annoying tell and they also use that high tone Vaq.
I am afraid if I switch back to the low tone this instant ability to tell this type of trash might not be so easy anymore, or at least not as fast and efficient.
Because of this I changed my mind about switching to that low tone.
Why would I give up such an accurate way of doing this on a type of trash that is so prevalent out there?
Except for that foil and can slaw the high tone isn't all that bad, and I can deal with it knowing there are advantages to continue using that high tone for me even knowing that listening to low tones is a little more fun and relaxing for me.
If I need a break I can always switch back to the Compadre if I need to, anyway.
